Can business do well by doing good - A Guide To Sustainability: Accenture Outlook:

October 2010 Today, there probably isn’t a company anywhere in the world that does not at least acknowledge the importance of sustainability—of doing business in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Indeed, for many companies, sustainability is now as much of a strategic priority as such traditional business concerns as technology, talent and customers. The commitment to sustainability has weathered the storm of the downturn well; in some cases, it has even been strengthened by it. Meanwhile, an emerging body of research suggests that sustainable business practices correlate closely with high performance. On an operational level, however, sustainability is not yet seamlessly woven into the fabric of business. Executives still must make, almost daily, difficult trade-offs between practices that meet short-term business needs and those that will contribute to sustaining the needs of future generations.

Click to read more ...

How to turn data into a strategic asset - a creative view: Accentures

Chances are, there are data gold mines buried among your company's most basic operations that could help you outperform the competition. Take Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company. A thorough examination of seven years' worth of ticket sales data allowed the RSC to sell more to existing customers and identify new audiences. Using analytics to look at names, addresses, performances attended and prices paid for tickets, the company developed a marketing program that increased the number of regular attendees at its showcase Stratford-upon-Avon location by more than 70 percent.

Click to read more ...

The Up-Side Down Innovation Bell Curve | Business Innovation - Stephen Shapiro

The old model of innovation is dead…and a new model has emerged. For months now, I have been writing about the Innovation Bell Curve. If you read between the lines, you quickly realize that it is no longer a bell curve but rather more of a bimodal distribution. Therefore I have re-drawn my frequently used graphic and replaced it with the new innovation bell curve.

Click to read more ...

How can you tell when you need new ideas? - deBono

If you have a problem you can solve quite easily using a routine approach, why do you need creativity and new ideas? Answer: because the obvious solution might not be the best one. An obvious solution makes it very hard to look for alternatives that might be quicker, simpler or cheaper. I call this 'being blocked by openness'.

Click to read more ...

Entrepreneurship as Disease - Jeff Stibel - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? I have heard far too many answers to this question. Everything from being an inventor, a small business owner, to being just plain crazy or lucky. But none of these things have anything to do with entrepreneurialism, and frankly neither does much of what I have read in business books.

Click to read more ...