Monthly Archives: August 2009
by Kevin RobertsTaking Stella to the park the other day I noticed how few kids were out there playing games. Every small kid seemed to be accompanied by their parents and all the adults were on edge checking one another out to make sure there were no pedophiles lurking. In the UK, you can’t even take pictures of kids if other kids are in the picture for fear they will be used perversely. What a tragic set of circumstances.When I grew up I was outside every day from 8:00am until dark. Playing every ball game imaginable, climbing trees, running around, disrupting girls games of skipping and hopscotch, playing hide ‘n seek, cowboys and Indians, war, tag, jack above, etc., etc. Now all the kids seem to do is be supervised by parents, take no risks, or stay indoors watching dvd’s and video games. This isn’t the way to prepare kids … Continue reading
Last week (August 13-14, 2009) I had the opportunity to attend the Spigit Innovation Summit from the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, CA.It was a great event with keynotes from Gary Hamel, Jeffrey Phillips, and Sean Toulon (TMAG). There were also panels on Spigit use cases (AT&T, Mitre, IBM) and best practices (Pfizer, MedPlus, Wal-Mart), along with ample opportunities for innovation management practitioners to converse and share their experiences with each other.Some of the insights that came out of the panels and included the following:It is important to have a dedicated innovation team (even if they are not full-time) and discretionary funds available for funding selected ideasIt is important to have connectors on your innovation team – people with relationships in lots of different business units and workgroupsWhatever software you choose to use must allow for open submissions and for discrete, targeted innovation challengesOther things to consider when setting … Continue reading
Innovation Perspectives is a new monthly feature to present our loyal readers with different perspectives on a single topic all in one place along with the ability to compare, contrast and discuss them in the comments here on Blogging Innovation and in the Continuous Innovation group on LinkedIn. This month’s topic was: “Describe the importance of innovation strategy to the success of an organization’s innovation efforts.”Do companies need an innovation strategy?What role does it play?What are best practices in setting innovation strategy?How should organizations integrate their innovation strategy into their corporate strategy?Here is a list of all of the authors that participate this month and links to their articles on this topic.Rowan Gibson – What exactly is an innovation strategy?Dan Keldsen – Strategy From Above?Drew Boyd – What/Why/When/How/Where/WhoMike Brown – Yes, No, and Everything In BetweenSteve Todd – Leveraging IntrapreneursHutch Carpenter – Making Your Own LuckJeffrey Phillips – Do you … Continue reading
This is the seventh and final ‘Innovation Perspectives’ article we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on The Importance of Innovation Strategy:by Rowan GibsonAt many companies, the term ‘innovation strategy’ refers simply to an agenda for new product development or a technology roadmap for R&D. This is like picking up a single leaf in the forest and calling it a tree. Innovation strategy is not merely about the next product launch or patent registration. It’s about exactly how your company intends to become (or remain) a world-class innovation champion. Let’s face it, not many organizations have so far managed to build a deep, enduring capability for innovation – one that consistently drives profitable revenue growth and that delivers a strong competitive advantage over the longer term. This should be the highest goal and purpose of any innovation strategy.The real strategic issue facing every company is … Continue reading
This is the sixth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on The Importance of Innovation Strategy:by Jeffrey PhillipsI’ve thought for a while that it would be great to get a number of bloggers to write about the same topic, which would allow readers to have different perspectives about an innovation topic from noted (well, at least some of us are) experts in the field of innovation. Braden Kelley asked us to write about the need or importance of innovation strategy, so here’s my response to his request.First, let’s set out that there is really no such thing as innovation strategy. Strategy is about setting out the vision and goals for your company, and what your long term objectives are. Most firms set out some vaguely worded strategy which does not lock them in too much, and which they ignore … Continue reading
This a bonus eighth ‘Innovation Perspectives’ article to give one extra perspectives on The Importance of Innovation Strategy:Describe the importance of innovation strategy to the success of an organization’s innovation efforts.Braden Kelley of Blogging Innovation asked a number of people to contribute their perspectives on the question above. This is our response.Popular culture associates innovation with one or both of these qualities:Out-of-the-blue “a-ha!” momentsHigh individual creativity When those characteristics guide your thinking, the notion that there can be an innovation “strategy” seems…quaint. Like saying Van Gogh needed a “painting strategy.”And if you subscribe to those notions, there must be a fait accompli aspect to your view on innovation inside companies. It will happen, or it won’t. Throw your hands up, hope you’ve got the right creative people.As Gary Hamel said recently, “There is this ‘creative apartheid’ ingrained in the world. Some people are really creative, some aren’t. That’s BS.” A … Continue reading
