Eight Things Stand-Up Comedy Teaches Us About Innovation | Co.Design

Every comedian has a process -- and at some point, they ditch it to follow their gut. Comedy, especially stand-up, is widely regarded as the most difficult gig in show business. Similarly, successful product innovation is so difficult, it could be regarded as the stand-up comedy of the business world. E.B. White once said that analyzing comedy is like dissecting a frog: Few people are interested and the frog dies of it. However, a sacrifice must be made to help more great ideas see the light of day, and studying how good comedians work can reveal insights into how innovation can benefit from the same advice.

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A Better Choosing Experience - Strategy & Business - Sheena Iyengar and Kanika Agrawal

When consumers are overwhelmed with options, marketers should give them what they really want: ways of shopping that lower the cognitive stress argue Sheena Iyengar and Kanika Agrawal.

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The Four Strands: Creating Companies Aligned With Human DNA - Dr Henry Cloud, Change This

“There are universal developmental issues and milestones in the construction of all people, which like gravity, must be obeyed. They are like the laws of physics, non-negotiable. Break these laws and dysfunction occurs. But, obey these laws and people thrive. They will be what we call “healthy.”

So, when a company is designed and operates in ways that are aligned with how people are constructed, it will be like an airplane aligned with the laws of physics that govern force or torque. It will reach the altitude, speed and course that its horsepower allows. But if its design is not aligned, it will fly in circles, stall out, crash, or break apart.”

Click here to download and read the full manifesto

About Henry Cloud, Ph.D | Dr. Cloud is a psychologist, communicator and leadership coach. As the author of many best-selling books, his writing reflects experience not only in the clinical world, but the arenas of business, leadership consulting, and live audience interactions. For over twenty years, his practice has focused on working with leaders in a wide range of organizations and corporations, from family held firms to Fortune 25 and Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Cloud is the co-host of the nationally syndicated radio program New Life Live heard in over 150 markets with a weekly audience estimated at 2,000,000 listeners. He serves on the board of the Los Angeles Mission, a rescue mission on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Tori, and their two daughters, Olivia and Lucy.

Business Schools Bring the Arts into Classrooms - Wall Street Journal

Gleaning business lessons from "The Godfather," painting watercolors in class and using comic books as strategy textbooks—faculty are bringing the arts into business-school classrooms in an effort to push students to think creatively. As B-schools have grown open in recent years to less traditional teaching methods and areas of study, the arts have gained a greater presence in many programs. Some schools are offering courses, concentrations and even specialized arts-management M.B.A.s for students planning careers in creative industries, a sector where strong business skills are needed more than ever as budgets grow tight. On other campuses, professors are using techniques from the visual arts, theater and music to help those on more conventional paths to approach business problems from a new perspective.

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The new business school strategy: customer becomes king - well that's the intention

Here is an article from the Financial Times that provides some insight to the thinking of business schools and business management education. There are two biaises in this article you need to consider whilst you are reading it. The first is that those working in business schools are not in business. They are in the education industry and a very specific part of the education industry. In the main their concern is not the concerns of business. Business is concerned with risk, entrepreneurship and free markets. Business schools operate in a regulated environment, a regulated market where risk has been removed by the very construct of the industry. Further business is revolves around entrepreneurial behaviour. Business schools and their personnel completely lack those skills. Business school personnel work at business schools because they don't like, desire or most importantly feel the need to develop entrepreneurial skills.

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