Mike Collins, CEO of Big Idea, offers his insights into innovating and inventing.
The Elevator Speech: Pitching an Idea
When you're pitching your idea to a decision maker, play it like a pro: deliver your best in a 2-minute elevator speech.
The Independent Innovator's Edge
Innovation at large companies and at entrepreneurial startups looks very different. But the biggest difference isn't the size of the R&D budget.
Inventing for Success: Quality vs. Quantity
We've noticed that many of our most successful inventors take one of two paths. Either they focus on producing select, highly polished presentations ("quality") or they churn out less refined presentations in volume ("quantity").
Investing in Inventors: How BIG Works with You
With certain opportunities, BIG determines that the value potential of an item can greatly
increase if BIG and the inventor push a concept further down the development curve.
Looking for Open Doors
Within the last couple of weeks, I heard basically the same comment from the CEO of a major consumer products corporation and the owner of a small specialty toy store. To paraphrase: "We have to continue innovating--doing things faster, better and cheaper--or the competition will eat us up."
The Open Source Revolution
With so many other competitive advantages disappearing, innovation is one of the remaining corporate
differentiators. And as a powerful new innovation model, open source is rapidly gaining interest.
Picking Your Opportunities Wisely
We see too many inventors spending hundreds of hours refining and polishing essentially mediocre ideas. It's better to face a reality check up front before investing your time, money, and emotional capital in an idea that the marketplace will ultimately veto.
The Power of Focus
One of the most important pieces of advice that I can give inventors is to focus. That is, to devote your inventing to an area where you develop experience, contacts, and a track record.
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Big Idea Group was created by Michael Collins. Mr. Collins is an inventor and serial entrepreneur. Mr. Collins has an undergraduate degree in engineering from Dartmouth and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He founded Kid Galaxy, a specialty toy company and producer of the award-winning Bendos line. Mr. Collins is a frequent speaker on the business of innovation, appearing at industry conventions, university forums, and inventor groups. He can be contacted at