When it comes to schools, does the business community suffer from split personality?
We hear a lot about the influence of business on school reform. But I'm not sure there's a monolithic "business" perspective on schools. Instead, I've seen at least...
Newsweek has apparently scrubbed its lead story on education of some offensive content. The original headline read "The Problem with Education Is Teachers." Well, that's gone. So is the following subhead: "Getting rid of bad teachers is the solution...
A draft of the the Common Core State Standards in K12 appeared yesterday, and the media have taken notice. As far as I can tell so far, response to the draft has been pretty positive. (The public comment period is now open.) I just hope the public...
People in our business commonly talk about the challenges of teaching students who are still learning English. Not so Ted Appel of Luther Burbank High School in California. He sees these students as an asset.
More than half of his school's students...
I usually delete comment spam as soon as it appears, but once in a while I come across an example that's just too good to erase. Here's this month's candidate:
Sometimes, people make the thesis mba by their own efforts. But some students like to...
Newsweek excels at self-parody. It has long produced lop-sided and simplistic reporting on school reform. But this week's lead story takes the cake: "The Problem with Education is Teachers."
I had a hissy fit when I first read that inflammatory and...
Ann Bradley, a longtime reporter and editor for Education Week, has been hired by the American Federation of Teachers to serve as interim director of the unions $3.3 million Innovation Fund.
I've been out of commission for a couple days with a nasty bug I picked up from my infant daughter (who's now better.) So imagine my surprise when I finally open my computer and find a Newsweek cover article titled "The Problem With Education is...
Principal Stephanie Smith of Seaford Middle School has seen the highs and lows of school reform. She has seen her school shake off the stigma it bore as a school "in need of improvement." (Delaware named her its 2008 Principal of the Year for her...
We now know which sixteen states made the cut in the first round of Race to the Top applications. It seems many should be grateful that the Gates Foundation lent a hand.
I made some hasty calculations: If a state received help from Gates in putting...
We hear a lot about the need to ensure that all children succeed. But I'm beginning to think that the rhetoric of "all" has got too many reformers promising things they cannot possibly deliver. It's time to be more honest about the limitations of...
“The only thing harder than starting something new, is stopping something old.” Dr. Russell Ackoff There is a small but persistent minority of people I talk to about open innovation that quickly dismisses it as obvious, usually very politely, and...
Over the past decade or so, the term social entrepreneur has become a fashionable way of describing individuals and organizations that, in their attempts at large-scale change, blur the traditional boundaries between the for-profit and nonprofit...
Rubicon Bakery is deservedly famous for its 12-layer chocolate cakes and other rich confections that generate some $2 million annually in sales. Each sale helps underwrite job training and other programs for poor and disenfranchised people. This...
Joanne Weiss’ career demonstrates that social innovations are often created and driven by people who reach across the nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. Weiss started her career by co-founding and leading several for-profit companies,...
I'm pleased to announce that on the 8th April, NESTA is hosting the Open for Business conference in London that will explore new open business models and answers to problems that lie at the heart of the open innovation process.
This week I've had a tremendous serious of conversations based around the power and pitfall of innovation networks. Everyone I spoke to recognise their importance but few people - myself included - know how to understand how they work or harness...
I tweeted the other day that "ironically the biggest challenge of open innovation seems to be internal". This tweet was prompted by several conversations with people within large organisations with a responsibility for open innovation.
We are planning an international open innovation conference in March called Open for Business. We asked our network who they would you recommend as a great speaker or who they would really like to hear from? We also asked them...
I was recently speaking to Continuum, who are now a big US industrial design and innovation company but back in the early 80's they were essentially a medical devices company who picked up an unusual commission from Reebok. This led...
Human Scale organisations are fundamentally different in that they: 1. Tend towards sharing first and inventing second, to create mutual value; 2. Are honest about the mistakes they’ve made and seek to rectify them quickly; 3. Know their strengths...
There is a new mantra we are repeating for open innovation programmes: 'Start at the end'. Many enterprises and most SMEs enter into an open innovation programme with their eyes closed, leaving the business aspects of their innovation to last....
I'm currently reading the excellent book Everything's an Offer by Rob Poynton, which explains how improvisational theatre can help enterprises can engage with and respond to the complexities and uncertainties of leading organisations into an era...
I recently became aware of two very different british organisations doing interesting things with open innovation. One is The Ordnance Survey and their GeoVation project, and the other is the Symbian Foundation with their Ideas portal. GeoVation is...
"To steer a business through a recession you need to tackle financial management, sales and marketing and innovation," says David Rogers.
The behaviours we develop online are slowly making their way into our wider, offline lives. Rohan Gunatillake explores the impact of this spillover and how it’s forcing us to re-learn the way we interact and collaborate with one another.
Corporate anthropologist, Karen Stephenson, explains how understanding and supporting informal networks of trust can help organisations to become more innovative.
CNT’s mantra that housing affordability needs to include transportation costs, and position that housing and transportation need to be considered together in planning for sustainable communities, have been heard and acted upon in unprecedented ways...
"Cost control is fundamental and even cash-rich companies need to keep costs to an absolute minimum," says Tim Cooke.
"New ideas and approaches will drive your business forward during the recession, so sidelining innovation is absolutely the wrong thing to do. " says Shaa Wasmund.
"Businesses should do everything possible to make their service indispensable to their customers," says Permjot Valia.
How the internet is offering people new ways to act collectively and engage in financial activities, without the traditional intermediary of a bank.
ACTION: Support the "Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act"!
RECAP: Transportation Freedom Day
RESOURCE: 2009 Briefing Book Outlines Illinois Environmental Policy
Events
Thursday, March 26: "What Would Jane Say?"
Nico Macdonald explains corporate open innovation, the changes that have led to its conception, and the evidence presented by its advocates.
All businesses need to look closely at their cost base. I’ve always operated a lean organisation in my businesses, but it’s an essential practice at the moment. Cash is crucial in this climate and it’s no time to be wasting it.
Today's web is really radically different from three or four years ago. The web's centre of gravity has shifted from being a source of broadcast information to a platform for dynamic conversations.
I’ve worked through a few recessions, in the UK and the US, but this time around it’s much nastier. In a very short space of time we’ve seen a housing market meltdown and the collapse of financial systems. Businesses need to adopt a survival...
Clare Cotton is the Venture Catalyst at Cancer Research UK, working on radical innovations to create new fundraising income streams for the organisation. Her role and the growing number of similar roles in the charity sector is a sign that...
NESTA is calling for a £1billion fund of funds to be created after warning that the UK’s next generation of technologies are at crisis point, with early stage innovative firms suffering from the retreat of private venture capital from the sector.
In anticipation of the launch of a NESTA discussion paper – ‘Attacking the Recession’ - which will highlight how in an ultra-connected world, events a thousands miles away can affect us almost immediately.
In a NESTA Provocation, Will Hutton and Philippe Scheider argure that there is genius, dynamism and innovation in capitalism. Unfortunately, standard market theory does not properly allow it to be unlocked.
This week is the Global Entrepreneurship Week. It is often said that there are two types of entrepreneurs, those driven...
NESTA's latest Provocation updates the age-old debate about the efficacy of state intervention versus laissez faire, and in so doing is fiercely critical of economic frameworks used to inform policymaking in the UK.
As 2008 comes to a close, we hope we can count on your support to build sustainable urban communities by making a tax-deductible contribution to CNT.
CNT celebrated 30 years of innovations in 2008. We could never have achieved this landmark…
This week we launch two new NPRU reports stemming from the Innovation and Place research programme.
We take it for granted that a solid evidence base is a key requirement for government interventions. The Department for...
That was Sir Tim Berners-Lee's response to the question 'do we expect too much from the web?'. It was part...
Place Matters! From testifying before a congressional committee and providing the most fuel efficient neighborhoods to Forbes, to updating our Housing + Transportation Affordability Index with current gas costs and expanding I-GO car sharing as a...
