This image was created with the help of Microsoft designer As every popular topic, innovation is a powerful magnet for clichés — and, let’s face it, some of them suck. For example, I’m not sure that mixing innovation and DNA is a good idea. Though I understand — kind of — what Clayton Christensen and his co-authors had in mind when writing about “ innovator’s DNA” (“…each individual…ha[s] a unique innovator’s DNA for generating breakthrough business ideas”), I cringe when I read that “successful innovation programs have a DNA consisting of seven elements.” Dude, these days even toddlers ..read more

This image was created with the help of Microsoft Designer Let me tell you a little secret: I’m taking medications for my high blood pressure — and thanks to my doctor and the quality of the drugs he prescribed, my blood pressure is solidly under control. I’m fully aware that my medications are not a curative therapy, a treatment that can completely eliminate a disease and prevent its recurrence. Nor are they a vaccine that has a lasting effect but may require periodic boosters. I need to take my medications regularly, and if I stop, my blood pressure is likely to return to the previous, unhe ..read more

This image was created with the help of Microsoft Designer Comparing a book to The Bible says a lot about this book. It points to the high impact it has on a particular field of knowledge and expertise. It also reflects an absolute trust the readers of the book have in its content — and its authors. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a book published by the American Psychiatric Association, is considered “the bible” of psychiatry. It sets the golden standards for diagnostics of psychiatric disorders and provides sought-after treatment guidelines. Given its ability ..read more

     This image was created with the help of Microsoft Design It seems so natural to place a patient at the center of healthcare. Sure, how else? And yet, surprising as it may be, the very term “patient-centric healthcare” only emerged at the end of 1980s. Two major factors drove the trend. The first was a deep dissatisfaction with the paternalistic, doctor- and provider-centric approach that dominated healthcare at the time. The second was the looming anger at the pharmaceutical companies that kept designing protocols for clinical trials of new drugs without taking into account patients’ nee ..read more

     This image was created with the help of Microsoft Design Thick dark clouds keep gathering over the concept of remote work. A 2021 article published in the journal of Nature Human Behavior took a look at what happened at Microsoft when the company had shifted, firm-wide, to remote work during the first six months of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The shift to remote work caused business groups within Microsoft to become less interconnected, rendering the internal collaborative networks more static and siloed. Working from home, Microsoft employees did continue to collabor ..read more

The image was created with the help of Microsoft Designer I like to argue that one of the most powerful drivers of innovation — and the one that draws surprisingly little attention — is freedom. Freedom emerges as a common denominator for the factors that boost innovation. The reverse is also true: restrictions on liberties have a chilling effect on the corporate innovation process. Three Levels of Freedom The positive effect that freedom exerts on innovation manifests at three major levels: individual, organizational, and national. The first, individual, level manife ..read more

The image was created with the help of Microsoft Designer This piece has been originally posted to Medium. What do you need to win a war? A few things. First, an army equipped with modern weapons and instilled with high spirit. Second, a vibrant economy capable of sustaining the hardship of continued military operations. Third, strong public support for the country’s political and military leadership. Anything else I forgot to mention? One more thing: you need an enemy. And not just an enemy, a bogeyman whom you’ve created to justify the war, but the enemy, the real cause ..read more

This image was created by Tatiana Ivanov There are two major reasons for the slow adoption of crowdsourcing as a practical problem-solving tool. The first is a widespread, often completely paralyzing uncertainty over which problem crowdsourcing can (or can’t) solve. The second is the lack of trust in the intellectual power of the crowd, its ability to tackle complex technical or business problems. Everyone would seem to agree that the proverbial wisdom of crowds can be applied to a “simple” task, such as creating a corporate logo or coming up with a fancy name for yet another Frappuccino du j ..read more

This image was created with the help of Stable Diffusion Online This piece has been originally posted on Medium. What is the effect of government regulations on innovation? The most comprehensive answer to this question is: It depends. It can be positive. In a recent article, I present evidence that corporate innovation can be fostered by social liberalization policies and by laws that limit firms’ ability to discharge employees at will. We also have a shining example of a government regulation that had a profound negative effect on innovation: Prohibition of 1920–193 ..read more

The image was created with the help of Microsoft Designer This piece has been originally posted on Medium. In a previous article, I argued that the widespread belief that we are swimming in an ocean of cheap innovative ideas — embodied in a popular line “ideas are a dime a dozen” — is no more than a myth. Available evidence shows that the U.S. is facing a growing shortage of novel ideas. Worse, the cost of getting these ideas is increasing while their quality seems to be declining. What’s going on? One thing is clear: the quantity and quality of novel ideas are declin ..read more