Monthly Archives: June 2010
I don’t have much time for the BS of what I call the “innovation industry”, although I do certainly admire their ability to create wealth for themselves by selling this BS. But I resent the fact that I have to ultimately pay for it in services I buy e.g. I have to pay for the “Innovation Department” at the ANZ bank in my bank fees. When the banks award themselves prizes for their “innovation” it’s always astounding how the “innovation” is the least of what you would expect as being an everyday part of the service. The big banks have proven to be perfect candidates for the innovation industry, sold up the line on the need for “creativity” and brainstorming and plastering yellow sticky notes around rooms, and having performance artists jig around the room at management training. Personally I find most street performers plain dull, perhaps even stupid – … Continue reading
This is the fourth of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘What are three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative?’. Here is the next perspective in the series: Three Real Lessons (plus One) for Turnaround Innovation by Mike Brown What three specific things should a non-innovative company do to spur innovation? While I frequently approach strategy from a “work with what you have and adapt if at all possible” mindset, the most incredible innovation-instigating experience I’ve personally been a part of came from a big, dramatic, exciting business turnaround. The transportation company where I worked had sustained a variety of external and self-created landmines, and the vultures were circling figuratively (rumors of our collapse) and literally (turkey buzzards had taken up residence around our 10-story building). Although a public company, the management had … Continue reading
I just read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on how the video game industry prepares to launch new technology-based developments such as new motion-based controllers. In the article, we are told that one of the biggest challenges for the video game industry is the rise of free or cheap games on mobile phones and social networks. Consumers have changed their behaviors. This is a common, simple, yet crucial observation that many people working with innovation often tend to overlook. Companies can deliver all the latest technologies and the coolest products, but it does not really matter if we do not make this work together with new business models that adapts to the changes of consumers and customers. Scott Anthony gets into this in this nice article, Three Critical Innovation Lessons from Apple. The lessons are: Don’t just focus on building beautiful products. Build beautiful business models, new … Continue reading
The Authenticity Gap – that should be the title of my next book. I May Not Get Many Serious Readers. How About “Authenticiy Without Commitment”? Well, I don’t think I have time to write another book, it takes me almost 5 weeks last time. I guess I will need at least 8 weeks. But no. May be a blog post, it takes only 15 mins. I do like the name, but I guess it won’t sell well. May be “Authenticity Without Commitment”, this is a far better title, I think I can sell 200,00 copies and sell a lot of seminars. Will get sponsorship from BP for sure. Marketers have been talking about authenticity and brands for a long time and have been trying to be authentic, they are using the wrong tool. And often they don’t know what it means. Advertising doesn’t make brands authentic. They build awareness and … Continue reading
This is the third of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘What are three specific actions that a non-innovative company can take to become more innovative?’. Here is the next perspective in the series: by Paul Sloane Three things your organization can do to become more innovative: Set goals for innovation in terms of new products, services, methods, ideas etc and incorporate them into the the objectives of all the senior team. Establish and resource an employee ideas scheme. Encourage suggestions on specific topics. Ensure all ideas are quickly evaluated and the best are implemented. Allocate time, money and people to innovation. Give people some time for brainstorming and experimentation. Appoint innovation champions to help drive through the best ideas. You can check out all of the ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles from the different contributing authors on ‘What are three … Continue reading
How widely do you plan for a different future? Do you think British Petroleaum’s (BP’s) engineers and managers knew there was a chance of a major problem coming from deep water drilling? It seems illogical to think they didn’t know the chance existed. Yet, they seemed pretty ill-prepared for the problem. As did the federal government agencies and responders – as well as all the businesses that make a living out of cleaning up water-based oil spills. Critical-Thinking.com sums up the issue pretty succinctly in the article “What is Your Company’s Deepwater Horizon?” According to the article, the problem at BP is one that lots of companies have; most businesses simply don’t put enough effort into planning for worst case scenarios. Actually, the problem is worse than that. Most companies only plan for one scenario – more of the same. Planning processes rarely do …
