| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Innovation is an Epic Battle Between Passion and Patience

“I quit school and recruited the professor,” Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify.

Just over twenty years old, sitting in his apartment with his friend (in their underpants because it is 30 degrees thanks to the servers everywhere), his dream had just begun. Now he is friends with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he rides shotgun in vintage cars with Neil Young and exchanges texts with Bono. My simple conclusion is that all great ideas start small.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
Run to the hills….or better, to IFS World Conference 2012

I am in full preparation for my biggest physical challenge for at least the last decade and after IFS announced that Bruce Dickinson, lead singer in Iron Maiden, is keynote speaker at IFS World Conference 2012 October 15 – 17, I have a new source of inspiration; “Run to the hills…”

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Pick One, Strong or Different – Either One Will be a Winning Strategy

It’s often said that access to information is a competitive advantage. We are living in an information society and selling knowledge and services is seen as a future-proven business model. But who will win the battle for the customers’ pockets?

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
Every Time I Do It, I Get a New Idea

Browsing magazines and books that are far away from your own business, and perhaps your comfort zone, is extremely productive if you are looking for new ideas, need to find solutions to a problem or want a new angle on things. Let yourself be influenced by ideas and emotions from businesses outside your own.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
Business KPI for Dreams and Emotions

How can you, as a company, share with investors the most important ingredients for new innovations, namely dreams and emotions? How can you, as a company, explain tools (e.g. company culture) and processes you have in place to mass-produce ideas that will later become profitable innovations? Is it possible to measure, communicate or even benchmark the ability of companies to create and share dreams in a financial document such as a quarterly report?

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| | Estimated reading time: 4 minutes | Business Technology
Be Agile When You Go Agile

There are two aspects of business travel, especially on the long haul flights, I still enjoy. One is the hours without any inflow of e-mails or other communication. The second is the chance encounter with an interesting person. On my way to IFS development center in Colombo, Sri Lanka the other week I ended up next to bald middle aged lady wearing a turban. This will make for an interesting few hours I thought, and sure it did.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
The Tiny but Brutal Difference Between a Ta-Da and Oh-Oh

For some strange reason, kids (again) solve this creativity process so much better than both CEOs and business students.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
Idea Generation is a High-volume Business that Takes Time

The more ideas you produce, the higher is the probability that one of them is a bright one. But are you spending enough time and do you have the right processes in place to boost ideas within your company? So what does this YouTube clip tell you about your creative processes?

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| | Estimated reading time: 5 minutes | Business Technology
Apps for the Enterprise – The Super Obvious and the Generic-Specific

Yesterday I commented on the fact that the first thing I have realized in recent months discussions with customers and colleagues about what apps we should build for our enterprise applications suite, is what apps we should NOT build.

In all fairness I guess I should also explain what I have realized that customers DO want and what I think we should build.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Employees are Good – Customers are Great!

Great innovations doesn’t necessarily translate into large investments. More importantly is a clever design that exactly solves a certain problem. That’s why the creativity process needs knowledge and inspiration from your customers and stakeholders. The problem however is to get the information from the customer of exactly how they work and what their challenges are. You normally don’t get such information in a conference room with a Danish pastry and a cup of coffee. You have to look elsewhere.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Will your business survive without innovation?

Creative performances results in more innovation – and innovation increases a company’s competitiveness long term. Ask yourself – will I or my company be more creative in the future than we are today, and if so, how will it happen? Researchers have identified four dimensions as the distinguishing signs of creativity, to understand the intrinsic qualities of creative performances.

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