Innovation [2009-08-24]

Another week and another collection of interesting ideas from around the internet.

As always, thoughts and/or comments are greatly appreciated.

This issue:

  • Pixar’s Brad Bird on Fostering Innovation [GIGAOM]
    Steve Jobs hired him, says Bird, because after three successes (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2) he was worried Pixar might struggle to stay innovative. Jobs told him: “The only thing we’re afraid of is complacency—feeling like we have it all figured out,” Bird quotes his boss as saying “… We want you to come shake things up.” Bird explains to McKinsey how he did it — and why, for “imagination-based companies to succeed in the long run, making money can’t be the focus.”
  • Ten Great Ways to Crush Creativity [Associated Content]
    How to create or destroy a culture for creative thinking and innovation.
  • Open Source TRIZ [Open Source TRIZ]
    TRIZ is a theory and methodology for innovation invented in Russia in 1946. (Pronounced /ˈtriːz/, TRIZ is a Russian acronym: Теория решения изобретательских задач meaning “The theory of solving inventor’s problems” or “The theory of inventor’s problem solving”.) Open Source TRIZ is an interesting repository of TRIZ documentation and tools.
  • Asia and the elements of innovation [McKinsey & Company: What Matters]
    Asia has strengths that promise to make it a leading center of technological innovation in the 21st century. These strengths are substantial, fundamental, and durable. At their base lie aspects of culture, on both a civilizational and generational time scale. Human capital and the capacity for mobilization build on these cultural advantages.