Author Archives: Eugene Ivanov

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About Eugene Ivanov

Eugene Ivanov is a business and technical writer interested in innovation and technology. He focuses on factors defining human creativity and socioeconomic conditions affecting corporate innovation.

Now, what about money?

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

In my previous post, I wondered why as efficient innovation tool as it is, crowdsourcing is still seldom used by organizations. I offered two answers to this question. First, formulating a question to crowdsource requires careful deconstruction of the underlying … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowdsourcing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

A Performance Paradox: Why Is Crowdsourcing So Seldom Used?

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

Call it a performance paradox: while being an effective innovation tool, crowdsourcing is seldom used by organizations. A fresh example of this paradox came in the recent Gartner 2016 CIO Agenda Report (highlighted in a June 27, 2016 Forbes article). … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowdsourcing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Dis-r-r-r-uption!

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

My previous post has triggered a number of interesting, often negative, comments in various LinkedIn Groups. My opponents criticized my suggestion that the current state of innovation wasn’t as bad (“broken”) as a few recent articles I referred to were … Continue reading →

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

Is Innovation Broken?

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

I’m amused with the recent stream of publications describing the supposedly dreadful state of innovation. We’re informed that “innovation today disappoints,” that it’s “not delivering” and that “our innovation systems are breaking down.” We’re also told that “people are fed … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Chief Decision Maker

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

This blog has a recurrent theme: I’m interested in corporate policies that organizations may try to foster the culture of innovation. The only requirement for making the cut is that this policy must be specific and actionable (i.e., not just … Continue reading →

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Cloudy Vision, Cloudy Execution

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

  As every high-quality report on innovation, Accenture’s 2015 U.S. Innovation Survey is a mixed bag of news. On the one hand, responses provided by “500 managers and executives with roles in innovation at large U.S. companies” paint a bright … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Portfolio Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

I Love You, I Love You Not… (Our short-lived romance with Chief Innovation Officer)

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

Oops! It turns out that we don’t love a Chief Innovation Officer anymore. Just a short time ago, Chief Innovation Officers (CINO as per popular abbreviation) were heralded as a new frontier in innovation management. Considered a missing link between … Continue reading →

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The Game of Acceleration

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

What helps startups succeed? One of a few factors identified so far is providing startups with mentoring. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration–and a 2014 similar study in the U.K.–small businesses receiving mentoring services survive longer than non-mentored enterprises. This fact points … Continue reading →

Posted in Startups | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t Fire Me: I’m Innovating

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

It is election season here in the United States, and the stump speech–a standard, boring and short on substance pitch delivered by the acting and aspiring (and often uninspiring) politicians–is back in vogue. Recently, I recognized what the stump speech … Continue reading →

Posted in Innovation, Rewards and Recognition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Don’t eliminate email. Charge for it.

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

In a recent Harvard Business Review piece, Cal Newport proposes to eliminate email. Newport argues that email creates what he calls an “unstructured workflow” that reduces corporate planning and decision making to overcommunication. Newport further asserts that the unstructured flow … Continue reading →

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