Business Innovation

  • Zopa: Peer-to-Peer Lender Celebrates 10 Years

    Spawned a Global Multibillion Industry; Still Going Strong

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    Over 50,000 British consumers have invested in providing loans to over 100,000 British consumers and small business owners via Zopa since 2005. Lenders have provided £770,000 of their money to their peers, in exchange for an average return of 5 percent.
    Mar. 20, 2015
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  • Can a Contest Improve the “Production of Health”?

    How Esther Dyson Is Using the Way to Wellville Challenge to Promote Collaborative Innovation

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    The Way to Wellville is a community health innovation contest among five communities in the U.S. The towns will have five years to dramatically improve health outcomes by focusing on the determinants of health, rather than on the treatment of disease.
    May. 9, 2014
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  • Amazon Covers the “Last Mile”

    Can the Etailer Improve on UPS, et al. to Create a Customer-Delighting Delivery Service?

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    Amazon will deliver packages the “Last Mile.” How can they improve on what UPS, FedEx, and the USPS are doing to delight customers?
    May. 1, 2014
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  • Culture Nurtures Innovation at Luck Stone

    How Values-Based Leadership Fosters Innovation in a 90-Year Old Company

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    Luck Stone is a 90-year-old rock quarrying business that has embraced values-based leadership. With a history of innovation when it comes to mining operations, now the family business is focusing on customer-inspired innovation.
    Apr. 25, 2014
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  • Why Chaos Is Important for Innovation

    How an Organization, Group, or Individual Can Foster Innovation

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    This book, The Chaos Imperative by Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack, is a must read for anyone who wants to maximize his/her brain power. It will help you, and your team, create the conditions for innovation to occur.
    Jan. 17, 2014
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  • Peer-to-Peer Business Models

    Facilitating “Matchmaking” between Individuals for Fun and Profit

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    Lyft helps individuals who need a ride match up with people who have a car and want to earn a few bucks by giving them rides, a great example of a p2p business. Is there something in this p2p model for your company?
    Jul. 12, 2013
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  • DuckDuckGo Respects Our Privacy

    Fast, Simple Search with an Open Customer-Friendly Ecosystem

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    People who are concerned about online privacy are switching to search engine DuckDuckGo. Users are pleasantly surprised by, and engaged in, its rapid evolution.
    Jun. 28, 2013
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  • Customer Co-Design for Elder Independence

    Approach for Elders to Age in Their Homes

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    Dr. Allan Teel's new book  tells the remarkable story of an innovative “virtual assisted-living” program that was co-designed with 40 elders in Maine and is now rolling out across the country. 
    Jun. 13, 2013
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  • Tackling a Wicked Problem: Water Issues!

    How the Delta Dialogues Project Is Using Dialogue Mapping to Build Shared Understanding

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    The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta Conservancy wanted to engage key stakeholders in planning the future of California’s fresh water supply. They used CogNexus Group’s Dialogue Mapping™ to build shared understanding among polarized players.
    May. 30, 2013
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  • How to Address “Wicked Problems”

    Use Dialogue Mapping to Build a Shared Understanding and Evolve a Group’s Thinking

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    Jeff Conklin’s book, Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, is a “must read” for people in groups grappling with intractable issues and/or for people who are designing products or solutions. Here’s why.
    May. 23, 2013
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  • Designing Effective Group Meetings

    Using Concepts and Techniques of Liberating Structures

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    Here are some easy-to-follow facilitation techniques that you can try out in your next meetings to promote continuing conversations based on Lisa Kimball’s framework of Liberating Structures. See if they work in your organization.
    Apr. 30, 2013
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  • How We Learn and How to Change

    Use Conversations for Collaborative Reflection about Complex Adaptive Systems

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    Lisa Kimball offers invaluable advice and methodologies about the best ways to make change in a complex system, like an organization, or a multi-player system such as healthcare. Change the conversation!
    Mar. 28, 2013
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  • What Makes Amazon Tick?

    Understanding the Levers that Amazon Uses to Run Its Business

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    Amazon’s strategic intent is to be the most customer-centric company and to offer the earth’s biggest selection of products. But what are the underlying goals and strategies the company uses to deliver on those promises?
    Feb. 7, 2013
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  • Amazon Takes on Apple in Digital Music

    Combined CDs and AutoRip Make Amazon Cloud Player More Enticing

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    Amazon’s AutoRip feature surprised and delighted some customers and annoyed others. We like the fact that we now have digital access to MP3 files of the music we bought on CDs for free and without doing anything!
    Jan. 24, 2013
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  • Amazon’s Next Moves

    It’s a Customer Ecosystem Poised to Become an Increasingly Important Part of Our Lives

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    Amazon isn’t “just” an online retailer; it’s a vibrant and layered customer ecosystem designed to help you get things done faster and cheaper. Amazon phones will bring added convenience. Amazon’s ads will be more relevant than Google’s or Facebook’s.
    Jan. 3, 2013
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  • BuzzCar—Peer-to-Peer Car Rental

    Building a Platform for Participation for a “Peers Inc.” Business Model

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    Buzzcar is a peer-to-peer car rental company that started in France. Instead of leaving your car in driveway, rent it to a neighbor! Founded by Robin Chase, the co-founder of Zipcar, Buzzcar uses what Robin calls a “Peers Inc.” business model.
    Oct. 11, 2012
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  • Managing Customer Innovation at Alaska Airlines

    Alaska Airlines Combines Customer Innovation with E-Commerce & Mobile

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    As Managing Director, AlaskaAir.com and Customer Innovation, Curtis Kopf combines ecommerce, mobile, and customer innovation in a single role focusing on giving information and control to customers in the areas of their lives they care about the most.
    May. 31, 2012
    Strategies
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  • Local Motors: Open Source Car Design and Local Manufacturing

    Forging a Customer Ecosystem to Transform the Automobile Industry

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    Can you transform an industry from the outside? That’s what Local Motors is doing with the automobile industry with its customer ecosystem to design and produce great cars.
    Jan. 26, 2012
    Strategies
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  • The Next Big Thing: Customer Ecosystems

    Six Secrets for Designing Business Networks Aligned To Help Customers Get Things Done

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    Customer ecosystems are business networks that are aligned to help customers get things done—both the things they want to accomplish and the things they want to manage. We’ve found six keys to designing successful customer ecosystems.
    Jan. 12, 2012
    Strategies
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  • Build Community Around "My Stuff"

    How Will Online Communities and Social Networks Evolve?

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    Online customer support communities and social networks need to be integrated into the tools that customers use to manage their stuff.
    Nov. 10, 2011
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