Podcast Episodes

How to See Opportunities Others Miss

In 2005, I had a ten-minute conversation at San Jose Airport that generated billions in revenue for HP. But here's what's fascinating: three other HP executives heard the exact same conversation and …

Published on 13 hours ago

5 Questions That Spot Breakthroughs Before They Happen

In October 1903, The New York Times published an editorial mocking the idea of human flight, stating that a successful flying machine might take “from one to ten million years” to develop through the…

Published on 1 week ago

I Evaluated Over 30,000 Innovation Ideas at HP: Here’s Why Most Failed

Your best innovation ideas aren't losing to bad ideas – they're losing to exhaustion.

I know that sounds counterintuitive. After 30 years of making billion-dollar innovation decisions at HP and Cabl…

Published on 2 weeks ago

How To Master Lateral Thinking Skills

A software engineer grabbed a random word from a dictionary – “beehive” – and within hours designed an algorithm that saved his company millions. While his colleagues were working harder, he was thin…

Published on 3 weeks ago

How To Master Lateral Thinking Skills

A software engineer grabbed a random word from a dictionary – “beehive” – and within hours designed an algorithm that saved his company millions. While his colleagues were working harder, he was thin…

Published on 3 weeks ago

Why ‘Fail Fast’ Innovation Advice Is Wrong

The most popular piece of innovation advice in Silicon Valley is wrong—and it's killing great ideas before they have a chance to succeed.

I can prove it with a story about a glass of water that sat …

Published on 4 weeks ago

Innovation Partnership Autopsy: HP, Fossil, and the Smartwatch Market

Innovation partnerships can create breakthrough markets—or hand them to competitors through terrible decisions. I know because I lived through both outcomes.

Bill Geiser from Fossil and I had it exa…

Published on 1 month ago

Why Great Innovators Read Rooms, Not Just Data

You know that moment when you walk into a meeting and immediately sense the mood in the room? Or when a proposal looks perfect on paper, but something feels off? That's your intuition working—and it'…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Why Your Best Employees Are Sabotaging Your Decisions (And How to Fix It)

The $25 Million Perfect Presentation

Picture this: You're in a conference room with 23 executives, everyone has perfect PowerPoint presentations, engineering milestones are ahead of schedule, and you…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

3 Innovation Decision Traps That Kill Breakthrough Ideas (And How to Avoid Them)

Every breakthrough innovation starts the same way: everyone thinks it's a terrible idea. Twitter was dismissed as “breakfast updates.” Google looked “too simple.” Facebook seemed limited to “just col…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago