Take a minute to think about the words you use to communicate with others. Have you ever struggled to come up with the ‘right’ word to convey your exact meaning? In business, we use shared language to communicate with our team to achieve common goals. The words we...
I remember the day I ruined TV dinners for my father. No, I did not burn his supper. I introduced him to the microwave. My dad was born in 1929, walked to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways in Oklahoma, and neither trusted nor enjoyed most electronics. ...
What can a necktie and a virtual reality thrill ride teach us about the power of shared language and innovation? A lot, actually! I recently spent a week in Orlando with my family enjoying the breadth of entertainment offered by the area’s theme parks. Having visited...
15 year old scotch can be fabulous. 15 year old software can be risky. What will you do when the software product that runs your business, helps close sales, and brings in revenue becomes obsolete? What is Obsolete Software? Obsolete software means the product...
In software, the catalog is the center of the universe. Yet, during my nearly 40 years of experience, I’ve often wondered: Why do we approach building software differently than we approach building anything else? In software development, clients can articulate the end...
What do millennials want? If you knew the answer to that, you probably wouldn’t be interested in reading this blog. But I want to let you in on a secret: millennials want what everyone else wants. We’ve just been taught that we don’t have to settle. With so many...
Joel Basgall, CEO and CoFounder of Geneca, recently posted this article to the Entrepreneur website. Do you see software as an essential way to provide more value with your products and services to keep your customers happy and loyal? You probably don’t. And that’s a...
Joel Basgall, CEO and CoFounder of Geneca, recently posted this article to the Entrepreneur website. Industry standards are for often less than helpful — especially when they’re used to make strategic business decisions. Granted, some benchmarks are useful for...
Through the entrepreneurial lens of my experience, I’ve developed an interesting theory: people are more inclined to move when the pain of change is less than the pain to stay the same. More people seem to be motivated by wanting to avoid pain than actually capturing...
Human interaction today is saturated with continuous interruption, demonstrated most obviously by our addiction to the real-time access of smartphones and social media. As humans, we experience interruption in a way that aligns closely with the commonly used...
It’s no secret that remarkable success rarely comes without failures, demonstrated by a finding that 70% of new products fail to meet market demands. Most organizations distinguish innovation as the desired destination, yet the stops (and detours) along the way often...
Appreciation and recognition are crucial in employee retention and engagement. However, this becomes challenging to do effectively as advanced technology allows your team to be more distributed. A recent Gallup survey found that increased numbers of Americans are...
Last week, we defined “invent” as the act of creating something purely new, as part of our 3 I’s of Innovation blog series that also includes “iterate” and “interrupt.” In an age where every idea has already been brought to life, it’s next to impossible to create...
Participate in a strategy session at just about any leading product-driven organization today and you’ll be hard pressed not to be inundated with the word innovation. Understandably so – innovation is a powerful word, connoting growth, inspiration and market...
In an environment where up to 75% of new software products fail to meet market expectations, effectual innovation isn’t necessarily tied to the “perfect” product. Reaching customers means launching products that easily blend into the real life of the buyer, striking...
Working remotely has evolved from an emerging trend to the new normal. Productivity is the assumed result of eliminating the commute to the office, yet getting more hours to work is not the same as actually getting more done. Achieving success in remote work stems...
Fresh ideas are the foundation of innovation. It’s widely believed that building a pipeline of ideas is the ultimate weapon for leading organizations but real value stems from developing a strategy to choose them wisely. What does your company need to know to sort...
It’s hard to generate new ideas. It’s even harder to generate ideas that succeed. As new product failure rates hover around 70%, discovering new ways to grow revenue is a daunting prospect for organizations. So, how do you invent new ideas to successfully maximize...
True innovators know one thing for sure: past performance is not an indicator of future results. The road to sustainable disruption is a windy one and to stay competitive, organizations must know how to navigate inevitable curves. Last week, I made the case for...
So often, our client discussions turn to innovation. Many wonder whether creativity is managed by a repeatable process or if it’s simply born of the Eureka effect. The answer? Yes. When tasks are strikingly similar or repeatable, process is very effective....
