I know of at least one person that will dig this Harvard Business IdeaCast: Better Decisions Through Analytics with Tom Davenport, Babson College professor and coauthor of “Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results.“
To mark his recent death, Peter Day revisits an interview he did 2 years ago with Russell Ackoff, Professor Emeritus of the Wharton School in Operations Research and Systems Theory. His f-Laws expose the common flaws in both the practice of leadership and in the established beliefs that surround it
Get the mp3 here, subversive ideas and uncomfortable truths included, the limits of operations research, social systems science and much more.
I like this notion of “business regularities” and this tongue-in-cheek thing of “F-laws as truths about organizations that we might wish to deny or ignore, [and that serve as] as simple and more reliable guides to managers’ everyday behavior [...]“
DE: Links zu einigen kürzlich gefundenen Podcasts rund um Innovationsthemen
Some newly found and earmarked innovation podcasts, starting with the Forrester Information & Knowledge Management podcast (RSS), then a Swiss radio podcast and to finish a Business Week Innovation of the week
- Good Strategic Planning Will Outlast A Downturn, Don’t Cut Here (mp3)
Rob Koplowitz warns against cutting funding for planning and strategy in an economic downturn. Keep in mind that, while the recession dominates the current business conversation, strategy decisions transcend the short term – your company will have to stick with them for the long haul. - Business Intelligence Belt Tightening In A Tough Economic Climate (mp3)
More and more we’re seeing smart enterprises turn to Business Intelligence (BI) as a corporate asset to help them prevail through the tough economic times. Boris Evelson recommends taking a specific targeted approach to scaling back BI to help your company do more with less rather than employing whole-sale cutbacks. - Novartis Campus – schöne, neue Arbeitswelt (mp3)
Der neue Campus des Pharmamulti Novartis in Basel ist ein Versuch, städteplanerisch auf die Arbeitskultur einzuwirken. Das Gelände ist so gebaut, dass darin neue Arbeitsmodelle verwirklicht werden können. Innovation ist das oberste Ziel. Auch soll der Campus eine kleine Stadt werden, in der den Mitarbeiter fast alles geboten wird – Fitness-Studio und Kinderkrippe inklusive. Schöne, neue Arbeitswelten auf einem 20 Hektar grossen Industriegelände – wie diese aussehen, hat die Basler Historikerin und Kulturwissenschaftlerin Madeleine Fahrländer in einer Studie unter die Lupe genommen. - Michael Raynor, co-author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and author of The Strategy Paradox, outlines his theory of “the new contrarianism.” In a downturn, says Raynor, “companies need to look beyond belt-tightening to focus obsessively on their customers” (mp3). Well, focussing obsessively sounds kind of zealous, if not to say narrow-minded, whatever happened to the idea of serendipidity and exploration? Looking for the current needs of customers sounds good, yet it must be balanced with a concern for the future … but Raynor is making a good argument for “new contrarianism” putting forth simplicity and “easy services” with reasonable value.
Add to all this audio content at least one of the videos from the 4th European Futurists Conference (found via Webonomy) , like e.g. “Open Innovation – Do we still need Patents?” (pdf) with Ciaran McGinley, Project Initiator EPO Scenarios for the Future at the European Patent Office:
In a world where knowledge is increasingly shared and innovation becomes a collaborative process, are traditional forms of intellectual property protection still appropriate? This presentation explores how the paradigm shift to open and collaborative innovation which is already eminent today will impact the role of patents and intellectual property tomorrow. By applying the scenario methodology and using the four “EPO Scenarios for the Future” as different possible environments, the potential drivers which might encourage the development of open innovation models are identified. How businesses and other stakeholders might adapt their IP strategies will also vary substantially from one scenario to the next.
Nice, Chris Anderson and Alain de Botton discuss “why ‘big ideas’ often get stuck and why we need to get out of our normal routine to let our imagination flow”. Get the podcast at BBC Radio 4′s “iPM: Share What You Know” – Is the age of big ideas over? (mp3), and find a transcript by Vincent here.
Time again for a design-thinking post – got triggered by the Küchenradio:
Simon Blake arbeitet an der D-School am privat finanzierten Hasso-Plattner-Institut der Uni Potsdam. Das “Design Thinking” will für große Probleme schnell praktische Lösungen finden. Wie das geht und was bisher gelöst wurde [...]
Here’s the mp3 (yes, german language).
Then via Michael Altendorf I found this video of Matthew, VP of the Design Services Team at SAP, who discusses the Five Challenges of Design-led Organizations:
This video courtesy of the Institute of Design Strategy Conference Site. I really like their approach that combines design, creativity and business thinking. Check out some of my posts on design-thinking here.
Something I wanted to blog about since long and that fits the mold is next. Matt Balara did some interviews at reboot10 asking people what design means to them, second in the row is his interview with Andy Budd outside the Kedelhallen. The question’s the same every other time: “What is design to you?”:
Great thinking and some great quotes to stumble upon in Matt’s blog, go there and check it out, it’s a whole series.
One last goody to be recommended is Matt’s interview with Thomas Vander Wal:
So what’s design mean to you, Thomas?
It’s the layer on top of things that are used, that makes them comfortable and gives them more ease of use. It’s adding experience but taking away the hard edges, and allow people to embrace the tool or service in a closer interaction.
And last, but not least, Ideo (and CEO Tim Browne) are now blogging too (via Matthias and Anol). Check out the new blogs (at Ideo Labs and Design Thinking respectively) for fresh insights. Besides, Tim’s article in the June 2008 HBR is a good introduction to design thinking too:
“Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes—and even strategy”
Badly, got the german language paper version only, but Victor and others have written extensively about it.
Hehe, love this “wiki” in quotation marks, still way to go to real mainstream adoption I guess, whatever Gartner says. But hey, this Studio 360 podcast with Christopher Alexnder is a good listen (mp3). Found via Victor.
His groundbreaking book A Pattern Language urged architects consider emotional and spiritual ideas when designing. It was the beginning of an elaborate, nuts-and-bolts philosophical system. Alexander failed to revolutionize the practice of architecture, but he inspired a movement in computer programming that affects how all of us use the Web. Studio 360′s Lu Olkowski talked to the architect and some of his disciples, including “wiki” inventor Ward Cunningham.
Some notes by me on Wikipatterns over at my consultants blog.
Via Paul Williams I learned that CNBC is doing another series on innovation, it’s aimed at C-level and I welcome this quite a lot as it stresses the importance (yet, Paul has some criticisms too). But these episodes are worthwhile anyway, and I appreciate the effort (btw, back then I wrote some posts about their initial series). Some interesting parts are:
The Human Element:
Innovation begins and ends with people, individuals who have the courage to push the boundaries. It also requires a corporate culture that nurtures and rewards creative thinking, where people feel comfortable enough to voice new ideas, no matter how small. That is where successful leadership comes in. A skilled and innovative leader must be a fearless visionary committed to backing bold ideas.
Innovate or Die:
Mel Kamarzin, CEO of Sirius Radio believes “there is no punishment that goes for taking a chance, making a decision”. Yet too often firms don’t take the steps really required to innovate because they want to protect their existing offerings. They seal their fate by doing just enough to get by. Fear of changing the status quo can be paralysing but if you are not moving forward and innovating in today’s challenging economic environment, it’s worse than standing still. You’re effectively moving backwards.
And the third installment – Redefining Innovation:
Innovation can be a hard concept to pin down. That’s why defining what it means to an organisation is the first step towards truly engaging customers. Radical thinking needs to be employed to come up with the blue-sky ideas. To turn those ideas into revenue generators means making a creative leap beyond the nuts and bolts of a product and really connecting with consumers. Ursula Burns, Chief Executive of Xerox says, “Customers can’t really articulate always what they want. They give you a rough outline”.
Yet indifference, hostility, and isolation are common obstacles in organizations that are inhibiting the growth in innovation (by Irving Wladawsky-Berger) – especially collaborative innovation. Yes, orchestrating groups of heterogenous knowledge workers is hard, that’s why there are Enterprise Collaboration Consultants with an innovation management background (hint …).
