Based on Zeronauts by John Elkington (Routledge, 2012). By the middle of the current century, there will be 9 billion people on the planet. This demands fundamental changes in perspectives, mentalities, behaviors, cultures, and overall paradigm. According to John Elkington, we have reached the end of an era characterized by rapid population growth. People’s aspirationsRead more…

Under the direction of Anne Vermès (Eyrolles, March 2013). Our selection: “I propose to design a castle where you will be able to show the best of yourself.” When Nicolas Fouquet, finance minister of Louis XIV, employed the architect Le Vau to build the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte, a masterpiece of sophistication and boldness, he managedRead more…

By Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja (Diateino, April 2013). Our selection: After a huge success in the United States, Jugaad Innovation has just been published in French by Diateino. It is the opportunity to rediscover the principles of jugaad innovation that we presented last year in Business Digest No. 226. The Hindi term,Read more…

First seen as sources of cheap labor, then as uncharted markets, and, more recently, as sources of innovation, emerging markets are poised to take over as the world’s most dominant sites of value creation. Along with this shift in economic power come new game rules that are overturning Western ideas of business as usual. HowRead more…

What is Jugaad? “The delicate art of improvising ingenious solutions,” explains Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja. What is this approach to innovation, created in the remote Indian countryside? Why is it changing the lives of millions of consumers worldwide? How can it help Western companies to develop their creativity?     In environmentsRead more…

What do 3M’s Post-its, Google’s Gmail, and Sony’s PlayStation have in common? None of them were produced according to plan. They were all born in flexible organizations that encourage individual initiative. When it comes to seizing and developing new opportunities, such an entrepreneurial spirit is key, and this is doubly true when times are tough.Read more…

Waves of social outcry and protest; debt crises in the United States, Europe, and Japan; a growing desire for autonomy among workers; and new technologies that upset the fundamentals of traditional business — 2011 represents a peak in the waves of changes affecting the business world since the beginning of the century. How will businessRead more…

Resilience, adaptability, unprecedented agility, and higher quality for less cost: these are the buzzwords surrounding the revolutionary design and leadership discipline known as biomimicry. Find out how companies are looking to nature for answers to their most challenging product, strategy, and structural design problems. Biomimicry is a way of looking at 3.8 years of goodRead more…

It’s no longer viable to innovate in a closed circuit! Like P&G, Google, and Boeing, more and more companies are recognizing the need to seek new ideas beyond their borders and are thus opening their innovation processes to outside communities (e.g., researchers, suppliers, consumers). How do they do it? The company must take leadership onRead more…

It is no longer accurate to characterize the focus of industry in China as low-cost manufacturing. And the idea that China’s research and development consists of simply imitating western technologies has also become grossly antiquated. As those who are paying attention realize, China is poised to become the leader in world innovation! China has masteredRead more…