Editor’s Note: Dr. Stephen Sweid is a pioneer of Breakthrough Strategy thinking. He has published a series of training guides on the Breakthrough Strategy, which you can find on Flevy here. Stephen has also been a guest on our podcast, Business Executive Interviews. You can listen to his interview here. Recently, Stephen has also published a comprehensive presentation on Multicultural Synergy. […]
Tag Archives | innovation
The Natural Evolution of Things (Part 5)
Editor’s Note: The Natural Evolution of Things is an in-depth is a 5-part series that describes 13 the catalysts of Organizational Change and Competitiveness, based on the theme of Michael Porter’s Five Forces. To read the full series, take a look at the author’s profile page found here. * * * * Continued from part 4… Technology […]
The Truth about Driving Change and Innovation: What No One Tells You
The call for change and innovation is everywhere – and rightly so. Business environments seem to be getting slammed by a multitude of market, technology and competitive threats impacting how you do business. It’s often called “disruption”. There is much written about transformational leadership. They fill our book shelves, article after article and book after […]
What Are Your Distinctive Capabilities That Cannot Be Replicated?
Developed by John Kay, the Distinctive Capabilities Framework captures those capabilities our organization has, which cannot be replicated by competition. Through his research, he identified 3 such “Distinctive Capabilities:” Architecture Reputation Innovation These 3 capabilities are the source of superior performance and sustainable competitive advantage for successful firms. This framework was developed after extensive research by […]
TQM: A Need for Speed of Innovation
The emergence of total quality management (TQM) has been one of the major developments in management practice. The recognition of TQM as a competitive advantage is wide spread around the world and today, very few (especially manufacturing) companies can afford to ignore the term TQM (Dean and Bowen, 1994). There are some arguments that support […]
The “Secret Sauce” of Creativity and Innovation
A few years ago, Kaggle, an online community of data scientists, posted a problem that was sponsored by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society. These agencies needed a new mathematical algorithm capable of parsing the distortions caused by dark matter in the photographic images of galaxies. Just ten days […]
How to Drive Innovation by Creating a Lion’s Den
If you are looking for an engaging and fun way to spark innovation among employees you will like this idea that I call “Lion’s Den.” This interesting employee event is loosely built on the concept of the television shows, “Shark’s Tank” and “Dragon’s Den,” in which, hopeful entrepreneurs are given an opportunity to pitch their […]
A New Approach to Business-Model Innovation
Of course you know business model innovation. It’s common practice among innovators. A lot of markets have been disrupted by new business models, often initiated by start-ups and new entrants: Airbnb disrupts the market for accommodation as you can rent online unique places to stay from local hosts in 190+ countries. In 2014, Airbnb had 25 million guests’ bookings. […]
Tips to Achieve an Innovative and Differentiated Startup Project
Editor’s Note: This is the era of rapid changes and disruptive innovations, and no startup, irrespective of size or industry, should be launched without a high degree of innovation and differentiation. This article is about the why, what, and the how— the systematic way to achieve this, based on the long international experience of the […]
How to Beat Your Competition by Innovating in Ways They Can’t Copy
The national retailer Urban Outfitters has increased its revenues by 500% in the last 10 years, expanding to nearly $3 billion today from less than $500 million a decade ago. Not only does the company grow faster than its peers, it is also more profitable, averaging 21% profit margins for the past five years, versus […]
Flevy Author Spotlight: Our Interview with Breakthrough Strategy Expert Dr. Stephen Sweid
Dr. Stephen Sweid is a senior business and management consultant, researcher, and trainer with over 20 years consulting and research experience across a wide spectrum of industries. He brings a unique, global perspective, having worked with many organizations from all over the world, including Europe, the U.S., Middle East, and Far East. He has also published a series of training guides […]
The Biggest Obstacle to Innovation in One Word
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. This wonderful quote of Leon C. Megginson is still so relevant in this fast changing world. Trying to do things differently or to do different things within an organization is hard. Being […]
