Uber’s breakthrough problem solving AI learns by creating then solving its own problems
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Solving problems is hard and requires a different set of skills – human skills. Now Uber’s AI is getting those same skills, but in an exponential way. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Imagine an Artificial Intelligence (AI)...
Global Directory of Corporate R&D and Innovation Labs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The world is changing faster than many organisations anticipated and the pace of technological change is now many CEO’s primary concern, the result of which is that innovation labs are now a business necessity, not a luxury. The global pace of disruption and transformation...
Google DeepMind has given its AI the ability to imagine and ultimately innovate
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Imagination is thought to be a uniquely human trait, but now that AI’s are being taught how to imagine not only will it make them better at understanding the consequences of their actions but it could make them better innovators too. Researchers at Google’s...
CTO Innovation Series: Enterprise innovation fights back
With their organisations and industries under siege from hundreds of thousands of lean, digital start ups many industry leaders are starting to seed creative disruption initiatives within their own organisations in the bold hope of beating the waves of want to be disruptive entrepreneurs at their own game. I sat...
The rise of the Innovative CIO
The CIO’s role is changing driven by Cloud and an increasing number of ‘as a Service’ solutions that progressively reduce the organisations dependency on maintaining a high number of specially skilled ICT staff. Under these new conditions organisations have two options – they can make their technology managers, architects and...
Are Jobs and Ford wrong, can customers create blockbusters?
“If I had asked people what they wanted they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs and Henry Ford are both regarded as two of our most iconic innovators so does it just happen to be coincidence that they also shared the same views about customer input into the...
The three flavours of innovation
If you go out and ask the average person on the street to list their top five most innovative companies then it’s highly likely that the same names will crop up time and time again but what people may not realise is that the journeys those organisations took to develop...
Learn to Disrupt. Less Er-ntrepreneur, more Entrepreneur
At our Venture Capital days our we see pitch after pitch from aspiring Entrepreneurs but with so much Me-Too competition our teams need to quickly establish whether or not they believe a brand is clearly differentiated enough to be able to get a foothold in its chosen market. Most aspiring...
Your children – the ultimate disruptive innovators
Your child is an Innovation Genius but unfortunately for you you’re not and as I sit here with my two year old son running around in his nappy I do know how strange it sounds to say that but bear with me and we’ll help you regain your inner child...
Capitalising on your Zombie Innovations
Today more and more organisations are developing Innovation Centers, albeit at a variety of different scales, and while it can be easily argued that innovation should be naturally embedded in the culture of every organisation and permeate through every department – especially those departments with customer facing roles it’s still...
How to fight commoditisation
In today’s world one thing is certain – at 2AM a year or two after your blockbuster products initial launch you’ll wake up in a sweat wondering why your margins are collapsing and why your market share is plummeting. Well my friend, we have news for you – your product...
How to baseline your organisations ability to innovate
Every organisation wants to innovate but first you need to understand what you’re working with Innovation is much more than just a random amalgamation of people, processes and measurement methodologies. Innovation is the embodiment of human creativity and discovery but it only flourishes in the right environment. Creating a utopian...
How to unseat an incumbent
As someone who has successfully built a variety of businesses from nothing but a concept, the most recent being the 311 Institute, I am only too aware of how it can sometimes feel like you’re trying to scale a cliff to get to reach the customers at the top. You’ve...
How to build a high performance innovation team
The world we live in is changing at a dizzying rate and sectors including the energy, technology, entertainment, communications, finance, sports, manufacturing and engineering sectors are all experiencing change on a seismic scale. Many of the innovative advances of the past ten years, from smart phones to digital cameras have...
Everyone can learn how to innovate
In today’s world there are far too many people who feel that the creative spark is just that. Over the past few years I have worked with hundreds of individuals and teams who have all felt that even mild incremental secondary innovations are beyond their capabilities but I’ve found that...
Innovation. Less brainstorming, more thinking
Most surveys today indicate that Research and Development executives are frequently disappointed in their ideation exercises and that they commonly complain that ideas aren’t actionable, aren’t relevant or simply aren’t economical. They also complain that ideas are insular, vague and can’t be scaled for the real world but ultimately it...
Using a War room to create disruptive innovations
Your teams did their market research. They ran an array of consumer insight sessions. They found the customers real Need. They ran professional ideation and storyboard sessions. They created prototypes and performed market tests. They developed their go to market strategy. They executed their plan. Product sales fell dramatically short...
Using open innovation to gain first mover advantage
People keep asking me to define open innovation so it’s clear to me that plenty of confusion still reins around the topic so here I spend some time trying to ensure that we are all on the same page about how it’s defined and how it ultimately relates to other terms such...
When you can’t innovate copy
Nothing breeds copycats like a successful business venture. When a new business idea is incubated and executed successfully, cloners naturally emerge and imitate. To mitigate the investing risks associated with eroding market opportunities due to copycats, investors always look for companies with strong competitive resilience or those that are operating...
