IdeaPort : strategic innovation, foresight, and futures thinking.

From the Dec/Jan 09 issue of Fast Company magazine comes a great article about Cisco. Several paragraphs of note including: Get ready for the upturn. “What’s our vision for where this industry is going with or without us?” That, [CEO John Cambers] says, is a five-year horizon. “What is our differentiated strategy within that vision?” That’s a two- to four-year plan. “How are we going to execute in the next 12 to 18 months?” Chambers is convinced that the role of the CEO has to morph. He recalls a lesson he learned working for An Wang of Wang Laboratories, whom he has often called one of the smartest people he’s ever known: “One person cannot anticipate a market transition. At Wang, we transitioned four times, but we missed the fifth, from mini computers to PC and software. If you don’t catch them [all], you leave your company behind.”

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MathScience Innovation Center Receives $200,000 from Altria Group to Support 21st Century Nanotechnology Fellows Program

The MathScience Innovation Center announced a two-year pledge of $200,000 from Altria Group to support the 21st Century Nanotechnology Fellows Program. Dr. Julia Cothron, Executive Director, announced the grant at a recent meeting of the MathScience Innovation Center's Board of Directors. The Nanotechnology Fellows Program is a capacity-building workforce program for K-12 educators. Through the program and a pair of associated conferences, the Center will expand math and science teachers' opportunities to learn about the emerging field of nanotechnology and effective ways to integrate it within the curriculum. Brian K. Wells, Manager of Production for Philip Morris USA, an Altria company, serves on the board of directors for the MathScience Innovation Center Foundation. Mr. Wells noted, "As leading employers based in central Virginia, Altria is committed to helping spark students' interest in the study of math and science, which are the basis of so many career disciplines. We commend the MathScience Innovation Center for focusing on teacher training in order to raise the level of local math and science instruction and contribute to Central Virginia's competitiveness in the global marketplace."

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Opinion: Innovation and the 20% solution

As IT budgets threaten to follow the same trend lines as financial markets, it's a natural impulse for managers to circle the wagons, concentrate on core projects and put off innovation for another day. Natural, but wrong. For proof, look at what happened after the Internet bubble burst earlier this decade. Sure, that tech bust pales in comparison with the current worldwide credit crunch in terms of overall effect, but if you consider the Internet sector alone, the money drought and corporate failures were pretty stunning.

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Built-to-Last is Built on “Create and Serve”

Good stories fascinate us all. They always have. They always will. At this moment in our nation’s history, we are seeing two epic stories evolving—in terms of our new President, and in the state of our economy. The story of Obama many believe is epic, and certainly the story of our nation’s recession and economic downfall is also a burgeoning epic tale. Stories move societies forward. They inspire, engage and initiate change through their telling and re-telling. Basically, there are two types of stories: Truth Stories and True Stories. Stories, Storytelling, Story-Selling in Business

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Live the Juggle Life

Work We are all obsessed by it. That 4-letter word. We spend our lives doing it, thinking about it, talking about it. So, if you’re not doing it right or you don’t like it, then you have a problem. Too many people get stuck in a rut in their careers and work lives. They get embedded in a “this is how things should be done” culture, where they are slaves to the corporation, where they leave scrambled up world of work, everything’s changing in ways we could never have anticipated. Wall BlackBerries; we want to be in control of our destiny. Street banks crash overnight, airlines go out of business in a flash, and long established institutions suddenly fade from the business landscape. Technology revolutionizes how we do business, and trading barriers have crumbled as we face competition not just from the next zip code, but from the other side of the planet. Long established global corporations face threats from young start-ups. The only certainty (of course) is that everything’s changing. Increasingly, we are ideas-rich, yet time-poor. Our lives are full of growing to-do lists, of jobs to do, ideas to develop, but not enough hours in the day. We don’t want to be slaves to our bosses or our their personality at the office door, and the Work You is a million miles away from the Real You.

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