Entrepreneurs can change the world. In case you needed reminding.
According to BusinessWeek There is growing evidence that the US’ innovation shortfall of the past decade is not only real but may also have contributed to today’s financial crisis. It seems that the major innovations promised just a decade ago, such as truly fast broadband for all, 3G everywhere, cures for cancer, electric cars and more have not hit the US yet. Soon, but not yet. A case of too little innovation too late.
Read the rest of this intriguing article @ BusinessWeek.
Google’s Eric Schmidt and Larry Page discuss innovation at their Zeitgeist conference. Virgin Group’s Richard Branson joins them to discuss his innovation priorities including disease control and global warming. Surprise, surprise.
Readwritestart produced a neat article today on what VC’s look for in a first time, Web entrepreneur. I guess the best summary is cool geekness with the determination of a bull and ballerina like flexibility. OK. So, you see, at the end of the day its about charismatic, determined geeks. You know, Zuckerberg look-alikes.
Me, I’d go for some of that, but with a sprinkling of natural born ideas genius and empathy for the user. Not sympathy for the devil. Which is Mick Jagger for don’t kiss no VC’s… On a more serious note, the best long term entrepreneurs, a la Michael Dell, have a canny knack and skill for predicting what their customers will want over time, how they will want it and what they will pay for it. Period. Develop that skill and you’re a first time Innovater!
Tim Brown of IDEO has a great article on Participation in Design. The premise is that innovation going forwards will increasingly come from groups, not individuals, crowds not buddies – the social Web. Yep, spot on. The question is how do we design the next set of systems to drive crowd innovation and what implications does it have for Intellectual Property rights. blur Group seems to have a few of answers. It’s called crowdsourcing.
Having read an interesting blog from a failed entrepreneur who clearly believes that he should have known better it got me thinking about what he was really missing. And I think it was context. He talks about lacking domain expertise and making certain key decisions that later proved flawed.
What I believe he needed was a contextual framework. Context to allow him to build the right business model, in the right way, at the right time with hindsight and deja vu – but before the fact. You know, the vision thing. He also lacked a business-build process or system and he should perhaps have had more people around him with right fit contextual skills and experiences. I.e. having both relevant and parallel experiences. A lesson none of us should forget.
CREATE-IVITY is the process of generating @ha Ideas and Innov@te’s first stage. An @ha Idea is an idea that you think could change the world a little or a lot and that may even make you some or a load of money on the way. Creativity in its various forms has become the No. 1 engine of economic growth. The creative class, in the words of University of Toronto professor Richard Florida, now comprises 38 million members, or more than 30% of the American workforce. McKinsey & Co. authors Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce put the figure only slightly below, at 25%. They cite creative professionals in financial services, health care, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media and entertainment who act as agents of change, producers of intangible assets, and creators of new value for their companies.
Creativity is the seed of innovation. It’s inception. But how do you DO ‘creativity’?
CREATE-IVITY is the combination of:
- Environs
- Exercise
- ART
Perfectly combined to generate @ha Ideas.
Design is rapidly moving from posters and toasters to include processes, systems, and organizations. Design is the accelerator for the company car, the power train for sustainable profits. Design drives innovation, innovation powers brand, brand builds loyalty, and loyalty sustains profits. If you want long-term profits, don’t start with technology—start with design.
For businesses to bottle the kind of experiences that rivet minds and run away with hearts, not just one time but over and over, they’ll need to do more than hire designers. They’ll need to be designers. They’ll need to think like designers, feel like designers, work like designers. The narrow-gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today’s wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale.
A former editor of Windows magazine, Mike Elgan, illustrated the difference between ordinary brands and charismatic brands in two succinct sentences: “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for a crazy video in which he yells, “I—love—this—company!” In the case of Apple, it’s the customers who shout that.”
Charismatic brands use Art-in-Product (TM) and bridge customer experience to vision. Design driven.
With Innov@te, once the @ha idea has been developed, it needs to be taken to concept (or prototype). The key to Innov@te’s concept stage is ending up with a true proof of concept or working prototype. Innov@te’s concept (prototype) stage follows 11 structured phases to usher the idea through to proof of concept and ready for market entry. And a successful launch – time after time. Remember, it’s often not the idea that counts – but it’s always what you do to it that does.
