The PEST framework helps business planners and innovators identify opportunities for innovation and change in the macro environment. It's a tool that enables a systematic exploration of how political, economic, social and technological factors may impact on the business - sometimes expanded to PESTEL to include legal and environmental.

Typically, business planners will identify the specific trends in each of these areas, and then identify how they might be a threat to the business or an opportunity. But are all these factors equal? Do they deserve the same amount of attention?

A recent article in Forbes magazine predicts a time when Facebook and Google will have been superseded by new technologies that satisfy better what we are looking for from social media and search.

Winning at Innovation. Now that’s appealing!  So how well do Kotler and Trias de Bes help us do this?

Struggling to differentiate your crowdsourcing from your customer co-creation? Grappling with protecting versus managing intellectual property(IP)?

Don’t worry, help is at hand in the form of a new book.

Comprehensive and practical help! That’s our overall verdict on Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing, edited by Paul Sloane.