Guy Kawasaki, TED Talk on “The Art of Innovation”

 

Currently, Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. But before his present position, Guy has a long background of experience with Motorola, Google, and Apple. He has written 11 books, with a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA. To say the least, Guy Kawasaki is more than qualified to discuss the art of innovation.

Throughout his talk today at Berkley in beautiful California, he began with discussing his theme of creating. This theme of creating is a major aspect of innovation. He found the best way to break this down was to split it up into 11 sections; making meaning versus making money, make a mantra, jump to the next curve, roll the dice, don’t worry be crappy, let 100 flowers blossom, polarize people, churn baby churn, niche thyself, perfect your pitch, and don’t let the bozos grind you down. So what do these clever tag lines really mean?

Making Meaning Versus Making Money
Plain and simple, a company won’t make money without having a meaning or purpose. Fail is inevitable without purpose. Because of this, it’s important to let people, consumers, everyone, share your product or idea.

Make a Mantra
Why should your meaning exist? A mission statement is the wrong form of action here. Instead, make a fast and to the point statement consisting of 2-3 words that explains why you should exist.

Exmaple: Nike

AUTHENTIC, ATHLETIC, PERFORMANCE

Jump To The Next Curve
Perspective is important. If the public views your product as something you didn’t intend for it to become, embrace it!

Roll The Dice
Great products have specific aspects; deep (lots of features), intelligent, complete, empowering and elegant.

Don’t Worry Be Crappy
Being first to create and innovate means there might be elements of being “crappy,” and that’s okay. All products will have kinks and imperfections; this leaves room to create a newer and better version (which means more money).

Let 100 Flowers Blossom
Start great innovation, and then let it blossom. Again, don’t be proud, accept innovation and become what the public says your product is.

Polarize People
You can love or hate products, but you can’t be afraid of pissing people off. Don’t be afraid to create something that might annoy a niche audience, go for it!

Churn Baby Churn
To be an innovator, you need to be in denial. This means that as soon as you ship a product, you need to begin changing and evolving the product.

Niche Thyself
Appealing to a niche market is important. There are four concepts of becoming a niche product, compete on price, being unique but with no value, not valuable and not unique, and being unique.

Perfect Your Pitch
If you’re an innovator, customize to your audience. You can do this successfully by understanding your audience. Also keep in mind that there should only be 10 slides presented in 20 minutes, and use 30-point size font.

Example: Kawasaki in Russia

“You have big balls”

Don’t Let Bozos Grind You Down
Don’t listen to losers, they aren’t dangerous and not worth listening to. Keep in mind that people who are ‘rich and famous,’ aren’t necessarily smart, it just means they are lucky.

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Overall, Kawasaki gave a fun and comedic presentation. Such a great way to open the TEDx conference at Berkeley!

Published by: Samantha Rishe
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