Jennifer B. Davis
There was an article in Business School's Working Knowledge eNewsletter a year ago worth reading. You can find the entire article or sign up to receive the free enewsletter at their website. They also have an RSS feed, if you'd rather.

It contracts how different companies (Dell, Quizno's sandwiches, P&G, etc) approach innovation, product planning, and market positioning. It poses some great questions about strategy, brand, hiring the best employees, and selling ideas to customers and executive management.

I'd love to hear your reactions.

The article is peppered with quotes from business leaders. Here are some of my favorites:

"It's a prerequisite that if you're going to fail, you have to fail forward." - Terry Hall, Chief Marketing Officer, Quizno's Sub

"I believe innovation comes from two sources: technology and the consumer. It's less about process and more about people - don't look at the numbers. Get out in the world." - Dan Buchner, vice president of innovation and design at Design Continuum, an industrial design firm.

In Dan's bio on the Continuum website, he claims to have received an MBA from the "School of Hard Knocks, University of Starting and Running your Own Manufacturing Firm." I love it!

I know I feel like I got an MBA from the "University of Building and Nurturing a Sales Channel" and another from the "University of Marketing Innovation" where my thesis was "never confuse activity with results." I think I am currently working on my Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the "University of Helping Others Embrace Change." What are you studying?
1 Response
  1. Kristi Says:

    I think they may have just been a classes, but I need to have a degree in "How to Thrive, Not Just Survive, With
    Transition in the Workplace" (or church, in our case) or "Discovering and Implementing an Effective Vision 101" or "How to be a Detail-Oriented Person in a World of Creatives" (in other words, "How Would The World Keep Going Without Me??" ;-)).

    Ooh - I may have just revealed a bit much.