I am behind my reading….. However, these two articles from the Innovation Playground got my attention while I was quickly browsing thru the Google Reader.

The Six Most Common Approaches To Innovation. Tell Me Which One Works For Best For You?

Idris Mootee highlights the 6 most common approaches to innovation. As I think about my past experiences, even within the same organization, I utilized different innovation approaches based on the changing problems and context. And, I would agree that ‘Throw-Plenty-Of-Ideas-Around‘ is my least favorite method. In some cases, combining one or more of these approaches could further focus your innovation process, such as refining the killer idea by prioritizing problems.

• Find-New-Ideas-To-Power-Up-Growth-Strategy
• Find-Customer Needs-First 
• Find-A-Killer-Idea-First
• Throw-Plenty-Of-Ideas-Around
• Define-The-Problem-First
• Hide-In-The-Dark

“Sustainability” Has More Than It Means. There Are No “Sustainability” Without “Social Innovation”. Many Of The Solutions We Have Are Simply Too Tactical, Not Dealing With The Systemic Issues.

In this blog, Mootee tackles the challenge of defining sustainability. You can also read my ramblings on this topic: There is more to sustainability that just being green.

“The first problem I have with is the narrow definition of sustainability. …

If all of this sounds not confusing enough, there’s more. It is basically a humanity issue more than an environmental issue. We are not seeing the whole if we only see environment. How do we provide a decent life on this planet is a problem facing all humanity? Well I am making the problem too difficult to solve. This is a wicked problem; it is both systemic and maybe the ultimate challenge.”

– Idris Mootee, Innovation Playground

Innovation is not synonymous with new product releases. There is certainly an overlap, but innovation is not just about making new stuff. Otherwise, we would be in the perpetual cycle of: think ⇒ make ⇒ waste. Wait, we are… But, that is a topic for another post.

Many firms use the percentage of revenue from new products or number of new products launched as a metric to gauge the success rate of a firm’s innovation capability. Measuring innovation is certainly challenging. Inherent with any metrics program, there could be unintended, negative side effects. There is an article on Freakonomics blog regarding this complexity that is worth checking out: How Can We Measure Innovation? A Freakonomics Quorum.

Should the New Product Development (NPD) process be adopted as a framework for innovation management? In organizations where innovation is managed in an ad-hoc fashion, that certainly seem to be the case. Here is an hypothetical scenario on how innovations can be managed using the NPD process. Does this seem familiar?
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We are all creative, even when we don’t acknowledge our creative powers. How we take ideas and combine them in unique and unexpected ways is what creativity is all about. Motivation, inspiration, exploration, constraints and sharing are the ingredients of creativity. Sharing is also the igniter that starts us on the path of invention and innovation.

Sharing is risky. It generates conflicting emotions… What if someone steals my idea? What if I make a fool of myself? What if they don’t like it? What if? Yet, sharing is a must in order to prosper, to thrive, to evolve … A story comes to mind that I read recently about the difference between Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee.

…. The Dead Sea has no outlet. Both are fed by the same source but the Dead Sea can only receive an inward flow. The Dead Sea is prevented from flowing outward and the accumulation of salt has killed it. The Sea of Galilee is alive, only because what flows in can also flow out.

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Authors Gerard J. Tellis, Jaideep C. Prabhu and Rajesh K. Chandy recently published a research paper, Radical Innovation Across Nations: The Preeminence of Corporate Culture in the American Marketing Association’s Journal of Marketing (requires paid subscription or purchase). Alternatively, try a Google search and check out Rajesh Chandy’s site at the Carlson School of Management.

The study highlights that corporate culture is the strongest driver in determining the firms’ innovation capability. According to the study, the successful innovators share the following key organizational cultural traits: (more…)

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I don’t know about you, but I constantly feel as if I am running out of time, or maybe that time is running away from me. Either way, 2008 went by really fast, and we are already half way through the first month of 2009…

The whole world seems to be on speed. There seems to be an exponential loss of time, resulting in the constant need to go faster, to reduce costs and all the while delivering great products and services. With all the pressures, one might be tempted to cut corners to gain advantage. However, here are the 5 areas where you should take your time in order to streamline and increase your speed.

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For more advice on focusing your innovations during hard times, check out Innovation Weblog’s special report Innovation Strategies for the Global Recession. Chuck Frey and Renee Hopkins Callahan have compiled an extensive list of strategies on how to maintain innovation during challenging times from a diverse collection of innovation experts and practitioners. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: innovation strategy, Innovation Weblog, economic downturn

Focusing your innovations during down times is key to survival. You need to keep on innovating to differentiate and grow, but also innovate on products and services your customers would be more willing to buy to stay profitable.

As I mentioned before, the profitability equation is quite simple: when a firm’s revenue from selling its product or service is greater than the cost of offering it, then it is concluded that the firm is profitable on that given offering. This same equation holds true for your customers’ business as well: the benefits of the product or service outweigh the cost of acquiring it.

Profits = Revenues – Cost 
During downturns, clearly demonstrating how your new product or service contributes to the profitability of your customers’ business is the key. Analyzing your own and your customers’ value chains can be the inspiration for your focused innovation strategy. Here are 6 key areas that will help focus your innovation strategy.
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“Necessity, who is the mother of invention.”
–Plato, The Republic
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC – 347 BC)

About now, you might be questioning the validity of Plato’s quote. After all, as humans we have the tendency to go with what we are most familiar with until we are forced to move on. And history shows that accidents, incremental changes, as well as lucky errors are the sources of many inventions: fire, penicillin, genetic engineering, domesticated plants and animals are to name a few… Yet innovation is not driven by necessity, but rather by the acknowledgment of the invention’s value: value to society or to the inventor in terms of money, fame, or a sense of personal accomplishment. Who knows how many great inventions were lost over the years, simply because they were before their time, unappreciated… Given that, necessity is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for invention.

However, it is necessity that drives the need for change which triggers the invention process. Case in point, the 1973 oil crisis. It was this and the 1930s oil crisis that stimulated the research and development of renewable energy sources, and initiated the goal to utilize existing resources more efficiently while reducing and eliminating waste. In fact, it was 1977 and on when solar energy finally left the confinements of the research institutes, becoming a DIY (do-it-yourself) phenomenon. At the White House, Jimmy Carter was the first American president to take decisive steps to promote solar energy and formulate an energy policy. He became a role model by introducing a solar water heating system for the White House in 1979. However, this sense of urgency and initiative to become more self-sufficient using renewable energy sources came to a halt during Reagan administration. With the oil crisis no longer seen as a threat, Reagan removed the solar panels in 1986. (Sorry, Out of Gas by Caroline Maniaque, Pierre-Edouard Latouche and others)
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Apple has an announcement scheduled for this Tuesday. There is much speculation of innovations within the MacBook line, including potentially a low cost product line. As a Mac user, I am eagerly awaiting what is next. Whatever their announcement is, one can be sure it will continue to build on Apple’s core competencies.

Core competency originates from C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel in their 1990 paper “The Core Competence of the Corporation.” Prahalad and Hamel highlight core competency as a source of uniqueness that a company can do uniquely well, offering a competitive advantage as competitors can’t quickly copy. A core competency can take various forms: know how, process, manufacturing, relationship, development methodology, culture, talent management, branding, marketing, distribution, research & development, …
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“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
Steve Jobs

We all know a bad design when we see it. We not only remember them, but also share our experiences with others. But, it is the good designs that we admire and hopefully remember the most. Maybe it is the gorgeous look and simplicity of use of the iPod, or the one-hand-slide action of Motorola’s PEBL, or new and ingenious packaging like HP laptops, or some new online experience. The unforgettable designs are multi-dimensional. The best designs influence and enhance many aspects of our lives through interaction with those products/services — from our buying experience, to the delivery and packaging, to installation and use, to other products/services that complement it, to customer support and maintenance, all the way through end-of-life and disposal.

Design is the trendsetter. It is the translation of an idea to the final product. It has incorporated itself into every aspect of our lives, and became the ubiquitous element in our lives. “You can have any color you want as long as its black.” was Henry Ford’s manufacturing design revolution that triggered mass production. Today, design is yet again at center stage with the green revolution: good design is sustainable design. Good design delivers maximum impact to the customer with minimum impact on the resources of our planet. Good design contributes to the triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental.
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