Doing a start-up reminds you how to dream, imagine, create and invent. There is no company in the world that doesn’t value those qualities.

Logical frameworks are wonderful for shaping new ideas and explaining innovation to corporate sponsors, venture capitalists, bank managers and spouses. This article explains the seven questions you need to answer to test the potential of a new innovation.

In a just world, everyone would love the new utilities like Google, Skype and Facebook. Reality isn’t like that because people expect great customer service. New utilities could meet that expectation. But they need a new approach to service management and design. Customers are demanding a good service experience and that’s exactly what the new utility’s struggle to provide when things go wrong.

Premature genius is one of the most overlooked challenges of product development. To visualise the problem, think of a change curve. Launch too early and no amount of marketing and development spend will get you to take off. Launch too late and you may not catch up with competitors.