Pop star Cee Lo Green will make about $20 million this year. His hit single “Forget You” (actually it’s not “Forget”, but another shorter word beginning with the same letter) became the 12th most downloaded track of all time. But his music sales represent only a small proportion of his earnings. The New York Times calculates [...]
Bad sound quality is destroying the music business. The quality of sound delivered through typical ear bud headphones devalues the music according to Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, who as a solution have created a line of high end headphones called Beats. In this article in the Financial Times, Iovine describes how he is trying [...]
We talk in the book how giving the unconscious mind a crack at a problem often helps with creative process. New research suggests what’s might be going on. The researchers found that compared to folks who focus all their energy on solving a problem (one problem they gave was what to do while waiting in [...]
One company has made swimming safer and more fun. Ask any parent about trying to teach their kids to swim and they’ll most likely tell you a story of their child being too afraid to get in the water. Whether it’s a river, the ocean, or even just the shallow end of a pool, the [...]
With the flick of a switch, Philips Electronics may have just dramatically lowered America’s electric bill. In September the Dutch electronics giant became the first to enter the U.S. Department of Energy’s L Prize competition, which seeks an LED alternative to the common 60-watt bulb. Sixty-watt lights account for 50% of the domestic incandescent market; [...]
To promote the launch of new movie (that’s “film” in British), ‘Contagion starring Gwyneth Paltrow,’ Warner Bros in Canada created billboards (“posters”) composed of petri dishes on which bacteria grew to spell out its name.
Businesses that give two hoots about innovation are finding novel ways to collaborate with artists who have ideas coming out of their ears. Artists for instance, like Dave Stewart, my co-author on The Business Playground. I recently asked him about his advisory role to Nokia. Dave was stranded in London on the other side of [...]
What ‘The Social Network’ teaches us about business innovation. What is it about the Zuckerberg story and how he founded Facebook that is drawing so much interest? The obvious answer is that he has become the world’s youngest billionaire at 26 years old and people would love to know how he did it. The film [...]
You will have seen the announcement earlier this year that pop sensation Lady Gaga has become the creative director for instant camera company Polaroid. The cynical amongst us might view this as a publicity stunt that won’t translate into anything more than a few column inches. After all, now that all pictures are pretty much [...]
This an online video for driving direction device Tom Tom’s new selection of voices, including the Dark Lord himself.
This new phone from Nokia charges through body heat. What if charging your cell phone was as easy as sticking it in your pocket for a few hours? That’s the premise of the Nokia E-Cu concept phone, developed by British designer Patrick Hyland. Hyland’s Nokia E-Cu (E for environment, Cu for Copper) phone features a copper [...]
An IBM study of of one-on-one CEO interviews, with over 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries asked them what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.
