Tag Archives: stories

the Perfect Brainstorm?

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Some interesting insights into the rising demand for innovation practitioners from the New York Times article

Jump, Ideo and Kotter International, are companies with offices and payrolls. But many are solo practitioners, brains for hire who lecture at corporations or consult with them regularly. Each has a catechism and a theory about why good ideas can be so hard to come by and what can be done to remedy the situation.

I particularly like this model by Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and co-author of “The Other Side of Innovation:

In Box 1, he puts everything a company now does to manage and improve performance.

Box 2 is labeled “selectively forgetting the past,” his way of urging clients to avoid fighting competitors and following trends that are no longer relevant.

Box 3 is strategic thinking about the future.

“Companies spend all of their time in Box 1, and think they are doing strategy,” he says. “But strategy is really about Box 2 and 3 — the challenge to create the future that will exist in 2020″.

via In Pursuit of the Perfect Brainstorm – NYTimes.com.

If you’re interested in how the brain works and finding ways to improved your brain power try taking a quick look at this brain optimindation program.


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there is no such thing as a short cut

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Following on from my last two posts on an idea that didn’t quite work and an idea that really does; comes what must be one of the dumbest moves in branding since New Coke. Perhaps this quote from Cadbury’s corporate website says it all:

Our Vision into Action (VIA) plan for 2008 to 2011 aligns the energies and efforts of our teams around the world behind a number of priorities which will make the most impact on our revenue and margin performance.

The move to cut the size of their flagship product and replacement of some of the cocoa in the recipe with palm oil might help margins (for perhaps two days…). However, the backlash to these changes is prompting a boycott – so that is not going to have the desired effect on revenue. The competition has been quick to see the opportunity as the video below shows.

There is a certain arrogance and disregard for the customer in these changes. It does begs the question – “what are they doing to all their other products?” And Whittakers must feel like they have died and gone to (chocolate) heaven.

And now there’s a petition to fight the changes. Go sign it yourself if you feel inclined.

Palm Oil is labelled as Vegetable Fat on their chocolate labels. It decreases the quality and pleasant taste of the chocolate, it is higher in saturated fat, and the Palm Oil industry is one of the leading causes of deforestation in Indonesia.

Orangutans are on the brink of extinction due to this industry. Both the Bornean and Sumatran subspecies will be extinct in 12 years unless the slash and burn of rainforests to create Palm Oil plantations is slowed. Countless other endangered plants, animals and local people are also suffering.

Many responsible companies are looking for ways to decrease their use of Palm Oil due to the difficulty in finding a truly sustainable source.

It has been shocking to countless numbers of Cadbury fans to find that Cadbury have gone the opposite direction and increased their usage!

Although Cadbury claim to be using Sustainable Palm Oil we question this claim as they have yet to back it up with details and proof.

via Remove Palm Oil from Cadbury chocolate. – The Petition Site.


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More ways to share your ideas

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All thinkers, creators and innovators need to be able to share their ideas with others in order to give them value and life.

As the saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Yes, mostly true. Here are ways of communicating complex ideas that have caught my eye recently.

new-math-concentration

  • Telling one story well (though this may be a case of using statistics to suit a purpose…).

plattblog_square_feet_per_person

  • And finally, explaining REALLY big things such as the US Stimulus package. See the full series of illustrations at Life of HOK

stimulas-9m

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