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I get a "Tip of the Day" email from Harvard Business Publishing.  Here's today's tip: Despite millions invested in innovation, 40%-90% of new products fail. That's because consumers are more comfortable staying with familiar...

Here is an unfortunate truth about consumer research.  No matter how useful the results are, it is very difficult to translate what the research results mean for your next product or service offering.  You may learn something that clearly defines a direction...

If you think the key to innovation is infusing your organization with creativity, and that creativity manifests itself through successful ideation sessions, please think again. Additional creativity is a good thing.  Ideation sessions certainly have their place,...

Great article in Forbes that illustrates the fact that social networking sites are finally catching up with the idea that intimate knowledge of your consumer will serve your business well.  Smaller niche-enthusiast sites are gaining members at a surprising...

Listen to how people talk at your company.  If your company is like most, there will be many people talking about how consumer oriented they are, or how customer focused, or how they strive to provide a great consumer experience.  Then listen to what gets...

I recently attended a reunion event for a company I worked for a long time ago.  It's one of those big companies that has several decentralized divisions, and people would often move between them, resulting in  some very intertwined networks. ...

Mobile advertising, the availability of mobile web apps, and mobile phone services that allow you to know the location of others.  There is a lot of buzz going on about who is going to crack the "let me do everything on my mobile phone" code.  Who will come...

Seth Godin made an interesting reference to the usage of the words friend and google this weekend.  He talks about how they have become valid verbs.  "I'll friend you", on Facebook , for example.  He makes a good point, but what I...

You've got to hand it to Christian Lander, the guy who started the popular blog Stuff White People Like.  In less than three months, he went from anonymous copywriter to running one of the most heavily-trafficked blogs on the web, with a new book deal to top...

Don't count on it.  I help companies to become more innovative.  One thing I have noticed is that the industry a company is in, or the market it serves, has very little influence over how innovative the company really is.  Most people perceive that...