Not Enough Inter-Preneurism? Not Just The CEO’s Fault

Note: A) In this blog the terms enterprises, corporation, large company are use interchangeably. B) Inter-preneurism is referred to as entrepreneurism inside a corporation. Fact: Corporations spend large sums of money on internal R&D – Internal R&D is entrepreneurial/risky. However, it is considered ‘focused’ experimentation. Fact: Enterprises take far bigger risks in external venture investments…

Read More

Change and Large Enterprises

This Financial Times article by Hasso Plattner, Co-Founder of SAP caught my eye yesterday, while I was thinking deeply about the complications (difficulties) of executing ‘change’ in large enterprises. Fact: SAP is about as rigid of a company as you can imagine, and HANA, the in-memory-database concept which SAP introduced a few years ago, represents…

Read More

Why We Need to Disrupt Corporate R&D Spending Patterns!

Firstly, I am extremely bullish on the innovation CAPACITY of large companies (enterprises). Let’s start with a fact: For most of the past three decades, investments made by the entire venture capital sector totaled less than the R&D and capital expenditure budgets of individual large companies such as IBM, GM, or Merck [Source: Architecture of…

Read More

Automation/Digitization: Yes. Personalization: Not Quite!

I am delighted to see so many industries digitizing their operations. For example, as the International New York Times reported yesterday, the Starwood Hotels are starting to test keyless entry via smartphones for their guests. That is a great example of digitization utilizing smartphones. We will be seeing many more such examples of automation moving…

Read More

Personalization: Why Are We Waiting So Long?

Undoubtedly, you have wondered why your favorite hotel does not ‘digitally’ recognize you? Why an airline still uses your profile of a decade ago? Why a merchant with whom you interact with a lot, has no recognition of your preferences? When all the technology and the interest from the people to be more ‘personal’ is…

Read More

“Purpose” – Key In Inspiring And Driving Organizations

I am about to board my flight to Europe and feeling totally elated about this FT article by Andrew Hill (Thank you Andrew!): ‘Purpose’ is the preachy new CEO buzzword It starts out with: When Ellen Kullman, chief executive of DuPont, asked a contract worker on the production line making Kevlar, the fibre used in…

Read More

Disruption in Big Companies: Difficult? Yes. Impossible? NO!

Large enterprises (companies) become successful because they grow aggressively, globally and they are known to be ‘flawless’ in execution and delivery. This includes the largest computer hardware or software companies, pharmaceutical companies, consumer products good manufacturers, car manufacturers, aerospace and any/all in between. In order to run the very large human resources machinery, over the…

Read More

2014: A Great Journey Ahead

In my last blog post, you read my heartfelt thank you and appreciation to all of those who started the necessary dialog about disruption and innovation in 2013. I look forward to meeting new faces and new companies already ready and set up to progress on the journey of disruption and innovation in 2014 and…

Read More

Thank You!

As we bring 2013 to a close, I wanted to thank all of you who opened up your doors and companies and invited me into your companies in 2013 for us to work on disruption and innovation. I appreciate the openness of our interactions, your great attitudes and what we accomplished. Too many to name…

Read More

Leadership: Out, Influence/Impact: In!

I love what is happening around the globe today. In my work with ProVoke, I am brought into companies to disrupt and create a Culture of Disruption, leading to a Culture of Innovation. As we look at create a culture (versus the old school corporate hierarchy) titles don’t create change, the individual does. It is…

Read More