Defining innovation - what does it mean for functional professionals?

Defining innovation – what does it mean for functional professionals?

‘Innovation’, ‘big data’, ‘the cloud’, ‘sustainability’, and the list goes on.  Business loves buzzwords.  There’s no two ways about it, every technology wave, or generation has it’s lexicon. I came across a great quote from Henry Ford’s autobiography in which he speaks about ‘making to order’: Ask a hundred people how they want an article…

"they put the pieces together in a different way that succeeded"

“they put the pieces together in a different way that succeeded” – Bill Gates

In an interview for CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ program, Bill Gates talked about his relationship with Steve Jobs.  In it he talks about tablets, “We did tablets – lots of tablet – well before Apple did” he states, before conceding “they put the pieces together in a different way that succeeded.”  In the world of tablets,…

Can you prototype a contract? - do we have the right contracting skills?

Can you prototype a contract? – do we have the right contracting skills?

In one of my sessions at the recent IACCM EMEA conference which looked at contracting skills I posed the question that whilst we would rarely let a product get to market without some form of testing or prototyping, how many commercial or contract management professionals consider testing their contracting structures or agreements? If we look…