13 Thoughtful Innovation Articles from May 2023

Augmented Creativity: 10 Industries Experiencing AI-powered Creative Transformation – The Future Normal

• A look at 10 industries where AI-powered creativity could have a profound impact, featuring 25+ examples of generative AI innovations. “While the ability to create images at will is undoubtedly a remarkable superpower, the potential impact of generative AI to augment our collective creativity will be so much more profound than ‘just’ a flood of AI-generated, unique images.”

Change Management Requires a Change Mindset – April Rinne

• “By expanding your focus from change management to a change mindset, then using a simple tool to reframe how you address the future, you’ll be better positioned for whatever is ahead. And thanks to their size and agility, midsize companies are especially well placed to harness these dynamics.”

Cross-Silo Leadership – HBR

• “The most promising innovation and business opportunities require collaboration among functions, offices, and organizations. To realize them, companies must break down silos and get people working together across boundaries.”

Where Do Great Ideas Come From? – The Generalist

• Seven research studies reveal the what it takes to create innovation, including tolerating failure, incentive systems, outsiders, and collaboration.

More Articles

Taco Bell’s Innovation Kitchen – New Yorker

• Innovation at Taco Bell is about science and iteration. “Failure is a big part of the job. “There’s more items that don’t make it than ones that do,” Mottershaw said. Hypotheses are tested; experiments rarely pan out. The Crispy Melt Taco, introduced in 2021, “started out blue, because we made it with blue corn,” she said. “We called it Midnight Melt and Forbidden Taco, to try to give it a reason for having a blue shell. But people were confused—like, Is it made for nighttime? Is this old? What’s forbidden? What happened to it?” Pisciotti said, “The masses don’t know that blue corn is a thing—they don’t shop at Trader Joe’s.”

The Complete Beginners Guide To Autonomous Agents – Matt Schlicht’s AI Newsletter

• Some questions addressed in the article include, what are autonomous agents? Why are they such a big opportunity? How do they work? What does this look like in the future? How can I build or use one? How can I meet other people interested in autonomous agents?

What Jazz Can Teach Leaders about Innovation and Teamwork – HBR

• “What can jazz great Miles Davis teach us about leading for innovation? “I love Miles Davis’s quote. He says, if you’re not making a mistake, it’s a mistake,” says jazz pianist and management professor Frank Barrett. “So if everything you play is clean and fresh and slick, that means you’ve given up experimentation.”

The Ultimate List of Product Metrics – Pawel Huryn

• Here’s a comprehensive summary with simple definitions of the myriad ways to measure your business from Acquisition, Activation, Engagement, Retention, Revenue, and Referral.

Finally…

The Great Electrician Shortage – New Yorker

• Going green will depend on blue-collar workers. Can we train enough of them before time runs out?

Why AI Won’t Be the Investment Opportunity Everyone Thinks It Is – Charlie O’Donnell

• “Don’t get me wrong, there will definitely be great outcomes for companies that integrate AI into their offerings, and we might be watching today’s sitcoms 30 years from now marveling at how all this took place before AI changed everything, but I’m not quite sure the dollars are going to be there from the venture return side.”

No Human Coders in 5 Years – Peter Diamandis

• Will AI eliminate the need for human programmers in the next five years, or will it turn all of us into coders? By democratizing humanity’s ability to code and by amplifying the abilities of our best coders by 100x using AI, we are super-charging our future. In one sense, we are accelerating the rate of technological advancement. It also means that the tools we have available for problem solving are more powerful than ever before.

11 Types of Cross-Industry Innovation – SatPost

• Quick summary of Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy and the Saving of Time. It is full of historical examples and provides actual practical analysis on innovation.

One More

How to Make Your Startup Standout – NMotion

• NMotion created this post to help applicants understand how they selected their most recent NMotion Growth Accelerator cohort. Founders can use the same criteria to help grow their companies with or without investors.

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