"Get Out of Jail, Free" Cards

More and more I am seeing senior executives in large companies inspired and challenged by the task of ‘how to encourage staff’ to make deeper and bolder bets, choices and decisions. Ironically, I am seeing this in companies where top-down command and control would have not allowed us to have had this conversation before. The…

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Communicating with the person sitting next to me at work!

Folks, as you know, I work with large enterprises in the area of global innovation. Often my clients are over 200,000 employees, and the layout is very complex. And our focus is enabling ‘global innovation’, focusing and enabling thousands of employees to innovate more actively and developing a vibrant Culture of Disruption (CofD) and Culture…

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Why Do We Kill Innovation Instead of Nurturing It!?

Kudos to Chris DeRose and Noel Tichy for their article discussing why companies stop innovation. This is a very well written article, I invite everyone to read it. It has always been curious to me why and for what rational reason would companies not encourage more innovation by all their staff. Here is the thought:…

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If Samsung Can Innovate, Why Don’t Other Large Companies as Well?

Fellow readers, I have discussed the following with a number of you already, but wanted to open the dialog to a larger group and get your perspective. I am fascinated with what is going on with Samsung right now, and more importantly WHY I don’t see this happening at other larger companies. With ProVoke, I…

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Just Because You Call Staff "Genius," Doesn't Make It True

For those of us who have made appointments at an Apple store and sat down with a ‘genius’ for over an hour to diagnose a problem and been frustrated, we wonder, is ‘genius’ an appropriate term? I have now spent hours at the flagship Apple store here in Seattle, situated steps away from the Microsoft…

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The ‘Human’ and ‘Emotional’ Side of Innovation

Folks, for those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE large enterprises. I believe in the massive potential in large companies (be it in technology and or any sector), I find the global distribution of possibilities intriguing and the complexity fascinating. Equally, there are days that the politics and inefficiency drive me…

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CIO Must Become Chief Innovation Officer

The IT landscape in large enterprises has changed radically in the last 5 years. Where the challenge previously was to develop the best IT platform for a company and to find ways to store data in traditional databases such as Oracle, today the ‘I’ in Information has changed to ‘Innovation’ in the CIO’s title. The…

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When Disruption Leads to Game Changing Innovation!

Square brought to market a huge opportunity. Simply put, where anyone, anywhere could turn their mobile phone or pad into a cash register and do business from anywhere including cabs, street vendors, independent stores, and much more. At a hefty fee of 2.75% vendors loved the idea to be able to conduct commerce anywhere at…

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Women in Tech: Taking the Investment Risk

Folks, I am an angel investor in tech startups in the US (Silicon Valley, Seattle, San Diego, Utah and other cities), Europe and India as well as emerging markets. I have been eagerly investing in companies for the last 5 years. To date, in any of these cities/countries, I have ‘rarely’ had a woman investor…

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Culture of Innovation is Key!

Fellow innovators, I was extremely delighted to read Christine Comaford’s 7/26 Forbes article about the necessity of innovation. Right on! While Christine and I have not met nor have we discussed these elements, we are significantly aligned! As an active disruptor and provocateur, I work with large enterprises to revitalize innovation and grow the vibrant…

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