Pulp Innovation XXXVII: A Risky Client Means Careful Planning
Matt and Marlowe are faced with a skeptical client who suddenly demands a cheap, fast and reliable innovation program. Will they assume Accipiter can and will dedicate the time and rescources necessary achieve success, or give up on this client once and for all?
Social Product Innovation Challenges: Culture and People
The most common challenges companies face as they get started with the application of social models and technologies to innovation and product development fall into five main buckets – strategy, people and culture, business processes, technology and sustainability. In this post I will take a deeper look at the typical challenges around people and culture during a social product innovation initiative, and some ideas for overcoming them.
How to Leverage Results from your Research and find Buried Treasures
Every year hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on consumer and market research. All those involved in NPD will know how a myriad of research projects is deemed fundamental. Yet, managers across the globe may be wasting a good portion of their research budget. Learn more on how to leverage research results and create new opportunities in this article by Bryan Urbick, Chairman of Consumer Knowledge Centre.
Regulating Nano: Tiny Particles, Huge Questions
It is a difficult time for regulators trying to make sense of nanotechnologies, the engineering of super-small particles to utilize their size and unusual properties. While environmental, health, and safety (EHS) concerns abound, so too do the technological and economic benefits which extend particularly to the electronics, green tech, and health industries. As regulators seek to protect the populace, they also need to avoid undue public backlash which could damage these huge benefits because of poor communication and limited scientific research.
Innovating the End-to-End Customer Experience at Apple
One of the central themes of Walter Isaacson's powerful Steve Jobs biography is the extent to which Jobs and the Apple team have gone to innovate and manage the customer experience from end-to-end.
Bringing Your Balanced Scorecard Alive with Collaborative Innovation
Robert Kaplan and David Norton popularized the Balanced Scorecard twenty years ago. Its simple, visual framework helps organizations depict linked sets of goals that define strategy. Today, with new mindsets, practices, and technologies, people have more opportunities to engage in helping their organizations envision the future. The scorecard, however, can at times seem like an Easter Island statue, offering mute, impenetrable witness to firm performance. In this article Doug Collins explores opportunities for people to bring alive the scorecard by applying the practice of collaborative innovation.
What Artists can Teach Creative Thinkers
Artists are innately creative, of course. That's why the rest of us, who are seeking to expand our creative powers, can learn much from them. Danielle Feliciano highlights three characteristics that we can borrow from artists to spur our own creative muse.
Pulp Innovation XXXVI: The Burning Platform
After months of proposing and negotiating innovation initiatives with a hesitant board of directors, Marlowe suddenly receives the news that Accipiter needs an innovation plan and they need it fast. Marlowe is ready to jump into action, but wonders if Accipiter is truly committed to innovation.
Case Study on How Collaboration Drives Innovation in Emerging Economies
Collaboration is as much relevant to social innovation as it is for corporate houses for technology innovations. Collaboration, in fact, could provide added advantages with respect to the hidden culture related challenges & budgetary constraints when used for a social cause. In this article by Madhu Mani & Jayesh Badani, you will learn how a consortium of NGOs, Academia and Financial institutions from India, Netherlands and France came together to tap into the power of collaborative innovation.
Next Generation Open Innovation – Best Practices and Case Studies
In an open innovation ecosystem, what is best practice? How do decentralized and centralized organizations meet different needs? Which success criteria are most important for next generation innovators? Learn from case studies and join the December 8th IM Channel One live webcast where some of these challenges will be discussed.
Richard Li-Hua on Innovation in China
China’s ambition of become an innovation-oriented country by 2020 is an important part of the nation’s long-term strategic plan. Being the second largest science and technology thesis producer, and running the second largest economy next to the US, a lot of things are happening in China. Innovation Management spoke to Professor Richard Li-Hua, word-leading expert on innovation about his thoughts on China’s innovation.
Try Before You Buy – Virtually
Clothes buying, both in-store and online, is set to change with help from interactive and virtual assistants. Interactive mirrors, virtual changing rooms, a personalised fitting service and a mobile app all aim to help consumers find the clothes and the look they want more easily. They may also reduce costs for online retailers and help them reach new customers.
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.
Customized Careers – a lattice replacing the traditional ladder
We think of careers like ladders, don’t we? And when careers do not go straight up the ladder, we do not see them as (good) careers. But if you are in the business of providing talent this is a tradition that may need to be replaced by innovation. Replacing the traditional ladder with a lattice has led to significant improvements according to Cathy Benko, chief talent officer for Deloitte.
Learning from Practicing Mass Customization and Open Innovation
Emotions, empathy, connection, love, storytelling, self-care – I am referring what I heard about the consumer. Creative revolution, democratization, social innovation, experience, passion – I am referring to what I heard about innovation.
Pulp Innovation XXXV: Day in the Life of a Management Consultant
Marlowe facilitates a brainstorming session followed by elaboration and grouping when he receives a message from his skunkworks client...
Analytics Spur Competitive Advantage and Bottom-up Innovation
Before getting to this stage, 44% of organizations say the primary barriers to enterprise-wide analytics adoption are cultural. IBM Institute for Business Value and MIT Sloan Management review released research based on a survey of more than 4,500 business leaders from more than 120 countries and a variety of industries.
Richard Li-Hua on Innovation and Innovation Management
Innovation changes the world and is the key to tackling the slow recovery of the western economy, and to solving unemployment issues according to professor Richard Li-Hua, a world-leading expert on innovation. Innovation Management spoke to him about his thoughts on the need for, and the role of, innovation management.
How to Keep it Simple and Generate Better Results
You can make it as complex as you like, but what really matters in innovation is the simplicity of management and only a minimum amount of bureaucracy. Innovation management is in many aspects different than regular business operations (less predictable, riskier), but in many aspects it is very much alike (basic management practices).
Innovation Versus Vision
Truly innovative companies do not aim to be innovative. Rather they relentlessly strive to follow a unique strategy, says Jeffrey Baumgartner.
A Framework for Thinking about your Approach to Creative Problem Solving
We often approach challenges without considering what mode of thinking we're utilizing to solve them. As a result, we tend to limit the range of possible solutions we're able to generate. To help us take off the blinders and be more aware of our creative problem solving mindset, Chris Griffiths presents a framework called GRASP in his new book, GRASP the Solution.
Devising a Communications Plan for Collaborative Innovation
Members of a community engaged in the practice of collaborative innovation gain tremendous insights as they pursue that practice through the phases of an enquiry-led campaign. What ideas and insights do we contribute to the question at hand? What have we learned about the practice itself? One commitment that campaign teams make to the community is to create forums and provide the resources to share these insights. In this article Doug Collins suggests an approach by which the campaign team can build a basic communications plan to meet their commitment for sharing relevant information at each phase.
Book Review:The Innovation Masterplan
Many companies tout innovation in their marketing. Being perceived as innovative is important. But the message and reality can only diverge temporarily. A new book by Langdon Morris is providing a simple but very effective framework to guide CEOs as they address what many perceive as the dilemma of innovation.
Pulp Innovation XXXIV: Never Conduct a Brainstorming Session Without the Rules
Marlowe heads to the Levantine Corporate Offices to facilitate a brainstorming session with the goal of generating incremental and disruptive ideas to explore as new products in the programmable products division. First, he lays out some ground rules.