Winning with Innovation
January 23, 2008
Winning with Innovation is for people who want to succeed with innovation. It is not easy; it’s a hard race to win.
For every one thousand ideas - under 100 may earn a process to evaluate it, under a dozen will have commercial promise to be the merit funding for testing and of those only will a couple will be successful.
If your ideas can inspire investors, confuse competitors, and charm customers, you may be successful, however, you must generate tons of ideas to make it work, and you need the tools, processes and good people to succeed in the long term.
Collecting ideas can be like herding cats, it can make a normal day pretty difficult. There are many high-tech and low-tech processes for collecting ideas like brain storming and storyboarding. (Disclaimer if you are a cat lover, please don’t send us email, we like all animals – it’s a cliché)
Thinking Outside the Box
January 23, 2008
Thinking Outside Of The Box Doesn’t Work Anymore . . . You need effective innovation that really works!
Thinking outside the box is an international cliché or catchphrase started in the sixties in the Disney Organization. In Disney’s company, it demonstrated a management trend of cubicals similar to the one that has been parodied in the comic strip Dilbert and refered to looking at a problem from a new perspective without preconceptions, sometimes called a process of lateral thought. This catchphrase has become widely used in business environments, governments, colleges and by consultants, to a point of being worn out like a set of bald tires, like old tv reruns, and like a dull knife. In today’s level business world, you must have a better way see the global view, and a mindset to dominate the minds in the marketplace.
Since the 1980’s when I was working as a consultant for large corporations, the government and NASA, I learned a better way of thinking about and seeing things. Back then it was see the world from the space shuttle; 170 miles above the earth, traveling at over 17,000 miles per hour, rotating around the globe every 90 minutes. Then in the 1990’s the space station became a reality and again we changed the view to longer terms, global views that asked better questions based on solid, proven facts and long term best practices for business. Now the mind-set is think global, green and great!
Get out of your comport zone and to give deeper consideration to all the change around us and the possibilities it offers. Because our world is very complex and changing rapidly, we need leaders who will take risks and innovate effectively.
Challenging assumptions means questioning the everyday things you take for granted. “The best assumption to have is that any commonly held belief is wrong,”
The 24/7 Mindset
January 23, 2008
Whether you represent a large, high-tech global company, or you are an entrepreneur or inventor working out of your garage, or an Internet entrepreneur, or a nonprofit association working to serve your members, everyone struggles with the process of innovation.
In an article in the Harvard Business Review in 1967, Warren Bennis and Philip Slater pointed to “democratization of the organizations.” In my grandfathers time, the industrial age, he helped invent the assembly line for Warner & Swasey and made it efficient. It was a strategy that met the needs of an era. Now the paradigm shifts with the information age and building a company in the age of rapid change requires, tools and a new way of thinking about business.
The new economy is about fresh ideas, creative strategies for success and how to compete in the future.
Hello world!
January 3, 2008
Hi! I’m Frank Candy - one of America’s most respected business thought leaders and an expert on innovation, a master of creativity, a motivational speaker, and professional keynote speaker specializing in customized programs on leadership, business improvement, innovation, marketing, sales and service.
In a ‘reader’s choice’ survey for Corporate Meetings and Incentives Magazine, the readers of CM&I selected me, Frank Candy, as one of their favorite professional speakers in America. I am an expert at giving audiences what they came for ideas and answers to improve the bottom line.