“If you’re going to do something that’s never been done before
- which is basically what innovation is - people are going to
misunderstand it just because it’s new.” - Jeff Bezos
The Paradox of Innovation, Mitch Ditkoff
This is a thought provoking entry about the paradox between 'systems and structure' and innovation. Makes you think a little about how many innovative environments evolve over time ... to something that isn't as innovative as it once was - seemingly due to the structure that has been put up to keep the 'innovative environment' going. An interesting quote from the entry:
Remember, there's a big difference between Six Sigma and Innovation. Six Sigma is about reducing variability. Innovation is about increasing it-- and that often means allowing the kind of "messiness" that process-mavens interpret as a problem needing to be fixed, rather than a pre-condition to breakthrough and the resulting commercialization of that breakthrough that most people refer to as "innovation."
Fostering Innovation: The need for cross pollination, oblanchard
An interesting entry on how people from different backgrounds and disciplines can create synergy. There are some interesting examples mentioned in the entry. An interesting quote from it:
Cross pollination doesn’t just introduce new ideas and methodologies into otherwise rigid systems, they transform them. In this transformation is the catalyst of any organization’s evolution, whether it is a marketing group, a product design group, or an entire corporation.
Innovation is not a brilliant idea, Dimarkin
This is a short entry on how 'innovation' is not just a simple brilliant idea, but a process that has four steps:
- Creating
- Advancing
- Refining
- Executing
An interesting quote from the entry:
Innovation is not a brilliant idea; innovation is a process. A brilliant idea becomes an innovation when it is turned into a product or system that produces significantly improved results.
5 Ways to Battle Creative Blocks, Raj Dash
Creative blocks ... we all get them sometime. This is a short entry on some things that might cause them and then 5 ways that might help you unblock them:
- Brainstorm
- Read for inspiration
- Read topic-specific articles
- Rewrite other work
- Make a journal entry
An interesting link in the entry: Practical Freelancing Tips to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
Can America Invent Its Way Back?, Michael Mandel
This is a three page article on the BusinessWeek site about "Innovation economics". I haven't read it all yet, but it looks good. Seems to be mostly about R&D though. An interesting quote from the article:
But innovation has fallen short of its promise in recent years. While some info tech corporations are still thriving, other sectors that were supposed to drive growth have faltered. Biotech companies have produced new drugs, but so far no real breakthroughs. And nanotechnology has been slow to generate commercial products.