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

I was in Germany last week and the combination of jet lag, little sleep, dinners, meetings, trade shows, etc..really killed me. It has taken me 4 days to fully recover from the fog that I have been in since getting back Friday night. For the first time in my career, I fully felt the effects of this travel. I could see and feel physical changes. As I looked in the mirror over the weekend, I could see my facial muscles change and show a face that I did not recognize. Further, my disposition was sour much to the displeasure of my family. Note to travel policy decision makers: Travelling in cattle class for business has a huge impact on the health of your employees and paying for business class is probably a good investment, specially on overnight flights. The static old guide of allowing business class based on "flight time" does not work. It could be the getting old thing, it could be the "out of sequence" that everything becomes when one is travelling across time zon

I was at an Innovation conference 2 weeks ago and amongst the many insights that I was able to capture, a few were fairly obvious and a few not so obvious . One that seems over the top obvious is that the term "luxury" (and the whole in your face "treat yourself because you are special") marketing mantras (are you listening Lexus and Range Rover?) are dead. Yes, dead. News Flash: It is really no longer cool to drive a big SVU and own a big house. It is really not cool to be narcistic and market to these incstincts. We have entered a new era (not fast enough, really) of wholesomeness, empathy, respect, truth, trust, firmness. For a lesson on a company that has captured this new ethos, look at what Hyundai is doing. They certainly got the message and are acting on it. In any case, I hope I am right. Now we need for this to "scale" to the rest of spoiled humanity. The second not so obvious is that we - the people - are the greatness impediment to progress