When Amazon is prepared to invest $700 million to retrain its workers for more demanding jobs in technology, you know that something big is afoot. I would argue that this is a looming inflection point… Read more »
Thought Sparks
Digitization and Disruption in the Construction Business
$12.7 trillion! That’s the projected size of the global construction industry in 2022, according to one recent analysis. In the US alone, construction employs some 10 million workers. And while it’s a relatively slow-growth… Read more »
Building a Proficiency for Game Changing Innovation and Growth: Mastering the Opportunity Portfolio
When you ask why large companies have a problem building an innovation proficiency, you get back all the usual suspects: “We have silos.” “It’s nobody’s job.” “We’re afraid of failure.” “It’s unpredictable.” And what do all… Read more »
The Changing Business of People
HR has always wanted a seat at the table. That day may finally be here. Be careful what you wish for! HR Challenges in a Tour of Duty Context HR used to be pretty straightforward. … Read more »
Big Food and the Revolution in the Ingredients Business
The rules of the game used to be pretty simple for large food companies: Make massive quantities of tasty and inexpensive (if not particularly nutritious) food products, create memorable brands around them, and use their… Read more »
Finding your arena – a new book and new toolkit
I was delighted to read Steve Blank’s great post featuring the work of my friend and colleague Marc Gruber. Marc and I have been colleagues since my days in the entrepreneurship program at Wharton and… Read more »
How to Stop Making Assumptions—and Start Seeing Around Corners
Last month, I was thrilled to attend Parliament’s PowerShift, a gathering of diverse opinion leaders, change-makers, creatives, and corporates seeking to find interesting solutions to some of today’s biggest challenges. At the event, I had… Read more »
Let’s Go Back to Boring Banking
After the Great Depression and through the 1980s, the financial sector was regulated to serve the rest of the economy. Today, it serves mostly itself. It’s time that changed. When even Larry Fink is talking… Read more »
Taking a Human-Led Approach to Navigating Technological Change
With technology’s modern pace of change, how can companies (and humans) best adapt? In March, I had the pleasure of leading a workshop with Tracey Zimmerman, President of Robots & Pencils, to answer this very… Read more »
How Inflection Points in the Hotel Business Change Where You Lay Your Head
In 1977, James Eyster, then a Ph.D. student at Cornell, published a book that would completely change the nature of the hotel business worldwide. His idea could not sound more boring—unless you saw the impact… Read more »
Final Thoughts From BRITE 2019
After beginning the day with talks on competition, social robots, and attention, and then learning about the power of simplicity, the banking industry’s existential crisis, and why machine learning is not vibranium, we wrapped up… Read more »
Machine Learning Is Not Vibranium (and Other Takeaways from BRITE 2019)
After a stimulating start to the conference, BRITE 2019 continued with a series of fascinating presentations that demonstrated the power of simplicity, reimagined the future of banking, and debunked some major myths around artificial intelligence… Read more »