2 Things That Kill Creativity Daily

These everyday facts of life may seem inconsequential, but they’re really stealth creativity killers.

Creativity killers don’t have to be obvious or drastic. Simple, every day decisions that seem far less than momentous can sap your ability to think creatively, according to a thoughtful recent Fast Company piece by Emily Heyward.

Why the Best Product Doesn’t Always Win

Entrepreneurs often think only the best product will let them succeed. But sometimes ‘best’ isn’t what your customers really want.

Ever buy and eat a meal from a lunch wagon? You know, those metal trucks that travel to construction sites, small factories, office parks, and other places that don’t have their own cafeteria services? They have a lot in common with Amazon.com.

6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers

You’re the boss, but you still spend too much time on the day-to-day. Here’s how to become the strategic leader your company needs.

In the beginning, there was just you and your partners. You did every job. You coded, you met with investors, you emptied the trash and phoned in the midnight pizza. Now you have others to do all that and it’s time for you to “be strategic.”

Amazon vs. Apple: Competing Ecosystem Strategies

The most viable rival to Apple’s iPad isn’t produced by a traditional hardware firm. Samsung, Motorola, Toshiba, HP, RIM and HTC have hardly made a dent in Apple’s dominance. Remarkably, the leading challenger is online retailer Amazon, with its Kindle Fire tablet.

The innovation game is changing. Delivering great products is no longer sufficient for success. And as the Fire’s limited memory, ho-hum processor, and and lack of camera demonstrate, great products may not even be necessary. Rather, what matters is delivering great solutions.

This shift from products to solutions matters to everyone. In industries ranging from consumer electronics to construction and from media to mining, the firms seizing the lead are those that can best align ecosystems of offers and partners.

Steve Jobs and The Bobby Knight School of Leadership

I believe that Steve Jobs was among the best CEOs of this generation because he created entirely new categories six times in a decade, and built the largest company market cap ever. Yet two recent and excellent books (Inside Apple, by Adam Lashinsky and Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson) describe a management style that was disturbingly harsh.

To understand Jobs’s success, I find it helpful to look at the success of Bobby Knight, the fabled basketball coach at Indiana. Knight was one of two coaches to win over 900 games, won the NCAA championship three times, and was the national coach of the year four times yet had a management style similar to Jobs (described in detail by John Feinstein’s book A Season on the Brink). What are the common success characteristics shared by these two? Before answering that question, it is useful to elaborate the two management styles.