Monthly Archives: August 2010
Harvard Business Review had a great post last week entitled “5 Warning Signs That Your Innovation Efforts are Going Off the Rails.” I had to chuckle as I read the post – focused on how to make innovation efforts a partnership with the core business focus, instead of a competition. I didn’t chuckle because it was amusing. I chuckled because I’ve seen all five ‘warning signs’ touted as the foundations of the innovation effort, not as unwanted by-products. We’re often proud to be operating in a way that produces just these signs. How wrong is that? Based on a number of status quo approaches, we set up innovation as a competitor to our current model. It’s time we changed those status quos! We create a separate team. I actually recommend this is part of my consulting. When exploring new avenues we often need a focused team. But that doesn’t …
Since open innovation is an extension of internal innovation – at least it should be – one would expect that companies take managing their innovation networks very serious. Unfortunately, in many organizations this is not the case. Managing open innovation is seen as managing individual partners for individual projects or if lucky, multiple projects. This way open innovation becomes nothing more than simply outsourcing of innovation, using a simple command and control model. Through this attitude, many opportunities will be lost that companies could gain if they would really manage their networks. Managing your network means carefully selecting, engaging, developing, supporting and evaluating your individual partners. But more than that it means stimulating your network by: connecting your partners, searching for synergies and stimulating business opportunities, inviting new high potential partners and consistently promoting the network as a whole to the outside world. Here are some reasons why you should … Continue reading
In an earlier blog post, I included a quote from Voltaire. He once said, “Man can only have a certain number of teeth, hairs, and ideas. There comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, his hair, and his ideas.” This quote sparked a small debate between two blog readers. Dr.YKK chimed in with, “I don’t agree with Voltaire on the ideas part. As Einstein says, ideas are unlimited. I would like to add, ‘at whatever age.’ We don’t lose ideas, we gain ideas and wisdom with age.” Gareth Garvey responded with, “Maybe the number of ideas we can have is unlimited. Our problem can be that as we get older we can find it harder to accept new ideas and end up rejecting our own ideas before we have voiced them. We need to remind ourselves to think young, at least some of the time.” This is an … Continue reading
The cable TV channels History, Discovery, and Science have each been running a series of programs recently on the origin of the universe, the creation of planets, and an array of topics related to chemistry and physics. On the surface this description sounds pretty boring, so imagine what it must sound like to your average high school student. Pretty lame. The origin of the universe is a complex and abstract concept. However, the way these television programs present this information was absolutely stunning. It has been quite awhile since this author studied science in high school, and much of the knowledge presented didn’t exist back in those stone-age studies. These programs caused a reflection on how complex subjects are presented today and how students are being taught. Schools back-in-the-day were geared toward preparing students for factory jobs. If a teenager was extremely bright they could go …
Metrics are one of the most important elements of an innovation program’s success – determining everything from a program’s future direction – to whether a program even gets funded the following year. Yet metrics are probably the least understood, and most misused activity in a corporate program agenda. Understanding what to measure, and how to benchmark your performance is paramount to achieving both recognition and validation at the senior executive level – so how do you get it done? I thought I’d paste in a step by step guide over the next few weeks to let you know! Understanding the Innovation function 1. Start with Strategy – Key to understanding the metrics used to measure your innovation program is understanding what the real goal of that program is. Your whole program should be focused at trying to help the company achieve its strategic objectives (if it’s not – …
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. August’s topic was: “What do you consider the most important single development in innovation methodology?” Drew Boyd – Voice of the Product Bob Donnelly – Customer Friendly Innovation Kathy Robison – Innovation From the Inside Out Mike Dalton – A Contrarian View If you would like to suggest a topic for next month’s Innovation Perspectives, or would like to contribute, please leave a comment or contact us. You can check out all of the ‘Innovation Perspectives’ articles from the different contributing authors on ‘What do you consider the most important single development in innovation methodology?’ by clicking the link in this sentence. Braden … Continue reading
