Whitepapers

When it comes to serious decisions in business or in life, this mental quirk can set us up for catastrophic failure unless we actively work to keep it in check. Imagine this: You’re heading for the cashier at your local bookstore when you pass a display selling coffee mugs for $5. There’s only one left, sporting an image of your favorite celebrity, but you’re not willing to spend…

“If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” Albert Einstein said. Those were wise words, but from what I have observed, most organizations don’t heed them when tackling innovation projects. Indeed, when developing new products, processes, or even businesses, most companies aren’t sufficiently rigorous…

Most people assume that what it takes to be a great problem solver is simply raw intelligence. However, while intelligence helps, it’s not the only important element. Research done in the 1990s at Bell Labs, one of the most innovative research institutions on the planet, showcases this principle clearly. They identified the most productive scientists in the labs, whom they called “Stars,”…

Your success as an entrepreneur is contingent on your ability to solve problems effectively, and one of the best tools you have for the job is your creativity.   Entrepreneurs are problem solvers at heart. Most businesses are designed to solve some kind of consumer problem; for example, you might sell a product that allows people to do something they’d otherwise be incapable of or…

From Mark Zuckerberg to will.i.am, it seems that everyone has championed the importance of learning code. This is a great thing. Learning how to code, however, isn’t just about knowing C++, Java and Ruby, but rather changing the way you think. At Stanford, a young Marissa Mayer ended up tossing her pre-med flashcards and chose computer science instead because she wanted to study…