No matter your background, education, and professional achievements, you are capable of great things. Statistically, 99 percent of us did not go to the top 1 percent of schools, have famous parents, or a hefty trust fund. Yet we can all become successful in our own right by making the most of what we have and taking small steps. We don’t have to succeed immediately but we owe it to ourselves to try. In its...
For retailers, Covid-19 did a lot more than create supply chain disruptions causing huge inventories of unwanted items and changes in customer behaviors. Retailers put innovation on the back burner. According to The Wall Street Journal, retail brand-businesses “paused” innovation for the past three years. A playing-it-safe strategy was adopted by multiple retail establishments. Best Buy, Nordstrom’s and The Gap are cited as retailers with “a dearth of new products, styles and colors.”
Conventional wisdom suggests that true creators come up with novel ideas in sparks of genius. Many people don’t see themselves as artists or creators or doubt their creative abilities because they believe that artists constantly reinvent the wheel.
With both inflation and recession fears high, many companies are embarking on cost-reduction initiatives. Moreover, the dislocations of the pandemic have changed many customer needs and buying patterns. So much flux may be unnerving but actually creates opportunity for firms to alter business models in ways that both reduce expenses and keep customers delighted. This is a time to look beyond the typical business reaction and use the uncertainty as an advantage.
About twenty-five years ago, Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen coined the term “disruptive innovation.” I worked with Clay for many years building his consulting practice, and I can tell you that he had no idea the concept would take off as it did. Nor did he suspect that interpretations of the concept would become so mangled. It was one of his regrets that he didn’t call disruptive innovation by a more precise name that...
