Listening to radio while driving to a meeting, I heard an interview with Brian May. He was co-founder and lead guitarist for Queen, the rock group known for such songs as “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You” (which May wrote). What fascinated me was not my reminiscing about my younger Read the full article…
Wise words from Randy Komisar in closing last night’s VLAB session at Stanford in response to a request to provide a lesson on innovation in 6 words It aptly summed up the entire session of “Entrepreneurs Uncensored”. It’s better to test early and often, quickly discovering what won’t work, correcting and improving upon what will. Read the full article…
A few days ago I returned from a wonderful vacation which included a reunion with 6 of my college roommates & their husbands on Crete, a few days in Paris, and then a visit with a friend in the south of France. Unlike all my other trips, this time I left my computer home. I Read the full article…
Back in September, I blogged about the innate creativity of children (Green leaves are green). It’s something I’m keenly aware of- and the reason I use improvisational games and other off-beat techniques when facilitating work around innovation. So, last week, when delivering my newly developed “Personal Innovation” workshop at Stanford Continuing Studies, I tried some Read the full article…
Great question- posed by Claire Cain Miller of the NY Times to start a group interview of Gina Bianchini (Co-Founder & CEO, Ning), Monica Morse (Board member, Astia), Rashmi Sinha (Co-Founder & CEO, Slideshare), Cindy Padnos (Founder & CEO. Illuminate Ventures and author of the well-researched white paper High Performance Entrepreneurs: Women in High Tech), Read the full article…
One major barrier to innovation is certainty of what can and cannot be done. There are epic tales- like Lord Kelvin, President of the British Royal Society of Science declaring “Heavier than air flying machines are impossible” (1895) just 8 years before the Wright Brothers had their first successful flight. Or, better known- the ‘physiological Read the full article…
During a 2001 company workshop, Volvo employees heard an expert on marketing to women say that women wanted the same things men wanted in a car- and more. According to an article in Edmunds, the consultant said “When you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men.” The fact that women influenced Read the full article…
One of the major barriers to creativity and innovation is the fear of looking foolish. “Foolish” means different things to different people: silly, unwise, senseless, irrational, thoughtless, nonsensical, ridiculous, absurd. Ultimately, it’s concern about how others perceive us. Too often we control our actions because we worry about what other people will think about us Read the full article…
Early in December, Inc announced the 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year: Kevin Surace. Innovator of the year would be an equally appropriate title- as well as social entrepreneur. Kevin is based in Silicon Valley (my home territory). High tech startup, you’re thinking. Wrong. The company is Serious Materials and the products are used in construction- Read the full article…