75 years ago, Henry Ford unveiled the Soybean car, an automobile made out of plastic parts. There were several reasons why Henry Ford wanted to build this car: 1.) He wanted to combine the fruits of industry with agriculture. 2.) He believed that the plastic panels made the car safer than traditional steel cars. 3.) Another reason was due to a shortage of metal at the time. Even though the design and idea was innovative, the outbreak of World War II suspended all auto production, and therefore the plastic car experiment. By the end of the war, the idea of a plastic car had fallen through the cracks due to energy being directed toward war recovery efforts. Timing is everything, especially when it comes to innovation. As always, there’s always a good time to explore the links of the week. Don't be a hypocrite about failure. "Our failure hypocrisy is hurting our teams and our companies. If you're a leader, it's time for you to open up about failure. Yes, it will be embarrassing at first, but you will learn more and watch your team – and you – grow stronger. Act now. Don't fail at failure." Digital Marketing in Banking: evolution or Revolution? “The new digital landscape has not only empowered today’s consumer to be in control of the buying process, but it has also dramatically increased the number of ways a brand can “touch” the customer during and after the buying journey. With a plethora of channels and touchpoints that connect consumers with financial institutions, the need for an integrated, holistic approach to managing the customer lifecycle is critical.” Insightful read: Stop problem solving. "It's time to rediscover the lost art of finding better problems to solve. Finding better problems is about asking different questions. Far too frequently we constrain our imaginations by asking the same old questions (to the same people, but that's a piece for another time) and not looking for new ways to interrogate a challenge." Change Management – Innovation Strategy in Disguise. “If your organization or other important audiences that will feel the impact of your new ideas truly fear change, it may be best to make your ideas appear less new, less frightening, and less like change than they might normally seem.” I'm having a digital transformation right now. "There is a growing expectation that work should satisfy our growth as people, and be enriching. People are joining the dots between happiness and productivity. Increasingly, we will start to measure success in terms of our broader social impact as businesses. This focus on purpose probably has to start from within."