Innovation

3 ways to inspire creativity

August 5, 2015
John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design until 2013 and now a partner with Kleiner Perkins, offers tips on keeping your edge.

That ‘one thing’ leaders do

August 3, 2015

It’s tempting to frame lots of things as the silver bullet. But with enough thought and study, you can identify a concept called “controlling insight” as that one thing.

New report takes a snapshot of the innovation race

April 29, 2015
Top companies are stripping away the barriers to harness the best ideas from customers, partners, R&D teams, external technologies and literally every member of staff. A new report explains where it’s all headed.

Buck tradition to unearth fresh ideas

April 2, 2015
After 30 years in the advertising business, Rick Segal understands how to maximize employees’ creativity: Give up-and-coming stars a chance to shine.

Workplace utopia fosters SAS innovation

February 18, 2015
During the 2008-09 recession, Jim Goodnight of SAS didn’t just promise job security to his workforce. He also challenged them to use the slowdown to innovate. Housed on 300 acres in Cary, N.C., the tech giant’s campus offers its 14,000 em­ployees a chance to concentrate on ­creativity with a minimum of distractions.

Flying high starts with high risk

January 5, 2015
As Richard Branson found, frustrating experiences can provide the basis for innovation. Once you identify a problem, muster the courage to implement a bold solution.

CEO’s big risk paid off for Marlin Steel

December 10, 2014
Drew Greenblatt knew that Marlin Steel could not survive Chinese competitors, who were luring away his customers—big bagel chains that bought the company’s wire baskets. The Baltimore firm was struggling to stay afloat in 2003 when a fateful call from a Boeing engineer led to some market research that changed everything.

Steve Jobs’ leadership secrets

December 10, 2014

The essence of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, according to his biographer, is that his personality was integral to his way of doing business. For one thing, he acted as though the normal rules didn’t apply to him, and he poured his passion, intensity and emotion into Apple products. Here are a few of his top lessons.

Getting the team to that ‘aha moment’

December 8, 2014
A creative brainstorm can strike at any time, perhaps while you’re in the shower or taking a walk. Effective leaders prod their team to innovate by recognizing and capitalizing on such creative connections.

The ‘father of containerization’ mastered the art of the long wait

October 15, 2014

Malcom McLean didn’t like to waste time, but in 1937, he had to spend most of a day waiting for his truckload of cotton to be loaded onto a ship in Hoboken, N.J. It gave him a bold idea. He saw what needed to be done to streamline shipping—but it would take him 20 years to make it happen.