Monthly Archives: May 2011
Is your mission to make everybody comfortable with their personal creativity? I’ll admit this generalization of my favorite CreativeBloc question is in my words, not the attendee’s. His questions (“How do you make Becky more comfortable? Should we try to make a Mike Brown out of a Becky?”) relate to a story about a person (not her real name) frequently shared in my innovation presentations. The abbreviated version is Becky worked with our large corporation (having been at another large corporation before) and was very uncomfortable sharing her perspectives in a creative session we conducted. The reason? Her self-perceived lack of experience and the pressure of not being able to plan her creative contributions ahead of time. She wanted a creative situation that was the antithesis of how we apply the Brainzooming process. She isn’t unique in her fear of sharing her unscrubbed points of view, however, so how …
Talk to a Technology Transfer Executive at any University and they will tell you the licensing money is in Biotechnology, more simply put, in medicine. Innovation in the Biotechnology marketplace is a very different proposition than it is for materials, devices, energy, software or any other area of invention and innovation. The sums of money spent on research are huge, in 2007 that figure for the US was estimated at $122 billion. Not only are large sums invested in research, but the time to market is long, ten years to get a drug from the laboratory to market is consider an achievement. But the pay off for all this time and money can be enormous, Emory University and Northwestern received tens of millions of dollars from biotechnology patents in last few years. Healthcare is one industry where consumers do not have much of a choice when it comes to …
Gap’s top designer, Patrick Robinson, may never go into a 7-11 again, having gone from promising hire in ’07 to out of a job in ‘11. As The Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Holmes recently reported, “[Robinson’s] departure after four years of lackluster results was yet another sign of Gap Inc.’s failure to breathe new life into its namesake brand, which peaked in the mid-1990s.” That’s true. Gap’s same store sales have declined for 14 of the past 16 quarters, including a 1 percent decline in the first quarter of this year. As a result, Pam Wallack, head of Gap’s global creative center, decided to shake things up at the top of the company’s design ranks. Whether or not the change is warranted I can’t say (I’m not exactly a fashion-forward guy), but methinks Gap may be overlooking something. I’m not sure the company brass realizes just how powerful advertising can … Continue reading
A simple model for implementing an idea management based innovation strategy in your firm. Outline The corporate innovation machine is a model for understanding how to implement an effective, idea management based innovation strategy in your firm. As with any machine, the corporate innovation machine comprises several components, all of which must work together for the machine to function properly. When the entire machine does work, it builds ideas, evaluates those ideas and implements the best ideas as new product, service and operational improvements which translate into increased revenues for your firm. Powered by Management The corporate innovation machine is powered by management. Just as the most sophisticated machine will not run without a power source, likewise your corporate innovation strategy will go nowhere without top management taking the lead. Management’s main task is to create within the organization a culture of innovation which will empower workers to think creatively, … Continue reading
I think we can turn around the United States economy, one company at a time. Here’s how: To start, we must make a couple commitments to ourselves: We will do what it takes to manufacture products in the United States because it’s right for the country. We will be more profitable because of it. Next, we will set up a meeting with our engineering community, and we will tell them about the two commitments. (We will wear earplugs because the cheering will be overwhelming.) Then, we will throw down the gauntlet; we will tell them that, going forward, it’s no longer acceptable to design products as before, that going forward the mantra is: half the cost, half the parts, half the time. Then we will describe the plan. On the next new product we will define cost, part count, and assembly time goals 50% less that the existing product; we … Continue reading
How is it keeping you from winning? by Holly G. Green It’s hard to beat experience, strength and knowledge, right? Try telling that to the Los Angeles Lakers. Conventional wisdom said the Lakers were primed to win their third consecutive NBA title this year. They had a tall, dominating front line with Gasol, Bynum and Odom. Their coach had won more championships than any other NBA coach. They had the most battle-tested team in the playoffs. And of course they had Kobe Bryant, rated by many as the game’s best closer. But as so often happens in sports, conventional wisdom got taken to the woodshed. The Lakers got swept in four games by the Dallas Mavericks. And they looked old, slow and disinterested in the process. One reason I enjoy watching sports is that it affords the opportunity to see conventional wisdom get turned on its ears. In fact, the … Continue reading
