Innovation - according to Guy

Just found this locked up in my blog softWare 'PENDING' .. thought I should actually post it! Bottom line - Mr. Kawasaki talking about innovation.

In his words:

"Don't be afraid to polarize people." For radio, he said, an attempt to please everyone will only "create mediocrity."

The full monty ...

SAN JOSE -- February 9, 2009: Guy Kawasaki -- an original Mac "evangelist" in the '80s and now Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures -- opened Radio Ink's Convergence '09 with a keynote that focused on innovation: what it is and how to get it. He said, "True innovation occurs not when it's motivated by the desire to make money, but the desire to make meaning -- that is, to make the world a better place."
Kawasaki said most of the entrepreneurs who come to him and say their primary motivation is to make money end up with failing companies because they attract employees with the wrong motivation. He asked attendees, "How do you take the radio business and make people's lives better? That is the true foundation of innovation."

Kawasaki noted that most businesses define themselves by what they make today rather than sufficiently broadly, and urged attendees to jump past radio's current "curve of local transmitters broadcasting 30s and 60s for local advertisers.:
He recommended that companies seek a two- or three-word "mantra" instead of a mission statement and said innovators should be guided by the idea of "Don't worry, be crappy" -- that is, understand that a valuable innovation will be so much better than what came before that it won't matter if it's not perfect out of the box. But then, he said, the innovator must be willing to open his or her mind to ideas for improvements -- which can be the most difficult step.
Kawasaki also said to radio specifically, "Don't be afraid to polarize people." For radio, he said, an attempt to please everyone will only "create mediocrity."

... with thanks to : Radio Ink Magazine, for the source.

Folk Music and Web 2.0

This analogy just appealed to me ....

Thanks to 'Anon' for this insightful comment ... about the morphing world of users and audience: 

"The metaphor I keep coming back to on this is Folk Music. If you look at an open mic session, the "audience" turns up and sometimes, some people join in. People start by foot tapping, after a few ales they might pick up the courage to play an instrument, sing along at a table or even grab the mic. The boundary between audience and artist is practically non-existent. They are also playing, improvising and "remixing" copyright free music. Most importantly, you don't have to do anything, just by being there you feel as if you are participating. Internet participation and the movement from audience to user is creating a new "folk" or "people's" culture."

passed on - with thanks to : Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing: By The People, For The People

So - Mossberg says "If you're old, average, and fearful, stick with Microsoft's Windows until this summer"

Mac Daily News

... so here's the question : If you're young, brilliant and rebellious - are the instructions any different ?

Consultants

Incoming EMail From Part Of My Network ....

Report from the National Audit Office (NAO) at the very end of 2006:

"following a long and costly analysis, that management consultants were of absolutely no use to mankind whatsoever, despite the £3 billion of public money we spend upon them annually."

Let’s be clear: it did not say that management consultants were sometimes of no use, but that sometimes they were terrific. It said, per se, management consultants are absolutely useless, full stop. In the three years leading up to the NAO report, spending upon ‘outsourcing’ to the likes of xxx and yyy (and surely those names should have given the game away) increased by 33 per cent.

There was one glorious example of outsourcing cited: Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs outsourced the problem of needing to save £105 million in labour costs. This they did, successfully, to a team of management consultants who charged them £106 million.

Opportunity

Love this - thank-you Lorraine ...

"There is no security on this earth: There is only opportunity."

Douglas Mac Arthur

Scientific Endeavour

Struck me as very relevant to the Beyond Bridges ethos.

For scientific endeavor is a natural whole the parts of which
mutually support one another in a way which, to be sure, no one can
anticipate.

Einstein