Leadership & Business: Are You An Idea Killer?

Interesting Innovations

Street Heat:
Ever burn your foot walking on hot asphalt in the summer? That’s because black absorbs heat—while white reflects it. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, modern cities are covered in the black stuff. Dutch construction firm Ooms is now heading its headquarters by running water pipes under the street. Some of them collect heat in the summer and run deep into the ground where they heat water via a heat exchanger. That heated water is stored for winter—a sort of battery, if you will. In fact to take it a step further, the water is returned to the ground after heating the building, by passing under the street again. The residual heat in the water, now only a few degrees above freezing, melts any snow or ice on the road surface. The water is then stored—used cold to cool the building—before being run under the asphalt again to prepare for winter. Brilliant!

Are You An Idea Killer?

My new Inc. column, entitled Beware of the Idea Killers is out and focuses on how new ideas are what will help your business remain competitive. However, be sure you aren't killing them before you consider bringing them to fruition.

As Innovation remains a hot topic in 2008 and as executive teams continue struggling to build effective, sustainable, and measurable innovation programs. The battleground becomes how to structure innovation departments, drive company-wide innovation initiatives, and sustain efforts over the long haul.

To help executives with these challenges my company, Breakthrough Management Group (BMG) is hosting a 2-day Executive Seminar February 25-26 in Denver, CO, entitled Chief Innovation Officer: Lead Your Company’s Growth and Innovation Efforts.

This is the third CIO course for BMG. We hosted two similar events in 2007, each time heralding attendees from industries as diverse as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and financial services into one room to discuss and learn about what they all have in common – the need to better drive growth and innovation in order to compete in the future. Past attendees include, Levi Strauss, AVNET, Circuit City, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation and GE Energy to name a few.

If you are interested in Innovation and what it really takes to lead your company to the forefront, I highly recommend this course. More information can be found here.

January 24, 2008 in Ambidextrous Organizations, Business, Chief Innovation Officer, CIO, Current Affairs, David Silverstein, Executive Education, Healthcare, Inc.com, Innovation, Innovation Tools, Insourcing, INsourcing Innovation, Leadership, Lean Thinking, Management, Six Sigma, strategy | Permalink

Technorati Tags: BMG, Breakthrough Management Group, Chief Innovation Officer, Executive Education, Innovation, Lean, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma

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Comments

Wow, that was a brilliant article, indeed the leaders are the most important people in business, and great ideas can boost your market reach.

I would like to mention another site that I recently found and seems to be a resting place of resources on corporate governance. You would love to visit them here. Six hundred plus resources, plus top corporate movies and conferences are their landmark.

Corporate Governance

Posted by: Mitchell | January 30, 2008 at 02:34 PM