Do Patents Help or Hinder Innovation?
I just received a newsletter that had 10 wacky patents. Here’s my favorite: Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force: With this invention, the mother-to-be is strapped down to a table that is then is spun to allow centrifugal force to take its course and aid in childbirth. This invention by […]
Harvard Leadership and the Presidency Debrief
The other day I attended an event at Harvard about “Leadership and the Next President.” There were some big names in the audience and on stage. Today I am going to blog about one of the panel discussions which focused specifically on leadership skills necessary to be President. Not surprisingly, these are the same skills […]
An Open Innovation Dilemma Update
On Wednesday I posted an open innovation dilemma. In summary, as I created my short-list of logos developed using an open innovation approach, certain designers decided to “build on” (plagiarize?) the concepts I liked. Although this resulted in an improved design, it also presented an ethical dilemma. Only one designer can be awarded the prize. […]
An Open Innovation Dilemma
As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to use open innovation for the development of a logo. OK, it is quite small scale, but I wanted to see the results. Here are two quick interesting observations. Signal to Noise Ratio: This is my favorite measure of the innovation process. This is the ratio of a signal […]
Open Innovation
In the past I have written several blog entries about the power of Open Innovation. The most robust open innovation website out there is InnoCentive. Yesterday I decided to try some open innovation for my own business – on a much smaller scale. As mentioned before, we are launching a new website with a new web-strategy. As […]
New Innovation Article
Although I have written about this many times before on this blog, we have created a formal article on “The Performance Paradox.” This is part of an eBook being published by 21 professional speakers. You can find this, and a dozen other articles in my “innovation articles” section of the website.
Personality Poker
Personality Poker™ for Innovation – Taking orders now, shipping mid-July To order, go to our 24/7 Innovation Shopping Cart Personality Poker is a fast-paced, highly interactive game that helps employees (and individuals) understand how they contribute to – and detract from – the innovation process. This is a personality test specifically designed for innovation and […]
Personality Poker (TM)
Coming June 1, 2008 I just heard from the lawyers this morning, and they gave me the green light to tell everyone about our newest product – “Personality Poker (TM).” We applied for both a trademark (hence the TM used everywhere) and a Provisional Patent. What is Personality Poker (TM)? It is a fast-paced, highly interactive […]
My Website's Signal to Noise Ratio
In audio, there is the concept of the “signal to noise” ratio. This is the ratio of a signal (what you want – such as the music) to the noise (what you don’t want – such as the background noise). Higher ratios are better. Over the past few months, we have been doing some interesting […]
Blizzards and the Birth of the ATM
“Build it and they will come.” We hear that mantra a lot. But with innovation, it is often more like, “Solve a pain and they will come.” The ultimate success of the automated teller machine (ATM) is a great example of this. The other night I was having dinner with someone who in the mid-1970’s […]