Right-or-Wrong is the enemy of innovation

I have long been fascinated by Iman Wilkens’ groundbreaking book Where Troy once stood, which argues that the city of Troy was located in England, and that the Trojan War was waged by Celts from the continent who, at the end of the Bronze Age, had run short of tin (an essential component in the manufacturing of bronze) and intended to get their hands on tin from Cornwall in Britain. In support of his theory, Wilkens has been able to match a number of topographical features (river names, mountains, coast lines, etc.) with the description that Homer makes of the landscapes of Iliad and Odyssee. Furthermore he has been able to – at long last – make sense of Odysseus sea voyages. By contrast, the dominant theory, which places Troy in Asia Minor, does not offer a single shred of evidence to support itself,

Why Hollywood will succeed where BP has failed

As efforts to contain the Gulf spill appear to be on the brink of collapse, Costner’s Ocean Therapy device is going to be tested in real life conditions – monstrously larger than life conditions, actually. As a scientist or simply a logical human being can I affirm that the device will work? No, I can’t.

But I will.  

Why?

Collaboration of two modest Titans – Innovative advertising

Advertising has long been a rich field for innovation and creativity. Its purpose being to capture the attention of prospects who are over-targetted by all sort of messages, a déjà-vu approach to advertising is unlikely to cut any ice.  Here is an example I’ve stumbled upon yesterday in the Paris Metro (underground).

Green + In-Vehicle Services = the winning formula of automotive in the 2010’s

Consultancy company Accenture publishes the result on an online an Automotive Consumer Survey that it carried out earlier this month in Germany, France, Italy, the US and Canada. The purpose of the survey was to test consumers’ response to the “green” cars trend.

A staggering 42% claimed they were likely to buy a hybrid or electric vehicles in the next 2 years, cleary indicating that green cars are moving beyond

Breakthrough innovators have a no trade-off mentality

In her paper Turning Design Thinking into Design Doing, Heather Fraser highlights that breakthrough innovators have a “no trade-off” mindset. Not accepting any trade-off is a form of connecting the dots: there is A and there is B, people say we can’t have both but somehow the innovator finds a way to connect them. When all marketing text books are about making trade-offs, this is a refreshing statement.

Bill Ford, recently interviewed by McKinsey Quarterly, provides a great illustration: