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Think 10x!
You must think to make things 10x better, faster, smaller, … don’t just set the goal to be ‘a little better’. Think beyond the next solution!
That’s what make the difference in company like Google for example.
PierG
Lately I had the chance to listen to a very good talk about Disruptive Innovation by Luke Williams (at Frontiers of Interaction). A lot has been said about innovation lately and this is a ‘flavor’ that deserve to be understood.
Disruptive Innovation is not about finding something ‘new’. We are leaving the information age to go to the creative age due to the high level of uncertainty so Disruptive Innovation is seldom a matter of technology.
We are obsessed, in business, to fix something that’s “broken”. We have learnt to be problem-solving machines: so we often intend innovation as something new that fixe something. With Disruptive Innovation we don’t want to start from what’s broken: we want to start from what’s ALREADY there … that’s often bad products and bad services. And then we want to brake the cliché: break the set of belief that govern the way we do stuff.
This can be done by reversing what everybody thinks it’s true or denying assumptions (or part of them) behind our beliefs.
No matter what technique you use, remember that if an idea doesn’t make you laugh at the beginning, it’s not disruptive enough!
PierG
I’m travelling in the US meeting relevant IT companies. Here are some of the things I’ve heard or noted:
- “sometimes IT guys are so passionate to their products that they forget these products have a purpose”
- “customers come here to understand how to save US money or increase productivity or grow the business” -> always about money
- “there are no more 18 month projects in IT”
- “if the users don’t use it, who cares how cheap it was to build it?”
- “top tech concerns for IT enterprise: virtualization, cloud, web2.0, network/voice, BA”
- “we will see more social inside cars”
- personal note: it’s incredible how product group executives of big IT companies are very competent if compared with Italian ones
- “awareness, interest and desire likely predate a purchase decision by years”
- “immersive consumer experience”
- “motivation for luxury goods are consistent: indulgence, exclusivity, status”
- “what’s the Bing web address? Search it on Google” 🙂
- “in US a vast % of people use a PC or a smartphone/tablet while watching TV” -> multi screen exposure
- personal note: Apple is not good because it’s too close, Android is not good because it’s too open … are these good excuses to build another proprietary solution?
- “Silverlight is the answer for Premium Experience, Enterprise and RIA applications over html5”
- “vision: stand from the couch!” (talking about gaming)
- “you are ‘against’ by definition” – yes against but against anything, I’m agnostic 🙂
- “we focus on problems that are culturally relevant”
- “we are working hard on digital photography problems”
- “one terabyte of storage can hold a picture of you per minute for your entire life”
Pick 3 and share in the comments!
PierG
Thanks to Antonio and his blog post (in italian) “Set your own drop box quota“, I’ve found a very interesting list of things that according to Drobpox managers should attract future employees.
You know what’s Dropbox, don’t you? 🙂 If not let me tell you that it’s a cult product in these days and, as often happens for new companies of this kind, a cool place to work so, check the list:
- Set your own Dropbox storage quota
- Free lunches, snacks, coffee, and dinner if you’re up late
- Competitive salaries
- Build or buy your dream computer
- Downtown SF office
- Really flexible hours
- Fifteen days of Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Paid holidays
- 401(k)
- Several health insurance options
- Vision, dental, and life insurance too
- Musical culture: Complete music studio equipped with drums, P.A., amplifiers, etc…
- Whiskey Fridays
- Gaming! Starcraft 2, Rock Band, DDR (yep, a real machine) and Laser Tag in the office
As Antonio point out (if my interpretation is correct), it seems an impossible list for an Italian (European?) company!!
I’m really interested in knowing what you think about this list and I have 3 specific question:
- what’s really motivating you in this list (top 3)
- what would motivate you but it’s NOT in the list
- what’s is feasible, of this list, in your current company (if any 🙂 )
Come on, don’t be shy 🙂
PierG
There’s something smelly about financing IT projects in return for a contracted return on investment. It’s not that there shouldn’t be some expectation about return. There absolutely should. But given the uncertainty and the risk, isn’t financing IT projects more like a funding venture? Isn’t it more about managing risk to achieve reward (the desired outcome or better) rather than managing cost and schedule? If it is, then the question to be asked more often is ‘what types of benefits are we seeing for this round of funding, and does the potential return at this stage warrant additional funding?’ rather than ‘are we on schedule and within budget?’
Another very good piece for my IT followers: stop managing assets (only), start making the difference!
PierG
Here is the list of the best posts of 2010 in the HBR blogs: a must read.
The Top 10 HBR Blog Posts of 2010 – Harvard Business Review.
PierG
In my las post Pairing can be Unconsciously Powerful, I commented an article (Research shows that two people can learn to cooperate intuitively, but larger groups need to communicate) and explained how …
working in pair you can create what’s called rapport: one of the most important features or characteristics of subconscious communication. It is commonality of perspective: being “in sync” with, or being “on the same wavelength” as the person with whom you are talking. This goes beyond written rules or pre-set methods. As the sync is at the unconscious level, pairing can be unconsciously powerful
Now is this rapport what you really want when, for example, you are pairing in a pair programming session? Yes and no
Yes: if this means establishing a trustful and proactive relationship where the fight to achieve an excellent result takes place;
No: if this means not adding to the couple the necessary tension. This tension is the generative sparkle of the relationship. A good example of this deviation in the case of pair programming is what Francesco define with mamma programming where the two are looking for mutual protection and reciprocal approval.
Feedback?
PierG
Courtesy of NaturalBlu, Some Rights Reserved
Interesting how the Harvard Business Review site uses the Italian Soccer team and his last (poor) performance at the last World Championship as a good example of bad innovation strategy:
Because Lippi hadn’t invested in fresh talent or new schemes, he found himself in an innovation capability trap. Similarly, organizations can either get employees to work harder or improve how they work by modifying processes and improving capabilities. If they focus solely on the former, productivity will rise and short-term results may improve — but the system will break down at some stage. It’s impossible to deploy new capabilities when you need to if you haven’t already invested in developing them.
OK, the fact the the author of the post is Italian (Alessandro Di Fiore, CEO of the European Centre for Strategic Innovation) may explain something: may be he is a Cassano or Balotelli fan 🙂
Who knows how this post would have been titled if Italy had won the championship: may be ‘Team spirit to boost commitment’, ‘The team wins over turnover’, ‘Never change a winning team’.
So what’s your idea? Trust the winning team or change? Change a little, everything or nothing?
PierG
Nice piece of innovation in a simple idea here: Wall Plug Concept Warns of Wasted Watts : TreeHugger.
Designer Muhyeon Kim has created the “Insic Wall Socket” — an outlet that lights up to tell you just how many watts you’re pulling from the grid with whatever it is you just plugged in
Read the whole articole for more details.
(thanks to Alessandro Galetto)
PierG
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PierG (aka Piergiorgio Grossi) 