Changes to Drive More Value from Your Innovation / Ideation Platform

In our previous article we focused on some of the serious issues being faced by clients and vendors who are working with innovation / ideation platforms.

Impact Assessment: The Innovation Paradigm Shift that is Coming

In the context of business management and economics, innovation has mainly been considered as a source of profit and growth. But innovation can also have a transformative role and recently more and more innovators and entrepreneurs are not only considering the financial returns of their projects, but also the societal impacts that they might bring with them.

What Job-Hunting Teaches Us about the Value of Innovation

Anyone who has ever been on the hunt for a new corporate job knows that it can be one of the most difficult and frustrating processes in the world. The Internet has given us the tools to apply for thousands of different jobs every day, but it has also presented its own problems: application systems with no easy answers, automation, and stiff competition make the ease of online applications less attractive.

Innovation Pays – More and More

Over recent years we have been tracking how companies identified as leading innovators subsequently perform in terms of growth in shareholder value. Linking innovation efficiency to out-performance against all major indices has proven the relationship that many across industry believe in and hope for: innovation pays. The latest round of analysis has just been completed and shows even greater performance than before.

What Do the Best Innovation Programs Have in Common?

An in-house innovation program is becoming a common fixture in the most competitive organizations. However, in a recessed economy, these research & development programs can sometimes get eliminated, because they struggle to prove or articulate value.

Systematic Idea Generation and Organizational Capabilities for Front-End Innovation Performance in SMEs

This study seeks to answer two key questions about the front-end innovation: when do idea generation activities involving internal and external partner’s payoff, and which organizational capabilities support idea generation activities for achieving high front-end performance?

5 Reasons Sustainability Drives Innovation

Sustainability is one of the key emerging trends in recent years. But much like innovation, it is a maturing discipline with few established business practices and lots of evolving methodologies. Sustainability champions at organizations often face the same challenges that innovation champions do: lack of senior level buy-in, lack of process, lack of resources. The benefits of successful sustainability and successful innovation are similar, as well: a competitive advantage, improved profit margins, and better brand sentiment from employees and customers.

Unlocking the One Trillion-Dollar Sustainable Innovation Opportunity

Last week Unilever announced research showing that one-third of consumers now purchase its brands based on their good social and environmental performance, but went on to suggest that brands are missing an opportunity from not promoting sustainability effectively. Getting this right could unlock a further $1trn market opportunity for sustainability innovators.

How To Measure Event ROI (Return On Innovation)

Everyone knows about ROI, as in “return on investment.” But for evaluating the success of an experiential brand event or marketing campaign, businesses should take an equally close look at ROI, as in “return on innovation.”

Innovation Fitness: Measuring It to Maximize It

To gauge the innovation capabilities of an enterprise, it is helpful to apply a systematic method for assessing the quality of, and the relationship between the various and distinct dimensions that drive all functions of the enterprise. As with a sports team, simply having talent does not ensure success. It is the quality of the team work which ultimately elevates or hinders the level of their play.

Metrics and Measurements for Open Innovation and Ecosystems

Given the difficulties in developing and working with metrics and measures for open innovation and ecosystems, I have pulled together some inspiration and insights from several articles.

Toward a Coherent and Self-Sustaining Innovation Framework

Innovation leaders today don’t have an easy job. Tasked with bringing Innovation to their organization, they often face a variety of interpretations of innovation throughout the organization, a lack of comprehensive understanding of what innovation really entails, and what it requires to truly embed innovation in a way that it sustains itself.

Unlocking Innovation in Business

85% of UK workers believe the strategic objectives of their employers could more easily be met through innovative approaches. Fortunately, the innovation discussion in business is progressing. Yet although most organisations acknowledge the desperate need for change, they are still at a loss when it comes to taking action. Workforces are a goldmine for the insight needed to drive change in an increasingly competitive business environment - but this knowledge must be captured to unlock innovation.

3 Reasons Crowdsourced Innovation Is Difficult

David Alan Grier wrote in Crowdsourcing for Dummies “the hardest part of crowdsourcing is raising the right crowd.” It is one of the realities of crowd ideation that continues to hold true – that if you can’t draw a crowd to help you generate innovative ideas, then you’re not evolving beyond the traditional closed approach to innovation.

Five Ways to Make Your Innovation Culture Smell Better

When it comes to fostering continuous innovation, most organizational cultures stink at it. Industry research provides some interesting statistics which highlight that innovation is not easily obtainable and that companies are not innovating fast enough to repel the unrelenting threat posed by new market entrants with declining barriers to entry.