Showing 21 - 30 of 30
10 for 10: Entrepreneurial Lessons from a Decade-Long Survivor
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 06/08/2015
» Hooray! This week, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Thinkergy Ltd. Most start-ups never make it through the roughs and troughs of their first decade, and we feel very grateful to have survived!
Running the creative transformation marathon (Part 2)
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 25/06/2015
» My last column compared an organisation that wants to become innovative with a couch potato who wants to run a marathon. Both need something that makes them want to change. Both need to check their fitness and readiness for change. Both must resolve to change and then prove their willingness by committing resources (time and money) to it.
What's your style that lets you succeed?
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 28/05/2015
» It was 8.27am last Sunday when my phone rang. I was reviewing my presentation for a keynote talk that I was supposed to deliver two-and-a-half hours later at an international conference. "Where are you?" the caller asked. "The conference organisers are looking for you. You're supposed to start delivering your keynote in a few minutes."
The typology of ideas, or how ideas are made
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 05/03/2015
» An idea is an idea, isn't it? Well, ideas have more nuances than meet the eye at first glance. When business people aim at producing new ideas for a challenge they face in their business, say developing a new product, they often talk about ideas in an undifferentiated fashion. In reality, ideas come in many different facades and vary in their degree of maturity and elaboration, meaning and feasibility among other factors.
Stop copying and start creating
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 05/02/2015
» 'The 'surplus society' has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality," Kjell Nordstroem and Jonas Ridderstrale said in their book Funky Business. Can a company expect extraordinary results if what they do is what other companies ordinarily do?
Let it go: How to unclutter your life
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 22/01/2015
» 'The beginning of a circle is also its end", the ancient-Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus said. The new year ends one cycle but begins another. Is this not the perfect time to let go of the old in favour of the new? Doing so can reconnect you to your creative self.
Taking the long view of one's life
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 06/11/2014
» What will you do today? Will it move you towards your goals? More importantly, do you have a clear vision of your future? Do you have a plan, not only for the next five or 10 years but for the decades to come? After all, if we all survive the next few decades, medical advances promise to prolong our lives substantially.
Less hot air will lead to more innovation
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 25/10/2014
» At my company, we have a mantra to help us live up to our values: "No bullshit". Don't be offended. BS kills innovation, so it's important to understand what it is, how it works against innovation, and how you can deal with a culture that breeds and tolerates it.
Do you think you're ready to be an entrepreneur? (Part 1)
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 11/09/2014
» 'Who wants to be an entrepreneur?" I asked my graduate students in a course on decision-making. To my surprise, three-quarters of them raised their hands. It seems the American futurist John Naisbitt was right when he said: "We are shifting from a managerial society to an entrepreneurial society." Being customer-focused in all that I do, I added a section on entrepreneurial decision-making to the course. After all, becoming an entrepreneur and then making a go of it requires making big decisions wisely and avoiding the common traps that Noam Wasserman outlined in his book The Founder's Dilemmas. In this column and the next, I'd like to share 10 pieces of advice for entrepreneurs to help you discover if you're ready for entrepreneurship.
Fear of losing may be why you're not winning
Business, Detlef Reis, Published on 14/08/2014
» As part of the decision-making course I teach to graduate students in business, I introduce them to prospect theory and the related cognitive biases. One of these biases, loss aversion, helps explain why many individuals and organisations are unable to realise their full innovation potential.