Category: innovation

“Over the long term, the future is decided by optimists. To be an optimist you don’t have to ignore all the many problems we create; you just have to imagine improving our capacity to solve problems.”

Via the great Kevin Kelly https://kk.org/thetechnium/68-bits-of-unsolicited-advice/

“Major disruptions usher in new paradigms, in part to handle problems we never had before (e.g. an entire nation trying to work from home), in part because they break up the status quo such that inertial resistance to the new, the stuff that governs the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, is materially weakened. Ironically, that means coming back from a crisis is actually the best time to introduce wholesale changes. If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, if you simply restart the old engine, not only will you miss the window, you will marginalize your company’s future. The new paradigm will spread, faster than you expected, and by the time you realize you have to catch up, it likely will be too late.”

via the great Geofferey Moore https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mobile-first-cloud-now-zoom-geoffrey-moore/

“Amazon involves the group, but only once the ideas are out there. Research tells us that while individuals are better at developing ideas, groups are much more efficient than individuals at recognizing the best ideas and figuring out how to implement them.”

Via Ben Bashaw https://slab.com/blog/jeff-bezos-writing-management-strategy/

“The genius here is breathtaking. Walmart can’t follow, as they don’t own their distribution for last-mile commerce. Outside of Walmart, few firms have the balance sheet to pull this off. Maybe FedEx, UPS, or Prologis? But it’s unlikely they could make this sort of investment, this fast — it would be perceived as reckless.”

Via Scott Galloway https://www.profgalloway.com/the-fourth-great-unlock

“In just three years, leveraging a disruptive technology (CD-ROM), cost infrastructure (licensed content versus in-house editorial teams), distribution model (retail in computer stores versus a field sales force) and pricing model ($99 versus $1000), the encyclopedia market was cut in half. More than half a billion dollars disappeared from the market. Microsoft turned something that Britannica considered an asset (a door-to-door salesforce) into a liability. While Microsoft made $100M it shrunk the market by over $600M. For every dollar of revenue Microsoft made, it took away six dollars of revenue from their competitors. Every dollar of Microsoft’s gain caused an asymmetrical amount of pain in the marketplace. They made money by shrinking the market.”

Via Margins https://themargins.substack.com/p/links-on-the-margins-april-30th

“Wondering if a lot of the benefit of proximity is intangible – it’s about the stuff you overhear and your peripheral vision. So, it doesn’t show up in what ‘I did today’, and you seem to be productive, but it does show up in ‘what I learnt this month, or this year’”

Via Benedict Evans https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1262814660018999298

[Tony Hawk and skateboarding] is an example of something vital to progress in virtually every field: Innovation works like compound interest. Today’s group uses yesterday’s hard work and discovery as a starting point to build off of, rather than a finish line. It took an eternity for one person to master the 900 because there was no one else to watch or mimic. Tony Hawk was alone, like a tinkerer. Today’s skateboarders have a set of directions. They can watch videos of Hawk and say, “Look how he did it. Look how he bent his knees and tipped his shoulder.” Not to mention the motivation of, “If he can do it, I can too.” It’s a roadmap of how to do something, versus the black hole of doubt Hawk faced when trying something no one had before.

Via Collaborative Fund https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/todays-innovations-are-tomorrows-baseline/