Author Archives: Eugene Ivanov

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About Eugene Ivanov

I help mission-driven organizations, including nonprofits, solve persistent strategic, operational, and organizational challenges through AI-supported problem solving. As founder of INSILICONOVATION, I build and apply AI tools that think with you, not for you—helping uncover root causes, surface assumptions, and turn ambiguity into clear paths forward.

Innovation: Governments Matter

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

In a recent post, I presented evidence that the ability of a country to innovate correlates with the level of political freedoms in this country. To make this argument, I used innovation rankings from the 12th (2019) edition of the Global Innovation … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Innovation, Innovation | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Fallacy of Predictions

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

There is a popular joke (attributed to Niels Bohr): “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” I remembered it when I picked up the March-April 2020 issue of the MIT Technology Review. Subtitled “The prediction issue,” it … Continue reading →

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Innovation and Freedom

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

With waves of profound technological change rocking every corner of the global economy, innovation isn’t a luxury anymore, not even a matter of choice – it’s a means of survival.  The mantra “innovate or die” may have become a cliché, … Continue reading →

Posted in Global Innovation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Freedom to Connect

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

Social media were once considered a liberating technology, a level playing field allowing civil groups and ordinary citizens to reach large audiences at little or no cost. Unfortunately, the open and almost unregulated space of social media platforms has been … Continue reading →

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On Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, and Fast Horses

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

A solid consensus seems to exist that customer feedback, gathered through market research, is a key to successful innovation. And yet, I’m surprised how often one can hear dissenting voices. Some folks, especially not engaged in day-to-day innovation activities, claim … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

United by technology, separated by ideology?

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

A 2017 Pew Research Center study reported that 41 percent of Americans had experienced online harassment, an increase from 2014. A more recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League showed that already more than half of Americans, 53 percent, say they experienced hate speech and … Continue reading →

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The Words We Choose

Posted on February 20, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

In a recent HBR article “Stop Calling It Innovation,” Nadya Zhexembayeva suggests ditching the term “innovation.” Her point? Employees hate innovation. Rightly or wrongly, they associate innovation with undue risk, extra work without reward, and even job loss. As a … Continue reading →

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United We Innovate

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

As I wrote on numerous occasions, in recent years crowdsourcing has become a popular topic in academic circles, business publications, and social media. Yet, its acceptance as a practical problem-solving tool has been relatively slow. There are a few reasons … Continue reading →

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The “French perfume” innovation

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

(This post originally appeared on Medium) I grew up in the Soviet Union and know a thing or two about the shortage of goods. The perennial chasing of hard-to-get stuff had instilled in me and my compatriots one simple habit: … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Portfolio Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Detecting cancer in a-intelligent way

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Eugene Ivanov

Good news from the front lines of the War on Cancer. The American Cancer Society reported the sharpest drop in cancer death rates in the United States between 2016 and 2017. The 2.2% drop, the biggest single-year drop on record, … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, Health Care, Innovation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment