"The great thing in this world is not so much where you are, but in what direction you are moving." Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles." Bob Richards

"Diligence is the mother of all good fortune." Miguel de Cervantes

Photo: Untitled by m.pastwa. Wonderful shot. Thank you for sharing.



The next newsroom: Check this guy out and send a link to your station ND, webmaster....Newsroomnext by Michael Amedeo Tumolillo

Bonus: LiveMocha (learning language via social net)

Re-reading two classics. Highly recommend both. Tolstoy and Drucker.

A great line from Tolstoy, Prince Vasili says "Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the society of clever women."

Drucker writes in his first chapter preface "Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. It is capable of being presented as a discipline, capable of being learned, capable of being practiced. Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation, the changes and their symptoms that indicate opportunities for successful innovation."

Drucker provides a number of "do's" - things that have to be done...

1. Purposeful, systematic innovation begins with the analysis of the opportunities...The search has to be organized, and must be done on a regular, systematic basis.
2. Innovation is both conceptual and perceptual. The second imperative of innovation is therefore to go out to look, to ask, to listen.
3. An innovation, to be effective, has to be simple and it has to be focused. It should do only one thing, otherwise, it confuses.
4. Effective innovations start small. They are not grandiose. They try to do one specific thing.
5. ...a successful innovation aims at leadership. It does not aim necessarily at becoming eventually a 'big business'; in fact, no one can foretell whether a given innovation will end up as a big business or a modest achievement. But if an innovation does not aim at leadership from the beginning, it is unlikely to be innovative enough, and therefore unlikely to be capable of establishing itself.

Drucker goes on to suggest a few important "dont's"...

1. The first is simply not to try to be clever. Innovations have to be handled by ordinary human beings, and if they are to attain any size and importance at all, by morons or near-morons. Incompetence, after all, is the only thing in abundant and never-failing supply. Anything too clever, whether in design or execution, is almost bound to fail.
2. Don't diversify, don't splinter, don't try to do too many things at once...be focused!
3. Finally, don't try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present!

Finally Drucker writes about "three conditions...All three are obvious but often disregarded."

1. Innovation is work. It requires knowledge. It often requires great ingenuity. There are clearly people who are more talented innovators than the rest of us. Also, innovators rarely work in more than one area...But when all is said and done, innovation becomes hard, focused, purposeful work making very great demands on diligence, on persistence, and on commitment. If these are lacking, no amount of talent, ingenuity, or knowledge will avail.
2. To succeed, innovators must build on their strengths.
3. ...innovation is an effect in economy and society, a change in the behavior of customers...of people in general. Or it is a change in a process - that is, in how people work and produce something. Innovation therefore always has to be close to the market, focused on the market, indeed, market-driven.