Expert Commentators

Each year for the past ten years, Time Magazine has devoted an entire edition to profiling what it believes to be the 100 most influential people in the world. The basic premise is that each person nominated has a short statement penned by an admirer (in most cases the nominator is as equally influential as the nominee) in which they outline the unique or special qualities or characteristics which make that person so influential. For example, Bono gushes about Apple’s Senior Vice President of De...

The recent ousting of Ron Johnson as CEO of JC Penney provides a perfect example of the price organisations sometimes pay in their relentless pursuit of innovation. Johnson’s appointment as CEO only 17 months earlier was greeted with glee by many industry insiders who thought he could replicate the success he achieved at Apple and undertake a radical overhaul of a flagging company. But only 17 months later, with share prices plummeting, and lost sales calculated somewhere in the region of $4bill...

The past week saw Samsung hit the headlines following its decision to take a leaf out of Apple’s book and open a number of in-store retail concessions in Best Buy outlets across the United States. Whilst not standalone like the Apple stores, the concessions are nevertheless a statement of intent from Samsung as they relentlessly seek to dominate the smart phone technology market. The news of Samsung’s decision to operate retail concessions coincided with a front page feature in Bloomberg Bus...

March 2013 saw the publication in the UK of two different, yet equally resonant reports, which both, at their heart, addressed two very different aspects of innovation: on the one hand, the necessities of laying strong foundations to support and commercialise innovation to build a healthy economy, and on the other hand, the signs that organisations must be alert to in trying to stave off disruptive innovators that threaten their business model. The first report, entitled ‘Bridging the valley...

On BBC Radio Four this week, amongst the various current affairs stories fighting for our attention, there was a small feature on Handelsbanken, a Swedish bank that is gaining a reputation as a ‘challenger’ bank in the UK. With over 130 branches in the UK, Handelsbanken is unlike any of the larger established high street banks in that it eschews traditional advertising in favour of word of mouth recommendations, staff do not earn bonuses for selling customers additional products, and should they...

When Adharanand Finn, a journalist and keen marathon runner, was invited to Kenya by a family member, he used it as an opportunity to delve into the world of the Kenyan athletes who had for so long won the world’s biggest long-distance races. Finn wanted to discover what it was about a small region of Kenya which was responsible for churning out champion athletes like a factory production line. What Finn uncovered in his research, unsurprisingly, is that there was no single answer to his que...

Marissa Mayer’s widely reported decision to abolish Yahoo’s work at home arrangements for 200 of its employees provoked intense debates, and sparked a flurry of activity across internet forums across the world.  The reason for this shift in policy, Mayer argued, was to create a new culture of innovation and collaboration at Yahoo, in order to resuscitate a tired and flagging company that had come to represent the very worst in bureaucracy and poor leadership. Whether Mayer’s decision to abol...

In today’s digital age information is all around us, and the influence on our lives from the internet through laptop and desktop computing, tablets and smartphones is ever present. On the internet, there is an estimated one trillion unique URLs, over twelve billion web pages, hundreds of thousands of newsgroups and forums covering virtually every topic imaginable. As we move from the information age to the knowledge era, the wealth of information on the web available to businesses is of...

  At National Grid, we’re right at the centre of the energy system – reinforcing, modernising and extending our electricity and gas networks; ensuring they’re fit for the future.   Being at the centre of our industry means we’re also at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing society –  the need to create sustainable energy systems to underpin economic prosperity in the 21st century.    Over the next 40 years the energy landscape will change beyond recognition, and...

There is a considerable amount of academic theory and empirical evidence to underpin our knowledge and understanding of the adoption and diffusion of an innovation. Any would be inventor should be mindful of the challenges and risks that lay ahead and the variable timeframes before costs are recouped and profits generated. The first thing we know with absolute certainty is that ALL inventions and innovations follow the same rhythm or pattern. We call this process the Adoption of Innovation a...

When looking for startup venture capital funding, you are likely to be asked to pitch your business idea to a VC investment panel. In this post we shall look at the 10 questions you are likely to be asked at your first meeting. The purpose of meeting with any potential VC is for them to drill into the executive summary or business plan you have sent them. You will be expected to give straight answers to those questions. Here are ten of the most common but important questions you should expec...

  Einstein was a low-level clerk when he dreamed up relativity.  Mendel was a monk when he discovered genetics. The structure of DNA was cracked not by the acclaimed minds of the day, but by two young, underachieving post-grads working in relative obscurity.    Breakthrough innovations tend to pop up in funny places. Some like penicillin and teflon were accidents. Others, like the Internet, world wide web and the graphical user interface, originated in big labs, but flourished elsewh...

My name is Darren Gowling and I’m delighted to be invited by Innovation-Nations to share some of my thoughts and experiences with you. I thought I would use my first posts as an opportunity to reflect on what I think are the key elements to be aware of when considering raising Equity investment. As an investor I am often asked what is the process for raising investment, what key information should I provide to them, what questions is an investor likely to ask, so I thought I would share with yo...

Thanks to the advent of media vehicles such as twitter, linkedIn, blogging sites etc, it has become easier (and so unsurprisingly more common) for companies and individuals to ‘publish’ information into the public domain. Now this can be a terrific thing but information flow is a double edged sword which creates it’s own set of problems.   One of the biggest problems is the confusion created in the mind of readers or viewers between fact and fiction. There is nothing new in the presentation of...

Greetings! My name is Loren Evers and I have been graciously invited by Innovation-Nations to be a guest commentator / blogger.  It is exciting to get in on the ground floor of this enterprise and I am happy to be here.  I look forward to posting, and joining the community in discussions.  Here is a little bit about myself.  I am currently working as a Principal Manufacturing Engineer at Medtronic and have recently taken on a new role supporting a production area that makes pharmaceu...

  Fred Wilson, feisty and intelligent VC principal at Union Square Ventures sums up what most people think about the idea of Yahoo! suing Facebook.   “I don’t think there’s a unique idea out there in the web space and hasn’t been for well over a decade. Pretty much everything useful is based on prior art going back before the commercial web existed.”   “I am writing this in outrage at Yahoo! I used to care about that company for some reason. No more. They are dead to me. Dead...

  As your company scales there will be without doubt discussions regarding merging with another company or even acquiring a business who can add additional fire power to you organisation, or maybe prevent it from sinking. Mergers and acquisitions can often be fruitful, however unless managed correctly with both sides totally understanding and agreeing the deal structure if can be unfortunately painful.   Mergers and Acquisitions typically take place to allow companies to;   ...

20 years ago, industry was introduced to commercially viable rapid prototyping (RP) technologies. Here we had something that revolutionised the way industry made things. It shortened time to market from back of a fag packet to "on the shelf" by upwards of 80%. It was a truly disruptive technology, forcing manufacturing industry to completely re-assess the way it did things. As time has gone on, and RP has matured, its role has changed. It is now integrated with numerous upstream and downstream...

Bringing mobile and business together. The BLN MiM Forum on March 22nd shows how YOU can make it in mobile today. It’s where corporates with budgets meet businesses that can solve their problems and active investors get stuck in too. This is not about future-gazing, sales pitches or corporate nonsense. We share actionable ideas for your business today. We want you to leave with at least one idea you will implement in your company within a month. BLN MiM2012 is different from a lot of...

Hi and welcome to Innovation-Nations Expert Commentator sectionAre you looking for opportunities for exposure or collaboration? Do you have 5+ years of specific industry experience?If yes, then registering as an expert commentator is a great way to be involved in commentary on your areas of expertise? It is also a great opportunity for you to share and promote your ideas, gain new readers, establish new contacts, and get feedback and insights from the community.Still not sure why you should tak...