What the Ideation Platform Marketplace is Getting Wrong – the 7-Year Itch?

The ideation platform marketplace hasn’t really changed that much in the past 7 years or so. There was an early burst of innovative design and alignment with user needs, but at this point the sector seems to have stagnated in terms of how they add value. Call it reaching middle age, or perhaps they are having a 7-year itch?

Disruption Planning 2- Creating Options and Pathways

In this in-depth article Haydn Shaughnessy discusses why traditional ROI decision making is becoming irrelevant and how options planning is a key element of competitiveness. In these uncertain times firms need to recognise and analyse their options thoroughly in order to be ready for inevitable change.

Platform Disruption Wave

In the new global environment innovation is tending towards Platform Disruption, and is more focused on waves of change than single technology disruptions. The competitive capability of different innovation cultures, rather than technology, therefore becomes the critical success factor. In this article, Haydn Shaughnessy examines product and service platforms as the new organisational form and suggests that modern enterprises need to take the leap to a new way of business.

An Innovation Portal…I Can Do That Myself

Innovation portals have taken an important place in the open innovation landscape. Expectations are great in portal performance but often, for purely budgetary reasons, these portals are launched and managed internally by corporates themselves, to discover that they generate a number of community management issues that they are not used to coping with. Prior to launching a corporate portal it is a good idea to ask a few specific questions on whether to do this internally or through experienced third party innovation providers. Using external resources can often avoid pitfalls and align the portal success rate to corporate expectations, objectives and ambitions. Here six questions are asked that can help you take the decision whether to launch a managed portal internally or externally.

Global Platforms for Co-creating Hyper-Local Solutions

The products and services we use are developing in two seemingly opposite directions: We want customized and localized solution – but they should fit into a global network of services and brands. A business model to meet this paradox is to create global platforms that enable a large number of actors to create very local and personalized solutions.

The New Normal: From Product to Platforms and Processes

Platforms and processes, rather than products, will become the focus of new business creation as we move forward. The main characteristic of a handful of new trends in business – Collaborative consumption, Sharing, the Maker movement and the Circular economy – is that the value creation is less about adding some new feature to a product. Instead, the appeal of these models is that they can deliver more value for less by involving a number of stakeholders, including the users, in co-creating solutions.

Open Innovation – An Integrated Tool in Siemens

“If Open Innovation is not seen as a long term capability building exercise then it will fail”. In this interview Thomas Lackner, Head of Open Innovation and Scouting at Siemens Corporate Technology, shares some of his experiences and how Siemens has evolved on the open innovation front. Thomas, who has been personally involved in many of Siemen’s innovation programs, also elaborates on some critical success factors that strongly influenced the outcome and quality of their programs.

How do Specialized Intermediaries Facilitate Creative Crowdsourcing?

One of the most obvious benefits of crowdsourcing is its ability to stimulate creativity and accelerate innovation on a global scale. Leading companies such as Dell, Starbucks or Frito-Lay have pioneered this trend by building platforms (respectively IdeaStorm, MyStarbucksIdea and Doritos Crash The SuperBowl) that connect them to a crowd of passionate individuals. These success-stories paint a very positive picture of crowdsourcing, but the reality is that connecting with the crowd is not as easy as it seems. In this post, we will present the advantages and drawbacks of using crowdsourcing to source creative ideas, and explain how specialized intermediaries can help companies by providing crowds, platforms and experience.

The Problem with Open Innovation Web Portals

Michael Fruhling doesn't like open innovation portals, in general. What's his problem with them?

Growing B2B Services: 3 Trends to Act Upon Now

What does it take for companies to market new, innovative capabilities as a service? The challenge to expand beyond products is daunting, but as market exemplars show, the returns on the investment can be worth it. The case studies explored in this article illustrate the extent to which services demand a premium in the market, drive differentiation from the competition, and build loyalty.

Stop the Reckless Brainstorming and Focus your Creativity!

In their desperation to be innovative, companies often brainstorm themselves into idea overload, generating ideas that ultimately are failures. But what if companies could focus those brainstorming efforts and develop an efficient, targeted process for creativity? InnovationManagement asked Tony Ulwick to share his thoughts on how to leverage the creativity and get a better outcome.

How creativity is revolutionizing the book business: Corey Michael Blake

Corey Michael Blake is president of Round Table Companies, a firm that works closely with authors to develop graphic novels. In this interview with Michelle James, he explains how the book business is being transformed today, and the central role of creativity in all parts of the revolution.

How the Complexity of Innovation is Driving the Need for Improved Collaboration Tools

According to an expert on information governance, the growing complexity of corporate innovation, especially if it involves outside partners, is driving the need for better collaboration tools, such as mind mapping software.