• Jeff Bezos on the future of Amazon.
  “We had to out-book the book”. Insightful interview touches on the Kindle, which Amazon created by focusing on consumer needs.
• What if the recession does turn into a depression?
  “All financial crises end — and when they end, they end in ways that create spectacular opportunity.” Insightful analysis on how the web could adapt to the change in behavior that the economic slump is making. I agree that we need to adapt but more importantly this is a huge opportunity where openings might not seem obvious but it’s just like a storm, the clouds will suddenly give way to little holes that let the light through.
• Should you reinvent your business model?
  Interview with Clayton Christensen on business model innovation, be sure to read the Harvard business review article Reinventing your business model from the December issue.
• IBM reveals 5 innovations that will change our lives in the next 5 years
  Every year IBM releases a “Next five in five” list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people live, work and play over the next five years. The one I found intriguing is “having a crystal ball for your health”, to have your doctor be able to provide you with a genetic map that tells you what health risks you are likely to face in your lifetime and the specific things you can do to prevent them, based on your specific DNA – all for less than $200. A groundbreaking example is 23andMe.
• Closing the Innovation Gap Book Article
  A new book from Judy Estrin is a call to action for companies to build innovation capability to solve problems for the Global Economy. Here a talk she gave at Google for her book Closing the Innovation Gap.
• Colgate: when innovation dies
  If you’re looking for commoditized products and don’t know how to spot one, here’s a picture of Colgate’s lineup of non-value creating toothpaste flavors. Proof that focusing on too many options (extensions) that deliver no perceivable difference whatsoever doesn’t result in value to the consumer.
• Apple’s persistent effort to push the boundaries of value creation in an industry
  Fail wisely. Apple is one of the most innovative companies of the last decade and Steve Jobs while not responsible for all of it is the driving force behind his company’s relentless pursuit of innovation. With innovation comes a great degree of failure, minimizing risk is not something has done, rather they’ve accepted it and learned from it.
• What Obama needs to know about innovation
  Innovation is synonymous with change. This article presents President elect Obama with tactics that his administration can and should learn from other environments to make change happen.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!