Catalyst Strategies

Overview: Driving Growth Through Innovation

sparks — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:06:06 +0000

About This Series Innovation is always a hot topic. Business leaders are curious about the best ways to generate out-of-the-box ideas. They worry about keeping great ideas alive long enough to reach commercial success. And, they wonder if their company has what it takes to drive growth through innovation. In this series of blog posts, [...]

What is Innovation?

sparks — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:05:19 +0000

Introduction There isn’t much disagreement with the idea that innovation can be a great growth driver. But there are differing views on what it takes to be an innovative company. Some believe that a revolutionary idea is all that stands between a company’s status quo and meteoric growth. Companies with this view tend to invest [...]

The Ability to Innovate: Nature or Nurture?

sparks — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:04:24 +0000

Introduction Ever wondered whether being an innovative company is the product of nature or nurture? In our experience, it’s a bit of both. Some companies – like IBM or Apple – seem to be natural innovators. Others aren’t born innovators or have lost the aptitude over time, but they can learn to innovate better. In [...]

An Innovation Success Story

sparks — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:03:45 +0000

Introduction Innovators at some companies, particularly in the technology arena, believe that customers can’t drive innovation. We disagree. While customers may not be able to design the innovative products they will ultimately use, they can describe their challenges, their needs, and their likes and dislikes. In our view, understanding customer behaviors and meeting unmet needs [...]

About Sparks

sparks — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:28:34 +0000

Catalyst Strategies is a catalyst for business growth, a spark that ignites innovation and momentum. We publish Sparks, our thought leadership series, to help fire-up growth ideas. Sparks features insights from business leaders and Catalyst Strategies on a hot topic that is connected to business growth. Each Sparks post also provides links to related studies [...]

Social As A Business Growth Engine

sparks — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:09:02 +0000

Sparks explores social business strategy with three talented business leaders: Peter Friedman – Chairman and CEO, LiveWorld Sandy Carter – VP Social Business & Collaboration Solutions Sales & Evangelism, IBM Matt Tucker – Co-Founder and CEO, Jive Software Highlights “The core principles of social media – dialogue and relationships – are the same for consumers [...]

Social Media: Matt Tucker

sparks — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:28:41 +0000

Matt Tucker Matt Tucker, co-founder and CTO, is responsible for the long-term technical and strategic direction of Jive’s products. Along with Bill Lynch, Matt founded Jive Software in 2001 and has helped build the company from just two people to where it is today. Matt is an active member in open standards communities including having [...]

Social Media: Sandy Carter

sparks — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:24:41 +0000

Sandy Carter Sandy Carter is Vice President of Social Business and Collaboration Solutions Sales and Evangelism at IBM where she sets the direction for IBM’s Social Business initiative, works with companies who are becoming Social Businesses, and is the evangelist for the concept and best practices around Social Business. She is the best-selling author of [...]

Social Media: Peter Friedman

sparks — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:15:01 +0000

Peter Friedman Peter Friedman founded LiveWorld in 1996 and has 27 years of experience creating and executing community strategies for Fortune 500 companies. He has launched and managed multiple online services on a global scale, always focused on bringing people together in successful collaboration. Previously, Peter was the vice president and general manager of Apple [...]

Mobility

sparks — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:31:23 +0000

Sparks explores mobility as a driver of business growth with three talented business leaders: Patrick Meyer – President, Sourcebits Technologies NA Mark Wilson – VP of Corporate and Field Marketing, Sybase Alexander Ilg – Founder & Managing Director, msc mobile Highlights “Mobility speaks to a bigger phenomenon about … being empowered to work and live [...]