PowerBlog Review: Innovation.net

Editor's note: We are pleased to bring you the seventy-second in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This week's review is being guest-blogged by Lynne Meyer. Lynne Meyer, APR, is president of A Way with Words.

By Lynne Meyer

The Innovation.net blog's tagline says "it's all about collaborative innovation."

Innovation.net is the brainchild of Mike Docherty. He began blogging a little over a year ago in order to learn about blogging. He says, "I wanted to learn about blogging and had lots of ideas and observations on managing innovation from my 24 years in general management, marketing and new product development. I want to help my readers draw deeper insights and knowledge from what they see and experience related to innovation and entrepreneurship."

Mike is CEO of Venture2, Inc, a consulting and new ventures management company focused on launching breakthrough innovation in the consumer products industry. He blogs from Delray Beach, Florida, USA.

Mike's postings vary in length, which is a nice way to mix things up. For example, Mike's May 5, 2005, posting is only two short paragraphs. A posting that ran a couple of months prior ran 10 paragraphs.

Mike also mixes things up with a different technique. He intermingles artwork with his postings. Sometimes it's a photo, other times it's line art. And it always relates to the content of that particular posting.

Here's something I like very much about Mike's blog. He includes interviews.
One such interview was with the CEO of a company called Eureka Medical, about Eureka's business model and philosophies on medical innovation. The interview is excellent because it asks a question and allows the interviewee to delve into the answer in depth. Because the interview with the CEO covered a lot of territory, Mike wisely broke it up into a series of three interview postings. And he didn't run them as three consecutive postings, but instead over a period of three weeks. This technique can keep readers interested in coming back.

About 15 years ago, business books became red-hot "must reads," and the trend continues. Because we want to be successful in business, we scoop them up by the dozens. They typically have catchy titles (who can ever forget "Winning By Intimidation" and "Who Moved My Cheese"?) and concepts (Be a 60-second Manager!). I don't know about you, but I've bought some of these tomes, only to read them and think "Where's the beef?" It would be good to know which ones are truly worth reading because, let's face it, time is precious for us all.

Mike read one such book -- Blue Ocean Strategy -- and then reviewed it in a posting:

"I've read other reviews, and they seem generally very positive. Sorry, but I can't help but feel that this book's premise is a metaphor in search of an idea. Maybe I didn't get that 'I can change the world' feeling, however short-lived it may be, that I get from reading other innovation visionaries I respect and read. However, I wouldn't recommend this one."

Mike just saved his readers -- those lucky souls who hadn't yet shelled out 30 bucks to buy the book -- money and time.

One of the key characteristics about this blog is the way it gives an in-depth and high-level look at consumer product innovation. This is a blog intended for senior-level decisionmakers. This is not a "tips" kind of blog. Rather, it is a strategy blog.

Visit Innovation.net.