Innovation Versus Vision
Truly innovative companies do not aim to be innovative. Rather they relentlessly strive to follow a unique strategy, says Jeffrey Baumgartner.
How Strategic Planning Smothers Innovation: One Organization’s Story
The story of a once-innovative financial services firm illustrates the perils of substituting 'messy' innovation with a logical, orderly strategic planning process.
The End of Mass Innovation
Marketing guru Seth Godin, in his book We are All Weird, argues that the age of mass markets is over. Furthermore, the alternative to mass is not niche, but weird.
The Elastic Enterprise: How to Move Beyond Innovation (and Live Happily for a Change)
Innovation, the act of creating novelty, has become omnipresent whereas what we really need to know is how to change enterprises, how to transform them, how to make them Elastic Enterprises, urges Haydn Shaughnessy in this provocative article.
Harnessing the Collective Mind of Social Media to Drive Innovation
Social media networks make it possible to harness the ideas, information, knowledge, collaborations and passion of workers around innovation as never before, explains Colin Crabtree.
How to Harness the Value of Outsourcing-led Innovation
Companies who are engaged in developing innovation processes are also likely to be involved in outsourcing significant aspects of their operations. So how do you innovate when you've also outsourced? Sanjiv Gossain explores the issues.
Large Firms and the Growth of Start-up Culture: a Key Dependency in the Age of Innovation
Steven Klepper, the recipient of the 2011 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, has spent all of his professional career looking at how innovation and the fate of large firms are so closely intertwined. His conclusions on how large firms, start-ups and clusters interact should be required reading for innovation managers and strategists everywhere.
Innovation Opportunity: Turn Products into Services
How can your products be turned into services, and your services re-thought to make them even more comprehensive? This growing area offers many opportunities for innovation, says Jeffrey Baumgartner.
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.
Design Thinking in new Product Development
What is design thinking's role in the new product development process? Michael Fruhling explains.
Changing Mental Models to Make Innovation Work
We see a lot of programs being run in companies in the name of innovation. Of course some of the large corporations need to run innovation programs for name sake. They need some window dressing for analysts and industry observers lambasting the same for not being innovative enough.
Rethinking the Financial Drivers in Innovation Culture
Recent reports in the Harvard Business Review question the efficiency of the traditional Silicon Valley venture capital innovation funding model and more emphasis is now being placed on how to manage the innovation process in a low finance environment. In this article we look at one grass roots movement that is providing a model for creating the widest possible innovation culture, at the same time bringing this new innovation management thinking into the mainstream.
Structuring Companies for Innovation and Operations
The appropriate structuring of companies is becoming more and more relevant as a mechanism for managing and enhancing their innovation capability. This article explores the concept of the Viable Systems Model (VSM) of Stafford Beer as a tool to better structure organisations for effective innovation and efficient operation.
How Thinking about your Business as a Collection of Franchises can Unleash Innovation
Fostering a sense of ownership among employees can unleash tremendous capacity for innovation, says Edward Glassman. Like franchisees, who own their independent businesses but operate within a well-defined structure or system, empowered employees tend to be more entrepreneurial and committed to helping the organization to thrive.
10 Steps for Boosting your Firm’s Innovation
Here are 10 steps you can take to turn your company into an innovation leader that races forwardswith new products, services and improved processes while your competitors remain far behind with outdated products, limited services and inefficient processes.