Nothing breeds success like success, at least according to the old proverb. However, this is not always the case when it comes to business growth. Many organizations, from Polaroid to Sony, have become victims of their own success: they achieved enormous growth by introducing new products – the Polaroid camera, the Sony Walkman – but as the marketplace matured this growth slowed and they were left looking for alternative paths.
In today’s societies where science and technology are becoming more and more important, risk is seen as inevitable. At the same time risk has negative connotations and creates anxieties. It must be managed in order to achieve desired goals and for companies to survive. But how can you do that? Read more in this article that gives you some clues to innovation risk management to achieve sustainable innovation.
Part two in a series of articles by Robert Brands discusses the need and importance of taking risks to achieve successful innovations. Since the high failure rate, organizations pursuing the practice of Innovation must have a tolerance for failure. The material is based on 25 years of hands on experience in the innovation space and the recently published book “Robert's Rules of innovation”.
I happened to learn about a new book by the legendary Charles Handy when I visited him a couple of months back at his home in Norfolk England ' the new philanthropists'. True to the title of the Book of probably Britain's most prolific management thinker (together written with his wife Elizabeth who is a portrait photographer), Charles talks about a new trend of successful young businessmen who don't only believe in giving money for just causes but by working on the spot with the needy so as to create a sustainable impact. He offers examples from entrepreneurs from South Africa, Ireland and Australia among others.
The innovation process requires considerable amounts of trust. The innovation process involves risk both for the firm running the process and employees participating in the process. Jeffrey Baumgartner outlines some practical ways to increase the level of trust, and therefore the level of innovation, in your firm.
Being the General Manager of TomorrowLab, Steven Peleman knows what is important for the creation of innovation in companies and organizations. Bringing people together outside their companies and helping them to develop new views of their existing innovation organization make a good start. Getting them to take more chances is even better.
In the Chinese word for crisis ‘weiji’ (??), ‘wei’ ? means danger, and ‘ji’ ? means opportunity. Crisis does not have the same meaning in China as in Western society. Chinese people believe that danger can be turned into opportunity, if one acts wisely according to under the circumstances. This mentality can be clearly seen in the way that China has tackled the global financial crisis.
Research at Lund University is world-class. Research is undertaken in areas such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, automatic control, wireless communication, logistics, ecology and cognitive science.
Start-up companies are almost synonymous with innovation, while the well established companies are usually perceived as being risk averse and much less innovative. In this article Jeffrey Baumgartner uses Prospect Theory to better understand how executives perceive risk and innovation opportunities.
The benefits of open innovation during the current economic downturn have only recently been analyzed. Henry Chesbrough and Andrew Garman have recently published a Harvard Business Review article (June) on this. Wim Vanhaverbeke, Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Hasselt University, Belgium, provides some additional benefits when companies apply open innovation in a downturn, which has not been mentioned in the HBR-article.
Many companies pay substantial yearly fees in order to protect their patents. But what business benefit do these patents really generate?
The fifth major issue to be tackled by our distinguished panel of innovation practitioners is innovation culture, specifically: How do you build and sustain a culture and climate for innovation and entrepreneurship, and how do you encourage "smart risk taking" and drive out fear of failure?
Years of cost-cutting and focus on process excellence have created in many firms a culture that is focused on operational excellence and risk avoidance. For innovation to succeed as a corporate objective, the culture must change to accommodate the risk and uncertainty that accompanies an innovation focus. Luckily, several important levers can help you change the culture, as Jeffrey Phillips explains.
Boomerang innovation is never intended. It just happens. It's a tremendous waste of money and highly demotivating for all concerned. Read on to learn what boomerang innovation is, and how to avoid it.
In most business ideas, there is a direct correlation between how audacious and risky an idea is and its innovativeness and reward potential. In this article, Jeffrey Baumgartner explores the relationship between audaciousness, risk and reward, and provides some advice on what the right mix is.
