Steve presented on the role, activities, training and incentives of being a consultant to the IEEE Student General Meeting at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Feb 23
STRATEGY AND INNOVATION BLOG
Feb 21
Ever had a great invention? Some brief ideas for inspiration
I’ve got a lot to learn about innovation and fun, but so do a lot of businesses. Mix fun and innovation and you have the potential to develop ideas that could become the next big thing. Employees would benefit too. Wouldn’t you prefer to work at a company that values having fun AND being innovative? I would. It turns out that having fun is something that helps our brains develop new ideas that aren’t simply a marginal improvement over old ideas.
Feb 05
One for All and All for One- a Leg Up on Innovation
I tend to reference movies a lot (strange, I don’t see that many) and in a recent post Disruptive? Emerging? Adjacent? Are you a technology wise guy? I referred to the Three Stooges. Fortunately, for the purposes of unnecessarily aging myself, they’ve been resurrected in a new movie. Another “triplet” relationship exists with each company: technology, market and intellectual property. These aspects of innovative companies are the legs that support the stool upon which many companies position their future. Sure, there are many tactical company functions, but HR, administration, accounting and legal support growth, not lead it.
Jan 24
Disruptive? Emerging? Adjacent? Are you a technology wise guy?
Innovative companies need to leverage new ideas to generate future revenues. Learning how to mix internal and external innovation to your advantage is a profitable skill. So, how does your company seek out innovations and learn to leverage them into a stream of money? Do you remember the invention of the telegraph, the telephone or the fax machine? Thank goodness I don’t remember the invention of the first two, but I do remember when fax machines showed up at restaurants to take orders. These three technologies are well entrenched in society today but there was a time when they were much more novel.
Jan 14
Has the Technology Life Cycle thrown you a curve?
I made the case for scheduling time for strategy development in my post Do you give employees time to goof around? Some do!. I believe all companies should find the right balance for time spent on strategic thinking. How does your company strategize to best use resources for your current technologies? How do you plan for the products that aren’t yet being considered for R&D?The starting point for your answer lies with the technology life cycle curve.
Jan 05
Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave?
I often find myself explaining to potential clients how Visionex can help with both short-term and long-term needs. A great movie analogy comes in handy. I like to use the “Progression to Self-Awareness” discussion. Yes, it’s a reference to HAL in “2001: a Space Odyssey,” and it helps relate how successful businesses should be more like this fictional tale. (I hope that it’s still fictional!) This analogy* is useful as I believe ALL companies should spend time thinking strategically. Unfortunately, too many are stuck in “firefighting” mode.
Dec 31
Do you give employees time to goof around? Some do!
I’ve mentioned before that I believe all companies should invest time in thinking strategically. How much time should you allow employees to dream big? Will the results pay off for your business? Let’s look at examples of how highly innovative companies handle time for creativity. Not coincidentally, all three are profitable technology companies.
Dec 20
The “Power” in “Patent Power” More Than Numbers
The just released who’s who in patenting innovations by Patent Power should be an eye opener for innovative companies. Surprisingly, Cree Inc. with only 129 U.S. patents enjoyed an easy victory for the number one position in the Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers category. How did the smaller company top industry heavyweight Applied Materials with 407 U.S. patents? The simple answer is that these rankings consider the “growth, impact, originality, and general applicability” of the IP for each company.
Dec 13
Turn on Automated Alerts to Tune Out Information Overload When Monitoring Trends
Automated alerts can help you stay competitive with real-time data about very specific subjects, technologies, authors and/or companies. Customizing state-of-the-art reports and automated alerts based on client-specified criteria are essential elements of my business, but there are some out-of-the box resources you may find useful. Automated alerts can reduce your scanning time by notifying you about newly published information.
Dec 03
Put Aggregators to Work for Quality, Timely Info
I’d like to share some additional technical and patent resources that might help others as much as they help me in my business providing research for product development and innovation. Google is popular, but not a good source for piecing together trends: access to a large amount of content dumped in your lap through a single portal is not efficient. Fortunately, there are information resources that provide broad data in a bibliographic form that facilitates finding the information you desire.
