Short selection of writings on technology, business strategy and philosophy
This page includes a selection of whitepapers, essays, research reports and short topics in the areas of technology, economics, values and humanity.
Business Strategy Whitepapers
The Metrics of Innovation
This whitepaper also converges Business Model Canvas onto Three Horizons framework and explores the relationship between values, talent and innovation. It lays out three channels for growth and transformation: 1) M&A; 2) Corporate VC; 3) Innovation (Incubators and Accelerators). I argue that successful innovation depends on four areas: 1) Core Values; 2) Networks and Talent; 3) Business Model Evolution; 4) Speed and Feedback loops. The paper also draws from W. Brian Arthur’s theories on technology.
Scenario Planning and the Threat of Disruption
This whitepaper looks at the art of scenario planning, exploring topics of uncertainty, how technological progress happens, the firm as community and how bias affects decision making and strategy. It also provides a brief history of some of the key figures in scenario planning, uncertaintly and technology theory from Herman Kahn to Thomas Schelling, from Pierre Wack to Arie de Geus and from Frank Knight to W. Brian Arthur.
Sensing Through Fogs of Uncertainty
This whitepaper looks at how leaders can sense possibility and disruption better through uncertainty in the world around them. It explores topics of decision making and bias, the rate of technological integration, and creativity.
Short Opinion Topics
The Improvisational Moment of Leadership
This piece outlines the idea of the Improvisational Moment, when a customer-facing employee has to improvise and make a decision on the spot. It’s in those moments when the reputation of the firm is on the line and what that employee says and does will forever impact that reputation. The best organizations prepare employees for the Improvisational Moment by instilling a strong sense of values and corporate identity.
On Becoming Visionary: An Executive’s Guide
Working Document: Excerpt of Book Chapters
These are excerpts of working chapters of a book in progress on how to become visionary. Some of the chapters include: Sensing Patterns; What is Sensing?; Types of risk; The Art and Science of Sensing; Becoming Unprepared (Unlearning); Sensing and Organizational Integration; What are we looking for?; The Visionary Matrix; The Visionary Firm.
This excerpt explores topics on innovation; risk and uncertainty; aesthetics, simplicity and problem solving; associative thinking and Aha! Moments; cognitive bias and unlearning; specialists and generalists; pattern recognition; innovation and organizational culture; corporate values; metaphor and narrative; and creative insight.
Economic Man and Humanity
Series of four philosophical essays on capitalism and technology’s impact on humanity
These essays explore the current state of our laissez-faire capitalism and technological progress. They look at the history of man’s pursuit of infinity (the external) going back to the Enlightenment and at the ways technology and capitalism have impacted society. Although these essays are largely about these impacts and man’s adaptation to a world increasingly dominated by data-driven technology, they also discuss topics on innovation and its role in our economic systems, including a possible Law of Innovation and the exploration of some of the externalities of technological progress.
The dominant theme of these essays is that we pursue technology and the future with a belief that those pursuits will help humanity. I argue that these pursuits, while they can provide many positives for society, aren’t necessarily helping humanity and that they may even be dehumanizing us. These philosophical pieces hopefully honor some of the thinking and ideas of Loren Eiseley, Morris Wright, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Dewey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Richard Rorty, Joseph Shumpeter, Peter Senge, Joe Jaworski and Stuart Kauffman.
While these essays are highly critical of man’s blind pursuit of technological advancement, they are not anti-technology. They are meant to help leaders (as well as all of us) to think more broadly about humanity and society as they make strategic choices. Essays 1-3 lay out a my criticism of our current laissez-faire capitalism, innovation and technological progress. Essay 4 provides statistics and summary insights into the state of society and suggests that business leaders can help steer capitalism toward better outcomes for society and humanity.
Essay 1: America’s Emerald City
Essay 2: The American Dream: Uneconomic Man vs. Economic Man
Essay 3: Life and the Pursuit of Utility
Innovation in Education Research Report
Project-Based Learning in a Tech High School
This is a research study on project-based learning at a technology high school in Fresno and Clovis, which was a joint venture between two school districts which represented very different socio-economic demographics. The project brought together students from the wealthier community of Clovis and the working class community of Fresno. The school partnered with a technology incubator and co-working organization to provide leading edge, real-world experience for students interested in technology.
Copyright
All materials (essays, whitepapers, book excerpts and otherwise) linked on this page and anywhere across the BlackwillowGroup.com website are copyrighted and the exclusive property of Bruce Cuthbertson.