Jeffrey Phillips

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Sneaky innovation

Jeffrey Phillips

I'd like to write today about what I call sneaky innovation. I define sneaky innovation as the innovation work that is often started and completed in disparate locations in the business, is not strategic and is often completed without a lot of fanfare. Sneaky innovation is about doing small but impactful innovation, without asking for permission or waiting to see who will approve.

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Five reasons why few companies are data driven

Jeffrey Phillips

For years now, we've heard of the importance of becoming a "data driven" organization. Being data-driven, we are told, means making decisions not based on gut instinct or what managers believe is true, but based on evidence, on hard data. This, it would seem, should be simple. After all, businesses have had robust IT systems and teams for years. The advent of ERP in the 1990s and beyond created sweeping systems that automated many sectors of the business.

Data 186
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Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

Jeffrey Phillips

I'm constantly struck by how much faith businesses put in numbers, especially numbers about the past. All businesses want to be "data driven" and the volume of reporting that occurs at the end of a week, month, quarter or year is astounding. Of course, we want to know if we made our numbers, or how key metrics compare to metrics from other months or quarters.

Analysis 130
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Identifying and overcoming the innovation resistance

Jeffrey Phillips

All good stories need a protagonist and an antagonist, the "good' character and the not so good character to develop tension. Eventually, in any story, the tension is resolved - the protagonist wins (in the happy ending stories) or the antagonist changes sided, or the antagonist wins (unhappy resolution). Every story with any meaning or tension has these two opposing forces.

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You can expect an explosion of innovation in the next 18-24 months from June 2023

Jeffrey Phillips

I am going to go out on a limb. Not a big limb, but any time you make a written prediction that people can come back and check, you put yourself at risk. My prediction has to do with innovation. Predicting innovation will seem unusual and risky for many people, because innovation seems so random and difficult to anticipate, like a lightning strike. But if you understand the conditions that make a lightning strike possible, suddenly the strikes don't seem so surprising.

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My innovation journey (so far)

Jeffrey Phillips

I think a re-introduction is in order. I've been leading innovation work for close to 20 years, writing about it on this blog and in my book (Relentless Innovation). I've made some great friends along the way and been influenced by a range of great innovation thought leaders. Over the last year, I needed to take a step back, to focus on some other things, and to get a new perspective.

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Relying on outdated tools or conditions

Jeffrey Phillips

In uncertain times, where do you turn for insight and answers? Most often, it seems, we turn to what we know and trust. Older tools and models that have proven themselves over time. In the uncertainty we face today (this post was written in May 2023), many business leaders are facing uncertainty about what strategies to implement, what plans to make.

Tools 144