Tough love for bad business ideas: How to advance the extinction of innovative, but unevolved, business ideas

There’s been a lot of sadness communicated over a list of 25 ideas about to become extinct with examples ranging from the US Post Office to milkmen. Luckily, apple pie missed the list. Commentators on the fates of these dying species mourn the loss and wonder how business leaders could have seen the hand just before the plug got pulled. Business Genome views the extinction differently–as a wake up call for business leaders who are avoiding the sometimes unpleasant task of constructing a gallows for their current corporate initiatives that are leading nowhere.

Business Genome offers a 7-step checklist to guide corporate leaders through the task: How to Pull the Plug on Bad Business Ideas. The key to avoiding extinction is not to mourn when it’s too late, but to stick to a discipline of facing facts before the fate is sealed.

Toughen up, stop the bleeding, and move on.

And, do it with a smile. Because after shedding dead ideas, the Phoenix rises, bringing better business ideas.

Umami, the fifth sense for business leaders: How to build a business based on what customers want but can’t tell you

Umami represents the fifth sense in the science of the physiology of taste. Although long-recognized in the East as a flavor sensation that augments the taste dimension that westerners have defined as salty, sweet, bitter, and sour, umami has only recently gained traction in the rest of the world.

Translate the concept of a formerly unnamed “sense” finding a name to the world of business and you have one of the Business Genome’s core lessons on how companies can uncover formerly unnamed consumer preferences. These preferences, sometimes called “latent customer needs”, are elusive to many, yet open a world of opportunity for business leaders charged with developing new products or services with legs in the marketplace. The Business Genome offers the how-to’s of uncovering “customer umami”–the fifth sense for sensing what the market is ready for, but cannot name.

Business heroes, oxymoron, or not: How companies can (and do) change the world

The age of the Business Hero is upon us. Despite numerous examples of corporations with less-than-stellar records related to doing the right thing, there is an emerging new American hero with a 2-pronged punch: 1. the business leader is being viewed as an agent to fundamentally change the products and services that their companies produce, 2. the business leader’s influence is beginning to be seen as an agent for social change, by changing the lives of their employees and the customers they serve. Years ago, Ralph Nader predicted that the key to world change would be for corporations to use their vast resources to make a difference in the world–for example, Coca Cola could insert nutrients in their soft drinks to address world hunger. At the time it seemed like an absurd notion. Yet today, there are numerous examples of this new business hero (for example, Walmart is spearheading global sustainability standards.)

QWERTY, the case for new Fundamentals: How to pack a meaner (and leaner) Remington

The QUERTY keyboard was invented to solve a mechanical complication associated with the design of the original typing machines–two keys struck in sequence would cause sticking. Years later, the typewriters of the 1860s have morphed many times to daisy wheels and now to all sorts of gizmos. Yet, the meme of the QUERTY keyboard persists.

Many companies have habits ingrained in their cultures or their operations that also originated because they solved real problems at the time. But, as circumstances evolve, the business leaders who do not adapt are left behind.

Consider the quote from Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, who believes that their relatively recent business model is doomed. Doomed. The innovation of shipping DVDs and now the ability to download movies via the Internet is rapidly giving way to an explosion of technologies and delivery systems that will leave Netflix in the dust if they don’t adapt rapidly to a changing business environment.

What changes everything: How an index of business innovation fuels growth

Business leaders are inundated with information. But, just like the Library of Babel, a fictional library containing all of the secrets of the universe that lacked an index, the current piles of data are stored in ways that make it tough to find the nugget that will drive growth for your company. The Business Genome library and index will change that–Business Genome is building an open-source, evergreen repository of the most effective and most innovative business ideas with an interactive index. Business leaders will contribute to the community of ideas and can scan the best examples (industry and cross-industry) to fuel growth.