Monthly Archives: August 2009
Sometimes, try as you might, it’s impossible to focus on the task at hand. When you can’t focus, one alternative is to accept the mental roadblock and actively look for another time (perhaps an unconventional one) where you can shift the activity and your creative energy.At dinner recently, we had a very specific business topic (that had been hanging for a while) we were supposed to address. With little opportunity to prepare that day, I offered an idea intended to fit within the various strategic constraints we faced. While it sort of worked amid the constraints, I woke up that night realizing it wouldn’t work in practice for a whole variety of reasons.Next morning, I alerted the person looking for input that more work needed to be done. Yet, I still didn’t have any better alternatives.Lo and behold, enduring a flight delay one day later when the pressure to “think” … Continue reading
(The LAB: August 2009)by Drew BoydHealth Care Reform, as the U.S. government sees it, promises lower costs, better access, and improved quality for all. Let’s apply a structured innovation method to health care to see if we can achieve some of these goals. For this month’s LAB, we will apply Systematic Inventive Thinking to the hospital discharge process.Discharging patients from the hospital is a critical aspect of health care delivery. It is a time of transition where one group of care givers stops treating the patient and another group starts. The most frequent type of transition occurs when patients go from hospital to home, happening nearly 40 million times each year in the U.S. Studies show that about 20 percent of discharged patients have an adverse event – a preventable emergency department visit or re-admission – within 30 days following hospitalization. The discharge process is so important that a cottage … Continue reading
Let me start out by saying that it is purely accidental that I am lashing out at Campbell Soup Company in this blog post. It could have been several other companies as Campbell has not really done things that have not been done at other companies that set up programs to accept innovative ideas from external sources. While their intentions may be good, their execution is so poor that I can’t imagine they’ll have much success at this attempt at open innovation.Here are a few of the problems I see with Campbell’s Ideas for Innovation program:It’s too vague and unfocusedCampbell says they want “ideas for new products, packaging, marketing, and production technologies that will help us meet the needs of our consumers and customers better, faster and more completely.” Gee, that could be almost anything, couldn’t it? Why not help your potential external partners and save everybody time by being … Continue reading
Interview – Chris Thoen – P&G I had the opportunity to interview Chris Thoen, Director Innovation & Knowledge Management at P&G about the challenges of shifting an organization as big as P&G from closed innovation to open innovation, and the P&G Connect + Develop program. Dr. Thoen is a twenty year P&G veteran who started his career as a research scientist in the Fabric & Home Care division and now heads up the Global Open Innovation Office, also known as Connect + Develop. Here is the text from the interview: 1. When it comes to open innovation, what is the biggest challenge that you see organizations facing?For P&G specifically, changing the culture was a big challenge. Shifting from inventing everything internally, and owning all the IP to an open culture, with shared risks and rewards was a huge leap. You find that not everyone embraces open innovation at the …
One month ago today, the legendary master potter Otto Heino passed away at age 94. You’d probably have to be a ceramics aficionado to appreciate his art and recognize his name. I know of him only because he lived and worked in Ojai, not far from where I live in southern California, and where my family loves to visit and camp. Otto was of Finnish descent, and the first thing you’d notice when you met him was his incredibly smooth skin, the result of two decades of applying his own porcelain slip (the liquid porcelain before it’s been cast) as a mud mask to his face, 20 minutes per day.Why is he legendary? Because the Chinese government once offered him a billion dollars for what he knew about color yellow. Not only that, but in 1978 when Pablo Picasso wanted to know who the best potter in the world was, … Continue reading
How can you ensure that in turbulent times you not only survive the organizational restructuring but actually benefit by it? Most businesses are having to change not once but over and over in order to meet the challenges of recession, competition and technology convergence. Some changes are all about cutting costs, although they may be called something else. Others are about realigning the business to cope with new opportunities. Either way it can be a bloody affair, littered with victims and casualties. How can you maximize your chances in the change maelstrom? One way is to take a positive approach to change and to be seen as an innovative go-getter who will help make the re-organization a success. Here is how:1. Adopt a positive attitudeDon’t be cynical about change. Don’t assume the worst. Don’t believe and repeat rumours about management conspiracies to do down the workforce. Change is inevitable for … Continue reading
