| | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Imitation is Better than Innovation

My advice is to always have your copycat glasses on and think how you can refine and evolve existing solutions on the market. Please bear in mind that many profitable innovations that have evolved from an existing technology or user behavior.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
How Can a + Make the Difference?

In my role at IFS, formulating and communicating product visions and strategies for IFS Applications, I am constantly on the…

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Shaping an Innovation Culture Includes Rewarding Failure

We discussed whether your fear of failure is due to the fear of losing your job or damaging your career. I asked if anyone has really lost their job due to that kind of failure, but the answer was ‘no’. So maybe the fear is just a perception? …. and they nodded in agreement.

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| | Estimated reading time: 1 minute | Creativity & Innovation
What Innovation is All About—In only 4 minutes

Have a look at the movie (only 4 minutes) and then ask yourself the following two questions.

– Does my company have a space where ideas can mingle and swap?
– What makes me share my hunches with others’ hunches to get them to collide?

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| | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes | Business Technology
Trust Us – Can’t do it Without You

My biggest takeaway from the day though had nothing to do with the questions asked, nor with the statements made by our competitors. Instead it was the opening presentation by Arild Saastad from Bertel O. Steen. What really stuck with me were the comments he made about how important it is for an ERP vendor to earn the trust of the organizations using their systems.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
No thanks, I’m too busy to listen to you

Too often I feel I am too busy with day-to-day stuff, like customer presentations and back-to-back meetings. It might be a question of keeping pace with the mailbox that tends to overflow from time to time, or finalizing a product positioning document. But I have a technique for reminding myself to lift my nose from the grindstone every now and then and think a bit ahead.

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| | Estimated reading time: 3 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Tips for How to Make the Perfect Pitch

Sitting on a late flight heading west to the UK for a presentation to a board of directors, I read some official stats in the flight magazine that proved my personal motto when it comes to sales pitches. The stats showed the relation between the pitcher’s view of his own presentation and the clients’ view of the presentation. It’s founded on the premise that any pitch you make will be made up of four elements—style, format, content and chemistry.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Attention Addiction Helps in the Creativity Process

Every now and then I update my Facebook status. Afterwards I can see myself falling into the trap of measuring my personal success based on the number of comments or “Likes” my post received. Sound familiar? This incentive of getting people’s attention is a very powerful tool to use in a creative process. It can make wonders.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Employees are Good – Customers are Great!

Great innovations doesn’t necessarily translate into large investments. More importantly is a clever design that exactly solves a certain problem. That’s why the creativity process needs knowledge and inspiration from your customers and stakeholders. The problem however is to get the information from the customer of exactly how they work and what their challenges are. You normally don’t get such information in a conference room with a Danish pastry and a cup of coffee. You have to look elsewhere.

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| | Estimated reading time: 2 minutes | Creativity & Innovation
Will your business survive without innovation?

Creative performances results in more innovation – and innovation increases a company’s competitiveness long term. Ask yourself – will I or my company be more creative in the future than we are today, and if so, how will it happen? Researchers have identified four dimensions as the distinguishing signs of creativity, to understand the intrinsic qualities of creative performances.

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