The Innovationist

Culture is king at Zappos.  Last week at the World Innovation Forum, Tony Hsieh told the audience that there are five things Zappos does to build and cultivate their unique company culture focused on customer service.

I've just returned from an incredibly stimulating four days with one of the worlds premier packaged goods companies.  As with many of our clients, their ultimate objective is to transform their innovation efforts and culture in ways that will dramatically enhance their ability to stimulate growth.

Last month, Forbes contributor Chunka Mui posted an interesting article that addressed an upcoming study to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The results of the study found that creativity negatively affected perceptions of leadership potential. In a series of experiments conducted among working adults in India and college students in the U.S., individuals perceived as “creative” were repeatedly seen as less effective leaders.

Last week we had our company holiday party at a local restaurant in Boston’s historic, and still surprisingly Italian, North End.  The restaurant, Taranta (www.tarantarist.com), led by Chef Jose Duarte, astonished us with its innovative pursuits in the restaurant industry.  Not just innovative for its unusual blend of cuisines - Peruvian and Southern Italian - for several years now Chef Duarte has been researching sustainability and carbon reduction as a way of lowering costs.  He has been offsetting an average of 80 metric tons per year, which certifies Taranta as one of the few Green Restaurants in the world.  He has received multiple awards for his sustainable, eco-friendly restaurant.

Here’s a brief history of decision-making as it has evolved in the practice of creative problem-solving. We describe it as a pendulum, and it began with a decision-making model based upon autocracy.

This past week I got sucked into what I thought was a pretty weak online debate. The question posed was, "Is Incremental innovation the enemy of Breakthrough Innovation?"

On Day 2 of the PDMA2010 innovation conference Dan Pink gave a fascinating talk about motivation in the workplace.  Pink is the best-selling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.  Coincidentally, he is also a man with an understated sense of humor and tone that is vaguely reminiscent of Kevin Nealon.  Unfortunately, he did not do any Weekend Update style under-his-breath uttering of his inner thoughts, however he did offer several counterintuitive insights on motivation.

Mark Gallagher of Blackcoffee suggested I take a look at this new book by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, and I'm glad I did.  Vijay and Chris are associated with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.  Vijay a professor and Chris an innovation speaker and consultant who is also on the faculty at Tuck.