Innovation

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games start in four months. As athletes around the world train for the biggest moment of their lives, marketers are also preparing for a huge opportunity—a chance to get the whole world's attention. Antonio Lucio, CMO of Visa, describes how his company leverages major global events like the Olympics.

In its early days Google didn’t have a marketing team. Now with many brands to support, the company has brought its data-driven approach to its relationship with users and advertisers. Qn magazine spoke with Claire Hughes Johnson, VP of new products, media, and platforms, about the role of marketing in launching new products.

On December 2, 2011, a panel of Yale SOM alumni from the venture capital and technology fields discussed their own experiences and reflected on the current state of venture capital; disruptive new models for raising financing, such as social media; and the outlook for the industry.

Getting a rocket into space is complicated business. In addition to expertise in physics, materials science, and electronics, you need the business savvy to create a sustainable company in an industry replete with flameouts.

As chair of medicine at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Nicholas LaRusso started a small experiment to see whether teams of doctors and designers could redesign the way healthcare is experienced and delivered. After introducing the design world's rapid prototyping approach to test potential changes to waiting rooms or integration of technology, he found himself heading the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation promoting innovation throughout the institution.

Corruption gums up the workings of a market economy—making legal activity less efficient, degrading the quality of institutions, and disadvantaging those who would behave ethically. A website in India aims to use the tools of social networking to start the wheels of positive change.

Google's success depends on sustaining both generative chaos and precision output. Laszlo Bock, who heads the internet giant's human resources function—which it calls "People Operations"—talks about how it encourages employees to participate in running the company and builds effective teams.

If sustainability is understood as the continuation of human life on earth, there is no alternative. Whatever the cost, we have to bear it. But how do we determine the right price to pay right now to ensure survival in the distant future?

From laundry detergent to automobiles, more and more businesses are presenting their products — and themselves — as green. How effective is green marketing? Will it have a meaningful impact on the planet?

Solving problems on the scale of climate change will require that businesses change what they sell and how they operate. The founder of a consulting firm specializing in sustainable business talks about how environmental issues are seen by executives and the business opportunities in sustainability.