Unicorns are privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more. Here’s the secret to Unicorn innovation. I had the chance to connect with a longtime friend and colleague, Matt May. He’s the author of numerous books and an expert on how lean principles can be used to drive innovation. His latest book, What a…
Agility, the ability to think fast and move quickly, is an imperative for every team this year. That’s because there’s never been more uncertainty – around technology, the economy, global-political turmoil, and just about everything else. I’ve led teams in both big companies and startups. I’ve built new teams. And I’ve helped fix dysfunctional ones.…
When it comes to “quiet quitting,” the bigger issue may be a lack of purpose and meaning in your company and culture. The term “quiet quitting” recently exploded on social media and in business circles. It describes an approach to work that has you doing the very barest minimum to meet your responsibilities. You don’t go above…
Building a new business is tough. These strategies will help your startup succeed without a big investment. As many of my readers know, I usually write about strategy, innovation, and leadership. But recently I’ve been asked a lot about how I helped establish Praxie.com as a destination website for hundreds of best practice…
Keep and develop your best people to create a high-performance culture and competitive advantage. Hiring good people is tough. Retaining your best talent can be equally challenging. In today’s disruptive world, competitive advantage relies as much on people as it does technology. So, how do you objectively know which people are your all-stars, especially in a bigger…
Having worked with innovation teams from global companies like Visa, Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly-Clark, Disney, Medtronic and many others, there’s one consistent success factor when it comes to innovation, no matter what you’re doing: it all starts with the customer. Companies spend oodles of time and money trying to understand customers. They conduct surveys, hire market researchers,…
You get what you measure, so make sure you’re tracking the right things. I’ve seen a lot of organizations create strategies, programs, and projects focused on optimizing operations, streamlining processes, and driving innovation. Leadership teams put lots of energy coming up with the next big thing. But amazingly few teams think about how they’ll measure…
In 1998, Chuck Templeton started a company called EasyEats.com. I went to high school with Chuck. We discussed the business plan which included providing recipes, food critic review, and much more. He eventually honed the scope and changed the name to OpenTable. As you probably know, the company would become an icon for what it…
Harvard Research Suggests Pessimism Is Bad for Business. Replace pessimism with “calculated optimism” for better decision-making. Research from Harvard University looked at whether people were afraid of various situations or objects, such as being stuck in enclosed places or coming face-to-face with snakes. These same individuals were asked to estimate the number of fatalities each year…
‘Unconscious thinking’ helps you analyze data so you make the best decisions. I get asked a lot about how much to rely on data versus gut instinct when innovating the next big thing. I wrote about this extensively in my book Leapfrogging. The answer may surprise you. Disruptive Innovators Use Their Gut Apple never did…