There is a really exciting frontier for innovation that more and more companies are discovering. It is at the intersection of market spaces and industries, propelled by seemingly unrelated companies coming together and co-creating. In fact, I label such innovations true ‘blue oceans’, because they establish completely new market offerings.

One of the key, strategic questions that leaders of any company must continuously ask is ‘What business are we really in?’  Repeatedly re-examining and transforming the definition of what you do leads to the discovery of new market spaces and ongoing relevance.

I am pleased to share a new article that appeared in the Russian media about me.  It is an interview conducted by the prominent high-tech journal, Kommersant.

A principal tenet of The Slingshot Framework is to sidestep outright invention, which is resource intensive, time consuming, and risky.  Rather, you should innovate by combining already existing components in new, meaningful ways. One great example of this ‘innovation shortcut’ is using garbage as a resource.

Amazon has an obsession: its customers. Which means that it doesn’t wait for customers to express what they want or need. Rather, it anticipates them. Jeff Bezos, the company’s founder and CEO recently said: “You want to be customer-obsessed, not competitor-obsessed. Customers are always dissatisfied and they always want more. Removing the tiniest amount of friction from ordinary activities improves customers’ lives.”