Business Innovation Speaker and Consultant Stephen Shapiro

The Innovator’s Dilemma and the US Economy

Stephen Shapiro — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:00:09 +0000

Clayton Christensen, in his book The Innovator’s Dilemma, discusses how disruptive technologies will kill incumbent technologies. Basically it is about how the crappy and cheap will eventually take over the sophisticated and expensive. The well-worn example is in the computing world. The PC (which until recently cost thousands of dollars) killed the dominance of the mini-computer [...]

Shadow Personality Poker

Stephen Shapiro — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:31:04 +0000

If you own the Innovation Personality Poker system, here’s an interesting game to play. It’s called “Shadow Poker.” It was suggested by my colleague Jason Bates over at Executive Rockstar. Shadow Poker is the same as regular Personality Poker, except with one small difference: the goal is to choose personality traits that describe the people you [...]

The Origin of Spam

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:47:19 +0000

You may wonder how spam got its name. No, I am not referring to the annoying emails we get. I am referring to the canned pork product that pre-dated the internet. In a classic Straight Dope article from 10 years ago, Cecil writes that the name is short for “spiced ham.” Supposedly there was a “name-the-product party, [...]

Relearning What You Know

Stephen Shapiro — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:08:46 +0000

The blog here has been quiet for a while. I was overseas for the past 2.5 weeks having a fantastic time. A handful of days in Lisbon (my favorite photo from my travels is pictured left). A week in England. And a few days in Oslo. It was my first time to [...]

Listen to My Innovation Interview

Stephen Shapiro — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:52:28 +0000

Earlier this week, I was on “Riches in Niches” radio with Susan Friedmann. We discussed innovation and business success in today’s economy. The 30 minute interview (split into two parts) covers practical ways to survive this volatile marketplace. You can download the both parts at Innovation Interview Part 1 and Innovation Interview Part 2. Or, you can visit [...]

Déjà vu All Over Again

Stephen Shapiro — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:06:58 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from a magazine I have. The title is: A Gloomy Feeling Wall Street was baffled. The market’s 18-month slide had brutally bent the Dow-Jones graph, ending with one of the worst one-day drops. The dollar loss on paper was actually three times greater than that of the ’29 crash. The market’s prolonged drop has reflected [...]

Innovation 101

Stephen Shapiro — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:38:05 +0000

Although much has been written about innovation, there is little agreement on what it is or why it is necessary. Is innovation the same as creativity? Is it synonymous with product development? Or is innovation just radical change? I like to describe innovation through an old, yet relevant, joke. The joke begins with two men who [...]

Predicting the Next Meltdown

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:16:19 +0000

I just got back from over two weeks on the road. I was in and out of five airports. As you go through security, the routine is always the same… - Take off your shoes - Take out your liquids - Take out your computer Why are we put through these security gymnastics? On December 22. 2001, Richard Reid was [...]

Remembering Paul Newman

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:47:38 +0000

Although I did not know Paul Newman personally, I always admired him. He was an Academy Award winning actor (I remember being enthralled by “The Sting” as a kid), a championship race car driver, a successful food business man (I love Newman’s Own dressings and salsas) and a philanthropist. He achieved so much and impacted so many lives. Did he [...]

How Do You Manage Your Innovation Pipeline

Stephen Shapiro — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:13:38 +0000

When I work with large organizations, they have sophisticated tools and processes for managing their innovation pipeline. Well, at least some do. But how do YOU manage YOUR innovation pipeline? OK, for simplicity sake, you can just call it your ”to-do” list. I have so many different projects and ideas that I am working on at any given [...]