I hope everyone had a good long weekend. Email traffic seemed light on Friday so I suspect some were able to get a head start. I had big plans to make the most of what many consider the last weekend of summer. In addition to ‘summer things', I planned to spend some time on a creative hobby. To get into a creative mindset, I listened to a couple of TED Talks last week. One of them, “How to get out of the box and generate ideas” was ok. I've listened to that one before.

The one I really liked from last week's listenings was by Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee. His talk, “The art of innovation” focused on 8 key principles to success in innovation”

• Make meaning
• Have a mantra (not mission statement)
• Jump to the next curve
• Don't be so successful on the icemaking curve that you can't see the refrigerator curve
• Innovation isn't a better daisy wheel printer but rather a laser printer
• Create something that is deep
• Don't worry, be crappy
  • When you have jumped to the next curve, it is ok to have elements of crap in an outstanding product
• Let 100 flowers blossom
  • Macintosh was saved by Aldus Pagemaker (The Apple product stood out from other computers because it was viewed as a desktop publishing machine)
• Polarize people
• TiVo, iPhone
• People need to either love the product or hate it
• Churn baby, churn
  • Keep evolving
• Niche thyself
  • Uniqueness (y-axis) and value (x-axis)
  • Be in the upper right corner (high value, highly unique)
• Perfect your pitch

During VP Council last week, we focused on strategies to be more entrepreneurial in our efforts. Some of the ideas generated were quite creative. One idea was for each statewide program to develop a business plan using the talents of business school students. A better understanding of what restrictions/policies are the sideboards to entrepreneurial activities is needed by all. Another recommendation was to discover and share what our counterparts in other states are doing to address the same challenges UC ANR has with declining central funds. #3, above, might be a good principle to consider. Now that I write this, I realize that I left with homework – I had better write that down or it won't get done.

Well now that the holiday is over, it's time to get ready for the week. The SI leaders have a full agenda tomorrow. Program Council meets on Wednesday. REC directors and County Directors have Zoom meetings on Friday. I can't remember what's on the calendar for Thursday so I will just leave it to be a surprise. Construction seems to be everywhere so I'm not clear how I will get to Oakland or Davis this week but that's all part of the adventure.