Wednesday, February 11, 2009

How to think like a Market Rebel and not a boring bureauocrat

Since I am always trying to think like an innovator.......this piece in The McKinsey Quarterly really struck a chord......... plus the title is really fun "Market rebels and radical innovation" . The author Hayagreeva Rao is the Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

If you can get past the fact that this man (looks like Jabba The Hut) should never be in front of the camera, what he says is fascinating, and makes so much sense. He briefly cites some case studies - like Nike and Personal Computing, and the enormous impact that these 2 have had.

Innovation and "rebels" will lead the way into the next big money making opportunities, both in specific niches and in the overall economy. I guarantee you these opportunities will NOT come from anywhere in corporate America, where even in the most creative environments - creativity has been sucked dry.......

It's not about thinking of the next trend but identifying with it, I believe this happens through your peer groups and grassroots efforts...you just have to "listen" to what's happening amongst the people you know, etc And when you figure it out - please let me know!







2 comments:

  1. Maria - it is absolutely the time to be thinking inside, outside and around the box. In fact, take that box and build it into a pyramid, a tunnel or any other shape that your mind can get around.

    However, that still does not answer the question. Where is the money? It has to be SOME WHERE? Who has it? Why are they not spending it? I spent all my money and then some, so it's got to be here somewhere.

    As a person who has always been underemployed even in the best of times, I've been able to scrape by with a minimum amount of income. Now, that seems to be diminishing as well, but I'm still sniffing around for clients, looking under arbituary rocks and being hopeful.

    Hopeful that I won't stop paying my mortgage (though I've thought about it) Hopeful that I'll pay the balance off my credit cards (though I am hoarding that cash to pay my mortgage) Hopeful that the three vendors who owe me money won't go out of business so they can pay my invoice.

    i figure the worst thing that can happen is that I can't buy food or that the food supply won't run out. But, hopefully, that is another month away and someone, somewhere, will figure out how to stop paying bankers bonuses and lower my mortgage payment and interest rate.

    Thanks for the opportunity to vent. I'm back to surfing the web for my next job.

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  2. Victoria - You are NOT in the minority.

    I tried to explain this to a very wealthy friend the other day - wealthy people just need to tighten their belts in their spending habits, and hard working people like us will have to adjust our belts because we may not be able to afford to eat as well as we used to!

    But remember that necessity is the mother of invention, and creative people like us who have ALWAYS thought outside of that dam box have the prospect of succeeding. The old paradigms no longer hold....and it truly is a new day.

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