What is Innovative Leadership?
Who are innovative leaders? What are their qualities and how do they drive innovation within an organization? Jeffrey Baumgartner provides a tantalizing profile to which we can aspire.
The future of creativity is relational
The future of creativity is relational, based upon engaging and connecting with others, according to author and consultant Peggy Noonan.
How to Create a Culture that Supports Innovation
Innovation is actually easy – when the corporate culture is supporting it. Unfortunately today many companies show ”excellent” practise killing the innovative spirit. In this new in-depth article Dirk Loop explores the opportunities every employee – not just executives and innovation managers – has to enhance a culture of innovation. He gives a brief overview on common weaknesses within corporate process frameworks and shows hands-on solutions.
Enabling Innovative Mobile Startups
Petra Söderling is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Mobile Brain Bank, encouraging out-of-job mobile professionals to turn into entrepreneurs. Petra tells IM a bit about her project and what we can expect in the near future.
Skin Care Giant Launches New Open Innovation Approach
The skin care market is an interesting business to be in. Every single person on our planet is a potential customer and yet it takes a good deal of focus and expertise in every corporate function to become globally the number one. This is what Beiersdorf, the Hamburg (Germany) based champion in the skin care business has achieved with its Nivea brand. Innovation is a key ingredient in the success formula. InnovationManagement caught up with Martin Rudolph from Beiersdorf and discussed about innovation and in particular about the Open Innovation approaches Beiersdorf is taking.
Boosting Innovation by Integrating a Gender Perspective
Why does gender diversity matter when it comes to product and service innovation? What has research shown? And what does hard-won experience tell us? This article shows how businesses gain a competitive edge by integrating a gender perspective into their innovation work – a much needed boost as global competition becomes increasingly tough.
How to Communicate the Value of Idea Management
The success of an organization's idea management program is at the mercy of its supporters - the employees. The innovation team and top management must effectively communicate their goals to employees so they understand what's expected of them and feel confident that their ideas will be taken seriously. Enno Scholz walks us through this communication process.
Living Well: The Future of Health and Collaborative Open Innovation
Living Well Collaborative is a new player in the innovation game and a sign of what's to come – downstream innovation management by and on behalf of users, interacting with academics and industry, jointly, to fashion the future. Deborah Mills-Scofield tunes into Living Well..
4 Steps to Design-Inspired Innovation: A Primer on Design Values For Business Leaders
What can design really teach business leaders about how to run their organizations? And where does it fit into the ever-evolving lexicon around innovation? Nicole Chen sketches out the top four values that business leaders should adopt from design thinking.
Promoting a Mindset where “Problems” are Seen as Opportunities
This week IM spoke with Daniel Åhlström who is currently the Technical Center Director at Autoliv Sverige AB in Vårgårda, Sweden. Daniel shares his views on the importance of creating a creative climate while at the same time establishing a productive process for new development and innovation.
Flavour Days – Creating Moments of Inspiration to Influence a Corporate Culture
New approaches to innovation like open innovation and reverse innovation have little value if employees don't develop their ability to work in innovative environments. Flavour Days is one small step along that route for Ericsson. Annu Dispenza descrbes how Falvour Days came about and what they mean to Ericsson.
The Open Innovation Guru: A Discussion with Henry Chesbrough
Henry Chesbrough continues to be an influential voice in open innovation. Paul Hobcraft caught up with him on a recent trip to Denmark – and sought clarity on Henry's latest work in open service innovation.
Spark Centres Advancing Innovation
A while ago the IT service vendor Logica opened a centre focused on innovation at its office in Nacka Strand, Stockholm. The centre, called Spark Innovation Centre, is one component in Logica’s work on innovation management and this centre in particular focuses on the area of what is called the Next Generation Workplace.
Chris Thoen on Open Innovation -Part II
Chris Thoen head of Procter and Gamble's Open Innovation business has been talking with IM about what it takes to achieve excellence in Open Innovation. This week Chris touches on staffing and the culture of Open Innovation.
Procter and Gamble’s Chris Thoen on Open Innovation
Procter and Gamble's Connect and Develop program signalled the transition of big business from a past based on internal R&D to a future based on connectivity and openness. Connect and Develop kick-started the open innovation movement. In a revealing interview Chris Thoen, who runs P&G's open innovation practice, tells Innovation Management about the future of P&G's Open Innovation strategy.
Who is in Control of Your Innovation Process?
Who is in control of your innovation process? If it is not management, your process will go nowhere, warns Jeffrey Baumgartner. Sadly, many companies launch half-baked innovation initiatives and hand control over to ill-trained managers, consultants, customers and even the general public.
Putting Higher Principles into Innovation Management: How to Be Guided by The Classical Approach to People
As innovation becomes a prevalent activity in organizations is it time to rethink how we approach the culture of innovative people? Deborah Mills-Scofield who previously worked with Bell Labs and now consults on innovations practice, argues we need a return to timeless values if we are going to make innovation sustainable.
What types of leaders can support a creative culture and organizational innovation?
A recent article in the journal Academy of Management Perspectives provides insight into senior leadership traits that are necessary to inspire the people in a business and support a creativity and growth-oriented culture, key ingredients for expanding a firm's innovation capabilities.
Participation in Idea Generation Events: What’s realistic?
What is a realistic level of participation in idea generation events? Jeffrey Baumgartner sheds some light on this important issue.
Extending Open Innovation to Open Government: a Roadmap for New Opportunities in Citizensourcing
Extending the principles of open innovation to the public sector is a particularly important transition. Public bodies are significant spenders on products and services and yet are often distant from the most dynamic processes in our economy. Dennis Hilgers and Frank Piller look at the wider benefits of an open public service in an extended web article downloadable on Innovation Management. The authors raise some of the most important issues below.
Creating a Culture of Innovation to Attract and Retain Top Talent
Many companies harbour narratives around overlooked opportunities that can come back to haunt them when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. What can we do to develop the right culture? Kathy Mast explores.
When DEC was the King of Innovation
At one time, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was one of the most innovative companies on the planet. What happened?
How to Create a Culture of Leadership (where everyone plays their part)
How do you create the right conditions for your co-workers to mutually reinforce their commitment to your goals? Doug Collins looks at the four cornerstones of that process and how you can go about fostering them in an innovative workplace.
Managing Innovation Through the Stress Points
Building innovation management as a discipline requires us to take a closer look at the hurdles innovative firms face as they develop new products, services and partnerships but also at how those firms integrate the learnings from making tough choices. Andrew Gaule takes a look at building innovation culture as we manage through the stress points.