The Innovation Zone

I can see clearly now...

Lost your glasses? No worries. Just print up a new pair with HP's Volume printer! (photo Ubergizmo)

My kids get a kick out of the fact that I need glasses to see small type. My son actually has a pair of my glasses at his bedside so that I can't feign the excuse of not being able to read a bedtime story. I'm afraid I have the same problem seeing into the future. 

If you want to know about the future don't ask a consultant ask a kid. Parenting has taught me a whole lot about human nature. Most importantly, that we all too easily discount the intensity with which kids challenge the conventional. That act involves risk - often more than we as adults are willing to take on. The result is that adults build some great new technology without a clue as to how they will be used. It's the kids that end up using these technologies and finding the way to shape the future with them.

You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

(WARNING - The following is a pro USA view of the world which does not acknowledge the "Post American Era" view being promulgated by economists, historians [or is that "hysterians"], and many more pundits much better educated, articulate and authoritative than I am — but this is my blog not theirs!)

Economists and pundits are having a field day trying to predict the future. How high will oil go? Are we in a post America era? What will the impact of a few billion more consumers be on global supply chains?

Come on, is it that difficult to see what's ahead?

Now this is a Hybrid!

What, you say you're in the market for a hybrid? Well if you can wait a few more months and want to not only get 30MPG+ but also want to slip the surly bonds of earth-bound commuters for the tranquility of blue skies I may just have the vehicle for you. Terrafugia, Inc. is developing the Transition®, a roadable Light-Sport Aircraft that will be able to land at the airport, fold up its wings, and drive on the road. Yes, I know, you've heard it all before. Talk about car/plane mashups has been around for over 100 years, since the car and the plane were first invented. Check out the Roadable Times web site to see the absurd and the even more absurd examples. But Terrafugia seems to have finally cracked the code on this with an "A" team and an "A" idea. In fact you can even pre-order your very own and be flying it by the end of 2009 with a deposit of $7400. It's been years since I flew small aircraft but this might just get me back in the pilot's seat! - tango kilo

How Wise are the Crowds?

In the spirit of  "The Wisdom of Crowds" - check this out - FBI turns to crowdsourcing to help solve 36 year-old case of skydiving hijacker D.B.Cooper.

Panic Attack!

Panic Attack

Do you panic when you see that U.S. companies are spending less on R&D, as a percent of worldwide R&D, from 43%  in 1986, to 32% in 2006?   

It's easy to buy into the gloom and doom scenario being painted for the US economy, run for cover, and, like super model Gisele Bundchen, require payment in Euros. But perhaps there's more to this story than the current moment of crisis.

Go Getter or Go Giver?

A great little book I came across recently. (hear me interview the author Bob Burg on blogtalkradio) Ranked as one of Amazon.com's top books (#13 today!), The book offers  insight into what the author calls the Five Laws of Success - five skills we all need in order to get ahead in  business and in life. It's an easy read (pack it for your next flight), written as fiction, it tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. The Go Giver takes you on a personal journey of innovation that cuts to the core of how you approach success. This is simple stuff we all should know cold (and probably do), but don't practice as often as we preach it. Hey, innovation has to begin somewhere - why not with ourselves first?

Gen Y++

There is nothing new about the chasm between generations. It was there as I was growing up in tied died blue jeans with shoulder length locks (yes, no kidding, me!). It was there as my parents left the old country to come to the promised land of America, and it's there today as my daughter lobbies for an iPhone. So maybe I'm just taking my place in a long line of older generations when I step up to the microphone to express my amazement at how wide the gap seems to be from where I stand.

Yesterday I had the chance to talk about innovation to a group of underfrad students at Babson. It's not a new venue for me. I've guest lectured at a number of schools and was an adjunct at Boston College for several years. But it's been a little while since the last time I did that. Boy was I in for a surprise!

Blind Spot, Straight Ahead...

File this one under "A" for "accidentally, awe and amaze."

One of the benefits of what I do (at least in my own self deluded view) is that I spend so much time just stumbling upon random bits and pieces of knowledge that I never set out to look for. This is an old habit I started long before the internet when I would sit down in my dad's library and read the encyclopedia Yes, I was a lonely child...

But it taught me that there is much we don't know to ask until we trip over it, bump into it, or otherwise overcome our own inertia and find knowledge where we least expect it. Such was the case in a recent e-mail I got from my friend Stuart Silverstone at graphics.org, which referenced a site that provides a startling and amazingly well rendered animation on the topic of "Universcale,"  which was created by Nikon. I won't try to define the term for you, just click the link and look for yourself.

So why do I bring this up in a blog about innovation? Stumbling upon Stuart's e-mail reminded me of how often innovation is simply  a matter of perspective. How we look at a problem defines it and how we solve it. Solutions are almost always right in front of us, But if you look at anything the same way for too long you'll never get out of your own line of sight.

Think about it as you travel through Universcale.

Realizing What You're Made Of (it's more than you think!)

Imagine this - You're in perfect health, you work out, you feel younger than ever. You have a thriving consulting practice with one of the world's leading companies. Then you wake up one day and a few hours later your world gets turned upside down. You're paralyzed from the waist down.  What would you do?

That's exactly what I'm focusing on today on The Innovation Zone Blog Talk Radio Show for my interview with Glenn Mangurian. Glenn made that unimaginable journey and went on to write one of the most popular Harvard Business Review articles of 2007, "Realizing What You're Made Of."

Glenn is one of the most engaging and fascinating people I've ever met. He gives new dimension to the term resilience. But he also convinces you that your own resilience is probably much higher than you might think.

Join Glenn as he shares his inspiring journey from victim to survivor to resilient leader and in the processes helps you to better understand what you're made of!

Tune in to The Innovation Zone today, Thursday January 11th at 2pm Eastern
On the web at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/innovation or dial in to join the discussion at 718-664-6855

2007 Parting Thoughts

And so this is Christmas and what have you done...

As I once heard Steve Jobs say, "Everything in life can be summed up in a Beatles or a Dylan song." Indeed, whatever your soundtrack is download it now and pick a spot by the fireplace. It's time for all of us to contemplate yet another year passed.

So what did you do this year that will go down in history? Tough questions for most of us who didn't scale Everest or row across the Atlantic. Perhaps even for those who did.

Allow me a few minutes of Year's End reflection that might help shed some light on the question.