Innovation: The Who's Where's and How's

Now, I find this very interesting. In this years ranking of the top 10 States, 6 are in the East, 2 in the West and surprisingly 2 in the Middle (west, sort of middle). I can understand Massachusetts taking the top spot with all its academic resources. It is surprising to see Maryland with the second spot and Colorado with the third spot. Interestingly, California (the mother of Innovation for the USA came in 4 th place.) Virginia came in 6 th place in my opinion due to its addiction...I mean dependency...on the defense industry. It is a known fact that Virginia has ceded the ground on biotech to Maryland, perhaps another reason for the standing of each state. Lots here to digest and percolate and I will not play editor on this one any longer... http://www.milkeninstitute.org/tech/ Ok, one more.... Interesting to note that California- while not taking the top spot- is still the greatest source of new ideas. So what does this fact say about California? Could it be that the creative,...

Here is a fantastic example of innovative thinking. By totally shifting their perspective, these two researchers from Duke University have uncovered a brilliant new way of understanding fuel consumption and where we ought to focus our efforts. A very simple shift from "miles per gallon" to "gallons per mile" opened up an entire new way of seeing and finding solutions. Here is the link: http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news/larrick-soll-mpg-0608.html?utm_source=ee_newsletter0608& utm _medium=email& utm _campaign=executive_education Next time you are confronted with some spare time, recast old ways of thinking into new ones just for the fun of it.; you will be amazed at what you can come up with. One example for my industry, Telecom. Old thinking: "We provide telecommunications infrastructure services to industry and consumers." New Way of thinking: "Our technology and communications infrastructure enables the World's creative impulses." Pe...

Well, yes, here I go on this thing about creativity. I have to post this piece because, again, I feel that as part of the new renaissance that we are living through, the subject of creativity is gaining currency everywhere you look. The latest example is the venerable HBR (Harvard Business Review). In the April 2008 issue of HBR , they interview Twyla Tharp, the World famous choreographer on the subject of creativity. Here is the link. Please have a look. It is a great interview. http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?_requestid=25852&value=BR0804&ml_subscriber=true&ml_action=get-article&ml_ issueid =BR0804& articleID =R0804B& pageNumber =1 So as not to bore everyone with my own crazy ideas (not so crazy, I am finding out) here is an excerpt from the interview. "I think everyone can be creative, but you have to prepare for it with routine. There's is no other way around it. It's an absolute mistake to think th...

Being on the road and participating in many conferences and forums, I come across many with lamentations on the way things are going: Kids don’t read books anymore, the music industry is under attack, our attention spans are reduced, no one is reflective anymore, on and on… I tell them yes, you are right; things are changing, but that is the nature of evolution. We are evolving as we speak –like it or not. I go on to say, this very exchange of ideas, this very moment is evolution at its core. There is proof of this emerging everywhere. The digital natives think differently than most of us digital emigrants. Brain research is starting to emerge that shows how kids are using different areas of the brain to process thoughts. Further, their patterns of technology-use are drastically different. A few examples: increasingly they are cutting the cord on fixed line telephony, they rather text and IM than email, they are skimmers of information and bore quickly with long form text, they are def...

So there I was on my long bicycle ride of the weekend. It was a very hot Saturday with temperatures in the mid 90’s with a humidity index in the mid 100’s. I was making my way to my daughter’s soccer game that was to start at 12:30PM. I had started at around 10AM when the heat was still manageable and the route that I had picked and that I knew well, called for an ascent from the Potomac River in Washington DC into the suburbs of Virginia and past the infamous beltway. (The rise in elevation is not easily discernable in a car but - trust me - it is quite discernible in a bicycle in a hot day.) In any case, as I was trudging along and struggling up a particularly steep climb, two riders passed me as if I was standing still. (I was so proud of my progress until that point). Based on their attire (both wearing the same) it was fairly obvious that they were pro’s or semi pro’s After passing, I decided to try to keep up with them to see how far I could go. As we moved along I noticed that I...