Ideas and Innovations Newsletter Archives

Leadership in Contentious Times: How to Navigate with Courage Issue 115, July 6, 2023 If you’re a leader of a public (or private) organization today, you may feel you wake up to a firing squad every morning. Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock has abandoned references to ESG because he feels that it was becoming politicized. Brian Cornell, CEO of Target made no public statements in response to several of his stores attacked by protesters during Gay Pride Month. And we…

Kevin Novak

July 6, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Hubris – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Hubris Issue 115, June 29, 2023 Every day we assess the potential rewards along with the real and perceived risks of the situations, desires, tasks, and ideas we confront. We may not be consciously aware of these assessments, but they are happening all the time. Our ever-expanding technical prowess has resulted in new tools, more efficient production, opportunities to transform ideas into reality, and new platforms to engage and connect. We also have access to expanding our knowledge and deferring…

Kevin Novak

June 28, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Social Proof – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Social Proof Issue 114, June 22, 2023 How often when you are choosing a new restaurant do you refer to Yelp or your local food critic’s review? Or when deciding on a weekend movie, you check out the film reviews, leaning toward the ones with star rankings. How do you find a hotel in another city? And when you are buying apparel online, do you go for the recommendations for how to accessorize it, or in Amazon’s case, “We think…

Kevin Novak

June 21, 2023

As the World Turns: Why Population Trends Matter to You

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

As the World Turns – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

As the World Turns Issue 113, June 15, 2023 We’re taking a pause to share several trends that we believe are bellwethers for a sustainable future. And we’re not including climate change, although it clearly ranks high on anyone’s list as a cause for concern. We’re talking about two trends that don’t get much attention: population shifts and life expectancy. Here’s the big picture from the UN: The world’s population is expected to increase by two billion people, from 7.7…

Kevin Novak

June 14, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Are You Ready? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Are You Ready? Issue 112, June 8, 2023 Wrong question. Are your customers ready? Is the market ready? Actually, the real question is a fusion of both. Is the customer base in your market ready to adopt what you have considered building and offering as you seek to stabilize, grow, and expand your organization? Put another way, is what you are contemplating developing something nice to have or necessary? Then add a layer of complexity to that: if the customer…

Kevin Novak

June 7, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Case for Slow Work – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

The Case for Slow Work Issue 111, May 31, 2023 How do we anticipate what’s next before the breakthroughs are even made that will ultimately shape the future? History is written in the eye of the beholder. False assumptions are the roots of history, only to be reversed/updated/revised when new information is revealed to correct the false narrative. One way to look at it is how Piet Hut, astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, describes scientific…

Kevin Novak

May 31, 2023

Spring Awakening – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

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Spring Awakening – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Spring Awakening Issue 110, May 25, 2023 It’s Spring and we are coming up on a major holiday weekend where we hope for good weather and time outdoors with family and friends. At 2040 we’re feeling optimistic and seeking opportunities for renewal (even escape) as we see the landscape around us come to life once again. In fact, we recently came to the realization that organizations seeking to change, and transform could easily be compared to a natural landscape and…

Kevin Novak

May 25, 2023

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Can You Imagine Living Only in the Past? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Can You Imagine Living Only in the Past? Issue 109, May 18, 2023 What if there were term limits on your ideas, thoughts, hopes and dreams? What if you reached a point in your life where you learned nothing new and were limited by your past experiences and body of knowledge? And if this were the case, and you led an organization, you might become irrelevant pretty quickly since you wouldn’t have the knowledge and scope to address today’s issues…

Kevin Novak

May 18, 2023

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Making Faulty Assumptions, Part II – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Making Faulty Assumptions, Part II Issue 108, May 11, 2023 Last week we explored how making bad assumptions can derail a business model and debilitate a team. Operational assessment and readiness can fall victim overnight based on assumptions that are out of alignment with shared purpose and market orientation. As we have stated, often the infrastructure can be so dysfunctional that bringing new strategies to life and achieving new goals simply isn’t possible. Here are a few signs that indicate…

Kevin Novak

May 11, 2023

What Happens When You Make Assumptions? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

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What Happens When You Make Assumptions? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

What Happens When You Make Assumptions? Issue 106, May 4, 2023 Does your organization have what it takes to succeed? For example, how many times a day do you make an assumption? On a scale of magnitude, perhaps it’s the assumption that the sun will rise each morning and gravity will still be in place at night — to assuming that other people will drive responsibly and the trash in your neighborhood will be picked up. Assumptions are based on…

Kevin Novak

May 3, 2023

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