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Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “What’s measured improves.” So true. The problem is that most teams don’t have clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of their strategies and projects. Sure, they may have goals, but without clear KPIs, they don’t have a way to know quantitatively that they’re on or off track. As a result, many teams wait until…
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Innovation is an art and science. Here’s the secret to identifying & prioritizing ideas in a virtual world. Over the past 25 years, I have run hundreds of innovation sessions with companies like NBCUniversal, Visa, Colgate, Kimberly-Clark, Red Bull, and dozens of others. My sessions are often part of larger strategy and growth initiatives. But…
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As the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman once said that trying to innovate and scale a business quickly requires you to “throw yourself off a cliff and assemble your airplane on the way down.” Sounds risky. It doesn’t have to be. For most new upstarts — be it a startup or corporate venture — finding…
DetailsOver the last two decades, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s most innovative business leaders to help develop innovative solutions and services for companies big and small. During that time, I have come across numerous methodologies for coming up with ground breaking innovations, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The power of the White…
DetailsAs a consultant, I’ve had the chance to work with some of the world’s biggest businesses and organizations to help guide innovation initiatives and business strategies. What continues to surprise me is how often leaders lack a clear understanding of what the value proposition is that they are providing to customers before developing new products…
DetailsHow do you develop innovative products and services which truly resonate with your customers? In 2016, the American economist Clayton Christensen wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review titled “Know Your Customers’ ‘Jobs to be Done’,” which highlighted the importance of developing a deeper understanding of your target audience to drive innovation. As part of…
DetailsDepending on your industry, size and company structure, driving innovation within your business can be a huge undertaking. Some companies are founded with innovation in mind, while others may have struggled to innovate from the very beginning. Innovation, and coming up with new products and services for your business to stand out in the market is…
DetailsOver the last 25 years, I’ve spent thousands of hours and run hundreds of innovation sessions designed to help business executives across all industries to develop better strategies which will enable them to stay ahead of the competition when it comes to developing the most innovative products and services to serve their customers. One…
DetailsThere were over 200 different concepts for new products and services written on multi-colored post-its and stuck on every conceivable surface across the conference room in my client’s office. The innovation session had been going on for most of 2 days, yet the participants didn’t look tired. In fact, they were energized. But how on earth…
DetailsCreating a product and bringing it to market is the true test of an entrepreneur or business leader. Successful businesses that aren’t able to rapidly create, test, and implement products that provide real value to their customers are doomed to fail. In over 25 years of business strategy and innovation consulting, I’ve seen organizations of…
DetailsA little self-awareness goes a long way. For most organizations struggling to innovate for their customers and in their markets, chances are there is a lack of genuine self-understanding and assessment around what’s getting in the way and why. In my 25 years leading innovation initiatives, I have found that big challenges arise when there’s…
DetailsBrainstorming is an art and science. Here’s how to help your virtual team generate and prioritize the best ideas. Over the past 25 years, I have run hundreds of brainstorming workshops for high-performing teams. My sessions are often part of larger strategy and innovation initiatives. But all sessions are focused on the same thing: generate, prioritize, and develop…
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As a consultant, I’ve had the chance to work with some of the world’s biggest businesses and organizations to help guide innovation initiatives and business strategies. What continues to surprise me is how often leaders lack a clear understanding of what problems their customers are actually facing before developing new products and services to meet…
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It always surprises me that business leaders think they know what’s best for their customers without asking them. Unless you’re Steve Jobs, chances are you won’t know exactly what customers want without doing your due diligence and developing a deep understanding for what makes your customers tick. A Customer Empathy Map is one of the best tools…
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One of the most important skills a manager and a business leader must have is the ability to quickly filter through information and ideas to pick the best one for a particular situation. Concept Screening is a process that an organization can use to narrow down the number of ideas that are generated as options for new…
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Creating a solid business case is integral to the success of any new opportunity. The right business case can mean the difference between funding your idea and floundering to make it a reality. Many people fail to gain support for their ideas because they fail to create a compelling business case. For over 25 years, I’ve worked with innovation teams within big companies…
DetailsHow does your team allocate time to driving innovation within your business? The 70-20-10 Rule is a strategy for determining how to allocate time and resources in order to make a successful innovation. Generally, the rule helps organizational stakeholders determine if they should make high risk/high reward innovations or improve upon existing products or…
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Amazon’s unique approach to innovation helps teams “work backwards” to create breakthroughs The best business strategies focus on meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations. This means envisioning customer problems as well as ideal solutions to those problems before actually developing a product or service–and this is exactly how Amazon innovates. Amazon’s secret to innovation is the…
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A project plan is a list of ingredients. A project charter is the recipe. Having worked with both startups and big companies for more than 25 years, I’ve seen executives get so enamored of their “disruptive” future visions, they neglect the short-term plans that get things going. I’ve also seen leaders so focused on implementation they lose sight of their…
DetailsCulture is a key success factor for every team and organization. Shape it to get more innovation, even from your remote workforce. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Box, Slack, and Salesforce all say that employees can keep working remotely well into next year or even forever. We’re seeing a sea change toward remote work and how…
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