Could the hotel industry have created Airbnb? Could Macy’s have created Amazon? Could Penguin have created the Kindle? Could the taxi industry have created Uber? Could IBM have created the Apple 1 desktop computer? Could Britannica have created Wikipedia? Could…
I was on the phone for an hour and a half. I was in no hurry. I was chatting with – or rather, listening to – a fascinating man in Adelaide. Philip spoke about a lot of things, mostly cutting-edge…
Steve Jobs said that creativity is just connecting things. He’s right. Every new idea is created by connecting two previously unconnected ideas (or pieces of information or experiences). Inside your brain ideas travel on neural highways at speeds up to…
What is it about comfort that has most of us addicted? We want a comfortable bed to sleep in and a comfortable chair to sit on. We want to wear comfortable shoes. Some of us want a comfortable bra. In…
The average entrepreneur believes that her new venture has a 60% chance of success. Four out of five entrepreneurs set their odds of success at better than 70%. A third of all entrepreneurs reckon they have 0% chance of failing….
Today we’re going on a journey. We’re riding the innovation express. We’ll be travelling through time and crisscrossing the world. We start our travels in ancient Greece, 2600 years ago. A shepherd tends his flock on a hillside. He notices…
Is your circle of friends killing your business? Where did your childhood go wrong? And what do these questions have to do with innovation in regional communities? Let’s start. About 100 years ago, scientist Max Kleiber discovered a mathematical pattern….
Late in the 19th century, Dr Henry Holmes built a 3-storey hotel in the Englewood neighbourhood of Chicago. The building was so large that locals dubbed it The Castle. The ground floor of the building housed his pharmacy and other…
Everyone’s waiting for the next big thing. Everyone’s looking for the first sign of an innovation that they can borrow or adapt to their own needs. Everyone’s looking for a breakthrough product they can copy and make a quick buck….
According to research, most business leaders, scientists and decision makers say that innovation is critical to progress and success. Numerous studies have uncovered a widespread belief that ‘creativity is the engine of scientific discovery’ and ‘the fundamental driving force of…