Process Improvement

Interested in improving already-existing processes – refining, redefining, etc. – can also apply to reconfiguring departments or teams

A Yin-Yang Model for Global Sustainability: Moving Towards Rural-Urban Balance

This article employs a holistic, interactive East Asian framework—the ancient yin-yang circle—for presenting both defensive and proactive carbon control strategies in urban and rural areas. Given the recent wave of deadly wildfires in the American West, attention is focused here on the future significance of oceans as a massive carbon sink for fighting global climate change. Life probably arose in the sea, and the sea may end up having to save the planet.

Nick Jain2023-09-08T07:45:04-07:00September 8th, 2023|Categories: In-Depth Article|Tags: carbon control, carbon offset strategy, climate change, daoism, environment, forests, global warming, green innovation, holistic view, marine permaculture arrays, oceans, pollution, sustainability, yin-yang, Zen, Zen philosophy|

Ambition Matrix: What It Is and How To Use It

Creating an innovation strategy means improving what you currently offer and finding ways to differentiate from your competition in the future. This is easy in principle, but applying this practice to your business can be very difficult.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-07-18T13:34:06-07:00July 18th, 2022|Categories: Enabling Factors, Idea Management, Strategies|Tags: ambition matrix|

5 Elements to Consider when Commercializing Your Ideas

In this article, we look at five tips to launch your next innovation, using a proven framework for successful launch and scale.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-07-06T16:12:47-07:00July 6th, 2022|Categories: Idea Management|Tags: commercialization, idea collection, idea valuation, Ideation, Problem Solving, scaling innovation|

How Online Whiteboards Create Actionable Results for Businesses

To run a successful business, you must be able to complete individual and shared tasks regularly and reliably. One of the most significant components to achieving this is making sure you create actionable results in your meetings, conversations, and workflow.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-05-12T15:41:03-07:00May 12th, 2022|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Idea Management, Strategies|Tags: Collaboration, data integration, digital permanence, Ideation, online whiteboards, project management, project planning, task management, whiteboard|

How to Improve Return on Investment With a New Project Management Approach

Too often, leaders label projects as successes or failures based on budget and schedule expectations. Although time and cost are critical factors, they ignore whether the project delivered the expected benefits.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-04-22T14:57:41-07:00April 22nd, 2022|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Idea Management, Life Cycle Processes, Uncategorized|Tags: cost savings, efficiency, project management, ROI, scope creep|

How to Create a Competitive Advantage Through Innovation

In the modern world of business, innovation is both an equalizer and a differentiator. It can give tiny startups an edge over global conglomerates and enable industry leaders to develop competitive advantages.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-04-06T18:28:20-07:00April 6th, 2022|Categories: Strategies|Tags: business development, Business Model Innovation, competitive advantage, continuous improvement, design thinking, incremental innovation, innovative thinking, radical innovation, remote work, ten types framework|

How to Innovate Your Business to Make It Climate Efficient

Climate efficiency is key for the future of everyone on this planet. With an issue of such magnitude, you may feel that individual actions cannot make a large impact. While your business by itself cannot solve global warming, the actions you take can inspire others and can have a much bigger impact than you may realize.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-04-21T14:47:23-07:00April 5th, 2022|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: climate change, energy efficiency, sustainability|

How the Pandemic Created the Virtual Innovation Lab

COVID reshaped every department—including your innovation department. Find out how some organizations adapted to the remote work age by creating the virtual innovation lab, and how you can create your own by downloading this complimentary infographic.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-03-01T17:21:32-08:00March 21st, 2022|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: government innovation, online innovation, virtual innovation lab|

Is Communication Sabotaging Your Ability to Innovate?

Avoid these four communications landmines as you navigate the stages of innovation.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-01-31T19:20:05-08:00February 1st, 2022|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Enabling Factors, Life Cycle Processes, Organization & Culture, Strategies|Tags: Communication, follow-through, inclusivity, innovation purpose, leadership, managing expectations, outcomes, purpose, stages of innovation|

Innovator Dilemma vs. Innovator Phenomena: The Theory of the Firm’s Phenomena

Established firms’ strategies remain characterized by the inability to master---some will say even comprehend---the economics of choosing. It is particularly surfacing unresolved relationships between [1] technical-technological, [2] economic and [3] social combinations taking place within established firms e.g. manufactured product.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-01-19T14:12:07-08:00December 7th, 2021|Categories: Enabling Factors, In-Depth Article, Life Cycle Processes, Training & Education|Tags: disruptive innovation, innovation capability, path dependency, system thinking|

The Six Pillars of Innovation Culture

Every year, IdeaScale asks our customers what their main priorities are for the coming year, and without fail one of the top two priorities is to create a culture of innovation. Every innovation thought leader, every organizational engagement specialist, every pundit or leader in transformation says that this is the secret to avoiding disruption.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-09-28T16:38:53-07:00October 6th, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Organization & Culture|Tags: benchmarks, Collaboration, collaborative innovation, diversity, empowerment, Failure, Innovation Culture, innovation metrics, innovation policy, innovation training, intrapreneurship, listening, measuring innovation, metrics, transformation, transformational innovation|

How to Break the 5 Habits That Hurt Ideation

Many companies find it hard to prioritize ideation. Here are five ways to break the pattern and gather a wealth of ideas for your organization.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-08-24T18:17:04-07:00August 24th, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Idea Management|Tags: brainstorming, chaos, creative thinking, Employee Engagement, employee recognition, idea evaluation, idea generation, idea management, Ideation, incentives, motivation, proactive, structure, value creation, variety|

Four Traits Your Next CEO Must Have For Your Organization to Thrive

Want to ensure your organization will thrive over the long run? If so, then your next CEO must have these four traits – 1) relentless focus on the long-term future; 2) inherently entrepreneurial mindset; 3) solid grounding in reality and the fundamentals of business; and 4) behavior of a consummate diplomat.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-08-09T08:20:22-07:00August 10th, 2021|Categories: Leadership, Trend Alert|Tags: Agile, analytics, diplomacy, experimentation, honesty, leadership, long term planning, startup, strategy, transformation, trends, uncertainty, vision, volatility|

Whitepaper: Stimulating and Measuring Open and Cross Innovation

As two intermediaries from Hamburg that foster open and cross innovation processes, Science Scout (an initiative of Hamburg Innovation) and Cross Innovation Hub (Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft) joined forces to start a discussion around the stimulation and measurement of open and cross innovation processes.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-12-20T14:34:16-08:00August 2nd, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Enabling Factors, Front End of Innovation, In-Depth Article, Leadership, Life Cycle Processes, Open Innovation, Organization & Culture, Strategies, Support for SMEs, Training & Education|Tags: Business Model Innovation, case study, co-creation, Competition, competitive advantage, complex innovation, convergent thinking, creative industry, Creativity, cross innovation, Cross Innovation Hub, design thinking, divergent thinking, diversity, efficiency, fuzzy front end of innovation, impact assessment, innovation catalyst, Innovation Culture, innovation driver, innovation impact, innovation policy, innovation process, innovation scouting, innovation stakeholders, intellectual property, intermediaries, knowledge spillover, knowledge transfer, measurement framework, measuring innovation, non-technical innovation, Open Innovation, process innovation, product innovation, prototype, qualitative measurement, quantitative measurement, R&D, Science Scout, silos, social challenge, staircase of effects, survey, value chain, value creation, VUCA, white paper, whitepaper|

Why People Buy Innovation Management Software

Every year, IdeaScale analyzes our system and customer data and releases a report on crowdsourced innovation trends and benchmarks. You can find this year’s report here, but one of the questions that we pay a lot of attention to is why people are looking to purchase an innovation management platform in the first place.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-06-08T11:20:33-07:00June 23rd, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Enabling Factors, Idea Management, Open Innovation, Support for SMEs, Training & Education|Tags: adaptation, Communication, efficiency, idea data, idea sharing, Ideation, Innovation Culture, innovation management software, transparency|