It’s a collection of a number of my thoughts on innovation, everything from how dangerous innovation is to your typical firm, tips on how to build an ever flowing innovation pipeline, as well as interesting directions you could go in building new products and services.
From the Introduction:
I’ve been interested in the future since I was young – I remember staying up late with a flashlight under the covers reading science fiction and imagining cool futures that were depicted in those books. As I got older, I realized that I wanted to be involved in creating that future – actually envisioning and developing those products and services ahead of our time.
I got exposed to Silicon Valley in a roundabout way – my local indie bookstore started carrying Wired magazine, which I used to read cover-to-cover in those days. I was spellbound by the seeming amazingness of Silicon Valley, which looked to me like the home of all things new and innovative. As the future isn’t evenly distributed, there’s definitely more of it there than anywhere else. Over time, I got a number of opportunities to visit the Bay Area, and every time I was here – standing in the middle of Fry’s Electronics, looking at the chips and motherboards, surrounded by Linux sysadmins with long beards, thinking “I am among my people”.
As a techie, I thought to myself – you know, Silicon Valley is like Hollywood for techies – you know how actors go to Hollywood to get discovered? I figured that as a techie, you need to go to Silicon Valley – or the SF Bay area, in general, to be discovered.
So when I could, I moved to the Bay Area in order to be closer to the next new thing (and hopefully “get discovered” 😉 ), and spent time at some of the most innovative (and not so innovative) companies in the Bay Area, as well as started up a few of my own. I’ve developed and ran innovation programs for Yahoo!, Walmart, Citibank, as well as built and launched startups which featured innovative new products and services. Some of these programs led to a real product, others to patent filings (I personally am named on over 50 issued patents) but they came from an explosion of innovation and invention my team and I delivered for these and other companies over the last 15 years.
What’s collected here are my thoughts on innovation as well as ideas on how to generate new ideas and where to find new markets to enter.
My hope is that you find these insights interesting, they not only spur your own thinking but also help your firm to innovate.
It’s my fervent belief that no matter what problems we face, innovation can solve them. From world hunger to finding the ideal mate, every problem has a solution, and innovation is the way to get there.
