Blog

Have you ever noticed how some organisational leaders thrive in the face of change and disruption, while others somehow manage to lead their company into an abyss of irrelevance? (Did someone say ‘Kodak’?). There’s a whole lot of factors that can contribute to a company’s success or failure, but we know two things for sure;Read more

I have always had an issue with celebrating “failure”. It doesn’t feel right. Heart failure, structural failure – the term often implies catastrophic and permanent results. We definitely shouldn’t be celebrating those. To take a step back, my background is in chemical engineering. Before I started working at Inventium I worked as a Risk &Read more

Creativity is an important part of innovation. The more creative ideas we can come up with, the more likely we are to find a new way to solve a customer problem, and therefore, to be innovative. Given creativity is important for innovation, have you ever thought how “creative” you are? Many years ago, I wasRead more

I’ve been doing a lot of keynote speaking of late on the topic of creating the perfect workday. I discuss things such as how to get focused work done in the age of digital distraction, how to free up time for innovation, how to best structure your day to remain energised throughout (even in theRead more

‘Think differently’, says the poster of values as you come out of the lifts and into the office. And while that’s great advice, and the brain is capable of many amazing feats, thinking differently because you’re told to ‘think differently’ is perhaps not one of them. So how do you actually ‘think differently’? Research showsRead more

I have just finished reading an excellent book called “The Four” which charts the world domination of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google. It’s filled with a huge number of interesting insights, too many to cover here. It is only one sentence of 10,000 buried deep in the Facebook chapter that prompts this post. The authorRead more

“…because that’s the way we’ve always done it.”  This has to be my most despised reason for keeping things the way they are. Early in my career, I worked in a number of jobs where management was very protective of the status quo. They were taught that way, so that was the way we shouldRead more

Businesses live and die by the decisions that their customers (or non-customers) make each and every day. Ultimately, it’s our customers that decide whether or not our innovations are a huge success or a whopping failure. So it makes sense that when we want to identify our next big innovation success, that we first lookRead more

I spent last weekend attending two days of training (Yes, that’s right – both Saturday AND Sunday!). After spending the last couple of years focused primarily on running innovation workshops, I was surprised to find that I was sitting in the role of ‘workshop participant’ with a fresh pair of eyes – and when IRead more

Once upon a time, in a high rise not too far away, I had an idea. A change to our business that would make us more attractive in tough regions. A killer idea, I thought. I checked Facebook one last time, freshened my coffee (long black, thanks) and locked myself away to create a 15 page Powerpoint (the business case tool of choice). After many hours,Read more