How to Improve the Innovation Pipeline and Process
Can an organization dramatically improve the quality, speed, and profitability of their new product projects while driving down the risk of failure? Absolutely! Organizations that rely on new products, technologies, and platforms to create customer value, grow market share, enter new markets, increase their profitability, and even alter market and competitive landscapes. In this article Chester Baker, Head of Global Innovation for Abbott Nutrition shares the winning formula for driving innovation in his company.
6 Mega-forces of Change that Affect Innovation
Today, there are six essential forces that are driving the changes that are occurring across much of today’s world. While these may not be the most pressing issues for your company, chances are that some combination of them will have a significant influence on your situation, on the strategic choices you make and thus on your approach to innovation.
Engagement Is Key to Business Performance: Digital Innovation as Catalyst
Booz&Co wrote in their article “The Social Life of Brands” on Strategy+Business that the value of a brand is linked with the relationships it has with its customers, creating and retaining them. For marketing, its fundamental task is managing these relationships. In a recent research by Gallup the results were striking, a 240 percent boost in performance was achieved when both employees and customers were enaged. This is exactly, in a highly technological driven business environment, digital innovation is the catalyst that improves engagement and provide means to manage relationships better, faster and in a cheaper way though digital.
Innovative Switzerland
Switzerland is more innovative and entrepreneurial than generally thought. The world holds on to the caricature of Heidi and of utterly dull bankers, evoked by Helmut Schmidt, many years ago: “Europe is not governed by the gnomes of Zurich”. We forget the implications of the fact that the Swiss national hero is the ultimate rebel: Wilhelm Tell; and rebellion is companion of innovation.The strong Swiss franc and the weak state of the economies of its trading partners will make 2012 difficult, but Switzerland scores tangible successes: prosperity, low debt, reasonable growth, public budgets in the black, low unemployement and trade surplus. This miniature model of Europe must be an inspiration for the EU to become what it should be: the world’s most successful region in the 21rst century.
How R+D Can Build Marketing Support for its Ideas
Last week, we introduced the topic of R&D's frequent lack of marketing support for its ideas and some culturally ingrained attitudes that can contribute to this. This communication gap is frustrating, especially for those in R&D whose role it is to develop and sell-in new initiatives. This week, we continue this discussion and describe strategies to help overcome resistance.
Why Marketing Doesn’t Want R+D’s Ideas – and what to do about it
One of the most common frustrations expressed by R+D professionals is that marketing lacks interest in their ideas. Why is this often the case, and what can be done about it?
Are you Called to be an Innovation Leader?
If you want to be innovative, you need to be a leader. No individual or organization has become an innovative one by copying the actions of their competitors or peers. That may seem obvious, but evidence shows that most people fail to realize this critical fact.
Financial Innovation and its Undeniable Role in Society
Innovation in the area of financial services has undergone increased criticism since the start of the difficulties in international banking. This has fueled a general negative perception of innovation in financial services. In this article Dr. Anne-Laure Mention argues that innovation is not something to be feared as such, actually it is a driver of competitiveness and that the full benefits for society might not yet be visible.
The Grand Challenge – How to use Open Innovation to Generate Worldwide Awareness
Grand Challenges represent enormous potential in their power to use open innovation practices to generate worldwide awareness of — and affinity for —private and public sector organizations. As challenge prizes grow and social media bring them to the attention of the world, Grand Challenges have also become an important part of public relations exercises for Grand Challenge sponsors like Virgin, Netflix and General Electric.
Conflict in Teams – Does it Stimulate Creativity & Innovation?
Conflict is a dreaded word. Most people associate conflict with interpersonal clashes ranging from inelegant avoidance tactics in the breakroom to fierce and open hostility. Surely, it is obvious that conflict in teams is detrimental to creativity and innovation. But is it? In this post we will explore this matter further and see when conflict sometimes can enhance the creative thinking skills of teams.
Being First: Ten Innovation lessons from Mount Everest
Reaching the highest point of the Earth is one of the greatest expeditions of mankind. It made Edmund Hillary famous. After reading Hillary’s ‘View from the Summit’ Gijs van Wulfen shares ten innovation lessons on being 1st.
Designing the Perfect Ideas Competition
What's the most effective way to design an idea competition that doesn't just result in a huge pile of ideas, but enables teams to implement ideas that will help to make your organization more creative? Jeffrey Baumgartner shares one practical framework for making this happen.
Innovation: Should you Roll the Dice?
Paul Sloane uses a gambling analogy to show how uncertain innovation is and why senior management isn't likely to approve a new idea after several failures in a row.
The Innovation Knowing-Doing Gap
If you scrutinize the theories on innovation they seem to conclude for example, that ambidextrous organizations are best at handling incremental innovations rather than radical, and if we would focus more on learning, experimental organizations we would be better off… So why don’t we act accordingly? Bengt Järrehult takes a closer look at the reasons why we act against better knowing regarding innovation.
Innovation Lessons Learned from Students
Here are some lessons I've learned about innovation from working with high school and college students. If their passion and enthusiasm is any indication, we have a bright future ahead!
Five Dimensions to Conceptualize Your Idea to Make it a Successful Innovation
When conceptualizing a new idea, it is essential to direct the thinking to specific dimensions and search answers to certain questions to help evolve the idea from the initial thought through the various stages of innovation. This article suggests a framework for conceptualizing an idea and helps develop an understanding of the dimensions and questions that you need to consider.
For Innovation to Happen it Makes Sense to Sensemake
The level of innovation capability within organizations is connected to the ability of making the right sense of collective experiences, especially in uncertain or ambiguous times. In this post Susanna Bill delves deeper on the importance of sense making and the effects it has on the level of innovation capabilities. And addresses a personal dilemma.
Innovation’s Silent Killer
If they want to compete successfully in the future, companies should hold off on rapid ideation and faster commercialization until they take an unflinching look at what is truly stifling breakthrough innovation. In this article, Soren Kristensen provides insight on how honest self-reflection can free you from your biggest impediment to growth.
4 Key Success Factors That Can Enable a Higher Return on Innovation
In a slow or no-growth environment, we know successful innovation is absolutely essential for companies to establish and maintain a competitive advantage. While that may be yesterday’s news, achieving it is hard work. How can you achieve high value from your innovation initiatives? In this article Adi Alon discusses four key success factors that can help you get a higher return on innovation.
To Innovate, Adapt Someone Else’s Idea
Very often the best way to innovate is to borrow someone else’s idea and apply it in your business. A successful innovation does not have to be an all-new invention. It just has to be something new to your business that is beneficial, explains Paul Sloane.
The Competition is Not Who You Think It Is
It has become extremely difficult to foresee competition. But this isn’t cause for alarm. It’s now far more important to forge ahead with innovation, allowing a product or service to evolve in new ways, than trying to crush or outsmart perceived competition.
Copycat Innovation: A Practical Route to Profitable Innovation
Copycat innovation, the act of adapting a solution that has been used successful in another industry or profession, is a more reliable, affordable route to innovation, suggests Dr. Yew Kam Keong, Ph.D.
Social Media Reinforce the Competitive and Innovative Abilities
Last week, the Dutch Financial Times reported that the Netherlands moved up to the seventh place in the yearly competitiveness index by the World Economic Forum (WEF). To close the gap with the top five, social innovation needs to be tackled. Not only raising R&D budgets, but also better innovation management and work smarter.
Create like a 5-year-old
If you want to see the type of behavior adults need more of, watch some 5-year-olds on a playground for a few minutes. Step back in time and forget about deadlines, committee meetings, and company politics and think about how children create and invent anything they desire at a moments notice.