For CEOs, creativity is now the most important leadership quality for success in business, outweighing even integrity and global thinking, according to a new study by IBM. The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews, with over 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries polled on what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.
Fast Company‘s annual list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business just took on a whole new depth. And this year’s list will be …

With the two simple core ingredients of bread and cheese, the grilled cheese sandwich innately lends itself to added bells and whistles. Meat, veggies, chocolate, fruit… there’s not much you couldn’t throw in with melted cheese between two pan-fried slices of bread. Many of us associate the grilled cheese with childhood lunches and tomato soup, but there’s an army of creative chefs out there keeping the American staple alive and relevant for grown-ups. It’s back, and it’s not just for lunch anymore. Below we’ve compiled some of the most …

TRIZ (pronounced /ˈtriːz/) is a romanized acronym for Russian: Теория решения изобретательских задач (Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch) meaning “The theory of solving inventor’s problems” or “The theory of inventor’s problem solving”. It was developed by a Soviet engineer and researcher Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues starting in 1946. It has been evolving ever since.
Today, TRIZ is a methodology, tool set, knowledge base, and model-based technology for generating innovative ideas and solutions for problem solving. TRIZ provides tools and methods for use in problem formulation, system analysis, failure analysis, and …

Here at The Economist Innovation Conference in Berkeley, California, hundreds of thought leaders have gathered to discuss the process, politics and economics of innovation.
How do you create an innovative technology? How do you balance innovation and economics? What fosters great ideas? On stage earlier today was Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, who spoke to a lot of these points. He was interviewed by Economist correspondent Martin Giles; He also answered question from the audience.
Here’s a small sampling of his thoughts on how innovation and …

Photography by Antiparticle

Photography by Scalleja

Photography by Chuck The Writer

Photography by crazynd

Photography by crazynd

Photography by crazynd

Photography by Betsy Weber

The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.
But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become …

. . . . This would be a far cry from e-mails from folks in some faraway country telling me a long lost relative with the same last name has died and the money could be mine soon. All I have to do is send them some money. Clearly they don’t understand social networking, venture capital and the new marketing order at all. It’s not about the money, it’s about the network!
A few days later, I was forced to face reality. My friends and followers just weren’t doing the …

Read more about Codex Seraphinianus

In the last post I beat you to death about ditching your business plan but failed to provide an alternative.
Okay okay, “Planning = Bad,” but the supposed benefits of planning are still important: designing for profitability, understanding your customers and competitors, focusing your attention, deciding what’s worth doing next, changing directions, and ensuring the founders agree on important issues.
To help you, I’m stealing a trick from therapists.
Therapists don’t tell you what to do. Rather, they ask probing questions that get you to discover for yourself what is true for …

Google has become known for creating a fun environment for employees, and has set somewhat of a standard in doing so. We’ve seen the offices of facebook, twitter, collegehumor, and a bunch of others… Now, here’s a look inside Pixar.
See the entire collection of pics at: topcultured
___________
{Photography by tom arthur}

Old media loves nothing quite so much as writing about their own impeding death. And we always enjoy adding our own two cents – the AP not knowing what YouTube is, the NYTimes guys reading TechCrunch every day, etc.
Speaking broadly, I like what Reuters, Rupert Murdoch and Eric Schmidt are saying: the industry is in crisis, and the daring innovators will prevail. Personally, I still think the best way forward for the best journalists, if not the brands they currently work for, is to leave those brands and do …

Distraction is the enemy of good writing, as anyone who ever puts pen to (figurative) paper certainly knows. There are several text editors out there that aim to limit writers’ visual distractions—DarkCopy, for example, is one—but a new alternative uses elements of Zen to create a multisensory ambience that’s designed to promote concentration.
Originally developed as an internal tool for the copywriters at Barcelona creative agency Herraiz Soto & Co., Ommwriter is a free text processor that uses visual elements and sound to help writers focus their thoughts.
Read more at: …

Social Media and Identity
We are witnessing a profound change in the media and advertising industries due to the emergence of social media. Companies that did not exist ten years ago, like Facebook and Twitter, have captured significant share of the attention economy from traditional publishers. Underscoring this trend is the fact that at the same time that Businessweek was selling for less than $5 million  (plus assumption of debts) to Bloomberg, Foursquare’s pretty cousin Gowalla drove up Sand Hill road and collected $8.4 million for a minority stake.
Amidst this disruption, …

Let’s call it the “Paranormal Effect” initiative.
Clearly dazzled by the fact that it could gross more than $100 million on a movie that barely cost $15,000 to make, Paramount Pictures is set to launch a new production wing devoted to films budgeted at less than $100,000. As my colleague John Horn reported today:

“The as-yet-unnamed division’s initial plan is to finance as many as 20 ‘micro-budget’ movies annually starting in 2010… Funds for the movies — about $1 million annually — will be part of Paramount’s existing production budget….Some of …

He’s one of indie filmmaking’s biggest names. If you ever find yourself watching a film you’re not sure who directed… here’s a checklist of signs to know you’re watching one of Anderson’s films.
5- Bill Murray Being Serious
If you’re seeing this comic king in a movie that was made in the past ten years it’s probably a Wes Anderson movie. Of the last fifteen film projects Murray has done four have been with Anderson. It was his role in “Rushmore” that made him an indie-film darling with such directors as …

Spend a wonderful New Year’s Eve relaxing at one of the many wonderful Tuscan thermal spas. You will be surprised by wonderful shows and entertainment accompanying your hot bath in the beneficial and relaxing waters of these beauty centers immersed in nature. You are sure to meet a very unusual way of celebrating the beginning of a new year, however a very pleasant one, which will bring you in a romantic dimension made of soft colors, warm feelings, delicate scents, exotic tastes and invigorating treatments. You will spend this …