Doing novel things and doing old things… is not enough

Cliff Hazell:

Building a successful organization is a mix of doing new/novel things, old things, and very old things. I think we usually spend too much time talking about the new and novel as if it’s a silver bullet. Doing the old and very old things consistently and well is overlooked.

I would add an additional distinction: there’s the new/novel and there’s the timeless. There is also the timely: doing things at the right time.

==
Highlighting content from my September 2021 newsletter.

Post-covid19 job interview

Hiring manager: We’re just about done here. Do you have any questions for us?

Job candidate: During the 2020 pandemic, how long did you keep your employees on the payroll? And what was your rationale? What specifically did you do to keep your employees safe?

(photo by Headway on Unsplash)

Discovered in translation

A translator, being obliged by the nature of his task to attend to every single successive phrase of his author, however plain the meaning may seem, and to consider the intelligibility of what he renders to the uninitiated, sometimes discovers points of real difficulty which have escaped even the most thorough commentators, or arrives at fresh solutions of old problems. (source)

Not only in formal translation but also when living in multiple languages. It sometimes helps to think of a situation in a different language.

The business card

As a communications form, it is characterized by severe physical limitations and adamantly observed conventions. Its canvas measures a mere 2 inches by 3.5 inches. There is basic information — name, job title, contact info — you’re expected to include, and if you do include it, that can be enough.

(…)

Facebook profiles get revised (…). Tweets fade into the ether and avatars are put out to pasture, but real paper business cards,

these sturdy facsimiles of ourselves on custom-duplexed cardstock with metallic ink and die-cut rounded corners, are going to last forever,

tacked onto bulletin boards, tucked away in wallets, stuffed into filing cabinets, dumped into landfills and yet taking up space in the world, stunning evidence of our superior discernment and professionalism that generations yet unborn will marvel at.

via The Smart Set.

So what is innovation?

“Innovation is tied to time and place” “Innovation is hard to define, but when we see it, we recognize it.” “The vast majority of innovation occurs where opportunity meets preparation.” “One recipe for innovation involves blending two different things that come together to create a third thing.”

Innovators are like jazz musicians… or like permanent teenagers. These and other analogies flowed [at this MIT panel discussion], as top-flight tech inventors tried to put their fingers on the precise nature of innovation and how it can best be coaxed into existence.

Schools kill creativity

70/20/10 – Managing innovation the Google way

MBA graduates still in demand

In spite of recent concerns in the business school world that MBA degrees do not teach students skills that companies need, recruiters are increasingly giving the professional services firms a run for their money when it comes to recruiting newly minted MBAs directly from business school. These days companies such as BP, BT, Google, Pepsico, Samsung and Shell are names as familiar on the business school campus as investment banks and management consultancies.

The sea change came with the classes that graduated in 2002 and 2003. Following the terrorist attacks in the US and subsequent economic uncertainty, management consultancies and bankers slashed staff numbers and stayed away from business schools. Industrial companies saw their chance. (FT)