Leaders today face challenges for which they are utterly unprepared.

The sad truth is as difficult as the first mile can be for entrepreneurs, it is doubly tough inside most large companies as innovators can face some significant headwinds.

Of course if you are launching a new business you can thinking about revenues, profits, and so on, but metrics such as customer satisfaction or employee retention might be meaningful if you are focusing more internally.

Checklists are really helpful ways to remind people around how to manage complicated tasks.

If you invest the time to understand the customer better than they know themselves, if you know the things they want or need even if they can't articulate it, you can begin to develop a good sense as to where there really are unmet needs in the market.

People who live in more than two countries are more successful innovators.

Innovation is doubly hard inside big companies.