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.

Industry 4.0 and the Internet-of-Things (IoT): Learning from the German Chemical Industry

The keyword “Industry 4.0” is no longer an empty cliché or a black box; it is currently probably the most important topic within the German economy. Not only will existing processes be revolutionized – but also new businesses and business models will arise. More and more companies have already started to tap into its potential.

The Boom – Not Doom – from Market Failure

What do non-consumption, organizational friction and market failure have in common? These days, everyone is “innovating” to find the next big thing. But where do you start? One way is to try and think of innovation as having mass, and therefore it cannot be created from truly nothing. Innovation must start somewhere, and it must start with something that already exists.

How to Unseat the Incumbent

Incumbents. Everyone who isn’t one hates them and if they don’t already tease you enough from their ivory towers you just know that their lazy overpaid salesman is playing golf somewhere waiting for orders to drop into his inbox before he goes to the nineteenth hole. So how will your sales teams topple the golfer?

Innovation Through Co-creation: Consumers Can be Creative

A new trend in business and product development is ‘co-creation’. By its very name it implies a collaboration between the company and some other entity. In this case it is the consumer who partners in the creation of value. The term ‘co-creation’ is not new, however, but is now receiving more attention - driven largely through the increasing use of the Internet and social media websites - as companies endeavour to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Joe Pine: Economic Value Creation Through the Experience Economy

The Experience Economy is accelerated by the current global crisis according to Joe Pine. People don’t want more stuff, in this post-growth global economy people start questioning what they really value and that is experiences with others, loved ones, colleagues, friends, etc. There’s more demand for experiences and this will create job opportunities, moreover because commoditized services are being outsourced and offshored.

Strategy as an Innovative Design Process

Unpredictable, turbulent markets and fluid industry boundaries characterize today's global economy. Yet our approaches to strategic planning, formed in the closed markets of the Industrial Age, often assume exactly the opposite. As a result, companies are mired in commoditization, industry disruptions from unexpected competitors, stalled growth, and tentative strategies. To gain the agility needed to thrive in today's complex and demanding open markets, strategy must become an innovative design process focused on value creation, says Kay Plantes.

Developing an Innovation Toolbox

InnovationManagement spoke to Alexander Osterwalder, sought-after author, speaker, workshop facilitator and adviser on the topic of business model design and innovation. Find out more about his views on innovation management, what projects he is currently working on, and why big organizations should enable their creative innovators.

Clues to Innovation Risk Management

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.

Discover New Possibilities with Reverse Innovation

Before the radical shifts in technology disrupt the industry fabric, there exists a great potential to appropriate value from the market through incremental product and business model innovations. The less intense the competition, less matured the market - larger is the potential. The emerging markets of the world the BRICs (where s could stand for the plurality as well as South Africa), have long been projected as the markets to invest in.

Opinion: Innovation – Walk the Talk!

Most managers agree that innovation is the Nordic region’s last stronghold for competing in a global economy. Moreover, they are interested and fascinated by the thought of working systematically with innovation in order to gain a breakthrough to create growth and profitability for their organisations. But why then, is there so much talk and so little action, argue Gunnar Storfeldt (CEO) and Orren Shalit (Founder), S I T Scandinavia.

When is an Innovation Not an Innovation?

Adjustable-rate mortgages. Zero calorie colas. Television webisodes! Even in tough times, companies maintain a healthy slate of new products and ideas by creating new markets or boosting market share in existing segments. But is every new product or service offered to customers an innovation? In this article, Dr. Gaurav Bhalla, with over 30 years of global experience in the fields of strategy, innovation, and marketing shares his thoughts on the subject of innovation.

2019-10-15T15:05:49-07:00October 19th, 2009|Categories: Strategies|Tags: , , , |

How to Increase Your ROI by Measuring and Managing Your Innovation

Studies have shown that companies’ return on innovation (ROI) or hit rate is somewhere between 2-10%. That is another way of saying that around 90% of all innovation efforts are never commercialised or used in general. Jørn Bang Andersen, senior advisor to the Nordic Innovation Centre (NICe), presents a NICe case study on possible ways to dramatically change that.