@jandeman

Rant on innovation

I wrote this on January 2, 2009. After coming back from two days at a conference on innovation in the public sector I was just about to write a rant about the goings on in this field. But something in me said I had already written it... And so I had. Here is a small excerpt:

If you really want your organization to be more innovative, creative and entrepreneurial - go to school and study the best. Steal from them and implement. But foremost understand that this is a process of changing culture that takes time, a long time. And be humble to the fact that you might not succeed. Organizations have been known to resist change...

Here is the full post. I'd love to know what you think.

/jan

PS. In general I find it more and more intersting to explore the charades we employ in our organizations. I'l be writing about this in a coming post. DS.

World's shortest business book?

We all agree that business books have a tradition of being way too long. This night I googled the term and came up with - nothing. Could this be real? Has there been no claim of this title? This cannot stand!

So, please join me in an exploration to find/create the shortest business book in the world. I'll pitch in my contribution here below. Slightly idealistic, but hey that's me... Please ammend/change it as you fit by writing comments. Or submit your own version. Or point to the ones already written. 

Hopefully we can collectively claim the title in the near future. Or just have fun trying ;)

But remember. Keep it short! :)

 

Title: How to build a sustainable business

Chapter 1. Over time revenues should be higher than costs. Preferably much higher.

Chapter 2. Only sell what customers actually want to buy. 

Chapter 3. Be kind and helpful. To customers. To employees. To society. And to the environment. 

 

/jan

Yvon Chouinard

 

The education of a reluctant businessman. Founder of Patagonia. Love his book. And this talk is very inspiring for a reluctant consultant like me ;)

//jan

Must see: Sir Ken Robinson's latest TED Talk

He nails it even better this time around.

//jan 

Brand You again - the message has to stick!

Popularity according to Gapingvoid

via www.gapingvoidgallery.com

I'd say it is more than enough to "just" go your own way and do what you love and not follow the flock. You don't even have to be successful, just divert from the norm. At least in Sweden.

//jan

The coming decade: will we learn to live sustainably?

Right. It has been more than two weeks since I posted my thoughts on the coming decade. You can read the extended Swedish version here. And the English summary here. Today I thought I'd further explore the first of five proposed action areas - Stopping the destruction of our planet.

This does sound awfully pretentious, and I'm pretty sure I'll expose myself to criticism either way I decide to write about it. So here goes.

I'm certainly no environmental expert, or climate expert for that matter. But I can look with my own eyes and I can use my common sense. The ways we humans are pushing the usage of planetary resources is unsustainable, and we must sooner, rather than later, get on to a track of sustainable life on Earth. 

This simple conclusion seems to be very difficult for us to grasp.

It seems we don't have dealing with such a challenge wired into our systems. Sure, there are lots of smart people out there that have written smart stuff that would make sense to adopt in order for us to be more sustainable. But we don't. Or we do, but extremely slowly. There is no way we are adopting new technologies and lifestyles fast enough to offset the destruction. Add to that the amazing level of population growth we still have. 

The pressure on planetary resources is continuing to build, instead of easing off. Some smart folks are speculating if we'll be passing a tipping point soon. Or if we already have. Some other smart folks are saying there might not be a tipping point - we can carry on as usual.

Me, I say let us use the precautionary principle. Let us not put us in a position where we find out if there is a tipping point or not. Let us ease off and share what we have. Let us also make sure that we use planetary resources in a way that they can replenish. Let us stop using the stuff we know is poisonous. I could go on, but I know you know the drill.

Point is, I'm pretty sure we know how to live sustainably - at a personal level and at a societal level. The biggie is to chose to do so. The biggie is to chose another mental model to live by. And since my professional arena is helping businesses and organizations develop I'd also like to point what perhaps is bleeding obvious - this cuts right to the core of any organization's raison d'etre! All organizations have to make the transition to sustainability. Period.

This I believe we have to put in place the coming decade. No more. No less.

I once again quote Daniel Quinn who I think has captured our challenge very poignantly:  

"Something extraordinary will happen in the next two to three decades; the people of our culture will learn to live sustainably – or not. Either way, it will be extraordinary."   

With hope for the right kind of extraordinary decade.

//jan

Climate related business opportunities?

FÖRETAGENS KLIMATANSVAR Klimathotet erbjuder aldrig tidigare skådade affärs-möjligheter. Svenska företag bör gå i bräschen för att skapa en klimatneutral näringslivssektor, skriver Jan Joel Andersson och Harry McNeil vid Utrikespolitiska institutet.

via www.svd.se

My good friend Harry McNeil has written a good article (in Swedish) on the substantial business opportunities that exist for Swedish companies with regard to the increasing importance of environmental and climate issues.

I couldn't agree more with the point he and his co-author makes. But, I would be VERY surprised if established Swedish businesses step up to these opportunities. They are too busy fighting in the red ocean with their existing products and services and trying to steal customers from each other. (See the book Blue Ocean Strategy.)

Only a few of the traditional companies will move into blue oceans with new products/services to existing (and new) customers. Instead new entrepreneurs seem to be the ones getting busy with the emerging new opportunities.

That is what I'm seeing from my point of observation.

//jan

Google goes energy...!

Google took a step toward entering the energy business with the creation of a subsidiary called Google Energy and a request with a federal agency to buy and sell electricity on the wholesale market.

via news.cnet.com

Interesting move. Apparently Google has a goal to be carbon neutral. Impressive and shows they understand what is required in tomorrow's market. As I understand it they must have an energy bill from hell with all their servers pumping...

//jan

A decade of pattern breaking?

A couple of days ago I wrote a post in Swedish that caught on pretty well. I won't be translating it but will be writing follow up posts in English. Hopefully this sufficiently balances the needs of my Swedish and non-Swedish readers.

So, in the coming weeks I'll be exploring five themes that I initially introduced in my post in Swedish. These are themes that I believe will be drivers of development the next 10 years in our organizations, regardless of the sector they are in. Themes that will help us break more or less obsolete organizational patterns.

• Stopping the destruction of our planet
• Humanizing organizations and workplaces
• Solving big social problems in innovative ways
• Smallness as an alternative to economies of scale
• Building creativity so we can break loose of the status quo

I by no means want to imply that these cover all aspects of organizational development. These are closest to my heart, are issues I care deeply about and I'm convinced will have substantial impact on our organizations.

//jan