Monthly Archives: February 2010
A magazine asked me to write a book review of “Innovation Tournaments” by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich. The book arrived in the mail yesterday and I immediately turned to the index to see if InnoCentive was listed. Sure enough, we are mentioned in several places in the book.This got me thinking: Is InnoCentive a tournament?The word tournament is derived from the French word for “medieval sport” and is now used to describe a wide variety of competitions.Most competitions/tournaments are quite entertaining. And by their very nature, there is always a winner. One could argue that tournaments are “spectacles designed to find a champion.”Given this widely held point-of-view, using the word tournament as a descriptor of InnoCentive seems to be inaccurate.The NCAA basketball championships are a tournament. The “World Series of Poker” is a tournament. American Idol is a tournament. With each of these, there is always a winner. The … Continue reading
Maybe 10-20 years ago, PR was more about the relationships you had with the right press. Reporters and their publications were the gatekeeper to getting your story heard, and PR professionals were the gatekeeper to those gatekeepers. But even then, relationships were only as good (and ultimately as successful) as the story you had to offer.Today, story matters more than ever. Yes, a good relationship with press helps you break through the clutter and get a few extra minutes to pitch your story. But a good story stands on its own.Plus, you don’t have to rely on a finite set of traditional media outlets to give your story a voice to the masses. Today, you can publish on your own. Self-publishing won’t have the audience others have, but that’s not the point. Share that story in a public forum, that both press and your direct customers/prospects/constituents can read, and a … Continue reading
These days, almost all of my clients are talking about the need to establish a culture of innovation. Some, I’m happy to report, are actually doing something about it. Hallelujah! They are taking bold steps forward to turn theory into action. Still, the challenge remains the same for them as it does thousands of other forward-thinking companies – and that is, to find a simple, authentic way to address the challenge from the inside out – to water the root of the tree, not just the branches. In today’s process-driven, OD-centric, Six-Sigma savvy organization, the tendency is to focus on systems as opposed to people – as if systems were sufficient to guarantee change. Guess what? Systems are not sufficient to guarantee change. In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Systems die. Instinct remains.” This is not to say that organizations should ignore systems and structures in their effort to … Continue reading
Innovation Perspectives is our 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:”Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?”Thank you to Jeffrey Phillips for submitting this month’s topicHere is a list of all of the authors that participated this month and links to their articles on this topic.Jim Estill – Leader’s Role in Trend SpottingMike Brown – Trendspotters’ Fab FiveBraden Kelley – Trendspotting TrifectaRocco Tarasi – All of the AboveJeffrey Phillips – Purpose, Frequency and ResponsibilityRobert Brands – Shepherding a Team of OpportunistsVyoma Kapur – Trend Spotting CollaborationAdam Schorr – Your Trend Spotting TeamIf you would like to suggest a … Continue reading
The challenge with innovation is finding products and services that are easier to use, easier to maintain and more appealing to customers. Where can you draw the creativity and drive to make this happen? Often the best source for innovation is the team within your business. A great leader can turn them into entrepreneurs who are hungrily looking for new opportunities. The key is empowerment. By empowering people you enable them to achieve goals through their own ideas and efforts. The leader sets the destination, but the team chooses the route. What do employees need to be empowered?People need clear objectives so that they know what is expected of them. They need to develop the skills for the task. They need to work in cross-departmental teams so that they can create and implement solutions that will work. They need freedom to succeed. And when you give someone freedom to succeed … Continue reading
Crowdsourcing is heating up in terms of corporate interest. Pepsi’s decision to skip the Super Bowl in favor of a crowdsourced ideas initiative – Pepsi Refresh – is an example of the interest in the market. Digital strategy, marketing and design firm Last Exit called crowdsourcing a top digital marketing trend for 2010.Contests are a particular form of crowdsourcing that are proving to be beneficial in a number of areas. Contests allow people from around the world to compete with one another on a specific challenge put forth by an organization. Participation is motivated by incentives commensurate with the level of the challenge.The contest version of crowdsourcing has its own activities for gathering, filtering and selecting among the submissions of people. These activities are:Crowdsourcing starts with the contributions of people from around the globe. These submissions are aggregated into a common site. Submissions are provided in the format matching the … Continue reading
