Blog Entries

Back to the Future?

niek@indutech.co.za — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:00:00 +0100

When complaining to my father-in-law about the fuel consumption of my new car, he responded: "Son it was like that all the ages"

It is indeed possible to learn from the past. McKinsey Quarterly, number 1 of 2009, p82 presents "Innovation Lessons from the 1930's". An interesting comparison of patent growth rate indicated that companies hesitated significantly to innovate after the start of the depression. It was due to a "wait an [...]

Different Experts and Life Cycles

niek@indutech.co.za — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:00:00 +0100

Speaking to a group of Innovation Stakeholders at the Afrivate Launch last Thursday, It struck me how easy it is to simplify complex challenges like innovating in the downturn, just because it then becomes easier to understand and communicate to others. This is especially true when we educate students in an academic environment.

However, real life is invariably more complex. Paul Esselaar provided an overview of where in the small enterprise the legal professional can cont [...]

Innovation Strategy

niek@indutech.co.za — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:00:00 +0100

Innovating in a downturn requires doing more with less. Yet it still requires that normal operations in the company are continued with even a tighter cost control in place.

How does a CEO position the resource balance between incremental innovation activities with that of radical innovation projects?How does the CEO exploit all opportunities of open innovation whilst the competitive edge of the latest inventions in the company is not open for public consumption?How does the CEO [...]