Hi. My name is Geoff Nesnow. I'm an entrepreneur and corporate innovator.
I have built or helped build a number of successful businesses, business units and products across different industries.
I am sometimes Faculty at Hult International Business School. I'm currently helping companies like https://boatac.net marine air conditioner repair and installations grow their business. I offer SEO Copywriting Services, Strategy Consulting and Startup Support Services.
The title "Don't Innovate" is part sarcasm, part learned lessons.
Every few years, a new buzz phrase comes around as the solution to all problems in some area. Innovation is today's buzz word. Being more innovative is the current corporate catch-all phrase for "everything we should be doing, but aren't, to grow more, faster". But, most organizations aren't willing to take the risks, spend the money or have the patience for the disruption involved in innovation.
But, innovating itself isn't really a solution to anything. Instead, what most companies really want is to unlock the passion, creativity and entrepreneurial nature of (some of) their employees. To do this requires changing existing corporate structures, providing up-side for entrepreneurs, using different metrics for success (and risk/reward trade-offs), offering real guidance or vision for those entrepreneurs and presenting protection or reward for failure. In other words, to realize innovation requires disruption and change.
Most of the time, most people hate most new innovations (at first). The disruption process that follows innovation is HARD. It takes lots of iteration, lots of re-grouping after failure, lots of effort. You'll often alienate or offend some of the people involved. You also will probably ultimately fail.
In this business blog, I talk about startups, marketing, innovation, career advice, the future,and Covid-19.
Ideas are easy. Disruption isn't.
Thanks for reading,
Geoff Nesnow
You can reach me at geoff@geoffnesnow.com
Header artwork by Hansel Fuller - hanselfuller@me.com.
Geoff – I agree that innovating accomplishes nothing if it isn’t focused on a problem that someone wants (or would pay money) to fix. We discussed entrepreneurs that create cool new offerings (innovations) in search of problems to solve. The late Steven Covey simple advice remains relevant: “Start with the end in mind.” Heeding that advice could keep many entrepreneurs and start-ups out of trouble.
The other issue innovators face is that after the early market (10-20% of the market potential) the fact is nobody else wants to innovate unless they have to.