About Rob Hoehn

Rob Hoehn is the co-founder and CEO of IdeaScale : the largest open innovation software platform in the world. Hoehn launched crowdsourcing software as part of the open government initiative and IdeaScale's robust portfolio now includes many other industry notables, such as EA Sports, NBC, NASA, Xerox and many others. Prior to IdeaScale, Hoehn was Vice President of Client Services at Survey Analytics.

How to Connect Innovation to Institutional Learning

In November, the United States Coast Guard presented at Open Nation on their Coast Guard ideas program. They talked about how lessons learned from previous extreme weather occurrences (Sandy, etc.) still hadn’t become institutional knowledge by the 2017 hurricane season when they were so desperately needed. The reason that this hadn’t happened was that all of the methods for collecting new ideas were slow and opaque.

Is Innovation Data About More Than Ideas?

Anyone who is managing their innovation program with innovation software is generally amassing a wealth of data. Many people are looking at that data on an individual idea-level, but it’s actually possible to start looking at that data and identifying new themes, trends, or topics that will inform your strategy in the coming years by grouping that information on tags, text analysis, and more. It can be a trend early-warning system if you pay attention to it.

Is Your Innovation Program Successful?

In an Innovation Point article, Founder Soren Kaplan notes that only one third of Fortune 1000 companies have defined innovation metrics. And yet 77% of business leaders see innovation as a priority. How is it possible that something that is so important to business leaders doesn’t have a defined set of KPIs?

Innovation and Cost Savings

Even if your organization doesn’t yet have an embedded innovation program, I can guarantee that your organization cares about finding opportunities for savings. That’s why programs like LEAN and Six Sigma continue to do so well. There are always new ways to improve efficiency and time saved almost always means money saved.

How Idea Implementation is Like Legislating

In a recent audit of site content on InnovationManagement.se, site publishers noticed that although there is a great deal of information about how to architect and run idea management programs, there isn’t a whole lot of information about how to implement ideas.

How do We Nurture Innovators?

More and more companies are looking to understand and identify innovation talent. Why? Because if companies understand how to encourage original thought and reward innovation efforts, they’re more likely to stay relevant and at the top of their game. Not to mention that they’re far more likely to attract and retain top talent that is interested in working for a company that is forward-thinking and rewards creative effort.

A Commitment to Diversity is a Commitment to Innovation

The more you allow disparate ideas to mingle and collide, the more you maximize your chances for true innovative thought to emerge. Learn all of this and more in a complimentary white paper about why innovators want to nurture workforce diversity.

Security and Innovation Management

Systems security is one of the top five concerns for business executives this year. In the past two years, we’ve had some very troubling and very public data breaches of systems that we use every day. So it’s no wonder that the government (and other sectors) are prioritizing security for cloud software this year. But why are they doing it? Well, there are four key reasons that security matters for innovation management systems in particular:

How Innovation Fuels a Sense of Purpose in the Workplace

Drawing a connection between innovation and workplace purpose often eludes companies looking to hire the best people for their teams. Let’s take a look at what needs to happen to make this possible.

How do You Develop Standards for Innovation Management?

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with members in 163 different countries. Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards that assist particularly in facilitating international trade.

How Open Innovation Can Be Used in the Financial Sector

In a recent article, The Financial Brand discussed the biggest threats to the financial and banking industry. They included a long list of everything from profitability to making good hiring decisions. However, we thought that there were a few problems that could be particularly fruitful when applied to open innovation systems.

The Part of the Innovation Process that Everyone Forgets

One of the biggest challenges to innovation is the middle part of the process - where most of the work is happening behind the scenes. As your innovation campaign progresses, you must continue to instill excitement across all team members, and find ways to reengage them as advocates. In this case study, we’ll examine how Dick’s Sporting Goods engaged their employees in product development and effectively encouraged them to participate in their innovation community.

A New Emerging Practice: Innovation Communications

Closed innovation is a thing of the past. Scalable, open innovation as a business practice has yielded the most dramatic and successful results - and communication and connection with your audience is essential to success. By engaging through at least four of eight channels (website, email, social, public relations, partners, events, offline, and beyond), a robust communications process and schedule can yield valuable insights to help you innovate better.

What Skills Are Rated Most Difficult When it Comes to Innovation? (The Answer Might Surprise You)

A common misconception is that innovation can’t be taught. Similar to how some people believe that artists are born, not made – innovation has often seemed to be the purview of the great thinkers, the elite, people whose creativity is given, not a matter of practice…

Implementation is Your New Competitive Advantage

When it comes to implementation there are three things that companies ought to be thinking about in order to maintain a competitive advantage: process, feedback, and the importance of having multiple stakeholders from the beginning. Learn more in this Open Innovation Guide from IdeaScale.