May 2009

“Fake Innovation”: Lessons from Fake Work

Fake Work: Why People Are Working Harder Than Ever but Accomplishing Less, and How to Fix the Problem by Brent D. Peterson and Gaylan D. Nielson (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009) strikes a chord in most anybody who has been in Corporate America – or most anybody who works, for that matter. Dr. Brent Peterson from the Marriott School of Engineering (Brigham Young University) and Gaylan Nielson, CEO of The Work Itself Group, apply decades of experience in facing the dysfunctions of modern business and diagnosing the problems of wasted effort. They estimate that over half of all work is meaningless, or “fake work”–work that is not related to the objectives of the business and does not help a business to survive. Fake. Meaningless. Wasted. These are terrible adjectives to apply to the exhausting efforts we go through, but they are accurate much of the time.

Branding Only Works on Cattle: Observations on the Evolution of Private Brands

One of the more enjoyable business books I’ve read recently is Jonathan Salem Baskin’s Branding Only Works on Cattle: The New Way to Get Known (and drive your competitors crazy) ( New York: Business Plus, Hachette Book Group, 2008). Drawing on his decades of experience in marketing, Baskin takes an iconoclastic approach in exposing the …

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Breaking the Will to Share: The Silent Innovation Killer

One of the nine major “Innovation Fatigue Factors” that we emphasize in the book is what we call “Breaking the Will to Share.” This describes the tenuous bonds of loyalty and trust that motivate innovators in an organization to bring forth their best ideas and breathe life into their work for the good of the …

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Building Ecosystems

The importance of relationships is one of enduring lessons in understanding how to overcome innovation fatigue and achieve innovation success. Relationships with the right people and partners are critical. Many fail to recognize that these must be nurtured and maintained, that time and effort is required. Learn this lesson from job seeking: it’s not enough …

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Reputation Institute’s Global Reputation Pulse 2009: A Reminder of the Importance of Intangibles

The Reputation Institute has released its annual report, Global Reputation Pulse 2009, on the reputation of over 150 major corporations. The companies were in terms of seven aspects of reputation management: Products/Services, Innovation, Governance, Workplace, Citizenship, Leadership and Performance. The Reputation Pulse score is a measure of corporate reputation calculated by averaging perceptions of four …

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About the Cover Design

The cover for Conquering Innovation Fatigue is intended to show that there are ways to get past the maze of barriers that can hinder innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses in their quest to develop successful innovation. We looked at many different options for graphics on the cover, but I was hooked on the maze and plank …

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Gartner Gives “Cool Vendor” Award to ValueNetworks.com

Last week I called a friend and inspiration, Verna Allee, the founder of ValueNetworks.com and the driving force behind many successful applications of Value Network Analysis. I was pleased to learn that ValueNetworks.com was receiving a significant honor from the IT analyst firm Gartner. The award names Verna’s organization as a “Cool Vendor” in the …

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Innovation Fatigue Factors in the Organization

In Conquering Innovation Fatigue, we identify nine innovation fatigue factors at three levels: personal (including deficiencies in innovators themselves as well as personal actions of others), organizational, and external. We use nine fatigue factor icons, designed by artist Mark Benyo of Appleton, Wisconsin, to graphically capture some aspect of each of these fatigue factors. Here …

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