6 Creativity and Innovation Books for Your Office

Rob Berman — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 14:00:00 GMT

In my experience, all ideas come from an emotion of creativity. Many ideas are easy to find. However, the breakthrough ideas need staff that is challenged to solve the greatest problems Books in this category will help you identify the problem space as well as solution space by tapping into the hearts and minds of your people.

	Managing Creativity and Innovation (Harvard Business Essentials) Packed with practical information designed for business readers and managers at all levels, this essential volume offers insights on managing creativity in groups, developing creative conflict, and using technology to help foster innovation.
	Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking by TimHurson There are thousands of books about thinking. But there are very few books that provide clear how-to information that can actually help you think better. Think Better is about Productive Thinking — why it’s important, how it works, and how to use it at work, at home, and at play. Productive Thinking is a game changer — a practical, easy-to-learn, repeatable process that helps people understand more clearly, think more creatively, and plan more effectively. It's based on the thinking strategies that people we celebrate for their creativity have been using for centuries. Tim Hurson brings Productive Thinking out of the closet and presents it in a way that makes it easy for anyone to grasp and use — so you can think better, work better, and do better in every aspect of your life. Think Better demonstrates how you can start with an intractable technical problem, an unmet consumer need, or a gaping chasm in your business strategy and, by following a clearly defined, practical thinking process, arrive at a robust, innovative solution. Manycompanies use the Productive Thinking model to generate fresh solutions for tough business problems, and many individuals rely on it to solve pressing personal problems.
	Creativity and Innovation in Organizational Teams Organization and Management by Hoon-Seok Choi Leigh L. Thompson Creativity and Innovation in Organizational Teams stemmed from a conference held at the Kellogg School of Management in June 2003 covering creativity and innovation in groups and organizations. Each chapter of the book is written by an expert and covers original theory about creative processes in organizations. The organization of the text reflects a longstanding notion that creativity in the world of work is a joint outcome of three interdependent forces--individual thinking, group processes, and organizational environment. Part I explores basic cognitive mechanisms that underlie creative thinking, and includes chapters that discuss cognitive foundations of creativity, a cognitive network model of creativity that explains how and why creative solutions form in the human mind, and imports a ground-breaking concept of "creativity templates" to the study of creative idea generation in negotiation context. The second part is devoted to understanding how groups and teams in organizational settings produce creative ideas and implement innovations. Finally, Part III contains three chapters that discuss the role of social, organizational context in which creative endeavors take place. The book has a strong international mix of scholarship and includes clear business implications based on scientific research. It weds the disciplines of psychology, cognition, and business theory into one text.
	The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization by Thomas Kelley and Jonathan Littman The author of the bestselling The Art of Innovation reveals the strategies IDEO, the world-famous design firm, uses to foster innovative thinking throughout an organization and overcome the naysayers who stifle creativity. The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation.
	Leadership for Innovation: How to Organize Team Creativity and Harvest Ideas by John Eric Adair New ideas and new ways of doing things are one of the main ingredients in sustained business success, but how does one create the right conditions for innovation? Leadership for Innovation will help readers create an innovative climate that encourages the development of new products and services. Drawing upon real-life examples including Google, Honda and 3M, John Adair sets out practical ways for bringing about change in organizations. As well as identifying the characteristics of an innovative organization, he discusses key topics such as organizing for team creativity; motivating creative people, how to build on ideas and how to be a creative leader and team member. Leadership for Innovation shows how to inspire teams to go one step further and generate the kind of ideas that are the foundations of future success.
	CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation by Stephen C. Lundin It's time to let the CATS out of the bag . . . Curiosity might have killed the proverbial cat, but without it very real achievements would never occur. With this book as your guide, you’ll learn how to spark your innate curiosity, pounce on problems in ways you never imagined, and enjoy greater success and satisfaction at work—and in your personal life. Playful, profound, and positively upbeat, CATS provides what you need to tap into your power of innovation—and then unleash it in every member of your organization. While most business thinkers view this challenge from the top down, Stephen Lundin sees the subject from a CAT's-eye view, explaining how to get every employee--no matter what level--to think and act in innovative ways. Inside, he examines the four challenges to innovation and offers practical measures aimed at conquering them.

The Takeaway

Challenge your staff to think creatively about customer needs in new and unique ways.

Your Turn. Please comment below.

What creativity and innovation books would you add to the list?
Which of the books on the list did you enjoy the most?
If only one book could be written on Creativity and Innovation what should its focus be?

Innovation in Highly Regulated Environments - Global Bio-Pharmaceutical Case Study

Rob Berman — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Pharmaceuticals is an industry that impacts each one of us. Due to the highly regulated environment, it is difficult to easily drive product innovations.

Four Focus Areas for Industry Innovation

Therefore, Pharma must focus on 1) business model innovations, 2) process innovations, 3) delivery innovations, and 4) customer experience innovations.

Let’s take a look at how a $26 Billion company with 30,000 employees, in 24 countries based in U.S.

Client Situation:

The client, a leading pharmaceutical company with international operations, was faced with a growth gap, having experienced several years of flat sales and heavy competition in U.S. and generics.

The company had recently initiated a global expansion program. However, they quickly realized that this endeavor would be limited and insufficient in meeting its future growth goals. The company’s track record in organic growth and innovation was limited.

The challenge was to improve the company’s innovation capacity, identify new growth opportunities, and have a showcase success within two years.

Six Stage Approach:

Diagnosis: The DeSai Group diagnosed the client’s current situation, past innovation successes and failures.
Recommendation: Based upon these findings, recommendations for enhancing the company’s innovation capacity were made.
Ideation: Through a highly structured ideation process, DeSai and the client identified and clustered ideas into Value-Platforms.
Evaluation: The various Value-Platforms were created, evaluated, and prioritized.
Refinement: The high priority platforms were further expanded with detailed product and service value propositions.
Final Refinement: Six teams were formed for each platform to further build out business briefs to lead to specific business plans within six months.

Results Are The Measure of Innovation Success

How did applying the DeSai Body of Knowledge impact the company?

A Venture Board was established.
Proposals were evaluated by the Venture Board composed of both internal and external members.
Five candidate business ventures were selected having revenue potential of $350Million.
The existing portfolio was evaluated and 25% of the ongoing projects were halted.
The evaluation process yielded 20% of the client’s R&D resources for re-allocation.
An Innovation Board and Innovation Process Owner were established to lead the innovation projects.

The Takeaway

Through a climate and culture of innovation companies can continue to generate value for everyone within their stakeholder system.

Your Turn. Please comment below.

How does your organization ideate future concepts?
What has your experience been with Venture Boards and similar concepts?
In what types of Innovation does your company focus?

Five Power Skills For Discovering Radical Ideas

Jatin Desai — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 14:00:00 GMT

On October 22, 2013 Professor Vijay Govindarajan and I co-authored a blog about Discovering Radical Ideas for the Harvard Business Review Blog.

In the article, we outlined a five-step process to create a consistent flow of “big” ideas to transform your business for the challenges it will face in the coming years. Here is the beginning of it:

Innovation starts with new and novel ideas. Over the last 20 years, we have worked with many world-class brands to help find their next “big thing.” During the initial phases of our work together, it becomes obvious that they have plenty of good ideas. Finding ideas is never the problem — initially. The challenge is finding radical ideas consistently year after year.

When we surveyed over 300 global executives between 2008 and 2009, one of the primary concerns they expressed was their inability to compete long term without a solid innovation engine that can grow their top line. In order to do this, your company needs a process to source radical ideas that can catapult your business to new heights, open up new markets, or bring in completely unfamiliar profit streams.

Read the entire article at Harvard Business Review >>

Building a Culture and Climate of Innovation – You Can Do It

Jatin Desai — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 20:29:00 GMT

Building a Culture and Climate of Innovation – You Can Do It

Read part two of Jatin Desai’s interview with the Propelling Marketing Ideas blog. He focuses on Culture and Climate of Innovation. He answers the following questions

How can a company build culture of innovation? (in other words, how can they foster innovation?)
What does a company need to do to build strong leaders for innovation?
How does a company teach innovation and coach others?
How does a firm promote and build innovation teams, especially across silos?
How do you make innovation a daily habit for everyone at all levels in a company?

Read the interview here.

Top 50 Innovation Twitter Sharers of 2013

Jatin Desai — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 14:00:00 GMT

My friends over at Innovation Excellence are always hard at work writing and curating materials relevant to those of us in the Innovation space. They compiled Top 50 Innovation Twitter Sharers of 2013. The names appear in no particular order.

Top 50 Innovation Tweeters of 2013:

• Paul Hobcraft (@paul4innovating)

• Kevin McFarthing (@innovationfixer)

• Ralph Christian Ohr (@ralph_ohr)

• Tim Kastelle (@timkastelle)

• Braden Kelley (@innovate)

• Greg Satell (@digitaltonto)

• Gregg Fraley (@greggfraley)

• Jeffrey Phillips (@ovoinnovation)

• Nicolas Bry (@nicobry)

• Jeffrey Baumgartner (@creativeJeffrey)

• Matthew E May (@matthewemay)

• Stefan Lindegaard (@lindegaard)

• Mike Brown (@brainzooming)

• Deborah Mills-Scofield (@dscofield)

• Shaun Coffey (@shauncoffey)

• Rowan Gibson (@rowangibson)

• Bill Fischer (@bill_fischer)

• Dave Gray (@davegray)

• Drew Marshall (@drewcm)

• Paul Sloane (@paulsloane)

• Jorge Barba (@jorgebarba)

• Calestous Juma (@calestous)

• JR Reagan (@ideaxplorer)

• Cathryn Hrudicka (@creativesage)

• Juan Cano-Arribi (@pull_innovation)

• Vincent Carbone (@insitevc)

• Sarah Caldicott (@SarahCaldicott)

• Eric Shaver (@ericshaver)

• Max McKeown (@MaxMckeown)

• Boris Pluskowski (@bpluskowski)

• Doug Collins (@innoarchitect)

• LDRLB (@ldrlb)

• Andrea Meyer (@andreameyer)

• Stephen Shapiro (@stephenshapiro)

• Marc Sniukas (@sniukas)

• Saul Kaplan (@skap5)

• Nilofer Merchant (@nilofer)

• Alex Osterwalder (@alexosterwalder)

• Graham Hill (@grahamhill)

• Jose Briones (@brioneja)

• Arie Goldshlager (@ariegoldshlager)

• Scott Berkun (@berkun)

• Julie Anixter (@julieanixter)

• Ross Dawson (@rossdawson)

• Ian McCarthy (@toffeemen68)

• John Hagel (@jhagel)

• Jose Baldaia (@jabaldaia)

• Frank Piller (@masscustom)

• Scott Anthony (@ScottDAnthony)

• Gary Schirr (@ProfessorGary)

Bonus tweeter Jatin Desai (@jhdesai)

The Takeaway

Innovation is a vast, ever changing field. Keep up with some of the leading thinkers by following folks compiled in the list.

It is your turn. Share your wisdom. Please comment below.

1. Who do you follow on Twitter that is not on the list and what is their Twitter handle?

2. Where else do you gain knowledge from Innovation thinkers?

3. What is the most interesting piece of Innovation knowledge you have gained this month?

Creating the Purple Thing that Makes Trillions

Jatin Desai — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:22:00 GMT

Consider the following:

The other day in a LinkedIn discussion on creativity as a precursor to innovation, someone commented that every discussion on creativity seems to devolve into personal or pet theories on the subject.
A recent email with some insights from the HR Management Institute’s conference on “Enhancing HR as a Strategic and Transformative Business Partner in Times of Volatility and Change,” admonished: “If you're not authentically engaged in the competition for talent already, there's little time to waste. Nearly three million employees voluntarily left their employer in January, the highest level since June, 2008.” One conference speaker followed up with a blog on “The Top 5 signs You’re already Losing the Talent War”
FEI posits that if you attend FEI US, you will, “Walk away with the answers and motivation to lead your organization into the next 10 years.” The top 3 bullet points:

Creativity under pressure
Finding your next trillion dollar opportunity
Creating an environment that breeds innovation

What this means:

There is agreement that creativity is integral to innovation but disagreement on what it is and how to keep it flowing.
If top management has not yet removed the barriers within your organization that stifle the flow of creativity and innovation, has neglected to create a viable and sustainable culture and climate in alignment with your vision, and still needs parameters in place to find good people and sustain relationships, you are backpedaling on the back roads in the state of outdated paradigms.
In this exponentially changing business climate, the pressure to get ahead is weighing many organizations down, while the pressure to be sustainably edgy but relevant in finding the next innovative wave puts HR, R & D, and top management in far too many meetings. How innovative is your oganization?

Getting back to creativity as the agreed upon source of innovation, would it be beneficial to take a look beyond the structure, policies, vision and existence of the organization itself? Do culture and climate for innovation support have a tough road due not only to entrenched outdated evaluation, training, and leadership models, but perhaps also factors deeper in the societal fabric?

Why is creativity elusive and the creative process so hard to define? Consider this real life scenario.

The Artist. Eschewed a guaranteed-in to Harvard Medical School in the 1960’s, left Duke University behind in 3^rd year to earn a degree in American Economic History attending night school at Long Island University; then thanking them for the offer to teach, became a graphic artist to earn a living after welding sculpture after-hours at an industrial job and using old tempura to create a first painting at 26. Has donated his time over the years helping kids find art expression with drawing and sculpting with found objects. His family was stunned by his decisions. He became an artist full time at 50. When asked the question, “What do you think is the biggest obstacle to encouraging creativity?” he replied: "Hardened arteries. Society, education, and business put rules and clamps on intuitive processes. Most art education is not art, is not creative, and at worst is manipulative. The regimentation seen in business begins in the schools. Artists do survive in spite of the schools and industrial environment, but not without emotional and psychological cost. We reward manipulation, not creativity.”

All of us innately have a degree of creativity regardless of how or why, and the act of creating fulfills something in us that nothing else can. The real question may be why do we seemingly lose the ability to access it, or are reluctant to acknowledge and use it? Most likely the answer is lack of opportunity, practice and support. We’re much too busy actively doing things society/business tells us we should do to be a success in life. As a result, not only do we personally not have time for creative pursuits or feel guilty when we do take the time, but for most of us our jobs and careers do not reward activity that is outside of the accepted norm, and daydreaming is a big no-no, as there is not an accepted cost center code for that activity. As a result, when we are asked to be creative or desire to be, we need to relearn and remember what it is.

How do you find Innovation: 11 Practical Ideas by Jatin Desai

Start Fooling Around – A Business Guide to Innovation

How are Innovation, Creativity, Engagement, Personal and Human Values linked?

Two quotes to enjoy:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. I never came upon my discoveries through the process of rational thinking." ~ Albert Einstein

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life." ~ John Lennon

Example of Innovation using Crowdsourcing in Biology

Jatin DeSai — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:29:00 GMT

Cathal Garvey’s home laboratory in Cork, Ireland, is filled with makeshift equipment. His incubator for bacteria is an old Styrofoam shipping box with a heating mat and thermometer that he has modified into a thermostat. He uses a pressure cooker to sterilize instead of an autoclave. Some instruments are fashioned from coffee cans.

One of the movement’s rallying points is Genspace, a nonprofit laboratory in Brooklyn that is open to members of the public, regardless of scientific background. Since it opened in 2010, on the seventh floor of an old bank building, similar labs have sprouted in Boston and San Francisco.

Genspace has roughly a dozen members, and each pays $100 a month to cover rent and what laboratory people call consumables: chemical agents, disposable tubes and other paraphernalia that need to be replaced regularly.

Source: New York Times

Medical Robots are coming

Jatin DeSai — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:42:00 GMT

RAVENS have a bad reputation. Medieval monks, who liked to give names to everything (even things that did not need them), came up with “an unkindness” as the collective noun for these corvids. Blake Hannaford and his colleagues at the University of Washington, in Seattle, however, hope to change the impression engendered by the word. They are about to release a flock of medical robots with wing-like arms, called Ravens, in the hope of stimulating innovation in the nascent field of robotic surgery.

Robot-assisted surgery today is dominated by the da Vinci Surgical System, a device that scales down a surgeon’s hand movements in order to allow him to perform operations using tiny incisions. That leads to less tissue damage, and thus a quicker recovery for patients. Thousands of da Vincis have been made, and they are reckoned to be used in over 200,000 operations a year around the world, most commonly hysterectomies and prostate removals.

Source: The Economist

YouTube Invests $100 Million In Original Programming

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:37:00 GMT

Google's YouTube plans to invest $100 million in professional production companies producing YouTube-only content beginning this month. Premiering Monday, Young Hollywood takes place on the ninth floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. The show's creators will produce programming for viewing on mobile devices, computers and Internet-connected TVs.

YouTube VP of Global Content Robert Kyncl announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the first wave of YouTube channels from artists like CSI creator Anthony Zuiker and Deepak Chopra.

Within a few years, online video will contribute 90% to all online traffic; and by 2020, the Web will give birth to 75% of all media channels, Kyncl said, calling the Web a vehicle for distribution.

Source: MediaPost News - Online Media Daily

A Geek’s Guide to China’s Silicon Valley

Jatin DeSai — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:12:00 GMT

Twenty years ago, Zhongguancun was but farming fields and small houses, far from the city center of Beijing. The ‘cun’ at the end of Zhongguancun literally means “village.” As with much else in China, the change has come lightening fast.

High-tech companies in China (credit: TechCrunch)

Today, Zhongguancun is China’s closest equivalent to Silicon Valley. It’s host to electronics super malls, research centers, publicly-listed tech giants, and hundreds of startups. During my walk to work between twenty-story office towers, it’s hard to imagine this land was farmed but one short generation ago.

Here are three reasons why Zhongguancun (or the larger Haidian district) has grown into China’s top tech hub:

Academic Hub
Government and Media
A Virtuous Cycle

Source: TechCrunch

Innovation Inspiration From Nonprofits

Jatin DeSai — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:45:00 GMT

7 Lessons From Innovative Nonprofit Campaigns

Nonprofit groups are experts at doing more with less, and that holds important lessons for corporate innovators. Groups such as GiveWell, DonorChoose.org and Charity: Water use innovative technologies, business models and marketing techniques to further their causes and spur supporters to action.

Think small and simple when it comes to transmitting payments.
Make your site fun, and think about using gamification to boost customer interaction.
Crowd-sourcing funding can be an effective way to pay for a project.
Video may very well be the future of the Web. Learn how to produce it, and you will be able to reach more people more effectively.
Texting isn't just a way to chat with a friend they can be used in a variety of ways within your organization
Know where your money goes and how it is spent.
When your firm's offering isn't all that different from your competitors, attracting top-tier influencers to leverage your brand image can make all the difference.

Source: Inc.com

Best Steve Jobs Quotes

Jatin DeSai — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:34:00 GMT

Our first family business was selling computers with a retail front in Farmington, CT. My father and I bought a franchise called MicroAge(like Computerland). PCs were considered the commerce king and Apple was considered to be the hobby machine or for kids.

It took two decades to upturn that myth…in a way no one expected.

Today, Mr. Jobs has played a leadership role not just at Apple, but for just about everyone who has contributed to or participated in today’s connected economy. It’s not that he was smarter or more clever than many others. What he is very good at is always to bring out the best in some really talented people.

Best wishes to you Mr. Jobs and your family. Here are some of the best quotes below.

-------------------------------------------------------------

On Technology

“It takes these very simple-minded instructions—‘Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it’s greater than this other number’––but executes them at a rate of, let’s say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

******

“The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t.

“I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much — if at all.

“These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that.

“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” [Wired, February 1996]

******

“I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television — but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.” [Rolling Stone, Dec. 3, 2003]

On Design

“We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

******

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. [Wired, February 1996]

******

“For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998, in a profile that also included the following gem: "Steve clearly has done an incredible job," says former Apple Chief Financial Officer Joseph Graziano. "But the $64,000 question is: Will Apple ever resume growth?"]

******

“This is what customers pay us for–to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We’re supposed to be really good at this. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen to customers, but it’s hard for them to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything remotely like it. Take desktop video editing. I never got one request from someone who wanted to edit movies on his computer. Yet now that people see it, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s great!’” [Fortune, January 24 2000]

******

“Look at the design of a lot of consumer products — they’re really complicated surfaces. We tried to make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.” [MSNBC and Newsweek interview, Oct. 14, 2006]

On His Products

“I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn’t be ours anymore. When we finally presented it at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone in the auditorium gave it a five-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe we’d actually finished it. Everyone started crying.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

******

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” [On Mac OS X, Fortune, Jan. 24, 2000]

******

“It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!” [On the iTunes Music Store, Fortune, May 12, 2003]

On Business

“You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

******

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993]

******

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” [Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998]

******

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” [Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer Inc., May 1999]

On System and Process

The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient.

“But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.

“And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. [BusinessWeek, Oct. 12, 2004]

Read more at: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/08/24/steve-jobss-best-quotes/

Being Open to Creativity and New Possibilities

Jatin DeSai — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:23:00 GMT

Why doesn’t innovation and right-brain thinking is not welcomed in the work world?

Because we don’t promote and do not understand that we must know that we don't know all that we need to know. Therefore, why would you ever want to say no to something that will show you the way to grow.

In other words, experiment, persist, don't give up, and learn to fail fast. And when down on your knees, you will now know what works and what doesn’t work to move forward.

Life is too short to being relegated to the world of 'no'.

Be home at ‘yes’. Be a visitor at the home of ‘no’.

Old Clothing Glued Together, To Form Mega-Stylish Chairs

Jatin DeSai — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:53:00 GMT

And they’re actually sturdy!

Far too many people toss their outdated clothes or, worse, send them to Salvation Army assuming, wrongly, that someone else wants to snatch up a pair of 1987 Z. Cavariccis. Tobias Juretzek ain't one of them. He takes his old shirts, jeans, and other garments and turns them into something actually useful: furniture.

Juretzek, a German designer, throws together disused clothes to create stylish little chairs that could almost pass for something you'd find around the dining-room table, if not for the occasional exposed zipper (ouch!).

Source: Fast Co.Design

How to Innovate in 1 hour a week

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:09:00 GMT

How great business innovators are made (not born)

The key to being more innovative is to fence off an hour a week to simply sit and think, says creativity consultant Todd Henry. Setting aside a regular time for reflection lets executives see connections they might miss while they're trying to get work done. "This is not time to do work. This is time to think about work," Henry says.

Not long ago, creativity guru Todd Henry recommended to one of his consulting clients, a high-ranking manager, that he set aside one hour a week to generate new ideas -- "one hour, predictably scheduled, no exceptions and no violations," Henry says in his book, The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice. "This is not time to do work. This is time to think about work."

That executive's reaction, Henry recalls: "He fired back at me, 'What?! You just want me to sit around and think?!" Read more...

Source: Fortune - Anne Fisher

Six Designs For Houses That Cost Just $300 To Build

Jatin DeSai — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:55:00 GMT

300 House

Shelter is one of humanity's most basic needs. But a house is a luxury beyond the wildest dreams of most people in the developed world--leading to dangerous and unsanitary shantytowns, which compound the problems of poverty and disease. The $300 House Project, for which designers were asked to figure out a way to construct a simple house for $300 or less, aimed to solve this problem, by creating cheap and simple to build houses that could be built on a massive scale. The winners--judged by luminaries like Yves Behar and Umair Haque--were recently announced.

300 House Origins

The idea started with this simple napkin drawing of what a $300 house could look like (though wall-mounted tablet computers were unrealistic) and a challenge offered in a series of posts at the Harvard Business Review by Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar. The contest itself garnered 300 submissions and resulted in six winners, which will take the next step of actually prototyping their designs.

DVS

In its design, DVS envisions a simple house made of compressed earth blocks and a wooden frame. A corrugated metal roof is raised slightly from the house to provide air flow. What's more interesting than just the design for one $300 house is DVS' plan to build the houses together in compounds with a central courtyard, which is where activities like cooking and washing would take place.

ArchitectureCommons

The main focus of ArchitectureCommons's plan is not just a house, but a new economic system. By creating local cooperatives that make earthen bricks, AC believes the entire structure of the house could be manufactured for free. Maybe a sneaky way around the rules, but also a potentially game-changing innovation for poor communities in need of housing and industry.

Elsap11

The design of Elsap11's house involves a concrete base, and cardboard tubes impregnated with tar. A raised roof keeps away the elements but also allows for ventilation.

iLines

iLines envisions a series of houses centered around a central courtyard. Its design also uses earth-filled bags, supported by wood or bamboo. The roof can either be made of bags filled with a light-weight material or, in wetter climates, a combination of cardboard and scrap metal

PSouter

PStouters' design features a base made of bags of dirt (easily obtainable), topped with rows mesh cylinders filled with clay. The desin allows for the simple addition of extra sleeping areas or of a cooking porch, to keep cooking smoke outside the main house. For different climates, it can be insulated or have windows added for little extra cost.

Rogerio AA

Instead of filling bags with dirt, Rogerio Almeida's SuperAdobe project involves filling plastic tubing. The tubes can then be laid down to create the walls of a building. They can even be wrapped around in concentric circles to create a beehive effect, eliminating the need for a roof.

Beyond Gravity #2

Jatin DeSai — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:06:00 GMT

Here is another installment of what has been traveling through my desk. In the last Beyond Gravity #1 we looked at innovation examples related to design, a book, a Harvard Conference I went to, and much more. I hope you enjoy some of the mind-benders listed below. Feel free to send me your comments and enjoy!

Technology: 3D Models created by Cell Phones (Microsoft): Click here
Does God Exist?: Earth is smaller than an atom…the Human mind is insignificant…or is it? NASA’s March 7^th photo of the Sun is amazing. You may want to put it as a favorite site! Click here
Big Thinking: If you understand Darwin’s Forgotten Theories you can discover solutions to just about every challenge in your personal and professional life… Click here
How to Fail Fast: Want to solve impossible problems faster? Learn to re-think your original problem itself. In most cases, the problem that seems impossible is not the problem you need to solve. Click here
Green Innovation: PepsiCo unveils 100% Plant based bottle: Click here
Product: Home in a Car by Swiss Room Box… Click here
Steelcase's Brilliant Workstation For Staging Virtual Meetings [Video] Click here

“Beyond Gravity” (#1)

Jatin DeSai — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:39:00 GMT

Following is a list of videos, blog posts and articles on going beyond “personal and organizational gravity”. Gravity is an invisible force holding us back when it comes to growth and innovation. We must go beyond that. Following are some items that I have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks and the latest posts at www.desai.com. I hope you enjoy them.

1) Design: Very nice example of extraordinary furniture for small space.

2) Book: “Lateral Thinking” by Edward DeBono. Very nice and very popular. Worth having a copy if you are serious about facilitating workshops on creativity and team synergy.

3) Conference: Harvard Conference on India: - some great speakers, nice content, and one of our client company’s Chairman attending (Murugappa Group, Chennai, India).

4) Hong-Kong: 330 Square feet Flat/Apartment transforms into 24 different eco-friendly rooms.

5) Free McKinsey Report: The urban world is shifting. Today only 600 urban centers generate about 60 percent of global GDP. While 600 cities will continue to account for the same share of global GDP in 2025, this group of 600 will have a very different membership. Over the next 15 years, the center of gravity of the urban world will move south and, even more decisively, east.

6) Rural India: Rural communities create more innovations then you think.

7) Personal Branding: Dan Schawbel is pretty good at marketing himself; as a brand. Do you want to become ‘the’ brand for your chosen area of expertise? Why not?. Here is what Dan has done…check his work at DanSchawbel.com and take a look at his community on Personal Branding Blog.

How are Innovation, Creativity, Engagement, Personal and Human Values linked?

Jatin DeSai — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:13:00 GMT

1) Innovation arises from creativity.
2) Creativity is shaped by individual's engagement.
3) Engagement and commitment to one's work is directly linked to clarity of Personal Values and the Organizational Values of an institution one works for.

Personal Values are molded based on one's Spiritual Integrity (alignment of thoughts, words, and actions). Spiritual Integrity is the expression of one's deep self-awareness of their inherent Human Values within. Human Values are the same in all human beings. One's ability to unearth the Human Values distinguishes one's moral compass vs. that of another - sometime called Character.

Therefore, if an organization wants to create a climate and culture innovation, best possible lasting solution is to help every employee and leader become more self-aware of who they are and what their personal values are. And I don't mean definition of personal values but the expression of those values; i.e. how do those values show up in their work? Their projects? Their email communications, etc.? This will allow everyone to 'tap into' the inner source where ideas to grow the business are sitting dormant.

Great Innovation Leaders figured this out long time ago - i.e. innovation arises from one's (or team's)deep passion for something much bigger then themselves.

-Jatin

Forget "Creativity",embrace "Creativeness" A strategy for the future!

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:06:00 GMT

Today's managers and leaders think of "creativity" rather than"creativeness". Our corporate culture has trained us to immediately think of results rather than seeking to be the kind of people who achieve them, which is little like putting the cart before the horse. We, too often, look for something which can be measured and therefore controlled. We use the word "Creativity" with the underlying intent that it can be a measurable quantity, whereas creativeness is not. It is a quality of the person.

Creativeness is something entirely natural, like the budding of a plant from a seed. Because it is natural, it cannot be forced to produce, commanded or demanded.

There are no recipes for creativeness. It happens in one's presence at the spur of a moment.

For organizations to compete for the critical "talent war" ahead of us, they must rethink cultivating creativity, but more importantly creating an environment for people to naturally bring out their latent creativeness -which exists in all human beings. Organizations who figure out how to do that will be able to attract and retain the best talent.

So how can one develop this competency of "creativeness" in day-to-day work?

Develop greater awareness of situations and problems, viewing them with bare attention. In this way they will be seen with clarity.

Look at situations with sincerity and detachment (very hard to do). This means recognizing and admitting to yourself your own involvement.
When you have observed the problem in this way, do not put it on one side, but bear it in mind for however long is necessary. Don't force to seek the solution- let it come to you.
Take care to notice the intuitive signals, whatever these happen to be in your case. Eventually a solution will occur to you - anytime, anywhere.
Look at the solution you have discovered with clear comprehension of purpose and suitability. Not all intuitive and creative ideas you get are necessarily right or practical.
Validate its value if it was realized, shop it around, lens it from varieties of perspectives - customers, peers, leaders, suppliers, markets, etc.
Finally, act on it. Ideas and solutions are of no use, if they are only confined to private realities.

Thanks,

-Jatin

Recommended books on creativity (accessible online):

- Handbook of creativity - Robert J. Sternberg

- Cracking Creativity: The secrets of Creative Genius - Michael Michalko

- Creativity: Unleashing the forces within - Osho

For CEOs, what are the barriers to innovation?

Jatin DeSai — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:52:00 GMT

Knowing that the markets are very unforgiving and will always continue to be unfriendly, and that embracing innovation is not an option, the next logical question might be obvious. What must CEOs do to embrace innovation while managing the associated risk and overcoming the barriers?

First, answer lies in developing clear Innovation Mandate - a strategic statement that describes innovation in the context of your business, the value it promises to generate for growth and disciplined process by which to get there.

Innovation Mandate must be vividly clear for everyone in your organization; it must be concise to help drive alignment to business unit initiatives, and it must help articulate specific employee behaviors necessary at all levels for innovation climate to take root. When designed correctly, it is clearly linked and driven by the business strategy.

From our experience, keys to becoming innovative are highly dependent on your ability to address four critical barriers that are incumbent in most organizations. When not addressed together, the journey towards sustainability and value creation invites a higher risk of failure, potentially minimizing the results of innovation investments.

The first barrier is that most organizations do not have the mindset to harvest ideas and manage those ideas.
The second barrier is not recognizing and then not aligning the abundance of resources available to large organizations for investment in innovation.
The third barrier is to recognize the sheer size of the human capital assets that are under-utilized and disengaged from an organization's creative capacity.
The fourth and final barrier relates to the broad product and delivery capabilities that large-scale organizations possess.

Of course, this is not the exhaustive list, but the primary list of obstacles that must be managed and mitigated so you can develop a proper framework for innovation within your firm.

To learn more about my firm's commitment to innovation and our work, please visit http://www.desai.com/ and also look at information on our Strategy-Driven Innovation framework.

Six Criteria for Innovation Success

Jatin DeSai — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:49:00 GMT

In our work at The DeSai Group, we have observed that an organization can achieve sustainable growth through innovation by:

Having a clear strategic intent – a unique direction for the company that will generate a specific value (Top-Line, Bottom Line, or Other).
Value creation strategy – Depending on the value target, creating a vertical and horizontal organizational alignment for everyone to see themselves in the vision and mission is essential for future returns.
Developing deep insights – commercially savvy perceptions to help develop great ideas that can be ventured profitably. Without insights, organizations will predictably migrate to Commodity Island with other industry laggards.
Mobilizing strategically with discipline – vision, strategy, leadership, and ideas are all required for growth, but they don’t guarantee success until you execute with discipline.
Having high performing innovators – innovation can occur by having innovators who can generate real wealth and not just come up with great ideas. People who over-utilize resources and under-deliver value, cannot be called real innovators.
Selecting top-talent with optimum financial behaviors - or developing talent by creating self-awareness about what specific corrective actions executives can take to develop optimal behaviors.

As I have said before, organizations MUST begin to take innovation as a serious tool for survival.

Innovation is no longer a choice - should we or should we not. It is only about WHEN you choose to commit to it.

Primary role of innovation is to grow revenue - period.

Jatin DeSai — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:31:00 GMT

It is not a surprise that revenue growth is the primary driver of shareholder value and the number one challenge for every business sector around the world. Yet today, growth objectives for most industries are tempered by a continuing focus on cost containment.

For U.S. companies, after tremendous focus on "optimizing the bottom line" and losing the competitive edge to other parts of the world, it is time to reclaim the innovation edge. Only way to achieve this, is to point innovation activities to growing the Top-Line (revenue).

Revenue doesn't mean focus on product development alone. That isn't the sole answer either. For example, financial institutions looking for a competitive edge generally focus on product innovation, but most have little sustainable competitive advantage. Many new products never generate a profit. And those that do are often quickly copied by the competition – negating any long-term advantage. The result? Massive investment in product development, without a commensurate improvement in market share.

To achieve sustainable growth, companies must better integrate product innovation with process and service innovation – finding new ways to improve efficiency and customer service. That’s the kind of innovation customers want. And it’s the kind of innovation your competitors will find hard to duplicate. Yet some financial services companies have focused on product innovation for so long they don’t know how to innovate any other way.

Transforming a company into an innovative enterprise is a major challenge that generally requires new strategies, new tools and new behaviors – as well as a dedicated process for nurturing and commercializing good ideas. That deep commitment to innovation is the surest way to achieve meaningful and lasting differentiation.

Institutions with broad-based innovation capabilities enjoy higher customer satisfaction, greater loyalty, faster revenue growth, stronger earnings, and ultimately, dramatic lifts in investor returns.

Do you agree?

Global Warming inside Busineses

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:18:00 GMT

Did you see the movie Incoveniant Truth by Al Gore?

How do you 'power' the business and still fight the global warming (corporate intangible assets) inside of your business?

Does your business have the 'energy' to create peak performance?

What are you going to do when your 'internal natural resources(people)' run out (the door) caused by X-Gen middle management shortage and the Boomers leave for retirement?

Looking at the X-Gen and Y-Gen value systems, what "alternative resources" are you experimenting with to keep the G&A expenses low?

Most businesses have a huge 'climate' problem in their culture. Global Warming in a business culture is reality. Innovations to create Living Organizations fueled by creative energy from with-in, strong leadership at the top, and holistic corporate policy are sorely needed if we are to cope and compete in the new(but getting old fast) flat-world.

Here is brief Mega Story and my Purple Cow (Seth Godin expression-my American-Marketing Idol) solution. Ready? Here it goes:

Mega Story on Global Warming(GW):

1) A prerequisite for life on Earth, the greenhouse effect occurs when infrared radiation (heat) is retained within Earth's atmosphere.

2) Most of Sun's solar energy reaching the Earth is absorbed at the Earth's surface.

3) The warmed surface emits infrared radiation back up into the atmosphere and keeps us warm.

4) Like a blanket, atmospheric green house gases absorb and reradiate the heat in all directions, including back to earth.

5) Human activity has increased the green house gas in the atmosphere and thus at the amount of heat returned to the surface. In consequence, global temperatures have risen.

Mega Story on Global Warming Organizations(GWO):

1) A prerequisite for sustainable life of a company, the 'living' effect occurs when the cultural fabric of any organization, explicitly, integrates human values(the heat energy) into all processes and products.

2) Most of company business (solar energy) reaching company turns into extraordinary compensation for the top, and unequal regard to the rest of the organization.

3) The over cost-cutting and focus on rear-view mirror items, such as process automation, continuous improvement, etc., has created workforces without a clear alignment to the purpose, vision, values, and the brand of the company (the warmed surface).

4) This warm surface, creates unwritten rules and misunderstanding with unplanned constant change initiatives in the climate. This climate emits infrared radiation(unclear, unwritten communication) back up into the atmosphere(culture) and heats up the environment, causing stress, anxiety, and lack of accountability.

5) Like a spiral downwards, atmospheric 'black' cloud of negativity in the air, reradiates and begins to impact your top talent back into other parts of the organization.

6) Human activity in the workplace, in form of pride, jealously, attachment to personal gains, lust, anger, and selfish acts has increased the 'black' house gas in the atmosphere and thus the amount of innovation and creativity is reduced. In consequence, organizational temperatures have risen.

Are you feeling the heat? You may not be. But just like Global Warming, its real and its there in your company.

What is your plan to keep your Organizational Carbon(negative culture) in check?