In its tremendous continuing service to humanity, Lake Superior State University has issued its 2007 list of words and phrases that should be banished from the English language (or American, anyway.) It exposes those overused and misused language extensions that might have been cute for about five minutes, but are just plain annoying now. Think mullet haircuts once hicks started wearing them (and, in some cases, never stopped.) Or, those oft-repeated but outdated bon mots like “Makin’ copies” or “Party on, Garth.”

Just as true in 2012.

While Apple has been wildly successful, IBM’s Social Business is much more attainable and sustainable than what Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky describes as Apple’s genius led, culture of fear. For the genius is always, as Benjamin Disraeli and later Peter Drucker predicted, succeeded by a “lieutenant of Marines” who understands the business but nothing else. So the company is only left with an innovation vacuum.

In IBM’s social business culture, the genius lies in the 400,000 employees who are free to create circumstances that enable their associates to build on each other’s ideas. Its genius lies in fostering innovation through co-creation with its employees, suppliers, partners and customers. Remove one genius, and there are thousands more in the network to fill the vacuum.

Bottom line: IBM’s Social Business is creating real shareholder value.

My pal Bob Corrigan speaks at TEDxMidAtlantic 2011 on the topic of product management.

When advertisements are clever, we watch them. Is your marketing message this clever?

Passwords ensure that unauthorized people don’t get access to a system. But the mere fact that tools like 1Password exist to remove the need to remember passwords should tell us that we’re doing it wrong. Current password systems solve the problem from the wrong perspective: the system, not the user.

The problem runs even deeper. We’re not only solving the problem from the wrong perspective, we’re also introducing unnecessary complexity because of the way these systems are implemented.

I've often remarked on the failure of passwords but didn't really understand why. Passwords are from the system's point of view, not the user. That is, no one wants a password (except maybe security wonks) but they want their information kept private.

Are passwords the wrong answer? Or are passwords buying criteria? Or both?

Thoughts?

"TellMe" is the same as "Siri"? See a side-by-side comparison. Then buy an iPhone 4S.

What happens when you put three great ideas together? A mess!

A sofa bed is neither a good sofa or a good bed.

What examples of convergence (other than cell phones) do you consider successful?