Five Traits of Innovative Companies

Five Traits of Innovative Companies (audio, 13 min)
Rajesh Chandy, Professor of Marketing at the London School of Economics, discusses his research on what makes a company innovative. Here are the traits shared by most innovative companies:

René Magritte

"The Son of Man"

(one of my favorite innovative painters)

1. Management is more future focused. This is the most important factor in driving innovation. Chandy and colleagues measured this by simply asking managers questions such as what percent of the time they tend to focus on the future vs. current customers and competitors. In other research, Chandy and colleagues used a different metric: proportion of future-oriented words such as "will", "shall", "may", etc in annual reports, board meeting notes, and related materials. These metrics agree with each other. Being focused on the future may sound simple, but it is not easy. CEOs on average spend only 5% of the time focused on the future needs of the company, with the rest of the time spent on putting out current fires, ribbon cutting, etc.

A.J. Jacobs: The Year of Living Biblically

A.J. Jacobs' year of living biblically | Video on TED.com (video, 18 min).

This is my most favorite podcast of all times. It packs into a short space a few great ideas that influenced me over the past few years, and continue to do so, often on a daily basis. You may recall the highly original experimenter, writer and journalist A.J. Jacobs, who was featured in this blog before. In this talk, he tells a story of an experiment in which he tried for a year to live as closely as possible to the literal interpretation of the Biblical laws.  As a true scientist, A.J. Jacobs dove into the experiment with enthusiasm but without preconceived notions. Here are a few gems I found in this "rediscovery of the Bible". 

Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world

Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world | Video on TED.com (video, 15 min)
In this beautifully written and delivered talk, computer game development company CEO Kevin Slavin tells an engrossing story about how algorithms affect our physical reality and minds. Surprisingly, we do not understand those algorithms well. We have written things that have big effects on us, yet we cannot read what we have written. Some of the highlights of the talk:

Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where you live

Bill Davenhall: Your health depends on where you live | Video on TED.com  (video, 9 min). Bill Davenhall, an expert in geo-demographic models, suggests practical ways to improve diagnostic and preventive medicine by combining the existing data on disease rates and environmental hazards by geographic area and our own location data into the electronic health records.