Monthly Archives: July 2010
This is the second of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘How should firms identify innovation opportunities and predict market potential at very early stages and in new areas (“green fields”) and ambiguous environments?’. Here is the next perspective in the series: by Jeffrey Phillips There are two questions embedded here. First, which opportunities or threats that are emerging should we pay attention to, and how do we determine which ones will have the most value in an ever-changing and uncertain marketplace? For too long we’ve relied on the concept of the “fast follower”. Anyone who follows my writing knows that I think that fast followers, like unicorns and the lightsaber are interesting but merely fables. Yes, many firms claim to be fast followers, since that means they can explain away their lack of insight and innovation, but even … Continue reading
Contrary to popular belief, breakthroughs are less about the act of inventing new things than they are the art of recognizing “happy accidents” — those unexpected moments when an elegant solution reveals itself for no particular reason. The discovery of penicillin? The result of Alexander Fleming noticing the formation of mold on the side of a Petri dish left unattended overnight. Vulcanized rubber? Discovered in 1839 when Charles Goodyear accidentally dropped a lump of the polymer substance he was experimenting with onto his wife’s cook stove. The post-it? An accident in the lab. After all, 3M made adhesives — things that stick — and the post-it didn’t stick all that well. Breakthroughs aren’t always about inventing things. They’re often about the intervention required to notice something new and surprising. For this to happen, you’ll need to let go of your expectations and assumptions. Not to mention, ideas, concepts, beliefs, paradigms, … Continue reading
It’s easy to make retail marketing too complicated, or entirely too tactical. But the more retail businesses I see and speak with, big and small, the more I realize they all need to focus on three things: 1. A great customer relationship management system. This is key. It’s the hub of all information you have about every customer. Who they are, how often they shop, what they like, when they last visited, etc. If it’s really good, it stores wish lists that their family, friends, etc. can access. It tracks their birthdays and anniversaries, their ring size, their favorite candy, whatever is relevant to your business and the relationship you have and are building with each customer. Without a great CRM system (and there are plenty out there complicated enough for enterprise retail as well as simple enough for small storefronts), it’s too easy to commoditize …
This is the first of several ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on ‘How should firms identify innovation opportunities and predict market potential at very early stages and in new areas (“green fields”) and ambiguous environments?’. Here is the initial perspective in the series: 8 Ideas for Better Identifying & Forecasting Early Stage Innovation by Mike Brown With various factors stacked against successfully identifying and accurately forecasting demand for brand new markets and radically different offerings, this month’s Innovation Perspectives topic seems like a slam dunk. No, not “slam dunk” as in easy; “slam dunk” as in you’re likely to be slammed for whatever you project and even more likely to see your new product dunked in the cold reality of a very inaccurate forecast. There’s no single answer to doing this more successfully, so here are 8 ideas for improving … Continue reading
The importance of managing innovation as a process is one of our key themes here. Because the success of any single great idea is pretty close to impossible to predict, the best way to successfully innovate is to try a lot of things, and to manage ideas through a process. If you do this, you can become better at innovating. So innovation can be managed. But can innovation management become a profession? Should it even try? Howard Gardner and Lee Shulman list six characteristics of professions in an article in Daedalus from 2005 called The professions in America today: crucial but fragile: a commitment to serve in the interests of clients in particular and the welfare of society in general; a body of theory or special knowledge with its own principles of growth and reorganization; a specialized set of professional skills, practices, and performances unique to the profession; the developed … Continue reading
Ever since I was old enough to realize there would never be a want ad in a newspaper that described a job I wanted, I’ve loved working in cafes. I never really thought much about it until a few days ago when a baffled friend of mine asked why I was so into it. His assumption? That working in a cafe would be a distraction. A distraction? Dude, quite the opposite. And so, at the risk of trotting out a few half-baked conclusions that my non-cafe-going critics will have a field day trashing, here goes: 20 REASONS WHY YOU MIGHT LIKE TO WORK IN A CAFE It doesn’t feel like work. It’s a nice break from the office. You don’t have an office. Easy access to caffeine. If you have a home office, you appreciate the fact that — in a cafe — there are no interruptions from your wife/husband/kids/roommate … Continue reading
