You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Innovation’ category.
I’m a guest panelist at the IssuesLive event tomorrow in St. Paul, MN. The event is sponsored by an organization called Microbusiness Strategies. I served as a call-in guest on a radio show program they moderated last year. The panelists include business people, entrepreneurs, out-of-work-meteorologists and politicians. I have no idea what I’m going to talk about because the panelists field questions from the audience in a town-hall meeting format. The audience members are small business (micro business) owners and entrepreneurs. This is going to be interesting…
REDUX: I served on a panel that included both business and political leaders — Congressman Keith Ellison, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Commissioner Dan McElroy, and former TV weatherman Paul Douglas. The attendee turnout was lower than I expected. But this was a first-time event marketed towards very small business owners. These are the kind of people that probably don’t have much free time to attend networking events. The event devolved into a discussion of the resources provided by the State to small business owners. I kind of expected this since we had so many government people in the room. I managed to get a couple statements in edgewise so hopefully my presence was worthwhile. The event was recorded and broadcast on the Internet somewhere. I’ll try to provide a link in a future posting.
I attended the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA) Spring Conference yesterday at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis. I decided to walk to the hotel since I work downtown and it is only eight blocks away. Mistake. I ended up having to walk in the cold rain for several blocks and felt like a wet dog walking into the conference. Thankfully my day improved.
I participated in the MHTA Ace leadership program a year ago and got to know quite a few young technology leaders in the region. So I felt much more sociable at this year’s event because I knew so many people.
I walked into the opening presentation and grabbed a seat in the ballroom. Who do I just happen to sit next to? My friend Graeme Thickins — illustrious blogger, twitterer, marketer, and web x.0 thinker. We chit chatted for a while about some of the interesting start ups in town. Then we settled in to listen to the speakers. I really enjoyed listening to Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad. I’ve never heard him speak but I’ve followed his company for many years. I can’t saw I’ve ever been enamored of the Geek Squad concept. But I can’t dispute his strategic thinking. He understood the concept and didn’t loose focus while his organization expanded. He made an interesting point that “play” is a great way to learn and unlock creativity. He gave some examples of how his organization uses play to collaborate and innovate.
I bumped into several vendors and customers during the show. I just happened to sit right next to a customer during lunch. I swear, every time I walk into a room full of people and sit down next to someone I discover there is some sort of personal or professional connection. Granted, Minneapolis isn’t that big of a town. But it still surprises me. I sat down at a random table for lunch at Datacenter World in Vegas and just happened to sit next to one of the few people from Minneapolis. And it turned out my company bought services from his company.
I ended the day watching a panel of state politicians discuss global competitiveness. As expected the discussion followed strict party lines. The democrat state senator was strongly pushing for early education programs (I could hear silent cheers from the teachers union members in the audience). He mentioned that early childhood education would provide a 16% return on investment — much better than giving tax incentives to technology businesses. I will be happen to invest my personal savings in such a venture if the government can guarantee that kind of return (of course the senator wasn’t talking about “that” kind of ROI. The type of return he is talking about would be much harder to measure and therefore ensure the survival of his pet project).
The republican was pushing for greater business tax incentives for jump starting technology and innovation. He noted that states like Minnesota have to compete with other states for business development. Makes sense. I don’t agree with the repubs on everything but it is clear that they understand business and what it takes to compete in Minnesota.
How does a CTO encourage innovation within an organization? It seems to me that one person can’t do it all. Innovation has to start from the ground up. Each staff member in an organization needs to provide input. The management team is there to support innovation and make sure resources are available to build upon innovative ideas.
I sense the struggles to generate and sustain innovation in my organization. Many of our management team members are concerned about reliability. Certainly reliability is a key part of any datacenter company’s reputation. But oftentimes reliability is equated with the status quo. Innovative ideas are viewed as risky and therefore a threat to reliability.
I’ve oftentimes considered splitting engineering and operations. Engineering could focus on innovation and operations could focus on reliability. But that flies in the face of the principle that innovation can arise from any part of the organization.
I’m still looking for the solution.
