Blog
Road Closed By Bad Planning
In 1973, the US was caught in the grip of a crisis – the oil embargo. Gas prices jumped +300% overnight. Economic and political turmoil was the norm. During this time, many firms, including the oil companies, were on the verge of failing. Yet during this time, one company – Royal Dutch/Shell – thriv
Walking The Plank
Imagine a long narrow wooden plank that is ten feet long and three feet wide. Place it on the ground. Can you walk on it? Of course. You can jump up and down, dance, and even walk along with your eyes shut. Now prop the plank up so that it is three feet off the […]
Slides from Innovation Tour presentation
Below are the slides I used during a recent dinner speech I gave for the Innovation Tour hosted by Brainreactions. For long time listeners of the podcast, you will recall that I did an interview with the founder of Brainreactions (Anand Chhatpar) in one of the first podcasts. At that time, Anand
Graffiti
Whenever I travel to London, I got to lower level of Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus (back corner where the magazine racks are) and pickup a copy of Graphotism magazine.. Why is this magazine so special? It’s a magazine the brings the fringe art of graffiti to the mainstream. Could you ever im
Ants
During the process of moving into our temporary housing in California, we discovered to our shock that we were sharing the town house. There is construction going on in the area and the workers seems to have upset a fairly large ant colony and the ant colony has decided to move into a nice three be
Moving – Moving – Moving
It’s moving time — finally!! I’m in Virginia for a few days to finish up some last minute things around the house so that my wife can finally move to California. It’s a 72 hour sprint to get everything done so that I can board a plane on Sunday and my wife and father-in-law can […]
Black Toilet Paper
Day 3 of a whistle stop tour across Europe speaking on innovation and design. Have you ever had the strange feeling of waking up in a strange hotel and not knowing for sure what country, city or time zone you are in? The morning we awoke in Paris was one of those mornings. Except […]
Riding The Rails
A few days ago I was on the Eurostar train between London and Paris – glancing out the window enjoying the scenario. The reason we were taking the train was because of the extra security (and corresponding hassles) with flying in and out of London these days. I haven’t taken the train to Paris in
What’s Different?
When the phone rings at my desk, I always have that slight hesitation about whether I should answer it or if I should let Bea (my executive assistant) take it. I tend to like answering my own calls. I’ve never been very good at playing “executive” by having my staff run interference. The typical t
Innovation Adoption
I recently purchased a car as part of my relocation to California. For the last few months, my son Logan has been with me and I needed a way for him to get around. Before I jump into the brand and make, you need to understand a few family histories. First: my father (Bill) and […]
