Understanding Innovation

Focused on learning about innovation as a discipline – article could be an explanation of a term or concept, for example, or an overview of how to start an innovation program.

A Closer Look at the Three Skill Sets that Enable Innovation

In our previous posts, we’ve made two major points. One: innovation is vital for the long-term survival of any business. And two: a handful of crazy ideas won’t cut the mustard. Successful innovation is a complex process that requires a whole lot more than just riotous creativity. Based on academic research, and in close collaboration with professor Frederik Anseel (Ghent University), we’ve defined three innovation profiles: ideators, champions and implementers. Each of these personas has a crucial part to play in what we like to call ‘innovation dream teams’. What makes them unique and why do you need all three? Let’s take a closer look.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:03:57-08:00October 10th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: business growth, Collaboration, Creativity, HR, ideators, implementation, innovation champions, innovation skills, innovation success, innovation team, long-term success, persistence, personality types, skills management, Success, talent management|

What your Definition of Innovation Says about Your Company

In a field centered around fresh, outside-the-box thinking, it is no wonder that there is such a broad range of definitions for the term innovation. Creating a clear-cut definition for the term is critical in shaping the culture of innovation at your organization and will help you determine which resources to allocate to your program.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:03:51-08:00October 3rd, 2016|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: Change Management, Competition, continuous improvement, definitions, Employee Engagement, global market, Innovation Management, market research, sustainable growth|

What are the Key Innovation Challenges?

Innovation has become a business mantra and a word that threatens to lose all meaning every time it’s uttered at another conference or thrown into another book title. But in spite of its omnipresence it continues to be essential – a growing field – and one of the only practices that might save businesses from extinction.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:01:12-08:00September 19th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: barriers to innovation, Best Practices, budget, challenge, corporate strategy, IdeaScale, infographic, innovation challenge, Innovation Strategy, report, roadblocks, survey|

40 Design and Innovation Leaders in Social

Design Thinking Leaders discover innovative ideas by working through challenging, and often chaotic, situations where disruptive opportunities are typically hidden. These creativity-minded professionals embrace the consumer’s perspective and balance that with the brand’s needs and aspirations. The result? Simple, yet radical solutions that seem so obvious in hindsight.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:01:07-08:00September 12th, 2016|Categories: Leadership, Report|Tags: case study, design thinking, download, in-depth article, influencers, report, research, social media, talent management, trend|

Launch a Four-Week Innovation Program

In-house innovation programs are an emerging phenomenon. Many businesses and government organizations are formalizing processes around the innovation practice in order to keep pace with competition and the rapidly changing expectations of the public.

Rob Hoehn2019-10-15T15:23:30-07:00September 8th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: idea management, Ideation, implementation, in-house innovation program, innovation academy, innovation process, innovation program, innovation program processes, innovation team, intrapreneur, launch strategy, problem statement, team building, understanding innovation|

How to Innovate Efficiently: Six Ways to ‘Unfuzzy’ the Front-end

Kittens are ‘fuzzy’ because they’re soft and fluffy. But if someone uses the same word to describe the early stages – or ‘front-end’ – of an innovation process, the meaning is less cute. In that case, ‘fuzzy’ means ‘blurry’, ‘unclear’ or even ‘incoherent’. In many cases, innovation projects start off as chaotic and seemingly aimless ventures. In fact, this happens so often, that organizations tend to accept the ‘fuzzy front-end of innovation’ as a necessary evil. At CREAX, we believe front-end fuzziness can and should be drastically reduced in order to innovate efficiently.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:00:59-08:00September 6th, 2016|Categories: Front End of Innovation, Strategies|Tags: business development, challenge, efficiency, expertise, front end of innovation, fuzzy front end of innovation, Ideation, Innovation Management, innovation process, Innovation Strategy, innovation team, knowledge, talent management|

Cisco Ignites Companywide Startup Culture

In the past few years, the mass digitization of business and society has pressured every organization – large and small, private and public – to innovate at unprecedented speed. This digital revolution has incited a new and disruptive era of hyper competition. It has accelerated the pace of change exponentially. It has forced companies to reinvent themselves. And it has utterly disrupted institutions and their cultures, upended entire markets, and hatched new business models that challenge traditional ways of operating.

Ideascale2019-10-15T15:23:31-07:00August 29th, 2016|Categories: News, Organization & Culture, Report|Tags: case study, cisco, disruptive innovation, download, enterprise innovation, in-depth article, innovate everwhere, Innovation Culture, innovation program processes, intrapreneur, report, research|

Learning from the Humanitarian Innovation Laboratory

Innovation is all about survival – how often do we hear versions of that line? But in the field of humanitarian aid this really is the case. Innovation can sometimes be a matter of life and death. It’s a world characterised by crisis – but it’s also somewhere from which we might learn some new lessons to help manage innovation.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:00:49-08:00August 23rd, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: 3D printing, challenge, crisis, crisis management, disaster, disaster relief, disaster response, front end of innovation, healthcare, humanitarian innovation, industry innovation, infrastructure, survival|

The Global Innovation Index 2016

Since the release of the Global Innovation Index (GII) last year, the world economy has encountered a number of challenges that have led to further downgrades of global economic growth projections. In the context of such uncertainty, countries will seek ways to move the global economy out of its current holding pattern, thus avoiding a prolonged low-growth scenario. Innovation will be a critical ingredient to achieving this objective.

Ideascale2019-10-15T15:23:32-07:00August 18th, 2016|Categories: Blog Archive|Tags: case study, download, in-depth article, report, research|

Integrating Agile with Stage-Gate® – How New Agile-Scrum Methods Lead to Faster and Better Innovation

Recent experiences show that Agile project-management methods can be used in the innovation process and has a great potential to reduce development time and increase the success rate of new products. The article briefly outlines how an Agile method, such as Scrum, can be used within a structured innovation process with milestones and decision points, such as Stage-Gate®, and what benefits it provides to both manufacturers and service-providers.

Ideascale2021-12-20T16:53:54-08:00August 9th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: Agile, agile innovation, Agile-Stage-Gate Hybrid Model, case study, fuzzy front end of innovation, in-depth article, innovation method, innovation process, innovation tool, innovation toolbox, lean, methodology, Product Development, product innovation, project management, project planning, scrum, speed of innovation, stage gate, Success|

Multi-tasking – The Challenge of Intermediaries in SME Support for Innovation

In view of creating more competitive regions and industry sectors, innovation capabilities of SMEs play a central role. SMEs are strong economic drivers in many countries, and their ability to innovate will determine the health of national and regional economies in the future. A key support for SMEs in their innovation efforts are public innovation support programmes.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:58:16-08:00August 8th, 2016|Categories: Strategies, Support for SMEs|Tags: Change Management, coaching, Competition, consulting, development, in-depth article, innovation consulting, Innovation Management, innovation networks, innovation program processes, intermediaries, learning program, market study, multi-tasking, multitasking, network, networking, public innovation, public policy, SME, smes, survey|

Launching an Innovation Program: What You Don’t Know

Although innovation programs are becoming more and more embedded within the enterprise, it is still very common to find organizations that are just starting to experiment with formal, continuous innovation programs. Many IdeaScale clients that come to us are quietly launching pilot programs as proof-of-concept initiatives that will confirm innovation value for senior leadership.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T15:58:15-08:00August 3rd, 2016|Categories: Life Cycle Processes, Strategies|Tags: contest, continuous innovation, goal setting, goals, IdeaScale, innovation process, innovation program, innovation program processes, intrepreneur, KPI, launch strategy, process improvement, roadmap, strengths and weaknesses, value|

Challenged by Innovation? Someone May Have Already Solved Your Problem

In 1946, Soviet inventor and science fiction writer Genrich Altshuller developed a methodology called TRIZ. It became known as "the theory of inventive problem-solving" and was based on a simple premise: across different disciplines and applications, the same challenges occur again and again. Unfortunately, people keep solving nearly identical problems from scratch. The main lesson from TRIZ is this: if you understand how your innovation challenge is similar to someone else’s, you can reapply solutions that already exist, instead of reinventing the wheel time and again.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:58:02-08:00July 12th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: case study, copycat, Creativity, fuzzy front end of innovation, idea management, Ideation, innovation, inspiration, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, Open Innovation, Problem Solving, technology transfer, trend, TRIZ|

Avoid Innovation Paralysis – Why all Companies Can and Must Embrace Change

Someone once told me this: “Innovation is like an apparition of the Virgin Mary: one person saw her, but everyone talks about it.” Although funny, the quote aptly captures an attitude towards innovation that exists in many companies today. Innovation – and the skills that enable it – are sometimes considered as mystical gifts, preserved for the chosen few. In other cases, innovation is feared, because it involves unregulated processes, risk taking and investments with unpredictable outcomes. In this blog post, I’d like to make a case against this kind of innovation paralysis. Every company must innovate, and with the right understanding of the word ‘innovation’, every company can.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:54:16-08:00July 4th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Life Cycle Processes, Strategies|Tags: Change Management, Failure, innovation paralysis, Innovation Strategy, innovation success, market research, operational process, Problem Solving, Product Development, solutions|

Creativity is not Enough: How to Turn Ideas into Revenue

“Eureka!’, Archimedes famously howled, while running butt naked through the streets of Syracuse. Soaking in his bath tub, the bearded Greek inventor had just discovered a new method of determining an object’s volume. Funnily enough, this well-known story captures two myths about innovation. One: it’s the work of a sole – and usually slightly eccentric – inventor. Two: chance has a part to play. For businesses, the reality is vastly different. Indeed, turning ideas into revenue requires quite a bit more than just ideation and luck.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:54:13-08:00June 28th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: Best Practices, Creativity, front end of innovation, fuzzy front end of innovation, idea management, Ideation, innovation champion, Innovation Strategy, innovation success|