Innovate or Die
In today's economic environment, slow and steady progress, a continuous improvement philosophy and a low-cost producer, commodity focus will likely result in death.
Lessons Learned from Failure
Why do failures generate so much interest? Perhaps as students, we had it pounded into our heads that mistakes are bad - avoid failure at all costs. What can we learn from failure? First, failure isn't fatal - not only is failure not fatal but it also is critical [...]
Defining the Entrepreneurial Spirit
As originally published in Inside Supply Management August 2011 Achieve an entrepreneurial spirit or be left to slowly wither away in today’s new normal business environment. With the retiring of the baby boomers, high commodity prices and nagging unemployment, the new normal is characterized by weak sales growth (at [...]
Innovation Tips
As innovation is key to succeeding in the “new normal”, I thought a few tips might prove helpful: Create a culture of innovation – it’s not enough to encourage innovation in R&D. Those companies who create a culture of innovation will be those who succeed. Start with the customer [...]
Building an Innovation Culture – What Is Vital?
What is vital to building a culture of innovation? There’s one word – leadership! A recent Industry Week article showed several examples of innovation success – the key is that executives must be committed, patient and ready to lead by example. Doesn’t this sound like something we should do [...]