The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

Every so often we should pause and reflect.  On the way to the airport after hosting a South by Southwest meet up on  neural diversity hiring , traffic was slow.  This allowed an engaging conversation with the taxi driver.  He asked me what led to success in my life. This prompted me to write down my 7 rules to live by.  I hope these will help you in creating personal and professional success. My...

Creating safe transportation on the African continent takes a  unique approach .  The solutions of the Western world and Silicon Valley simply won't work.  Colonial cities have grown into major urban environments. The infrastructure doesn't sustain the growth.  Traffic jams, broken-down vehicles, bad road conditions are  endemic .  But there are individuals making a difference in creating safe tra...

Today's show addresses questions from listeners on innovation KPIs.  I'm back in Colorado after clocking 12,000 miles in the  mobile Innovators Studio .  On the road, I talked with  interesting innovators  and  analysts .   Taking a break from interviews, I'd like to answer your questions on measuring innovation success. There are hundreds of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to  measure innovatio...

Delays at the grocery checkout line set William Chomley on a retail innovation course.  Like most of us who are short on time, a quick stop at the supermarket took longer than he liked.  He began ideating on a better way to shop – reinventing the checkout process. William Chomley, Founder and CEO of IMAGR, joins me  in the mobile studio  from his home base in New Zealand. He's been working on his...

If we were to trace the roots of what we do online, what would we assume about the creation of the online community?  Whether it's taking college courses or Facebooking, when did it start. The 1990s with the internet. Was that the start of online video games, chat rooms, blogging, online courses? Most of us know the foundation of the internet – the  ARPANET .   With ARPANET, the first successful n...

For  large companies , does innovation happen tucked away in a lab?  How does a professional services company innovate?  I delve into these questions with Michael Whitaker ("Whit") of ICF.  He dispels misguided concepts about service innovation. The unique challenges of this industry demand a unique process.  Whit shares his process for innovation at ICF. A global company, ICF delivers strategic c...

I'm searching for real innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI).  A surfeit of AI products leaves me skeptical. Not to rain on anybody's parade, but the term appears on countless products.  Even so, some companies do the work of real innovation in AI. Charting AI Territory DeviceBits is one such company.  This start-up charts a unique path.  Their AI customer support suite is distinctly real inn...

Are VR/AR (Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality) glasses the future?  It might bring to mind an awkward image. People lumbering with bulky headgear.  Besides intense gaming, what are the practical uses for  VR/AR technology ? By refocusing the innovation and having the courage to pivot, GridRaster Inc. reveals that VR/AR technology is not reserved for gaming enthusiasts.  This innovative start-up is...

Walt Disney said, "You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."    Marco Carvalho would like to share this lesson with a fellow entrepreneur and innovator. As Marco travelled the world, he discovered the need to reach out to others and extend a hand.  Be it mentoring, networking, sharing of information and expertise,...

Imagine a major sporting event that you can't sit at home with friends to watch on TV.  Maybe you've had to work late or you're a student returning from classes on the subway.  You do the next best thing.  You take out your mobile device to live stream it.  To add to the excitement, you live chat with friends who are streaming the event.  Then, you hear your friends cheer.  What just happened?  Yo...

A video game competition between siblings is one of those simple joys of childhood.  But it is no simple thing when one of those children has physical limitations that have kept him from that joy.  His smile when at last he can play a virtual soccer match against his sister speaks volumes.  Xogo is an accessible innovation that makes things possible for the physically challenged. Motivation and In...

Inn ovation can spring out of ideating beyond your own needs.  Look to others' challenges to shine a light on prime areas for innovation.  Innovation can also come from dire need.  Both cases push innovators to ask questions.  What can I do to make this better?  Can innovation through collaboration improve or accelerate the process? Overdue Innovation John Chang, co-founder of Willow, discusses hi...

Among the emerging technologies, gadgets and hype, what  innovation standouts  were at CES 2018?  What trends have staying power?   With almost every startup claiming  AI , I'm having flashbacks to the dot com era when every business changed its name to get in on the buzzword bandwagon.  Is there something behind the AI buzzword that substantiates the fervor?  Interestingly enough, while the compe...

What technologies are on the innovation horizon for this year? I had a chance to sit down with acclaimed Silicon Valley tech analyst, Bob O'Donnell, at the The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to discuss the highlights of the show and where tech innovation is headed. Bob shared that many of the products on view at CES were technologies debuted in past years, but with tweaks, improvem...

Have you ever circled around a busy city block searching for parking? You know how frustrating it can be. If you run a business that depends on drivers finding a parking space, parking becomes mission critical. Is there an innovative parking solution that addresses this problem? This weeks guest, Jeremy Leval, discusses the parking challenge and how  Parknav  addresses it. He shares his journey fr...

Innovation is not something  restricted to Silicon Valley  or other Silicon Valley like location (e.g. Austin, Boston, etc). Innovation can happen anywhere. If you are willing to invest some time and little effort, you can find non-obvious innovation happening in some very unusual locations. This week, we take the  new mobile studio  to Paducah, Kentucky to interview the founders of  Fin Gourmet F...

Lets face it. Innovation is hard word and requires leadership support if an organization is going to be successful at it. Thus every CEO needs an  innovation coach  who can come alongside and help the CEO achieve innovation success. Why does an organization success with innovation fall in the lap of the CEO? Because the CEO needs to own the innovation agenda. This is not something that can easily...

To some organizations, starting an innovation effort seems easy. Just hire some consultants, host a few all-hands meetings and then decree that the organization is embracing innovation. Sustaining innovation over time is incredibly hard. Without a long term commitment, most organizations experience innovation collapse. Are there  weak signals  that an organization is heading towards innovation col...

While many are familiar with the story of how DARPA (actually it was its predecessor ARPA) invented the internet. What few are familiar with is the untold stories of of DARPA and how its innovators solved some of the most pressing problems we faced. DARPA was created in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnick with the mission to ensure that the United States didn't find itself behind the Soviet...

To invent and deliver innovation at scale, infrastructure can quickly become the roadblock that will turn a  great idea  in to nightmare. For those of us who have been on Twitter for any amount of time, how can we forget the "fail whale" whenever it went down. While many may consider infrastructure the "boring" part of launching a new product or service, its not something innovators can overlook....

Building an innovation ecosystem of support across your organization is critical to achieving success. Without it and you will struggle taking and idea and making it real. This week, we take a look at another listner question on how to get support across the organization. [shareable cite="Fotune 50 Innovator" text="What kind of incentive program should we put in place for new innovative products a...

I'm not sure how many people would up and quit google and sell their house to  fund an innovation . On top of that, the idea was in an area that many say had no room for new innovation. A very typical  innovation antibody  response to this persons idea. Unexpected Innovation Many innovations that go on to become market leaders are the result of the innovators own personal frustrations. For Renee,...

When it comes to tackling some of the hardest medical innovations,  patience  becomes a fundamental requirement. Because of the regulatory challenges of getting government approval, its not uncommon to wait for years before an innovation is approved for use. That assumes you can solve all of the technical and medical issues before even starting to secure government approval. In the case of Dean Ir...

We've all heard the mantra to never give up. We say it to our kids in the hopes that they stick with something that has impact. In the case of Dean Irwin, this mantra as child set him on a path that few could imagine. Dean left school at 13 to become an  entrepreneur . His first effort was studying and repairing radios and TV back when they relied on vacuum tubes. This foundation let to him becomi...

Over my career, twice I found myself part of what I would consider high performance teams. These are teams that achieved far beyond expectations. Once you've been a part of a  high performance team , you will do everything in your power to find another team just like it. What I struggled with was unlocking why some teams are high performing while others were so bad I did everything in my power to...