How does ThoughtOffice Compare to MindMapping? First, let me state I’m a big fan of visualization of ideas. Get me within 10 feet of a whiteboard and I can’t help but grab a dry erase pen, pop the cap and start doodling. I’ll share where that came from someday. Suffice to say, when your big brother is on stage making a presentation and you just KNOW you can do better, you grab the pen and prove it…
How Important Is A Business Plan? Depends on a lot of factors, as it turns out. Factors include your time to market, your need for venture capital, the target market for your product or service, and so on. That’s a lot of stuff to consider. Let’s say you need a loan to buy a building or tools. In a recent post by Shara Rutberg of CNNMoney.com, (link at bottom of page) she spoke with an assistant director of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, and asked him about business planning:
Today’s post is about a new launch we’ve been working on for well over a year now… some say since 1998. It’s not about brainstorming… but it IS an innovation. And it took plenty of brainstorming to pull it together.
The shower is such a natural place to brainstorm. The pink noise (see the video for Kaki King’s rendition of that sound… brilliant!), the cocoon-like warmth, the echoes, the absence of digital media to distract us. My greatest challenge has been remembering and then capturing shower brainstorms so they could actually be put into action.
As anyone who follows this blog knows, we are Big Fans of Big Science. The more it looks like Star Trek, the better we seem to like it. This time, I’d like to share a little update on one of our favorite projects, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
The Large Hadron Super Collider at CERN is just about to go live. This summer ought to see a massive number of sparks flying at the subatomic level. New microphotographs of protons smashing together at 99.99999% of the speed of light (186,282.46 miles per second in a vacuum, if I remember correctly from my youth).
I just watched Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD Corporation (the OTHER x86 microprocessor guys). Moving. Stretching.
I grew up in a middle-class but empowering environment. Six kids and a Dad who worked his butt off as an HVAC sheetmetal worker. Mom? Did I mention 6 KIDS? You know how she spent her days.
This week, TED Talks posted a presentation by Saul Griffith that pushed a lot of my personal “geek” buttons – making electrical power with kites! All of us here at ThoughtOffice have a little bit of granola-crunching hippie inside us. We’ve shared many conversations about renewable energy, and leaving the planet a little better than we found it. Now, I’ll get off the pulpit, and let you watch the video:
I usually don’t expect to see anything serious about “work” on Comedy Central, but this recent interview with John Kao caught my eye. He appeared recently on the Colbert Report to discuss his new book, Innovation Nation. Have a look as John Kao explains how he feels that America has lost its innovative edge.
