February 2012
49 posts
7 tags
Long-term Growth Opportunities in Eastern Europe ...
Banks in Eastern Europe have had a roller coaster ride over the past decade.1 After dizzying growth between 2000 and 2007, when shares in the region’s top financial institutions performed better than those of their counterparts around the world, asset values slumped by two-thirds as the credit crisis of 2008–09 took hold. More recently, a modest recovery in sentiment—pinned on hopes that the...
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Embrace The Sharks: Bringing Your Board Into The...
How effectively do you help create a technology enabled culture through which consumers, employees and partners seamlessly collaborate and interact? Chances are that you’re using new technologies (like social media, mobility and the cloud) in your business. Whether you use these technologies internally or externally, it’s important that you bring your board into the fold. Corporate boards...
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8 Business #Innovation Tips to Start Your Own...
“Innovation” is a word CEOs hear all the time. Your company must be innovative. In order to stand out in a tough economy you need to innovate. It’s a buzzword that you can’t escape, but what exactly does it mean? How exactly can create an innovative environment? Fast Company’s editor-in-chief Robert Safian thinks he knows the answer. Here are Safian’s 8 principles of innovation: Growth...
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Actually You Really Can
Jim Woods is president and founder of Bain Consulting Group; a global innovation, growth and hypercompetition consultancy. He is an author, coach and motivational speaker on reinventing ones self in tough times. To hire Jim to speak to your organization - Call 719-358-6962 or email for availability. Thank you.
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Leaders Make Values Visible by Marshall Goldsmith
Ultimately, our actions will say much more to employees about our values and our leadership skills than our words ever can. If our actions are wise, no one will care if the words on the wall are not perfect. … by Marshall Goldsmith The corporate credo. Companies have wasted millions of dollars and countless hours of employees’ time agonizing over the wording of statements that...
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Rowan Gibson on Building An Innovation Engine
Sign Up for Our Newsletter Receive the Bain e-mail newsletter each month new business research and ideas delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter Jim Woods is president and founder of Bain Consulting Group; a global innovation, growth and hypercompetition consultancy. He is an author and speaker on strategic innovation, education and competitive advantage. To hire Jim to speak to...
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Addiction: Doing All The Things We Aren't Suppose...
I was 14 years old and at summer camp when I had my first experience with alcohol. I’d never seen people my age drinking before, but I wanted to fit in. I got completely blitzed, felt amazing, and learned that I could erase my social anxiety with alcohol. Masking my negative feelings with a temporary solution that would lead down a dark path? Hello self-sabotage, my name is Adi. ...
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Take a Look At This Innovative TREK Kiosk for...
Unless they happen to be near a bicycle shop during business hours, bicyclists who break down are typically out of luck if they don’t already have the parts they need to make a repair. Aiming to make bike parts more accessible, two different vending machines we’ve spotted are always on hand with critical parts. Most recently, bike manufacturer Trek set up a prototype Trek Stop Cycling...
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Innovative Bomb-proof London recycling solution...
London’s new recycling points feature built-in screens to alert City workers with up-to-date information ranging from weather reports to the latest stock market results. Major cities around the world are constantly looking for innovative ways of repurposing and redesigning everyday necessities, aiming to make them more attractive and functional. The most recent example we’ve spotted is...
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Why US Competitiveness Matters Now More Than Ever ...
One good way to observe a culture may be to venture outside and see it from the perspective of smart people looking in. When it comes to understanding the state of American competitiveness, I often find that the sharpest insights come from the individuals I meet when I travel abroad. On a recent trip to China, what struck me most was the confidence its citizens have in their government—a...
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Innovation Isn't Enough: Great By Choice
Innovation may be the buzz word, but it’s no panacea. Professor Morten Hansen and Jim Collins’ new book “Great by Choice” shows what else you need to stay alive and ahead of the rest. What separates the winners from the losers? The great from the failed? The successes from the also-rans? According to INSEAD professor of entrepreneurship Morten Hansen, it’s not luck, it’s not birthright, it’s...
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A more peaceful world if women in charge? by...
Would the world be more peaceful if women were in charge? A challenging new book by the Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker says that the answer is “yes.” In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Pinker presents data showing that human violence, while still very much with us today, has been gradually declining. Moreover, he says, “over the long sweep of history, women have been and will be...
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When It Comes To Innovation Why Ask Why
“Ask Questions” Most people have heard that phrase hundreds, if not thousands of times. It often comes at the end of a presentation or meeting and yet most attendees shuffle away without posing a query. That’s unfortunate because innovation often begins with a question. In fact, disruptive innovators ask more questions than non-innovators—and their questions tend to be more...
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In Turbulent Times Women May Prove to Be Better...
During turbulent times, organizations spend a great deal of effort on rescue and recovery work. This may include fiscal fitness programs to rein in costs, employee performance is scrutinized to select candidates for terminations, suppliers are squeezed to reduce prices and employee benefits are slashed. However, organizations rarely look at the gender, style and effectiveness of management during...
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The Gravity of Failure by Rebel Brown #Innovation
There was an article in HBR a while back about The Power of Positive Failure. It promoted the beliefs that we can all learn from failure, that failure gives us the chance to grow. It’s a nice article with some great examples. Check it out! I agree with those lessons. But there’s another lesson that I didn’t think it fully explored. We must also avoid the Gravity of failure....
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Five Steps for Embracing Consumer Innovation
Using a GPS system and small tags to create a way to find things that get lost in a house. Creating a coat that’s easy to put on and take off while in a wheelchair. Coloring the two halves of a clock different colors to teach children the concepts of “past the hour” and “before the hour.” Those are some of the consumer innovations that were found by Eric von Hippel, Susumu Ogawa and Jeroen P.J....
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The 5 best books on Innovation EVER by Scott...
Before I share the list of the 5 best books on innovation, here’s a list of 5 things you need to know before reading that list. It’s worth it. I promise. There are 100s of books on innovation. Most are terrifyingly (and ironically) boring. They’re bought to be placed, unread, on office shelves so people can pretend they’re smart. These books are cliché in the worst way, ...
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Edison vs. Tesla: two Approaches by Scott Berkun
Two heroes in the pantheon of inventors are Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Of their many contrasts, a favorite was their divergent approaches for how to solve problems. Edison is famous for his affirmations of hard work as the key ingredient in invention: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration” “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed...
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Lessons of Pawn Stars - Stephen Shapiro
Lessons of Pawn Stars January 23, 2012 Yes, you read that correctly. PAWN Stars. This reality television show on The History Channel chronicles a pawn shop outside of Las Vegas. I enjoy the show because of the history associated with the pieces that are brought in for sale. In addition to rifles from the revolutionary war and antique political documents,...
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Fair Trade Electronics: Responsible Innovation -...
We should consider a new certification program for innovation consumer electronics: Fair Trade Electronics. Do you have a cell phone, TV, iPad, GPS or laptop? Odds are good that most of your gadgets are the fruit of an elaborate, global supply chain hired and managed by big, brand name tech companies as HP, Dell and Apple.[i] Behind most sleek, cutting-edge consumer gadgets is a chain of...
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How To Build Loyal Customers In A Dog Eat Dog...
In this dog-eat-dog world of savvy customers and relentless competitors, managers should seek to be the hunters, not the hunted. Customer service can be the most effective weapon. Bear in mind, in our lean economic times Apple has continued to exceed competitors by “selling” products considered to non-essential. How? They relieve an unmet desire to such a degree competitors want to become...
Caution: We attract the quality of relationship...
Caution: We attract the quality of relationship and jobs we believe we deserve. Your dignity and your heart can only take so much, and if it is violated too many times then you will finally dig in your heels and things will change in a blink. You are walking that line carefully. But, you’ve been here before. What has changed this time? It is amazing to me how many coaches, new age...
Caution: We attract the quality of relationship...
Caution: We attract the quality of relationship and jobs we believe we deserve. Your dignity and your heart can only take so much, and if it is violated too many times then you will finally dig in your heels and things will change in a blink. You are walking that line carefully. But, you’ve been here before. What has changed this time? It is amazing to me how many coaches, new age...
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Les Brown - Why People Fail #coaching #Speaking...
Jim Woods makes sense of the hypercompetitive business and political landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from 25 years of observing businesses and why they do what they do. Jim Woods is president and founder of Bain Consulting Group; a global innovation, growth and hypercompetition consultancy. He is an author and speaker on strategic...
6 tags
Are You Young Enough To Be A CEO?
Jim Woods makes sense of the hypercompetitive business and political landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from 25 years of observing businesses and why they do what they do. Jim Woods is president and founder of Bain Consulting Group; a global innovation, growth and hypercompetition consultancy. He is an author and speaker on strategic...
8 tags
Speed and Agility: Verizon and Redbox More Than...
Commoditization: When a competitor usurps the once seemingly insurmountable strengths of a chief rival with intentions of making them (Netflix) inconsequential. Who benefits? Everyone. Including Netflix providing they respond swiftly and unconventionally. Jim Woods makes sense of the hypercompetitive business and political landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he...
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When Campbell Was in the Soup - #Innovate
Douglas R. Conant likes a challenge. The president and CEO of the Campbell Soup Company, Conant picked up the reins nine years ago when the company’s share price was down and customer loyalty was on the wane. He knew that he could assemble a team to revitalize the company, revamp the product line, fuel innovation, win back customers, and make Wall Street love soup (and cookies and...
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Jim Rohn - The Day That Turns Your Life (and...
Jim Woods makes sense of the hypercompetitive business and political landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from 25 years of observing businesses and why they do what they do. Jim Woods is president and founder of Bain Consulting Group; a global innovation, growth and hypercompetition consultancy. He is an author and speaker on strategic...
The Cost of Bad Project Management
When it comes to project management, most organizations put their practices before their people. They place more emphasis on rational factors — the process itself — and less on emotional drivers that could lead to project excellence — like their employees’ engagement with the project and company. Large projects, especially those in the IT sectors, have a poor record. ...
Seth Godin on Innovation, Failure and Why...
via netwitsthinktank.com
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Designs for eradicating medical mistakes -...
According to a new project led by an interdisciplinary team from Imperial College London, the Royal College of Art, and St Mary’s Hospital in London, something goes wrong in one out of every 10 hospital admissions in the UK. That’s pretty shocking, particularly when you learn that most often problems arise from the poor design of hospital kit, which simply doesn’t work when coupled with real...
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Toyota Innovation - Robotic walking stick lends...
(Image: USPTO) Car maker Toyota has invented a robotic walking stick that offers users a way to right themselves when they begin to fall, or which lets them get a bit of rehabilitative exercise. It also looks like quite a lot of fun. Working with the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Toyota engineers in Erlanger, Kentucky, placed a bidirectional,chunky rubber wheel that is...
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PhotoBlog: Cold spell puts parts of Europe on ice
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Yada. Yada. Yada. - Denver to refocus...
At the outset my comments are going to inflame. Certainly not those most concerned with results rather than productivity. I write because I am deeply troubled. If Mitt Romney or Jack Welch were running Denver Economic Development Agency and the City of Denver, do not leave out your fair city, well let’s just say, things would be different. A no holds barred Jack Welch or Donald trump would...
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The Man Who Lived On His Bike
<p>THE MAN WHO LIVED ON HIS BIKE from Guillaume Blanchet on Vimeo.</p>
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CIO - Unconventional Technology Can Unlock...
Being among the first in your industry to experiment with mobile, video, tablets or social media tools, for example, can teach you what an emerging customer segment wants and put you ahead of rivals. When 1-800-Flowers opened one of the first storefronts on Facebook in 2009, the social network was unfamiliar land for corporate America. The flower seller considered the risks of doing business...
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Sustainability: It’s Not About Tree-Hugging Any...
Sustainability tends to get a lot of positive press coverage. Who can argue with the principle that it’s good to save the planet? But in some boardrooms, sustainability has often been dismissed as a diversion from the core purpose of a business: making money and serving the interests of the shareholders. But CEOs—at least, the smart ones—are starting to think again. According to the second...
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Behind China's Need For Growing Innovation
As a business innovator, China has a wealth of advantages. These include a huge, adaptable population with an affinity for improvisation and reverse engineering; low-cost labor, operations and overhead; and mature industrial clusters ready to supply a variety of parts, components and subassemblies. These elements are creating a strong culture of innovation, one that companies from developed...
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The Business of Healthcare Innovation: How New...
When Lawton Robert Burns, Wharton professor of health care systems, began teaching healthcare management to graduate students, he found a hole in the academic literature. There was plenty of material on physicians and hospitals, government regulations and insurance issues. But there was no single source of good information on a key component of the healthcare industry — the producers of...
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There Is A Bottom-line Benefit: Empowered...
Hiring people who embrace the hotel’s customer-focused credo has made the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts chain a success, Founder Isadore Sharp told the Entrepreneurship Conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. And giving the firm’s front-line employees power to make decisions has added to that. Isadore Sharp knows that a key reason his hotel chain is one of the best...
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Post Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz: Unedited
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Ever since she stormed into Yahoo (YHOO) as its new CEO in January, Carol Bartz has been adamant that the company needs to simplify and define itself. What is Yahoo? “We’re not a search company. We’re not just a social media company. We’re not just a content company. We’re really the center of people’s online lives,” she...
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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg Before She Joined...
You will revel in this story. Jim The uncut version of Yahoo (YAHOO) CEO Carol Bartz’s first-person “Just Deal With It,” which we published on Postcards last Monday, drew lots of traffic. So we’re giving you an unedited version of another first-person piece that appeared in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women issue (September 28). This one is by Facebook COO Sheryl...
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Innovative - Pet Lockers Keep Dogs Safe and Dry...
Outside a Norwegian grocery store can be found the Hundehiet (Norwegian as “dog burrow”) gives owners a safe, lockable place in which to keep their dog while they shop. How the Pet Locker is kept clean and diseased free is unanswered. A novel idea nevertheless. Jim Woods makes sense of the hypercompetitive business and political landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and...
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Making The Case For American Industrial Policy and...
Image courtesy of New York Times Last night I highlighted the last paragraph of the last page of Andrew Liveris book, “Make it in America. The Case for Re-inventing The Economy.” Closing the book, I sighed deeply. For he touched on items not only dear to my heart, but clearly antidotes, albeit politically complex that could remove us from a service economy to an innovative manufacturing model....
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RIP Don Cornelius - A Visionary and Innovator
A visionary and meaningful innovator. He will be missed. Unlike myriad shows who were “ahead” of their times, a moniker if you will for unprofitable ideas and innovations, Cornelius pushed the proverbial envelope of excellence. Whether you were a fan of the show is immaterial. You remember the impact of Soul Train and Don Cornelius. Xerox PARC invented graphical user interface...
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RIP Don Cornelius - A Visionary and Innovator
A visionary and meaningful innovator. He will be missed. Unlike myriad shows who were “ahead” of their times, a moniker if you will for unprofitable ideas and innovations, Cornelius pushed the proverbial envelope of excellence. Whether you were a fan of the show is immaterial. You remember the impact of Soul Train and Don Cornelius. Xerox PARC invented graphical user interface...
5 tags
Innovative Model Of Social Responsibility - Buy...
For every video they make for a tourism company, Timbooktwo will produce another free for a charitable organization In Belgium, online video production companyTimbooktwo have given the concept a B2B twist, producing a free video for a charitable organization each time they make one for a tourism company. Inspired by places visited on their travels, Timbooktwo wanted to give something...
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How To Motivate Children To Exercise - Pedometer...
MOVband: a wristband pedometer designed to motivate and reward exercise. We’ve already seen wristband devices designed to motivate kids into physical activity, but what makes MOVband different is that it is available to schools through a loan program, which could encourage a far wider uptake of the device. MOVband was created by a teacher and fitness instructor in response to...
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A Brand Too Strong to Stay in Its Own Ad - P & G's...
The actor Terry Crews interrupting a commercial for Charmin Freshmates to pitch Old Spice body spray. While cobranding isn’t new, one real commercial commandeering another may be. “Charmin Freshmates are formulated to clean you better than dry bath tissue,” says a voiceover. “And they —— ” The head of Terry Crews, the actor and former National Football League player, pops out of...
January 2012
28 posts
Investors Care More About Profits Than Innovations
via entrepreneur.com