Ahead of the Curve

You might not know nothing about basketball but you don't have to understand that great players just like great business steal ideas from the best of the best and adopt them to themselves.

And as the video above shows you become better by stealing from the best.

Who are you stealing ideas from?

Successful innovators have ways of seeing the world that throw new opportunities into sharp relief. They have developed, usually by accident, a set of perceptual "lenses" that allow them to pierce the fog of "what is" in order to see the promise of "what could be." How? By paying close attention to four things that usually go unnoticed:"

1. Unchallenged orthodoxies -- the widely held industry beliefs that blind incumbents to new opportunities.

2. Under-leveraged competencies -- the "invisible" assets and competencies, locked up in moribund businesses, that can be repurposed as new growth platforms.

3. Under-appreciated trends -- the nascent discontinunities that can be harnessed to reinvigorate old business models and create new ones."

4. Unarticulated needs -- the frustrations and inconveniences that customers take for granted, and industry stalwarts have thus far failed to address."

4 Lenses of innovation.

So how does an on the spot cooking restaurant work like:

POSH serves a seasonal coursed menu, starting with 4 courses, up to as many as desired. How it works…we offer a list of main ingredients, requesting you to CROSS OFF which items you DISLIKE, then our creative chefs surprise you with the remaining selections. We have a spot at the bottom of the list to add additional dislikes or particular medical conditions (allergies).

And then: Voila!

Design thinking is all the rage and in the Fall 2009, a unique 6-week innovation camp took place in Berlin. This is the Trailer for the 60-minutes documentary, which can be watched at http://palomar5.org/the-movie/

via @carmenbustos

Interview with Mark Johnson of Innosight talking about his new book on business model innovation Seizing the White Space.

Great tip here on how to nurture your intuitive originality:

Try doing something new every week.

Ask yourself at the end of the day: Did I try doing something new differently than I've done before?

Great interview.

By Umair Haque via @TimKastelle

Jointly created book by the participants at Educon 2.2.

"Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become."

Chris Anderson at the Disruptive Conference talking about his concept of FREE as a disruptive price. Watch!