Brady Capital Research

The Little Black Book of Innovation

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:45:48 +0000

The Book

“…innovation is a process that combines discovering an opportunity, blueprinting an idea to seize that opportunity, and implementing that idea to achieve results.”

“If you do not innovate, you are sowing the seeds of your own destruction.”

“Success requires waking up every day and realizing that today’s sources of competitive advantage will not be tomorrow’s.”

Long-time innovation expert Scott D. Anthony draws on stories from his research and field work with companies like Procter & Gamble to demystify innovation. In his trademark conversational and lively style, Anthony presents a simple definition of innovation, breaks down the essential differences between types of innovation, and illuminates innovation’s vital role in organizational success and personal growth.

The Author

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

A.G. Lafley vs. Steve Jobs – January 23, 2012
Kodak and the Brutal Difficulty of Transformation – January 17, 2012
How to Choose the Ideas Your Company Should Invest In – January 11, 2012
A Disciplined Approach to Evaluating Ideas – January 3, 2012
Business Model Innovation the Red Sox Way – December 21, 2011
Three Innovation Trends in Asia – December 14, 2011

Mission: Intangible

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:20:38 +0000

The Book

“Today’s most valuable corporate assets are intangible. They now comprise around 70% of the median value of publicly traded companies on the U.S. markets. These assets are known by many names—intellectual capital, intellectual assets…”

“Small actors and individual events are stretching companies’ boundaries of responsibility, which is increasing the risks they face in the course of doing business.”

“…recognition by the insurance industry and accounting profession that intangible assets deserve the same financial treatment as “bricks and mortar” will go a long way toward giving investors, traders and other stakeholders an accurate picture of a company’s health.”

Dr. Nir Kossovsky has spent the last thirty years increasing, protecting, and restoring intangible asset value and together with Todd Miller, a public relations expert, provides convincing and tangible methods for protecting a company’s assets, driving value, and making the business case.

The Authors

Betterness: Economics for Humans

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:10:13 +0000

The Book

“…if we want that bonus, that promotion, that raise, or that corner office, then what really counts is seeking Ricardian profit through Fordist work in Sloanite organizations that sell Marshallian products to be mutely consumed.”

“Betterness isn’t merely social enterprise, impact investing, or socially responsible business…It’s not about sustainability reports, corporate governance audits, or statements of ethics.”

“…though they might have been built to last, built for greatness, or built to innovate, they weren’t built for greatness.”

Business writer and thinker Umair Haque minces no words when he declares, “The corporation as you know it is obsolete.” Betterness argues that we’re entering a new era. Say goodbye to the industrial-age business mentality which seeks financial returns for shareholders above all else…such a pursuit also leads to the destruction of “higher-order wealth”–the social, intellectual, and emotional capital that fulfills our lives. Consumers are beginning to demand things that make them feel relationally, spiritually, physically, and creatively fulfilled. The business of “betterness” inspires an authentically good life, elevates and enlightens us, and increases our human potential.

The Author

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

Create a Meaningful Life Through Meaningful Work – January 30, 2012
Mastering the Art of Living Meaningfully Well – December 28, 2011
Is America a Failing State? – December 20, 2011
America: Excelling at Mediocrity – October 28, 2011
Make the Dangerous Choice to Dissent – October 13, 2011
The Protests and the Metamovement – October 4, 2011

The Responsibility Revolution

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:57:28 +0000

The Book

“Our corporate manifesto is not about quarterly earnings, return on equity, or market share; it’s about creating a just and equitable world, inspiring conscious consumption, and building coalitions that create new possibilities. Our name comes from the Iroquois, not an ad agency.”

“Bloodless buzzwords like “corporate responsibility” and “ecoefficiency” are being supplanted by a new vocabulary—“corporate consciousness,” “resource intelligence,” “social innovation”—that aspires to capture our real-world experiences.”

“…values are sources of innovation—opportunities to create products and services that deliver a return on purpose as well as a return on investment.”

How to create a company that not only sustains, but surpasses-that moves beyond the imperative to be “less bad” and embrace an ethos to be “all good”.From the Inspired Protagonist and Chairman of Seventh Generation, the country’s leading brand of household products and a pioneering “good company”… Thousands of companies have pledged to act responsibly; very few have proven that they know how.

The Author

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

What I’m Reading: George Soros Predicts Riots & Class War for America – February 3, 2012
The Values That Created Seventh Generation, Part 2: Rethinking Sustainability – January 31, 2012
What I’m Reading: State Capitalism on the Rise; Ethical Consumption; The Eroding Middle Class – January 27, 2012
The Values That Created Seventh Generation, Part 1: Consciousness – January 24, 2012
What I’m Reading: Crowdsourcing Management Reviews; The Co-operative Advantage; Why We Need an Entrepreneurial Presidency – January 20, 2012
What Guides the Vision of Values-Based Businesses? – January 17, 2012

The Medici Effect

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:03:04 +0000

The Book

“Intersectional innovations…change the world in leaps along new directions.”

“By breaking down associative barriers and stepping into intersection between fields, the number of available idea combinations increases beyond anything we can achieve in a single area.”

“Sometimes an intersectional idea can threated an established field.”

Why do so many world-changing insights come from people with little or no related experience? Charles Darwin was a geologist when he proposed the theory of evolution. And it was an astronomer who finally explained what happened to the dinosaurs. Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect shows how breakthrough ideas most often occur when we bring concepts from one field into a new, unfamiliar territory, and offers examples how we can turn the ideas we discover into path-breaking innovations.

The Author

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The Author’s Blog

http://www.themedicigroup.com/

Brand Valued

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:40:06 +0000

The Book

“…firms and their brands are no longer in the B2C (Business to Consumer) business. Everyone’s now in the B2Ci (Business to Citizen) business.”

“…prospect of measuring social capital – and the effects of social capital – is quite daunting, primarily because it is something that has not really been measured before.”

“…many of the key indicators of brand health are linked to social capital – word of mouth, trust, advocacy and loyalty.”

At last, there is a book that addresses the growing significance of social capital in the business world. Brand Valued explores how as the strength, depth, and quality of interactions between a brand and its customers improve, increased opportunities to demonstrate trustworthiness arise. This in turn creates a self-fulfilling cycle, wherein trust begets social capital, which begets more trust—and even shared thinking—not to mention better sales.

The Author

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

CSRWire – January 23, 2012
The Guardian Sustainable Business Hub – January 23, 2012
WARC review of Brand Valued – December 13, 2011
‘Keep it social…’ – November 29, 2011
A Declaration of Dependence – October 25, 2011
Another Dove/Lynx moment in the making for Unilever…? – October 12, 2011

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:14:43 +0000

The Book

“”The Digital Revolution”… It’s an actual revolution, yielding revolutionary changes, thousands or millions of victims and an entirely new way of life.”

“…oldest communication channel in the world—word of mouth—has been supercharged by the internet, rendering much traditional marketing irrelevant on credibility grounds.”

“…a mindset shift from ‘telling and selling’ to building relationships.”"

This sweeping study of the history of innovation breaks out the seven patterns of innovation like “the slow hunch” and “serendipity.” It debunks the myth of the lone genius and presents the real-world dynamics and context that enable innovation. Johnson shows how understanding the roots of innovation can lead to our own creative breakthroughs.

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

Anatomy Of An Idea – December 14, 2011
Babble Joins Disney – November 17, 2011
Thoughts on Steve Jobs, The Book – October 28, 2011
Introducing Findings – October 25, 2011
Ray Ozzie on Lotus Notes and Slow Hunch Innovation – October 25, 2011
A Theoretical Education – October 19, 2011

Public Parts

admin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:55:55 +0000

The Book

“Relationships may be more telling about a company’s prospects than quarterly income (for relationships build real long-term value and create a true barrier to entry for others).”

“I’d buy the stocks of companies that know me well and play well with others. I’d short the companies that build walls around themselves.”

“Corporations, governments, and old institutions are not built to operate so much in the open. By the time they recognize the need for change and the inevitability of it, new entrants using open platforms will often be ahead of them.”

A visionary and optimistic thinker examines the tension between privacy and publicness that is transforming how we form communities, create identities, do business, and live our lives…In this shibboleth-destroying book, Public Parts argues persuasively and personally that the internet and our new sense of publicness are, in fact, doing the opposite. ..The internet, he argues, will change business, society, and life as profoundly as Gutenberg’s invention, shifting power from old institutions to us all. Based on extensive interviews, Jarvis explores the promising ways in which the internet and publicness allow us to collaborate, think, ways—how we manufacture and market, buy and sell, organize and govern, teach and learn.

The Author

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

Facebook goes public: Zuckerberg in Public Parts & WWGD? – February 1, 2012
Efficiency over growth (and jobs) – January 26, 2012
Davos, disrupted – January 25, 2012
Public Parts on Reding’s four pillars – January 23, 2012
#DLD12: Viviane Reding on privacy – January 22, 2012
Where Gutenberg worked – January 21, 2012

The Living Organization

admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:26:56 +0000

The Book

“Our businesses are living beings. They are not soulless machines that are only concerned with maximizing production and shareholder value. Yet that is what they have become. They have honed their ability to produce but lost their ability to contribute.”

“…much of what happens in business cannot be explained by our existing models, which are based on the machine paradigm.”

“Like all forms of life, organizations create by taking in energy and transforming it into something else. In plants, it’s called photosynthesis. With corporations, it’s called production. Both allow the organism to serve something greater than itself.”

The time-tested economic system is no longer adequate to meet the challenges of a world of evolving complexity….The Living Organization deepens our understanding of how any living organization creates the results it desires. Norman Wolfe draws on decades of experience both leading and consulting with organizations, large and small, to unravel the mystery of creating results. Based on scientific, philosophical and spiritual truths, The Living Organization® model explores how three distinct yet highly interdependent fields of energy influence and determine what results will and will not be created.

The Author

Twitter Feed

The Author’s Blog

Welcome to the world – November 15, 2011
Why Don’t We Learn? – August 5, 2011
Why Activity Alone Isn’t Enough – July 19, 2011
Directors Increasingly Tarnished Image: A New Solution – July 6, 2011
Gregg Tribute – May 12, 2011
A Non-Profit Discovers Its Soulful Purpose™ – May 3, 2011

Social Capital: A New Strategic Play for Investors (Nov 2011)

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:08:38 +0000

Executive Summary

We believe investor demand for heart and soul stocks will rise over the next decade as long-term strategic investors start to look for ways to play the appreciation of social capital and socially conscious investors start to look for companies with a greater purpose.

We identify Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG-NYSE), lululemon (LULU-NASDAQ), Starbucks (SBUX-NASDAQ), and Whole Foods Market (WFM-NASDAQ) as companies with heart and soul as they each meet our following Four Cs criteria:

1. Conception – The founder planted the seeds for the movement inspired by a greater purpose and conceived the company through passion.
2. Core values – The greater purpose leads to a more authentic set of core values that serves to better guide the company.
3. Community – The movement attracts a community of cult-like followers from individuals who believe in its greater purpose and are seeking to align their values with those who they buy from, work for, and do business with.
4. Culture – The organic growth strategy preserves the cultural DNA and further strengthens the strong stakeholder foundation.

The strong and authentic stakeholder foundation of a heart and soul company will convert into a high velocity of social capital as the company leverages the high level of enthusiasm and deep psychological attachment to the company’s brand and greater purpose. We caution investors to be wary of artificial social capital generated through marketing tactics as although a company may appear to show a high level of “likes” or “followers”, the authenticity is what allows the business to sustain stakeholder relationships.

We believe social media will accelerate the value creation process for heart and soul companies by serving to lower the risk profile and act as a growth catalyst for companies to achieve the following three opportunities:

1. Grow Comparable Store Sales – Will act as a catalyst to drive sales productivity by increasing loyalty from existing customers and attracting new customers while reducing the following risk factors: economic, pricing, commodity price, consumer trend, environmental and product liability, regulatory, and technological.
2. Expand Geographic Footprint – Will act as a catalyst to accelerate grassroots marketing initiatives by leveraging existing stakeholder networks to create a positive network effect to attract new customers, employees, and business partners in the markets they are looking to expand into, while also serving as an intelligence source to reduce the risk of development.
3. Launch New Concepts – Will allow them to leverage their existing strong stakeholder relationships to introduce and launch new concepts while the dynamic 24/7 two-way conversation flow serves as a valuable feedback loop.