Monday, February 25, 2008

A few random quotes

Rather than discussing a topic, I thought I'd just choose some random quotes which mean something to me.


"I would define the Valley of Death as when the amount of money you’re starting to ask for—the bill—starts to add up to the point where management says, ‘What are you guys up to, what are you doing, and what am I going to get out of it?’ But yet it is sufficiently early in the process that you don’t feel you can answer that question. If you are fortunate enough that the questions come when you have an answer, you, in fact, have scooted over the Valley. If not, you are squarely in that Valley."

Gerald Adolph, Booz Allen Hamilton.


"Innovations always threaten someone in power"

Scott Berkun, The Myths of Innovation, 2007


“The ability to make the kinds of generalisations and predictions that are typically associated with science and models is consistently being undermined by the phenomenon of complexity”

Downs and Mohr, Towards a Theory of Innovation, 1979


”paradox is at the heart of innovation. The pressing need for survival in the short term requires efficient exploration of current competencies and requires ‘coherence, coordination and stability’; whereas exploration / innovation requires the discovery and development of new competencies and this requires the loosening and replacement of these erstwhile virtues”

Storey & Salaman, Theories about the process of innovation, 2002