Serendipity and Learning

Smaller companies innovate better? Happened to read this piece on Koenigsegg somehow while reading something and searched for more of their innovations and  here is what I found There is more on their website:  Automobile innovations . And heres their ex-design head talking about annoying design trends in automobile design.

 I chanced upon this fascinating write up on Google Maps via Twitter (@angsuman). I wont write more about the post, because you have to read the post, but in that, this caught my eye.  That is a post attributed to this post by Steve Yegg - Why I left Google to join Grab .  The main reason I left Google is that they can no longer innovate. They’ve pretty much lost that ability. I believe there are several contributing factors, of which I’ll list four here.  First, they’re conservative: They are so focused on protecting what they’ve got, that they fear risk-taking and real innovation. Gatekeeping and risk aversion at Google are the norm rather than the exception. As someone who loves and follows stories of innovation, this is both surprising and not surprising. Surprising because it is google. Not surprising, because companies, businesses, individuals - once they reach a point of success often begin to repeat the actions that led to success which ultimately leads to t...

I was reading "How Innovation Works" by Matt Ridley . And in that he asks a question - what came first - the moon landing or baggage with wheels? You will be surprised to know that it was the former. The reasons for baggage not having wheels are many - from the travel pattern to the design of travel areas to the demography of travel - but whatever it is, many a times, there is a particular time that an innovation takes root - and some ideas are simply ahead of their time. This was a fascinating story and there were others from olden to modern times. One of the myths about innovation is the flash of insight that changes everything. While that flash does happen and you might get that insight or that brilliant idea - from there to actually making, selling and creating an impact are a far longer road. And the history of innovation has repeatedly proven that innovation is a long and often difficult process. Innovations and innovators build from each other (and rightly so), jump di...

Crowdsourcing a list of books on Creativity and Innovation. These are the books, I have read - which other books come to your mind? Creativity Inc - Ed catmull Creative Confidence - Tom and David Kelley Where good ideas come from - Steven Johnson The Innovators Dilemma/Solution - Clayton Christensen Big Magic  - Elizabeth Gilbert Road to reinvention - Joseph Linkner Rework - Jason Fried Accidental Creativity - Todd Henry The Element - Ken Robinson The Creative Priority - Jerry Hirshberg The war of art - Steven Pressfield

We were discussing the other day - what makes some people go after a moonshot? Why is it that while many people have ideas, far fewer have great game changing ideas, and even fewer step out to venture on that path and still fewer make it a success. We spoke about maybe it is depth as opposed to breadth - but then when fairly young people are going after problems that much greyer people have not envisioned - that does not quite hold water. Is it because what we are wired to see or what we have taught ourselves to wire and see? Is it because we are afraid of failing? Is it because we are all comfortable in our safe cocoons and we are leaping from the bed inside it instead of trying a greater leap outside? There must be something in it. Is it the perspective they bring to the table because of having seen some other industry. Is it peer group? It is risk taking ability? Is it a fearlessness of failure? Is it the willingness to put effort? Is it persistence? Is it an ability to never...

Tesla, the electric car company is planning to make its patents open source . This is a counter intuitive move. On the one hand there are big firms that spend tons of money maintaining a troop of lawyers who fight patent infringement and scientists who are, really patent trolls, but spend time creating layers of patents so that nobody can use anything. Sure, both sides are justified in their own way and they may have legitimate reasons for doing so, but from a learning standpoint, the latter course of thought appeals to me.  A few years ago while heading a learning team, I had told the team to give away their content. This simple proposal was met with a howl of protest. How could we give it up, they argued. We have spent hours doing this work, they said, indignantly. If we give away our content, what will become of us, they asked, ever more insecure. And I was able to convince the team that they need to do exactly that. Give up their content. They finally...

Coursera is one of those new sites that offer education on the internet - in my view, the best use of the internet is learning and sharing. For an auto-didact , the internet is perhaps the best thing to have happened. Coursera offers the kind of offers, your local university cannot dream of offering. Okay, I take that back. Surely, they can dream of offering - but the way Indian universities are structured and constrained, it is highly unlikely that something like this can come through. Until a few months ago, it was never concern that they will disrupt our well entrenched system. But here it comes. Coursera now offers signature courses - that means, for a fee, you can get a certificate from the university that offers the course. How cool is that? This is a real disruptor to the university - especially those that do not innovate and bring out something new. But the best part is that universities need not fret - they can join the others and offer a course from their area of expert...

Recently, I read this piece on how Linkedin is eating up the recruitment market. In a nutshell, what that means is that candidates can be found by anyone on Linkedin – so why use third party services? And some time back, Linkedin had opened up to third party recruiters- and later on launched its own recruitment tool. So, eventually, nobody needs to use third party recruiters, because Linkedin has it all. How Linkedin is eating the recruitment industry .(Read it all, worth your time) Now let us think about training. There is an entire industry out there that service various companies, individuals and many other kinds needs in the training space. There are a slew of universities that offer tailored MBA programs, Executive education apart from various bodies offering certifications of various kinds. Now, the internet is busy disrupting this market. And it is only a stone’s throw away. The best courses from all over  the world are available on the internet. Course...