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.

Innovation and Freedom

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 →

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Freedom to Connect

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

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 →

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United by technology, separated by ideology?

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

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

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

(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 →

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Detecting cancer in a-intelligent way

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 →

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Computational propaganda: another dark corner of the net

Sir Tim Berners-Lee has all the reason to be proud of his life’s crown achievement: the World Wide Web. But he is not. In a series of interviews last fall, Berners-Lee complained that the internet today isn’t what he imagined … Continue reading →

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Don’t blame crowdsourcing for “bad ideas”

As I mentioned a couple of years ago, I try to follow what academic researchers write about crowdsourcing. As a crowdsourcing practitioner, I welcome the clarity, holistic approach, and intellectual vigor academic research brings to the table. On occasion, however, … Continue reading →

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