My heartfelt thanks to Dave Duarte: for the opportunity to guest lecture in his stead on main campus while he led the 3rd successful run of Nomadic Marketing at the Graduate School of Business. I’ve seen Dave present countless times - and trust me it’s NOT an easy act to follow - he speaks with ease and engagement on topics that straddle both traditional and the pioneering edges of business. [Though I guess that's what you would expect from someone who specialises in the economics of attention.]
Innovation is one of those spaces that has to bridge both. This often elusive strategic advantage that could catapult you into uncontested territory (with the benefits of time, little competition, easy PR and high desirability in the marketplace) is often seen as the “soft stuff” best left to the creatives/scientists/inventors to envision. Mistakenly.
Never more so has there been such an urgent need for clarity on how to initiate, manage & implement innovation with accelerated competition and tightening resources on a crowded planet.
Companies that realise that the birthing of innovation is induced through rigorous process rather than entrusting it to luck or epiphanies of genius; those who specialise in it, like Google, BMW, 3M, GE, NASA offer insight on how to apply this in our own lives, businesses and careers.
I’m going to be writing 2 posts on innovation from our lecture series to de-fuzz the fluffy concepts around this word so treasured by management consultants. Essentially just as a memory recall for the students, so forgive me if they seem a little disjointed. (though as always you’re welcome to comment and nudge me if something needs more clarity or really connects with you & you want more info) Continue reading ‘Practical Innovation: relentless problem.solving’
If you’ve been craving some purpose to tumble out of bed for, some fire in the belly, something to spark your passion again >>
Take a few minutes, stop what you’re doing & let the lucidity of Larry Lessig wash over you & clarify some of the nonsense that surrounds & shackles us.
You may be inspired to come join the worthy fight to free culture from the smothering stranglehold of fat.ass greed & imperviousness to LIFE and rich wild creativity or just watch it ;-), trust me it’s brilliant, a TED classic!
Speaking of brilliant, the dazzling Jimmy Wales is back in South Africa for an unmissable event in Jo’burg on the 13th November. Proceeds go to the Wikipedia Academies starting to flourish and enrich South Africans learning & co.creating in their OWN languages (heaven knows we have a few here!).
People with this man’s visionary genius and determination are rare gems in a world collapsing in on itself under the weight of ignorance, fear and indifference. Wikipedia is one of the most hopeful and practical projects to effect real change in the world right now. Treating the cause not just hacking impotently at the symptoms. Go find out why.
Pop onto the iCommons site & quickly grab a seat ..it’s worth getting the global perspective from someone who refreshingly isn’t just a consultant on innovation, but actually is a world.changing innovator (who knows it may even inspire some rocking revolutionary behaviour in you - we love that!)
Africa’s first podcamp ROCKED. We had to take the tech to the trees at one point to avoid a roaming pride of lions. But it was all good :-P
It was the stuff of a classic unconference: friendships forged, fresh project collaborations begun, and stimulating pioneering ideas shared in the South African sunshine just before our victorious rugby World Cup win.
We even recorded a podcast: (in Afrikaans - for the popular WOEMF network - why Nico & Glen graciously allowed me to mangle the language I’m not sure, but it was fun) embarrassing video thanks to Zoopy (who did a great job of coverage not just sponsorship).
The podcasting conversation has officially begun in Cape Town, and we hope to be hearing from podcampers rocking the AV option now. I’ll be talking about Doug Kaye’s inspiring concept : Podcorps and other channels for local podcasters interested in social entrepreneurial / pioneering communities around the world.
Thanks again to our generous sponsors (Henk Kleynhans of Skyrove who provided wifi is the 2nd techmonkey in the tree - along with our WebAddiCT mashup meisterwho still owes me a muti Tshirt), to our valuable contributing speakers (esp. Brad Shrimpton of Apple for doing the podcasting walk.through & demos - see podcasting really is THAT easy!) and mostly to the podcampers who gave up a perfect beach day to come to Podcamp Cape Town!
(extra big warm African hug to the co-daddy of Podcamp Chris Brogan for his message to us - and paying attention to the sadness we feel for the loss of iconic South African Lucky Dube) Please watch the vid if you get a sec: it’s really quick, but a powerful reminder about the power of the social media tools, that we learn to use and share, can have real impact on the world.
Innovation is one of those spaces that has to bridge both. This often elusive strategic advantage that could catapult you into uncontested territory (with the benefits of time, little competition, easy PR and high desirability in the marketplace) is often seen as the “soft stuff” best left to the creatives/scientists/inventors to envision. Mistakenly.
