How to develop a powerful arsenal of creative questions
Great questions are powerul creative tools, because they can help you to focus your thinking and lead it in fresh, new directions. But how can you develop an arsenal of creative questions that will help you to develop great ideas?
The Wonderful and the Weird of Chinese Innovation
The pace and style of innovation in China is producing some weird, some wonderful and some odd new products. Yinglan Tan concludes the three part series on Chinnovation.
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.
In innovation, the simple trumps the complex
Simplicity - reducing complex ideas into simple messages - is one of the keys to successful innovation.
Finding Fantastic Solutions in Unexpected Places
This week IM caught up with Klaus-Peter Speidel, who has embraced open innovation in the company he co-founded - hypios, a social marketplace for solutions. Klaus-Peter tells us more about the need-oriented approach to innovation and the importance of multiplicity and open-mindedness in the idea creation process.
The Creative Culture
The idea of the creative city or creative class took a back seat while the chatter among businesses and policy makers turned to innovation. Yet complexity economics tells us cities are where the bulk of innovation happens. Is it time to revisit ‘places’ as the focal point of innovation activity? A new report suggests yes but we have also to revisit what we understand by a creative city or region.
How to Deal with the Trust Problems Created by Open Innovation
Securing good ideas through open innovation processes and crowdsourcing is spurring differentiation and growth for companies that get it right but is it also storing up a trust problem? The development of ideas in an open environment is driving some creatives away. Maxine Horn of Creative Barcode, lights up a road to ‘open protection’ and a richer ideas environment for the enterprise.
8 Reasons Why Chinnovation Will Persist
Continuing our series on Chinese innovation Yinglan Tan looks at 8 reasons why Chinese innovation will continue to be a major talking point in everyone’s career. If you thought today’s turbulence would soon be over, think again.
The Critical Importance of Competitive Scenario Creation
Does your company currently consider alternative future states which anticipate your competitors' likely new product introductions? Or, new competitors, not yet known in the market? If not, it should.
Consumer-Created Ads: A Core Business Process
The growing popularity of consumer-created ads has created a market for co-creation intermediaries. Gaurav Bhalla takes a closer look...
How to Combine Innovation with Lean and Six Sigma
Innovation never takes place in a vacuum cut off from other initiatives to improve performance. Doug Collins takes a look at how to team up with people in the Lean and Six Sigma processes.
Eric Von Hippel on Innovation: Rethinking the User as Innovator
Eric Von Hippel has long been an advocate of user-led innovation but it is not always clear what user-led innovation really means. A newly released study on consumer innovation by Von Hippel reveals more than you might think. Haydn Shaughnessy delves deeper..
Jumping the shark: Revitalizing aging businesses through strategic innovation
Just as television shows age, so do businesses. It is important that managers of these businesses not fall into the same trap as many television executives, better known as "jumping the shark."
Developing Innovation Ecosystems Around Universities
As Vice Provost for Innovation at the University of Southern California and the Executive Director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, Krisztina Holly is dedicated to helping students, academics and entrepreneurs make maximum impact with their ideas. Krisztina tells IM a bit more about her experiences.
Science & Technology Education: A Dutch Perspective
Policy makers who want to stimulate innovation need to look at the new generation of people coming into the workforce. But are they properly prepared to play a role in invention and change? Rob Blaauboer looks at Dutch experience of teaching them how.
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?
Thinking about starting your own venture? Then read Hugh MacLeod’s new book, ‘Evil Plans’
Are you a cubicle slave who longs to be their own boss, to take their Really Big Idea and run with it, unencumbered by the shackles of the corporate world? Then you need to pick [...]
Identifying and Exploiting New Markets in Growing Economies
The importance of new markets to growth can’t be overstated. But emerged, emerging and frontier markets are not just about growth. They are a perfect opportunity to extend our innovation capabilities. IM takes a look at the lessons of India as a product frontier.
It’s open innovation. What could possibly go wrong?
Some open innovation experiments are more successful than others. Here are 3 common areas where companies run into trouble trying to implement it.
‘Me Commerce’ to ‘We Commerce’-Locked in Virtual Boundaries?
Has the virtual world become stifled by the comfort and ease of following successful platforms? Gunjan Bhardwaj offers his hopes and suggestions on how to update online business models.
Chinnovation – Unravelling the Dynamics of Chinese Innovation
Innovation in China—mystery or mastery? It is widely believed that China’s entrepreneur class has grown, and that their businesses are succeeding, primarily due to their knowledge of the domestic market, their quick adaptation to market changes, and their resourcefulness. What are the real secrets? Yinglan Tan, author of Chinovation, in an exclusive look at his upcoming book discusses....
New book, ‘Think Unstuck,’ is a valuable creative catalyst
A new book is the perfect antidote for those times when your brain gets stuck in rutted thinking.
Notes on Discernment – New Practice for the C-Suite
Executives and management leaders need to adopt a new style of engagement with their people and ideas if they are to produce the change their organisations need. Kevin McDermott of Collective Intelligence believes this new ‘discernment' mindset could alter our expectation of what senior managers do in the 21st Century corporation.