INTRODUCTION The most frequently used word  now a days is  – “Innovation”. Not just in technology companies or startups but every where starting from schools to all kinds of industries and businesses. So what is this Innovation really and why this is such big buzz word now?. As usual the disclaimer is – I am not THE expert in this area. At least for the sake of the topic, I will try to be myself (this is the case with most of my blogs) with my original thoughts and views. So don’t expect

Innovation will become the NEW Industrialization soon. This means, Innovation becomes very basic and essential for every aspect of human life – be it at individual level, for business, for political systems and every where. Even though Innovation is part of civilization development ever since, now it would be altogether very different. Why? – Mainly because of “Innovation Proliferation” . One Innovation will fuel ten other new Innovations and those ten Innovations

“Innovation” sounds like a sexy word at the beginning and in fact it would be that way when things start off. But soon, the people who are driving and delivering would be under pressure. Why? Two main reasons. At the beginning you would think your are the only one who is having this “unique” idea. Shortly, you will realize there are other bunch of guys coming up with similar idea. So the initial sexiness goes off. Second reason is at execution phase. You need to

Lean Startup name should be changed to something else sooner or later as this name seem to be more apt for “Startups”. In the reality I think LS need is more for big companies than Startups. Why? In startups sooner it will become very evident when the idea/product is not going to work esp given they have less resources, time and every thing is less or constrained. But when it comes to large companies there is a luxury not to be so Lean. So the damage is not very visible for not

” Be More Innovative”, “Stop Wasting people’s time” and “Be More Successful”, etc. These are the benefits from the Lean Startup approach. If we go back to the old “Lean” approaches used in the manufacturing days these are the similar things you would have heard. May be instead of Innovation it was more of “process improvements”. Lean Startup approach would have come with more focus on how to launch a startup successfully. But

Design Thinking and Lean Startup are the most commonly used terms in both large enterprises and startups now a days. What is the difference between these two and when to use which one?. As we have seen earlier, Design Thinking is to come up with an user centric solution based on a problem. Where as Lean Startup picks up once initial solution is finalized.  In DT, we have Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test phases. And LS, we have Build, Measure and Learn steps. LS steps will

Design thinking goes beyond technology and business areas. DT is a very powerful approach for bring the innovation in social areas. Nonprofits started adopting it now. Actually, I think DT is most suited for solving social problems because here USER is the serious user who needs real help. Most importantly, most social problems can’t be solved in the conventional way because these require lot of money, effort and other complex eco system issues. So, these needs more creative, cheaper

I always get this thought about movies – Director & team works on a movie for an year or two like a secret project then in 3 hrs audience will give the verdict. Instead, can they do some “Pilot/Test” to see if the concept will gel with audience. Basically, I was thinking if Design Thinking & Lean Start up principles can be used to in film making. Just before typing the above paragraph, I just went to google and searched if any one had attempted this so far. The

In the last post, we saw we how we can use Design Thinking for designing a Life/Career (very high level though). Today, lets look at how we can use DT for writing your first & best book. Step 1: Empathize: Think & research deeply about your reader (your user). What  he/she would like to learn from this book. Most writers write a book based on what they( writer) like, not based what the readers will like. I think this is the main real factor and it not so much about luck for success

Let’s look at how we can use Design Thinking (DT) for designing your life. If we replace the “user” with “you” then I thought you can run all the 5 steps in DT to see how you can solve any problem for “you”. After I got this thought I learnt that two professors at Stanford, Bill Burnett and David Evans, teach a course called “Designing Your Life” !!. Very interesting.  Also, they have written a book called “Designing Your Life: How to Build a

As I mentioned earlier, even though the term “Design Thinking” might look like some thing related to Design but it is actual about solution based approach for solving problems. There are 5 stages in the Design Thinking process. When you hear about these stages you may feel bit bored as this looks like one more “process/methodology”. Actually, I get dead bored with the normal processes and methodologies. But what makes Design Thinking special or interesting is –

Unless you already know what design thinking is, when you hear this first time, you will get a feeling that this may some thing related to design. But Design thinking is simply a methodology to solve complex problems.  Design thinking is the latest buzz under innovation area. Unlike many other methods, I think, Design thinking is very powerful. Why?. I think this is the first time problem solving approach is mainly based on the “human centered”rather than pure KPIs, etc. In

While innovation requires different kind of minds, as always, we end up “Industrializing” everything. Now we are in the phase of “Industrializing Innovation” as well. What does this mean? This simply means come up with different means and ways of innovating by any one. Basically, trying to democratize so that everyone would be in a position to innovate. All over the world, there are many processes/methods/tools have been developed and continue to get developed to standardize innovation

Any innovation without implementation will become simply just an idea or theoretical framework.  When you get the original idea you feel “aha” movement. Later it will become “oho” moment when we get into implementation part. I am not sure how this will be in an incubation center kind of environment but in a large corporate set up and startup it will be very challenging. But in all areas one thing common is – we need to take the idea, experiment and go into

Even though many things can be standardized, “anybody can do any thing”, etc, I personally think ideation and innovation are brain driven. Some brains naturally generate ideas. We call these kind of personalities as “creative people”, “Innovators”, etc. Some people are more focused on tasks. They are naturally gifted at execution. And some other set of people are more interested in relationships/people etc. In simple terms we have three broad types of

Until few years ago, most companies were focused on process improvements or incremental changes. The terminology mostly used were cost optimization, economies of scale, quality, time to market (at decent pace), etc. Companies had different groups and initiatives to focus on these KPIs essentially. While these improvements were taking place, companies like Apple and Google came in and they have revolutionized industries and some competitors and segments got fully eliminated. Companies who

The most frequently used word  now a days is  – “Innovation”. Not just in technology companies or startups but every where starting from schools to all kinds of industries and businesses. So what is this Innovation really and why this is such big buzz word now?. As usual the disclaimer is – I am not THE expert in this area. At least for the sake of the topic, I will try to be myself (this is the case with most of my blogs) with my original thoughts and views. So

 INTRODUCTION “Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion ” –  Ray Kurzweil Every day technology is changing much rapidly than you can visualize. You are probably under estimating the magnitude of the change. That’s exactly what Ray is saying in the above quote. Do you think our lives (beyond our

” I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past”  – Thomas Jefferson Normally, I write a small conclusion when ending the series. Unlike other topics there is no conclusion for Future. Future is always going to evolve continuously and it is an on going affair. As I said earlier, we can always look at any change from positive or negative perspectives. But actually it doesn’t matter whether you like change or not. Some where some one is going to

Are you fascinated about Future possibilities?. Keen to learn about some of the top Futurists in the world? Here are top 7 Futurists. Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and author of “The Future of the Mind:” Dr. Ray Kurzweil, inventor, pioneering computer scientist, and director of engineering at Google Dr. Anne Lise Kjaer, founder of London-based trend forecasting agency Kjaer Global Dr. James Canton, CEO of the San

If you are involved with technology or have a futuristic mind then you can fairly understand how future will be. We can understand about Artificial Intelligence, IOT, VR, AR and other areas. IOT/Connected devices seem to a big disruptive thing many people are talking about now a days. All the current expected disruptions will definitely create very very exciting things. But I think this is still just beginning. Why? I think we still have not cracked THE biggest asset – Brain/Mind.

According to a latest study, life expectancy will exceed 85 by 2030 in many countries. This is mainly possible due to medical &technology advancements. And, some scientists are even trying to push this beyond and aspiring to make immortality possible. I think this will be most boring and hang around with old skin ;). Even for this some solutions will come. People normally try to give up and become some what good as they age and come closer to the the death. But if immortality is going

Our education system is still outdated and not very productive. Education being one of the key basis for any development it definitely needs more attention.Great thanks to technology. It is going to transform all together the way next generation kids will get educated. Here are 5 major shifts I visualize. Focus on Creativity & Problem Solving: 21st century is Conceptual age (About creating, inventing and Innovating) .We no longer need to study what Mr X has done in 1920 or what happened

I have decided to shake you a bit this weekend ;). Are you jumping up or worried about your kids marriages after your read the tittle? I guess it depends up on how your current experience and your beliefs are.  Anyway, the topic is not about marriage system is good or bad. This is about how marriage systems will get re-designed in-line with every advancements that is taking place. Lets ask a fundamental question – why we need a marriage system?. Not based on any order but…a) for

If Technology is continue to disrupt all industries and reduce drastically human dependency then what will happen to jobs?. For next 20-30 years people most people may still be able to have full time or part time jobs. It won’t be easy but with some struggle people will manage. Many will have to re-skill and move to new areas or change industries, etc. The question is after 30-40 yrs what will happen? This is more applicable for next and future generations. If the population is going