Patrick Lefler
Patrick Lefler
Patrick Lefler is the founder of The Spruance Group -- a management consultancy that helps growing companies grow faster by providing unique value at the product level: specifically product marketing, pricing, and innovation. He is a former Marine Corps officer; a graduate of both Annapolis and The Wharton School, and has over twenty years of industry expertise.
Basketball’s disruptive innovation
Of all the changes that have occurred in basketball over the past 120 years since James Naismith invented the game, which is considered the...
Technicolor’s innovative beginnings…and its reinvention today
For almost one hundred years, the Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (now a division of Technicolor SA) has been associated with the innovative color motion...
Polavision – Polaroid’s disruptive innovation failure
The Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 by Edwin Land. While its early products focused on everything from eyewear to gunsight filters, the company...
Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire – a must read
I get a lot of book review requests from the myriad of authors and writers within my network. Most of these books are good...
Cadillac’s other product management disaster – the 1986 Eldorado
Over its fifty year history, the Cadillac Eldorado was known more its vanity than anything else. It had its debut in 1953--the same year...
Interesting look at 2009 corporate innovation spending
Interesting article written by James R. Hagerty in today's Wall Street Journal regarding R&D spending titled R&D Spending Drops at Major Firms. But the...
A look back at Cadillac’s product marketing disaster
Thirty years ago, General Motor's Cadillac Division faced the prospect of selling unappealing cars in the middle of a recession where--unlike in today's low...
The man who innovated the postal service
It’s hard to imagine the term ‘innovation’ associated with anything related to the postal service, but if it weren’t for a 19th century British...
From schoolteacher to innovator: the man who changed the ski industry
Georges Salomon - the man who revolutionized the ski industry starting in the 1950s with his innovative bindings - died last week at the...
The accidental innovator…and its impact on IKEA
In her book Cheap - The high cost of discount culture, author Ellen Ruppel Shell recounts the story of how a skilled carpenter in...
Perfect example of low tech innovation
Bloomberg News reporter Ira Boudway highlights the perfect example of a low tech (and low cost) innovation idea from this past week’s Bloomberg Businessweek...
Innovation is both conceptual and perceptual
In Peter Drucker’s classic essay on the principles of innovation, one of the major points made is that innovation is both conceptual and...
Sorry NY Times…but installment plans are not innovation
An article appeared in the New York Times today boosting about how financial innovation is helping the poor in Brazil. The author, Catherine Rampell...
All warfare is based on deception
One of the classic lines from Sun Tzu in the Art of War goes something like this: “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when...
Make yourself obsolete or your competitors will
Peter Drucker tells a great story about how the leading American consumer electronics manufacturers fumbled away their technological advantage during the early days of...
Dangerous assumptions for pricing
There’s an interesting article in the Marketplace Section of today’s Wall Street Journal written by Dana Mattioli that talks about CEOs paying more attention...
The final key to success for value-based pricing
As we've said before in previous posts here and here, value-based pricing is the ultimate objective for most organizations. It’s what enables successful firms...
The second key to success for value-based pricing
Repeating what was said yesterday, value-based pricing is the ultimate objective for most organizations. It’s what enables successful firms to charge above-average industry margins...
The first key to success for value-based pricing
Value-based pricing is the ultimate objective for most organizations. It’s what enables successful firms to charge above-average industry margins for their products that ultimately...
Where do I belong? It needs to be answered by all start-up founders
Peter Drucker tells a story of contrasts between Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda and Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford. When Soichiro Honda decided...