In their latest study of more than a thousand CEOs, IBM finds that high-performing companies are hungry for change, wildly imaginative, wired globally, disruptive in nature, and socially aware. Here is how they describe the ‘enterprise of the future’:
Hungry for Change
The enterprise of the future is capable of changing quickly and successfully. Instead of merely [...]

Most innovation stems from conversations between people with different ideas. Web 2.0 has made it so easy for people to have their say that today people everywhere are not just consuming information but producing it, and getting together to create! We see software (Linux), games (World of Warcraft), worlds (Second Life), knowledge (Wikipedia), products and [...]

A lot can be done with the simple mechanics of a bike! Interactive cinemas, bread making machines, and ’spin art’ can all be powered by users. The most impressive concept I’ve come across recently is the winner of the Innovate or Die (a new contest for earth-cooling pedal powered inventions), The Aquaduct, a simple solution [...]

Early signals (aka ‘weak signals’ or ‘future signals’ in futures research - raw informational material that acts as advanced indicator of a trend or system) can be difficult to detect, particularly in a world in which we are so overwhelmed by information! But these signals can be vital warnings or indicators – both of threats [...]

In the spirit of ‘Design for the other 90%‘, a 28-year old Shawn Frayne has been developing small scale wind power for LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Right now wind turbines are expensive and big, and they don’t scale down well as there is too much friction in the gearbox [...]

Do you remember that webpage you tried to remember to go to and click on daily to save an acre of rainforest?? Well online social enterprises have got a lot more savvy since, providing really useful services, or at least entertaining, while generating advertising revenue to invest in a social or environmental aim. This vocabulary [...]

Earlier today, Ed Milliband, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, was speaking at a conference I was attending on creating the conditions for public sector innovation. He made the point that this is necessary, but easier said than done, particularly when the public sector doesn’t enjoy the same levels of ‘creative destruction‘ as the [...]

I remember that in 2004, in preparation for the UN International Year of Microcredit , I was scouting for good case studies demonstrating how microfinance can help achieve the Millenium Development Goals. There were many hundreds of great stories, and some of the best ones demonstrated how microfinance can improve livelihoods and the local [...]

Another first for the Middle East. Bahrain’s busy skyline now includes the world’s first building with integrated wind turbines! It is a twin sky-scraper complex that generates power from the on-shore Gulf breeze ‘funnelling’ through it (the wind has to come at it from the right direction, as the turbines don’t turn). There are three [...]