Posts Tagged ‘No Risk No Innovation’

Risk: The Unavoidable Rite of Passage in Value Creation – Innovation

There are a lot of moving gears involved with value creation. Talent, originality, intelligence, and circumstance all play a part in the sustainable process of innovation. However, these qualities can appear abstract and elusive. Is it possible to gauge a prospective employee’s resume or curriculum vitae for any of these respective characteristics? Are there metrics…

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Ownership: To Risk or Not to Risk

It’s easy to view leadership with rose-colored glasses, to envision the accolades and respect that comes with authority. However, from the beginning of modern business, the pressures associated with positions of power have been underscored over and over again, giving birth to idioms and adages like “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” The…

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Innovation and Disruptive Necessity

Is the world getting smaller, or are we seeing further?   Today we stand on the shoulders of giants in a rapidly changing world. In order to gain the competitive edge needed to stay relevant, it is imperative that businesses seek to disrupt their own business model before the competition does. Innovate or die the…

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Risk is an Imperative for Sustainable Innovation

  Over five thousand failures for just one success:  When Thomas Edison discovered the light bulb it took him 5999 tries to get it right.  Edison is quoted as saying, “Every wrong attempt discarded is a step forward.” Of the ten imperatives to Roberts Rules of Innovation, “No Risk… No Innovation” is arguably one of…

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No Risk = No Innovation, and the “Get out of Jail” card

  The global business strategists, Boston Consulting Group report that risk aversion is the number one barrier to innovation.  Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s Corporation was a bit more succinct in his thoughts on taking risks: “If you’re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business.”   Risk is fundamental…

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Happy Labor Day: Ownership is Risk Taking

  Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. For some, Labor Day signifies the end to sunny summer days. For others, it constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength,…

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Walking on the Edge with Innovation

Innovation thrives on a diet of news ideas. It needs new views, fresh thinking; a different perspective from across the organization, from the center to the edge. According to John Hagel and John Seely Brown for the Aspen Institute Roundtable Discussion in 2012, the place where innovation is most likely to flourish is not at…

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Innovation Requires Risk Taking

“If you’ve never failed… you’ve never lived” is a popular video on YouTube describing the failures of people like Thomas Edison, once called “too stupid to learn” by his teacher and Walt Disney, who was fired from a newspaper for “lacking imagination”. Not every idea succeeds, and indeed, some of America’s most triumphant inventors, artists…

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Innovate to Thrive: Time to Open the Throttle

As leaders search for the next process that will transform their organizations into category leaders, for many – it seems – the answer is close at hand: Innovation. Over the past several weeks and 10 posts on the Vistage Blog , we’ve reviewed key imperatives that formed “Robert’s Rules of Innovation” and that together create…

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