Inspiration to learn about yourself

Via TED , where you can find several extraordinary talks by people from all over the world, I came across this 15 minute talk by Steve Jobs. Towards the end of his talk, Mr. Jobs says: "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." I was quite moved by this talk. As a matter of fact, I cried a couple of times as I listened to Steve Jobs speak.

On Christmas Eve, I attended a service at Predigerkirche in Zürich. The experience was, in more aspects, different than what I have experienced at other churches. I noticed, for example, the following 7 innovative initiatives: # 1: Each participant was offered to bring home a candle The idea of once in a while offering participants to take home something tangible such as a candle is quite good, I think. When I now look at the candle I was offered to bring home from this service, I think about the time I spent in the church - including the Christmas music I listened to there. # 2: The furniture in the church is comfortable I have been to several churches where participants sat on hard, wooden benches. At Predigerkirche , the benches are covered with leather cushions. And what is even more interesting: There are, in the church, also comfortable chairs. Building on the initiative using comfortable chairs I came to think about an idea: How about placing a full automatic coffee machine at...

One of the things I admire about Switzerland is that basically any place people go, it’s clean. I wrote about that in an earlier posting . Train stations are no exception. They are very clean as well. I have noticed, however, that many train stations in Switzerland tend to more or less look the same and be somewhat grey and dull. Have a look, for example, at these 4 photos from Olten and Langenthal train stations: Olten train station Langenthal train station Olten train station Langenthal train station To fix the somewhat dark look of train stations in Switzerland, I came to think about 4 ideas – not least inspired by this posting . Idea # 1: How about adapting the design of respective train stations to various sites near the respective train station? Here’s an example from Museum Station in Toronto Idea # 2: How about using fresh colours to make train stations attractive to look at? Below are a couple of examples: Train stations at Munich and Tokyo Ideas # 3: What if companies, who ma...

Below are 5 photos of fine Christmas impressions which I came across in Zürich throughout this month. The first 2 photos below are impressions from the neighbourhood, where I live. This photo is from Hallenbad City The last 2 photos are from the event Friedenslicht at Zürisee / Lake Zürich .

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Listening to this 50 minute talk by Ms. Terri Kelly, CEO of W. L. Gore & Associates - a talk that I strongly encourage you to listen to - I wrote down these 20 things that I learned: # 1: W. L. Gore & Associates has about 8,500 associates. Every person is a company owner. # 2: People, who work for W. L. Gore & Associates, don’t talk about “expenses”. They talk about “investments”. # 3: Compensation is determined by peer review. Everyone in a team ranks everyone. # 4: W. L. Gore & Associates wants small plants and will split up plants that have more than 200-250 associates. Consequently, the company has hundreds of different facilities. This is a catalyst for growth, because it creates a large amount of ownership. # 5: The company takes a very decentralized approach to organizing things and believes in the power of small teams. # 6: Mr. Bill Gore hated policy manuals and bureaucratic ways of telling the organization what to do. # 7: A person is only a leader...

I came across a really interesting conversation between Stuart Pallister and Hal Gregersen about the innovator’s DNA. Based on a six-year-long study into disruptive innovation involving some 3,500 executives, Hal Gregersen found 5 discovery skills you need. It would be great to hear your thoughts. # 1: Associating Combine pieces of what may seem disparate pieces of information until you have a new idea. # 2: Observing For example, watching people do a certain thing/job and finding out what frustrates and irritates them can lead to ideas for a new product or service that can solve the particular problem more effectively. In this example , I observed that some people have a hard time lifting up lids of garbage containers. I wrote a posting about it here mentioning that improvements have been made, as the lids of the old garbage containers were even heavier. The newest solution for getting rid of garbage, that I have seen in Zürich, not also has a better design - it is also even more ...

One of the things I admire about Switzerland is that streets, cities, forests, lakes, mountains - well basically anywhere people go - are so clean here. For example, I noticed the other day - I think it was one of the first days of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen - 4 men using blowing machines to collect leaves that had fallen down from the trees at a football field in Zürich. The field is now completely green again. It looks like it has been vacuumed. By the way, the red building in the back on the first photo below is a school building. What are your thoughts?

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Here’s an example of banking innovation: Via this blog posting , I came across this 3 minute video on which students in Nicaragua, who got loans through Vittana , tell their story.

Hygge is a Danish word. Here are a couple of definitions: " Hygge is a feeling of friendship, warmth, contentment and peace with your immediate surroundings." Source . " Hygge is a Danish word which has no exact lexical meaning to English, but the closest is "cosiness". However, this word for the Danes is much more complex than that. It involves the environment around you and the feelings you have towards them. It relates to all your physical senses and emotional one too: warmth, fulfillness, closeness, relaxing, and maybe sincereness. Therefore, it is difficult to explain, but the best way is just simply to experience it." Source . When I think about "hygge", I think, for example, about the use of candles, for example at windows, as well as the use of small table lamps with indirect light. To illustrate a contrast in this regard: Hygge, to me, is not about very strong, bright, direct light coming from a huge lamp attached to the ceiling li...

At the end of a previous blog posting , I included links to short videos showing the making of Google Street View for 2 UNESCO World Heritage sites : - A 1 minute video showing the making of Google Street View for Stonehenge, Great Britain . - A 1½ minute video showing the making of Google Street View for The Palace of Versailles , which was the principal residence of the French kings from the time of Louis XIV to Louis XVI. Via this posting , I came across another interesting 2 minute video, through which I learned more about how Google Street View makes it easier and more exciting for us to experience the UNESCO World Heritage sites . You can read more about the alliance between Google and UNESCO , the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, by clicking here .

Via this blog posting and the video embedded in the posting, I learned that, in China, some doctors are paid monthly when you are healthy. If you are sick, you don’t pay that month. What are your thoughts?

Have you thought about which customer needs you really satisfy with your products and/or services? Watch this 1 minute video with Paul Sloane to get some advice. For more inputs on company purpose, have a look at this slideshow .