Nike: The No. 1 Most Innovative Company Of 2013. "This is the raw stuff. " Stefan Olander, head of Nike's three-year-old Digital Sport division, is watching a group of his engineers hack an experiment together. They're using a pair of Nike trainers with embedded sensors. The sensors measure pressure created when the shoes, which happen to be on the feet of a lanky product manager named Brandon Burroughs, strike the ground.
The data are collected and then fed wirelessly to an iPhone; the iPhone is plugged into a MacBook; the MacBook's screen features a program that is busily imitating a 1987 Nintendo video game called Track & Field II. Which brings us to the ostensible goal of all this madness: finding out if new-age sensors and wireless devices work with an ancient video game. That's why Burroughs, who is outfitted head to toe in Nike attire, is crouched in anticipation like a runner before a starter pistol is fired. In 2012, Nike's experimentation yielded two breakout hits. Every CEO says this kind of thing (minus the enema part). The Best Practices of Technology Brokers. Companies that are best at developing out-of-the-box thinking on new products employ four successful work practices.
An excerpt from the new book, How Breakthroughs Happen. by Andrew Hargadon Technology brokers have discovered how to bridge the disparate worlds they move among outside their boundaries, and how to build new ventures from the technologies and people they come across. In the process, they have developed four intertwined work practices that help them do this: capturing good ideas, keeping ideas alive, imagining new uses for old ideas, and putting promising concepts to the test. Although the markets and settings of different brokers are diverse, their approaches are not. Indeed, the four intertwined processes are remarkably alike across companies and industries. Capturing good ideas The first step is to bring in promising ideas. Designers at IDEO, for example, seem obsessed with learning about materials and products they have no immediate use for.
The result? Most Innovative Companies | The Fast Company Blog. Monitor: And the winners were… The Two Most Important Startups in the World. By Jason Calacanis The two most important startups in the world: AngelList and Kickstarter. They're more important than Facebook, Twitter and Apple. Heck, they're more important than Pinterest! ( ← zing! These two projects have been hated, dissed and dismissed for much of their existence, but soon folks will see just how disruptively awesome they are. In the early years, having your vision hated by most people, but absolutely loved by a few is -- of course -- the surest sign you're going to change the world.
At poker games here in Los Angeles, my friend Kevin Pollak (oops, you dropped a name, let me pick that up for you!) For the past year, I haven't been able to shut up about Kickstarter. Hard to believe, except in that time Kickstarter has had multiple $1M+ raises -- albeit for mostly design and technology projects -- and has funded dozens of indie films. They would also build a mailing list of their top one to 10 million fans who they can hit up again and again.
C'mon, do it George! My Starbucks Idea. Frog. WELCOME TO ADDICTLAB. 8 miljoen voor topsector creatieve industrie [Blik op Nieuws.nl - Economie] Den Haag - Het InnovatiefondsMKB+ stelt €8 miljoen beschikbaar voor private investeringsfondsen die willen investeren in de topsector creatieve industrie. Dat heeft minister Verhagen van Economische Zaken, Landbouw en Innovatie (EL&I) maandag bekendgemaakt. "Het InnovatiefondsMKB+ zorgt dat creatieve starters in deze snelgroeiende topsector toegang krijgen tot risicokapitaal", zegt minister Verhagen. "Op deze manier kunnen meer vernieuwende producten in architectuur, mode, design, gaming en nieuwe media op de markt komen. " Creatieve Industrie De topsector Creatieve Industrie is al jaren één van de snelst groeiende sectoren van de Nederlandse economie. Met het fonds investeert het Innovatiefonds MKB+ in de vroege fase van creatieve starters tot maximaal 50%.
InnovatiefondsMKB+ Het InnovatiefondsMKB+ start 1 januari en bevat voor de komende jaren €500 miljoen aan innovatiekredieten en durfkapitaal. De ondergrens voor innovatiekrediet wordt verlaagd van €300 naar €150 duizend. Kickstarted: How one company is revolutionizing product development. 172inShare Jump To Close Kickstarter is funding an era of product development uncompromised by focus groups and committees The million dollar idea. We’ve all had it at one time or another, with very few luxuries to show for our sudden fits of brilliance. Enter Kickstarter, a thoroughly modern twist on the concepts of commerce and patronage; an approach so alluring that it now counts over one million people who have combined to pledge more than $100 million to fund ideas both big and small, serious and whimsical, since it launched in April of 2009. From the moment of its unveiling on September 1st, 2010, Scott Wilson, a self-described watch fetishist and former Global Creative Director for Nike, felt the desire to build a watch band for the 6th generation iPod nano.
A few months later, Scott took a chance and placed his TikTok + LunaTik project on Kickstarter, earning more than $6,000 in pledges on its first day. What happened next is the stuff of crowd-funding legend. Brendan Dawes agrees. WeWork Labs: Come. Collaborate. Create. Innovation - Experts. BCG's experts represent a rich and diverse group whose experience encompasses the key issues faced by companies around the world. For every focus area, we also have local experts who provide key insights into the dynamics of each individual market. Our integrated network of experts allows us to share best practices and leverage crucial information on the latest trends. For more information on our experts, use the links below to contact them or learn about their latest insight through their interviews on key business topics.
Zhenya LindgardtSenior Partner & Managing DirectorNew YorkView video interview with Zhenya Lindgardt about the impact that business-model innovation can have on an organization. Hadi ZablitPartner & Managing DirectorParisRead the interview with Hadi Zablit about locating research and development (R&D) operations in rapidly developing economies (RDEs). Andrew TaylorPartner & Managing DirectorChicago Our Publications. Innovation; Innovator's DNA. A major new study has highlighted the key skills that innovative and creative entrepreneurs need to develop. According to Hal Gregersen, an INSEAD professor and co-author of a six-year-long study into disruptive innovation involving some 3,500 executives, there are five 'discovery' skills you need but, he says, you don't have to be 'great in everything.
A major new study involving some 3,500 executives has highlighted the key skills that innovative and creative entrepreneurs need to develop. The six-year-long research into disruptive innovation by INSEAD professor Hal Gregersen, Jeffrey Dyer of Brigham Young University and Clayton Christensen of Harvard, outlines five 'discovery' skills you need. But, says Gregersen, you don’t have to be ‘great in everything.’
Some well-known business leaders such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos rely on their own particular strengths since innovative entrepreneurs rarely excel at all five discovery skills. The five key discovery skills. Charles Leadbeater on innovation. Demos | People. Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. He has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and drawn on that experience in writing his latest book We-think: the power of mass creativity, which charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning.
We-think, which is due to be published in 2007, is the latest in a string of acclaimed books: Living on Thin Air, a guide to living and working in the new economy; Up the Down Escalator, an attack on the culture of public pessimism accompanying globalisation and In Search of Work, published in the 1980's, which was one of the first books to predict the rise of more flexible and networked forms of employment. In 2005 Charles was ranked by Accenture, the management consultancy, as one of the top management thinkers in the world. Demos | Projects. The Atlas of Ideas In May 2007, the United Arab Emirates launched a $10bn foundation to create research centres in Arab univerisities. In Brazil, a consortium of 80 organisations has teamed up to invest $3 billion in biotechnology. In Qatar, a gleaming 2,500 acre 'Education City' is now home to international campuses of five of the world's top universities. Wherever in the world you look, new enrants are reshaping the landscape for science and technology-based innovation.
But what do these changes mean? How should policymakers and business leaders respond? In early 2007, Demos published a series of reports on science and technology-based innovation in China, India and South Korea, and the prospects for closer collaboration with the UK and Europe. For further information on specific projects, visit:- Brazil: The Natural Knowledge-Economy; - Knowledge Nomads; - The Atlas of Islamic World Innovation Publications Related Articles. Idea Connection. Open Innovation | Innovation Management.