Going on Offense

Sharing a book I enjoyed reading on a recommendation – “Going on Offense” by Behnam Tabrizi of Stanford University. It is about how companies need to transform themselves in order to be continuously innovating. The book just released about a week ago. I couldn’t put it down, partly because I can relate to my experience driving 0-1 innovation in startups and large companies, but mostly because of the book’s content and organization. The author dives into the following drivers and characteristics of continuously innovating organizations:

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The Office Season 4 Episode 12: Ideation

The opening two minute sequence of this episode is a great example of Ideation, or rather what not to do in Ideation.

Michael rushes into the office asking everyone for their ideas. He establishes the constraint of time, the wet cement is drying and he needs people to think fast about what mark he can leave on the cement. Let’s break this clip down. Continue reading “The Office Season 4 Episode 12: Ideation” →

The Problem We Solve is the Question We Ask

Just before 2017 came to an end, a Google Internet connectivity balloon crashed in Kenya and landed in a farm. As the article states, it caused a little panic. Fortunately, there was no damage to life or property. Most of us are familiar with what Google has been doing with balloons, but this prompted digging a little deeper. Continue reading “The Problem We Solve is the Question We Ask” →

What Can We Learn From The $400 Juicer That’s Supposedly Destroying Silicon Valley?

The BusinessInsider article The evidence is piling up – Silicon Valley is being destroyed seems to have riled up a lot of people. People are at a loss to understand how could the fabled VCs of Silicon Valley invest $120 million in a company that makes a juicer. People are wondering incredulously, there’s an app for that?! Since when did we need an app to drink juice?

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iPhone 5S: Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli

There is a scene in “The Godfather”, where Rocco kills Paulie Gatto in the car and Clemenza tells Rocco, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli”. Clemenza’s wife has asked him to bring some cannoli home, but he has another task to be done. He has to finish Gatto, Vito Corleone’s driver, for treason. So the murder takes place during the cannoli errand. After Rocco kills Gatto, Clemenza instructs him to leave the gun, but to take the cannoli.

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What is the significance of this line, and why am I bringing it up here in reference to the iPhone 5S? In the mob world, a murder is just part of the job, not much to be dwelled upon. Other things, like cannoli, are more important. We’ll see how this applies to the iPhone 5S. Continue reading “iPhone 5S: Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli” →

Andy Bechtolsheim on Innovation

Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and a Stanford Engineering Hero gave a talk today at Stanford on The Process of Innovation. It was streamed online. This time around, while listening to the lecture and watching the slides that were webcast, I tried something new. I started to create a mind map of his talk as it was going on and below is what I ended up with. I will go into some of the key points that were brought up as I feel they are pretty important.

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