Be prepared for Google and Apple ‘travel buttons’
“I don't think we’re going to see an Apple travel button or even a consolidated Google travel button this year. I think we'll see it within four years. Once Google does it I think Apple will say “Well, we've got all the patents. We can do it too.” I mean, who knows? Maybe Microsoft with Bing Travel — you don't know what they're going to do. I would never underestimate Microsoft, no matter how far behind they are.”
Excerpted from Apple and Google ‘Travel Buttons’: They’re in Your Future, an interview in the April 10 issue with travel technology consultant Norm Rose.
Milennials are changing business leadership
“When the millennials come into leadership positions access to the people at the top will be easier because they’re so used to working as a group. They like to be with each other, and they make no distinctions between men and women; men and women in the millennial cohort have the same desires for work/family balance as women do now. And you can probably forget about nine to five as standard work hours.”Excerpted from How Milennials, Women, and Pro-Democracy Movements Are Changing Our Ideas about Leadership, an interview in the April 10 issue with business advisor and psychologist Bob Vecchiotti.
Green can cut costs — and drive innovation
“The leaders of virtually every large company have agreed that there’s value in the agenda of reducing waste, reducing energy use, reducing water use. It’s proving to save them so much money that every large company is doing some combination of things in those areas. For the broader agenda, maybe a quarter of the largest companies are seeing it in a deeper way: how green can drive innovation and create brand value and take your business to a new place.”
Excerpted from Sustainability: The Cost-Cutting Imperative, an interview in the April 17 issue with author and green business expert Andrew Winston.
Executing the idea is the real work of innovation
“Execution is always sort of the afterthought in the innovation game …The other side of innovation is about blocking and tackling. It's about getting the work done. It's about blood, sweat, and tears. It is, plainly put, less fun than the big idea hunt. That's why you can generate a lot of excitement and a lot of enthusiasm around the big idea hunt, but when it comes time to execute, you find a lot of people run for the hills.”
Excerpted from Executing Innovation: That Fabulous Idea Is Just the Start, an interview in the April 24 issue with author, educator and innovation expert Chris Trimble.
Why travel is crucial to Google and Apple
“Google believes that anything involving search, including travel, is in their DNA and should be part of a Google solution. It’s a lot less clear with Apple. But you’ve seen a lot of reports from various sources that people are not happy with online travel; they don’t feel it’s as user-friendly as it could be. Apple’s DNA is about making the user experience with computers easier. Travel is a piece of that.”
Excerpted from Apple vs. Google in Travel: The Battle is Brewing, an interview in the April 3 issue with travel technology consultant Norm Rose.
Leadership requires ‘implementers’ not ‘followers’
Implementer “is just a better term than follower. Implementer has more action to it; you are doing something, creating something, making something happen. Today the qualities of implementers are what we used to associate with the qualities of the leader. That means we have to find new descriptors for the people who lead the implementers.”
Excerpted from New Perspectives on Leadership, an interview in the April 3 issue with business advisor and psychologist Bob Vecchiotti.
Why sustainability is crucial, even if you think it’s BS
“There are plenty of people doing green things in their companies who may even think it’s all BS; they don’t believe in climate change, or they don’t think it matters that much. But they know that their employees and their customers care about it, and they know commodity prices are rising, and they want to cut costs, so they don’t need other reasons to do green.”
Excerpted from Batteries Included: The Case for Hybrid Cruise Ships,an interview in the April 24 issue with author and green business expert Andrew Winston.
Innovation is not just about creating something new
“We tend to imagine that innovation is mostly about brilliant people with brilliant ideas who do whatever it takes to bring that innovation to market. That's a pretty unsophisticated viewpoint, frankly. Let’s be clear on what the challenge is: The challenge is not just to create something new; it is to create something new while simultaneously sustaining excellence in what you already do.”
Excerpted from Executing Innovation: That Fabulous Idea Is Just the Start, an interview in the April 24 issue with author, educator and innovation expert Chris Trimble.
In Google vs. Apple, consider the power of third-party developers
“We talk about Google and Apple as if everything comes from Google and Apple. No, it comes from third-party developers who develop on iOS or on Google’s Android platform. There is an aspect of enabling the broader market and the broader creativity of third parties to help improve the travel process. That’s an important part of the DNA of both companies.”
Excerpted from Apple vs. Google in Travel: The Battle is Brewing, an interview in the April 3 issue with travel technology consultant Norm Rose.
Why green practices are fundamental to attracting talent
“A big driver of green innovation is attracting and retaining the best people. There is a need for talent in every industry, and it’s getting harder to find without having answers to questions about how a business handles its responsibilities, how it responds to social and environmental issues around the world. Employees want to know — especially the millennials, the next generation, who care about this a lot more than older generations.”
Excerpted from Batteries Included: The Case for Hybrid Cruise Ships, an interview in the April 24 issue with author and green business expert Andrew Winston.
Needed: Integrated local search for travel
“The thing that hasn't been done well is to integrate real-time information around festivals and activities and so forth with actual activity provider information. There are lots of disparate elements out there that can be integrated to make local search a lot more valuable. Someone has an opportunity to do that, and it may end up being Google, or it may end up being Apple.”
Excerpted from Apple and Google: Up Next—Integrated Local Search, an interview in the April 17 issue with travel technology consultant Norm Rose.