Author Archives: Eugene Ivanov

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About Eugene Ivanov

Eugene Ivanov is the founder of INSILICONOVATION, a consulting company that helps resource-constrained organizations diagnose root causes, surface hidden assumptions, and choose practical next steps before they spend money, time, or political capital on the wrong fix.

Does predicting the future have a future?

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

A popular joke attributed to a bunch of historical figures says: “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” How true. Writing for the WIRED magazine, Paul Ford described his recent experience of reading The Book of Prediction, … Continue reading →

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Why ask your future customers only once about new product development, not twice?

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

More and more firms have begun practicing the consumer-centric approach to new product development (NPD). As part of this approach, firms use sophisticated market research to identify unmet customer needs that could be converted into successful consumer products. Now, it’s … Continue reading →

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Don’t bring me eggs…Sorry, I meant problems.

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

It appears that the resistance to the time-tested management wisdom “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions” has reached a critical mass. Writing back in 2017 for Harvard Business Review, Sabina Nawaz suggested to “retire the saying” and replace this … Continue reading →

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A sober look at drinking and creativity

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

In one of my prior lives, I was a researcher in a Russian academic lab. A colleague of mine was studying the effects of ethanol alcohol on yeast cells. Every time she presented project updates to the rest of the … Continue reading →

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Prohibition, disrupted networks, and innovation

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

The best answer to the question “Do government regulations hurt innovation?” seems to be “It depends.” The suspicions against regulations are fueled by wide-spread belief that they damage economic growth, with which innovation is intimately connected. Yet, academic research on the … Continue reading →

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Innovation and spirit. Yes, that spirit.

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

Recent evidence strongly suggests that the U.S. is facing a growing shortage of novel ideas. Worse, the cost of getting these ideas is growing while their quality seems to be declining. Left unchanged, this trend may have serious negative consequences for American innovation. … Continue reading →

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Does labor regulation hurt innovation?

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

Those who believe that government regulations, including labor laws, hurt innovation, please, raise your hand. Wow, quite a few hands raised! Indeed, the suspicion against regulations is fueled by common belief that they damage economic growth, with which innovation is … Continue reading →

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Are you bored to death and procrastinating? Good for you!

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Eugene Ivanov

In my two previous posts (here and here), I argued that the wide-spread belief that we are swimming in an ocean of cheap innovative ideas–solidified in a popular slogan “ideas are a dime a dozen”–is a myth. Available evidence suggests … Continue reading →

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U.S. innovation: a perennial half-full/half-empty glass

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

In my previous post, I argued that a wide-spread belief that we are swimming in an ocean of cheap innovative ideas – solidified in a popular slogan “ideas are a dime a dozen” — is no more than a myth. … Continue reading →

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Ideas are a dime a dozen. Are they really?

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

Any seasoned innovation practitioner would tell you that idea generation is the most straightforward part of the innovation process. Generating ideas is easy, the thinking goes; it is at the stage of testing these ideas and deciding which one to … Continue reading →

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