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Hundreds of posts and several years since its inception, I have moved on from my blog: Tomorrow’s Trends. The last couple years have been a whirlwind as I worked on launching a major technology product and I have more in the que. I just have not had time to keep up with Tomorrow’s Trends for a while now. Other things took priority.

When I launched the blog many years ago, I meant for it to be an interesting place for people to find cutting edge business and technology items. Things that might not be covered heavily in major media – but were potentially world changing or simply interesting. I have had some success, as it was inducted into the Forbes network of blogs and also Alltop network of top blogs. It has been fun, but it is time for me to move on.

So, in order for me to move on and for the quality and quantity of posts to improve, I decided to find a new owner. It did not take long.  For anyone who would like to keep track of me – you can always follow me at my personal blog (here) on Twitter, and on CrowdPlace.

So, enjoy Tomorrow’s Trends. I look forward to its progress in the future.

Inc. has a great article concerning the differences in thought processes between big corporate leaders and entrepreneurs.

Corporate leaders, dealing with known markets, and incremental innovation – are much more plan-focused and step through more solid, mathematical, logical process. Innovative entrepreneurs – working with a lot of unknowns in customers, markets, designs – and seeking ground-breaking innovation – seek immediacy and flexibility. Less time is invested in the academic exercises like market research and business plans – more time is invested in building stuff.

Sarasvathy likes to compare expert entrepreneurs to Iron Chefs: at their best when presented with an assortment of motley ingredients and challenged to whip up whatever dish expediency and imagination suggest. Corporate leaders, by contrast, decide they are going to make Swedish meatballs. They then proceed to shop, measure, mix, and cook Swedish meatballs in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible.

That is not to say entrepreneurs don’t have goals, only that those goals are broad and—like luggage—may shift during flight. Rather than meticulously segment customers according to potential return, they itch to get to market as quickly and cheaply as possible, a principle Sarasvathy calls affordable loss. Repeatedly, the entrepreneurs in her study expressed impatience with anything that smacked of extensive planning, particularly traditional market research. (Inc.’s own research backs this up. One survey of Inc. 500 CEOs found that 60 percent had not written business plans before launching their companies. Just 12 percent had done market research.)

How Great Entrepreneurs Think

Steve Blank has a good breakdown of the 4 types of entrepreneurship in one of his posts. It’s important to remember that there are several types of entrepreneurship. Many may think that “entrepreneurs” are only people that start venture funded, fast growing companies.

Below is the list:

1. Small Business Entrepreneurship
Today, the overwhelming number of entrepreneurs and startups in the United States are still small businesses. There are 5.7 million small businesses in the U.S. They make up 99.7% of all companies and employ 50% of all non-governmental workers.

2. Scalable Startup Entrepreneurship

Unlike small businesses, scalable startups are what Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and their venture investors do. These entrepreneurs start a company knowing from day one that their vision could change the world. They attract investment from equally crazy financial investors – venture capitalists.

3. Large Company Entrepreneurship

Large companies have finite life cycles. Most grow through sustaining innovation, offering new products that are variants around their core products. Changes in customer tastes, new technologies, legislation, new competitors, etc. can create pressure for moredisruptive innovation – requiring large companies to create entirely new products sold into new customers in new markets. Existing companies do this by either acquiring innovative companies or attempting to build a disruptive product inside. Ironically, large company size and culture make disruptive innovation extremely difficult to execute.

4. Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurs are innovators who focus on creating products and services that solve social needs and problems.

Steve Blank

A progress bar can made to seem to be progressing more quickly with some slight visual adjustments. I have to admit I like the illusion. Even through the progress is not moving any faster, I like the fact that it feels like it is going to complete faster. Check out the video so see the illusion for yourself.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

New Scientist TV: Best videos of 2010: The progress bar illusion.

Interesting interview with Steve Blank…

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
Hubris, Passion and Customer Development « Steve Blank.

Nice video about “my Memphis”.

I launched a redesign of Tomorrow’s Treds. I am thinking about various options for that blog along with exploring options for a personal blog. I have several ideas I am toying with…

“There are two main differences in social innovation during difficult financial times,” Katz said. “First, the need for true social innovation is never more acute than when things are not humming along in the global economy. Second, there is increased oversight on social innovators to be ruthlessly efficient and profit-driven.”
Worldchanging: Recession and Innovation

E-mail is a convenient and useful communications medium. But, people overestimate their ability to effectively communicate through e-mail. Be careful when you use e-mail to be sure that the message can not be misinterpreted. Use the phone or personal contact when conveying sensitive information – or any information that could be misunderstood without the proper vocal and physical cues that a live conversation has.

Increasingly, business communications are through e-mail. And, often, tensions escalate as mis-cues and misunderstandings occur because of the use of email.

There are three main problems.

1. E-mail lacks cues like facial expression and tone of voice. That makes it difficult for recipients to decode meaning well.

2. The prospect of instantaneous communication creates a false urgency. This pressures e-mailers to think and write quickly, which can lead to carelessness.

3. You can’t develop a good personal rapport over e-mail. This makes relationships more fragile in the face of conflict.

“In effect, e-mail cannot adequately convey emotion. A recent study by Profs. Justin Kruger of New York University and Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago focused on how well sarcasm is detected in electronic messages. Their conclusion: Not only do e-mail senders overestimate their ability to communicate feelings, but e-mail recipients also overestimate their ability to correctly decode those feelings.”

Link