The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

This weeks show is what we call an "Ask Phil" episode where we take your questions on innovation via Facebook or via email, and answer them live during the show. The questions answered during the show were: "I loved your post about feeling stupid!!! You give the best advice that is grounded in you immense amount […]

We all have experienced that regular work annoyance. That thing that is like finger nails on a chalk board. When you ask why, you typically hear back that "its always been done this way". True innovators don't settle and keep asking "why" — and then go out and innovate a solution. In this example, go […]

The ability of any organization to have innovation success is defined by its willingness and ability to do things differently. To change. Lets not fool ourselves – change is hard and makes everyone unconformable. In this weeks show, we discuss the role of change, fear and failure on innovation success. We cover such topics as: Why is […]

Detecting emerging trends and turning them into innovation opportunities can have a dramatic impact on an organization. Where do you find and track these emerging trends? By tracking sites such as TrendWatching, you can gain insights into what is changing so that you aren't surprised and are able to create new products and services ahead of your […]

With the growing interest of organizations to have a closer, real-time connection with their customers, there is the emergence of business-to-consumer messaging channels coming from startups and even well established companies. To address the growth of customer interactions with these new messaging platforms, organizations are turning to chatbots, natural language processing, artificial intelligence and machine […]

What do you do if you have that next great idea but don't have the technical skill to turn it into that next breakthrough innovation? Would you even know how to interview and qualify a person to take on your idea? Many will turn to their network of friends and family or to one of […]

One of the more common questions asked by innovators is about patents and trademarks. For some reason, many innovators focus on patents believing that they need one to secure funding and/or support for their idea. That somehow a patent validates novelty. Given the average cost to secure a patent ($20,000 to $30,000 USD), how should […]

It seems that every organization is looking for the secrets to make their teams more innovative. Is it hiring? Or is it office space design? In this weeks Killer Innovations Show, Thomas D. Kuczmarski, president and founder of Kuczmarski Innovation and co-founder (with journalist Dan Miller) of the Chicago Innovation Awards, shares his thoughts on what […]

In this weeks show, we talk with Tracy Hazzard of Hazz Design whee she has co-invented 35 patents with an 86% commercialization rate and designed 250+ consumer products bought everyday generating over $750 million for her clients. How does she go from idea to on the shelf? On the show, we discuss: The common challenges innovators […]

This week, I share my experience with innovation coaching and innovation mentoring in response to questions from a recent blog post. Over the years I've mentored and coached hundreds of executives, teams and entire companies. Each one is unique and different and I walk away learning something from each and every one. Over the years, […]