Professional patent research and analysis requires expertise and tools most business people are not aware of. And high quality results can help inventors and entrepreneurs understand their competition and their opportunities, the founder of the Pearson Strategy Group explained to a recent gathering of Austin’s IEEE Central Texas Consultants Network.
innovation
Disruptive Technologies: How Getting Plastered Lost its Appeal
Disrupters can be positive (the underdog in sports) or negative (the person who keeps interrupting a meeting). We don’t always know HOW a disrupter will influence us, but it’s generally better to know WHAT they are (or WHO if you’re in a meeting!) so that we can better prepare for their presence and their influence. What are disruptive technologies? Disruptive technologies are those technologies that displace an existing technology and its market. Applied positively, companies love to possess disruptive technologies. Applied negatively, companies hate learning of another company’s disruptive technology, especially when it is too late to recover.
Don’t Give A Toaster: Business Principles Will Save Your Shopping List
The turkey was delicious. Now it’s time to go shopping! But first, let’s take a look at a process that will make your shopping list easier than ever before. The same principles used by profitable businesses can net us savvy shoppers the adoration of our children, love of our spouses and maybe even the respect of our in-laws. Use these three business principles to help pick out the perfect gift:
Make Failure Your Teacher in Innovation
In an economic environment fraught with uncertainty, many companies face intense pressures to innovate in order to capture more market share or gain new markets. In this quest for the holy grail of innovation, leaders find themselves grappling with the question of what they can do to spark innovation within their organizations. The deceivingly simple answer is: act in ways that enable rather than stifle innovation. But what does this mean? Below, I will focus on two key points, underpinned by empirical research and practical experience, relevant for leaders trying to foster innovation.
Discover Strategy and Innovation Leaders for a Competitive Edge Community
I am eager to introduce you a growing community that I am helping shape. Strategy and Innovation – Leaders for a Competitive Edge is an exciting group with a fresh perspective. We are a collection of business professionals who focus on the intersection of strategy and innovation and how to implement within a profitable environment.
Great innovation + poor strategy = Failure
As many people can tell you, I like to talk about the importance of combining innovation and strategy to ensure long-term company growth. And I’ve learned that lesson first hand. I used to work for Motorola and, while there, bought some stock in Iridium. Iridium was a satellite phone system that could replace all of our limited coverage problems with phone service that worked anyplace on earth. Innovative and cool! My stock purchase was only $1,000 but I just knew that stock would do well. I even chose not to sell when the stock almost doubled, believing that there was still a strong upside. Instead, I held on until the astonishing drop to a nearly zero valuation.
Are You Ready for Risk? Or Falling Behind?
What type of environment have you created for innovation within your company? Ever wonder how that compares in your industry? It is important to know how we stand when we start evaluating the competition. Compare your strategy and innovation approach to industry standards in five minutes by completing this multiple choice questionnaire. You will get a powerful, easy to assess report within seconds. Ask for more information or stay completely anonymous.
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.
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.
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.