Practical Lessons from a CEO After One Year in Business — These 8 Tips are Gold. My personal favorite is “Building product is waaay more fun than expected.” Read all 8 tips at On Startups… http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/105493/Expectations-vs-Reality-8-Lessons-From-The-First-Year-As-CEO.aspx

The Innovation Thought Leaders. “Top honors went to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, best known for originating the theory of disruptive innovation and writing multiple books (including the groundbreaking bestseller ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’).” Read more at Huffington Post… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-zacka/post_7026_b_4904519.html

20-City Innovation Summit Helping Businesses Innovate. “And the best way to innovate and keep innovating, is to take risks, embrace lessons from failure and foster a culture of curiosity and openness, said speakers like Chargers CEO AG Spanos and TED Talk star Cameron Herold. Startups may have the advantage when it comes to pursuing new ideas, they said, but any company can do it with the right leadership and commitment to outside-the-box thinking.” Read more at UT San Diego… http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/mar/03/vistage-ceos-innovation-leadership-summit/

Mastering The Five Levels of Creativity from The Dean of Innovation. Jeff DeGraff has almost completed his series on creativity. In part 4, he shares the importance of story telling. Read more at LinkedIn… http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140303160839-14236046-mastering-the-five-levels-of-creativity-part-4

A View of Global Innovation Summit 2014. “Innovation church – the shared experience of shared values — can help us see that there is something else, something infinitely more important than what we measure, what we track, what we do.” Read more at Forbes… http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrydoss/2014/03/05/innovation-church-the-tie-that-binds/

An Interview Describing Value Innovation. “During the interview, we discuss how most companies have incorrectly identified their most Valuable Customer, the people who they speak to about what innovations they should drive to improve satisfaction.” Listen at… http://www.improvides.com/2014/02/28/valuable-customer-interview-dick-lee-help-find/#.UxDLe4UXdPw

Ideas that Matter. “Ideas that matter fill one or more of the innate needs I describe below, i.e. impart a clear value proposition or deep meaning in the mind but mostly the heart of customers that ultimately add to their happiness (and we can only hope, human progress).” Read more at Necrophone… http://necrophone.com/2014/03/02/yes-you-can-sell-ice-to-eskimos-part-iii-our-advanced-needs/

10 Quick Tips for Productive Customer Visits. “To develop a breakthrough idea you need to back away from the computer, get out of the office and actively pursue new stimulus.  One of my favorite activities as an Innovator is to visit customers to get closer to the work – closer to the problems they are trying to address.” Read more at UpStart Company… http://theupstartcompany.com/2014/03/hit-the-road-10-tips-for-more-productive-customer-visits/