Word: carlson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Innovation is an evocative word. But the image it most frequently conjures--a lone, sleep-deprived genius slaving away in a cluttered garage--is also the most misleading. In reality, says SRI International CEO Curtis Carlson, "you can invent by yourself, but you can't innovate that way." He ought to know. For six decades, SRI, based in Menlo Park, Calif, has endured as a prolific incubator of money-minting ideas, playing a key role in creating everything from the computer mouse to the HDTV standard, which Carlson helped develop. Over the past 20 years, Carlson has searched...
Next, assess each innovation for its value to customers. Obvious? Sure, but most new consumer products fail because nobody wants them. Carlson says the idea of value has moved beyond cost and quality to include such abstractions as convenience and conscience. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, for example, quickly recognized that the iPod would address the crucial consumer needs of simplicity and portability...
...proposition doesn't just hone the pitch; it also aligns product development. Yet no matter how compelling that proposition is, innovation is a frustrating business. Hence the third discipline: the appointment of a champion who is insanely committed to the project. "We have a saying at SRI," says Carlson. "No champion, no project, no exception...
...final disciplines require building teams and doing so across organizations. Carlson finds that effective teams succeed by continually sharing, implementing and improving ideas. That iterative process, used by Engelbart, is employed on a far larger scale by firms like Google, which publishes beta versions of its new products and feeds consumer responses into development. Building these disciplines into an organization isn't easy, but Carlson notes that the effort would at least be well grounded. "If you're teaching executives creativity and teamwork by having them build paper planes and sending them on rafting trips," he says, "there's something...
...PUNDIT ON POINTE Maybe Tucker Carlson picked up more from his '03 Britney Spears interview than how awesome the President...