Do you think that Bill Gates thinks there’s a box? Or Warren Buffet? Do you think that Muhammad Ali thought there was a box? What about Sir Richard Branson? How do you think Tiger Woods or Roger Federer would feel if they thought that they had to operate inside ‘the box’.
Very often, I hear business [...]
By Mark Woodcock
Businesses need to be innovative in order to succeed in times of economic distress, when consumers are more particular about what they buy, and high quality is no longer separate from value for money. Company leaders are looking for ways in which their organisations can be innovative to beat their competition, maintain a [...]
Life is a sustained journey composed of a range of journeys. Some are personal and individual. Others are shared. Still others involve teams, groups, organizations, and even nations. Each journey, large or small, begins with the seeing of a destination. This seeing is commonly referred to as the vision, a future destination to be achieved. [...]
About the Author: Denny Hagel is co-author of The Law of Attraction: The Next Generation and co-owner of Innovative Parenting LLC, a company dedicated to teaching parents how to raise their children using the principles of the law of attraction.
There is a powerful message flowing throughout society today that urges us to think positively. [...]
When Edward DeBono conceived his “Six Thinking Hats,” he envisioned a framework that functions well for individuals, for teams, for groups, for communities, and for organizations. However, people, even today, have little experience with thinking. They have even less training. They can memorize. They can understand what they are told. They can disassemble what others [...]
Price, cost, value — all cut from similar cloth but ending in very different garments. The first two arise from data analysis. Value, by contrast, demands thought. Too frequently, individuals approach this thinking with great seriousness, a practice which slows the process. Replace the seriousness with play and the resulting value creation is deeper and [...]
Inside each of us lies a sleeping giant, the part of us that is wild and crazy. We need only to re-position the giant’s energy toward thinking, especially playful thinking, silly thinking. Many of us keep the giant hidden from view because of the unpredictability. With “new-ideas” thinking, the unpredictability is exactly what is needed. [...]
When we become adults, we put away childish things. Sadly and too often, we also lose our curiosity, our ability to learn, joyously, through discovery. To recapture the feeling that comes with discovery of something previously not experienced, you must return to the time when everything was appearing in your world for the first time. [...]
The world of innovation scares many people. Typically, these frightened people associate innovation with HUGE, risk-laden ideas that change things dramatically. To the contrary, “innovation” refers to change and to doing something new. Here, size does not matter. In fact, some very small changes create dramatic innovation.
MIND-BUILDING — Where, then, can your innovation work begin. [...]
Some time ago, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower;” and that statement has never been more meaningful than it is today. At a time when the even the most fundamental elements of business success are being reevaluated and redefined, one thing becomes increasingly clear: innovation is no [...]
Consider this… What if instead of the compact and featherweight mobile phone that you use today, you had to carry around one of those huge phones prevalent in the early 1990’s? You can heave a sigh of relief that it was just a thought; courtesy of the innovators who spent many years of their lives, [...]
Have you got what it takes to be a world class entrepreneur? Or would you be better off as a senior executive in the corporate world?
In a recent White Paper on Competitiveness, the UK Government said “Entreprenuership and innovation are central to the creative processes in the economy, to promoting growth, increasing productivity and creating [...]
With some clarity on what you want to achieve and some understanding about who you need to become, you now look to the obstacles standing in your way to the BIG innovation. Although many small hurdles cross your path to innovation, the really big obstacles reside within the innovator. They include the ego, the motivation, [...]
The word “Innovation” has earned the dubious distinction of being one of the most overused and misunderstood concepts in business. Today’s tumultuous economic climate has sent companies across the globe scrambling to decipher the secrets of Innovation and to find ways to quickly download it throughout their organizations. Innovation fever is everywhere.
In the corporate gold [...]
Although you may not have completed your thinking about what you want to achieve, you can certainly begin your thinking on the next phase you need to explore before committing to courting the BIG innovation. This phase has three components: assumptions, behaviors, character — the A, B, and C of your personal assessment.
WHO DO YOU [...]
Thomas Edison, possibly America’s Greatest Inventor, was once described as having “an inexhaustible resource and fertility of ideas when it came to practical solution finding. He could juggle multiple projects at the same time and “turn a problem around” from every angle to see all the possibilities, generate ideas, make creative connections, and discern patterns. [...]
All businesses, great and small, start with an idea. From huge multinational conglomerates to your neighborhood pastry shop, somebody thought “Hey, This could actually work!”
Branding Impacts Your Success
Unfortunately, an idea is not enough to start a business. From investment to management know-how, there are thousands of ways a business can find success - or failure. [...]
Wanting to hear the Sirens’ songs but not succumb, Odysseus fought off the music by asking his crew to tie him securely to a mast. To save themselves, the crew filled their ears with beeswax. Odysseus sought counsel with Circe. The seductive, magical Circe offers instructions. She comes in the night with visions to terrify [...]
Only you know who is “special” to you! You have your own criteria for determining who is “special.” Some people want to surround themselves with power and influence. Others want people with money. Some are title collectors. Still others want knowledge and, quite possibly, wisdom in their life spheres. But, I speak not of huge [...]
