Best Innovation Articles from February 2025

How Can Your Business Become More Resilient? – David Bland  (IO2018 speaker)

• “In today’s unpredictable world, business resiliency isn’t optional, it’s a necessity. Resilient businesses don’t just survive disruptions, they thrive because they’ve prepared for them. “How can my business be more resilient?” The answer lies in addressing three critical external risks that directly affect your business’s desirability, viability, and feasibility.

Internal 2007 Nokia Presentation on the First iPhone is a Really Good Example of How Incumbents Actually Get Disrupted – @corry_wang

• “The hard part about the innovator’s dilemma is not knowing what to do, but actually doing it in time.”

What’s In Your Stack: The State of Tech Tools in 2025 – Lenny’s Newsletter 

• “Today, with insights from over 6,500 of you (thank you! 🙏), I’m excited to share the results of my first-ever large-scale “What’s in your stack?” survey. The results are both surprising and telling. We’re seeing AI already transforming people’s jobs, watching the methodical disruption of incumbents by beautifully crafted alternatives, and witnessing a few seismic shifts in how teams collaborate.”

The Simplest Way to Get More Girls to Become Entrepreneurs – Inc

• “…a massive recent study suggested a simple but powerful way individuals can help close the female entrepreneurship gap (or just nudge girls in their orbit to dream of starting a business): Make sure teen girls spend time with entrepreneurs… “Girls were four percent more likely to launch their own business by the age of 35 when 16.7 percent of their female classmates had entrepreneur parents, compared with when 5.3 percent of their classmates did,” Kellogg Insight reports 95(11.4%). “Girls who had an entrepreneur parent were as much as 59.3 percent more likely to become an entrepreneur by age 35.”

Next Four Innovation Articles

“I’m Afraid We Are Automating This Work Without Really Understanding It” – HBR

• “AI is often touted as a way to handle busy work to free people up for tasks that matter. But in the race to add automation to pretty much every job, it’s rare that people question what, exactly, people are being freed from, and which tasks actually matter.”

The R1 Moment – TheSequence

• “The release of DeepSeek-R1 will mark a before and after in the evolution of AI… By achieving top-tier performance with limited resources, DeepSeek has shattered the notion that only well-funded organizations can lead in AI innovation. This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for building small models capable of advanced reasoning, even with modest budgets.”

Fewer Rules and Better Results: How Courage and Trust is Transforming Bayer – Robyn Bolton, MileZero (IO2022 Speaker)

• “Consider this question: If workers are hobbled by 1,000 rules, does it make a meaningful difference to reduce them to only 900?” The answer is No.  In fact, this is precisely why most attempts at fighting bureaucracy fail – and why true transformation requires starting completely fresh. Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, knows this and isn’t afraid to admit it.  When he took the helm in June 2023, he discovered a company paralyzed by bureaucracy. Instead of trying to optimize the system, he looked at the company’s “1,362 pages” of employee rules and knew the entire structure needed to change.”

Prototyping and Launching Products in the Age of AI – Barry O’Reilly (IO2020 Speaker)

• “The competitive edge today hinges on how quickly a product can move from concept to market validation. With markets evolving at breakneck speed, being slow to prototype and test ideas can mean missed opportunities.
  AI tools have redefined the pace of development, enabling teams to: Generate mockups and data models in hours instead of weeks and Test multiple iterations simultaneously to identify what works best. What used to take months now happens in days or even hours. The faster you test, the faster you learn—and the closer you get to delivering real value.”

Final Four Articles

Embracing AI: Are You a Doomer, Gloomer, Zoomer, or Bloomer? – Knowledge at Wharton

• “Artificial intelligence draws out four kinds of people, said tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist
  Reid Hoffman 57(6.8%). He calls them doomers, gloomers, zoomers, and bloomers. Doomers think AI is an existential threat that should be stopped. Gloomers believe it’s an inevitable march toward job loss and human displacement. Zoomers are excited and want to hit the gas pedal, full speed ahead. And bloomers are cautiously optimistic, driving forward while tapping the brakes.”

Why Your Expertise Might Be Your Biggest Blind Spot: A Counterintuitive Path to Innovation and Transformative Change – Amy Radin / Fast Company  (IO2019 speaker)

• “In an age of increasing complexity driven by AI, robotics, advanced data analytics, and societal change, the smartest person in the room is no longer the one with all the answers, but the one who can ask the questions that unlock new possibilities.”

Wrist Power: The Future of Computer Control Might Be in Our Muscles – UX Design/Federico Francioni

• “sEMG is the new companion technology redefining interaction with all types of digital devices. Like the touchscreens, mice, and keyboards that came before, an Human-to-Computer interface based on sEMG at the wrist can reshape our interaction with physical and digital systems by offering people a safe, seamless, and user-action focused method to control their digital devices.”

How to Get More Buyers (10 Expert Tactics) – Josh Spector [Podcast]

• Excellent conversation on topics such as, “The difference between understanding buyers and understanding why they bought a product,” “3 powerful questions to ask in a customer discovery call,” and “How to combine customer research with customer conversations you already have.”

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