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

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.

Cycle of Creativity

Creativity works the same way: you need to share and create a constant flow of ideas in order for them to thrive and grow. Otherwise, your ideas may share the same destiny as the Dead Sea.

Building a constructive feedback and critique loop can be a challenge. In today’s collaborative environment with diverse cultures and customs, it is not just about establishing a safe, transparent environment. But, also about creating a new cultural norm and values that everyone will understand, adopt and operationalize.

Staying objective is perhaps the biggest challenge for individuals receiving feedback. It requires a balance between ownership and detachment. It is important to show that you care and want to hear feedback so that you can improve. Yet you don’t want to be too attached to your idea, as it will be difficult to really listen and understand the feedback. Remember, a negative input on your idea is not an attack on you personally.

For the rest of the post, let’s look at various critics in your feedback circle. Being aware of your relation to your critics will help you understand the feedback you are given, and create a constructive and positive environment for everyone. Please critique this list and add any ideas and experiences you’d like to share.

Self: the inner voice

For me, my inner voice can be my worst enemy… We have too many demons to fight. Some we may be very familiar with, while others might be lurking in the darkness. When we share, our fears, desires, motivations, and inspirations all surfaces and we become vulnerable. Regardless, acknowledging those demons and moving forward by putting your idea on paper is a must. The first step in sharing is to get it out of your head.

Here are some tools that could help if you want to polish your idea further before sharing with others. What other tools and techniques could you use?

• Stories can create an emotional connection. Whether it is your vision story or your teaching story about how it can be done tomorrow, stories can create a shared understanding.
• Symbols and metaphors can be an effective means to express ideas and abstract concepts. They can support thoughts, feelings and actions, simplify complex ideas and provide opportunities for sharing and listening.
• Six Thinking Hats can be a valuable tool to examine your idea from differing perspectives. For more on Six Thinking Hats, check out de Bono Thinking Systems.

Family and friends

Your family and friends are a great resource and readily available. They are also supportive and want to help. However, they may not be as objective as you want them to be. You can help overcome this by clearly assembling a set of questions to ask and being very sincere about the fact that you want honest and objective feedback.

Work group

This group would includes your boss, team members, colleagues, subordinates, … Usually they bring varying perspectives to the discussion:

Idea Feedback Circle

• What is in it for me?
• How much extra work would this be?
• How will this help or hurt me?
• Is this being done already, if not why not?
• …

As individuals, we approach problems and ideas from different value points. Understanding this can help reduce confusion and conflicts. The following Characteristics of Value Approaches framework is from Conversant. Start with yourself, analyze how you approach problems, and rank each of these items from 1 to 5. You can do the same for others you are interacting with or ask them to do this exercise. As a note, my value approach is: resilience → inspiration → intimacy OR intimacy → inspiration (depending on the situation) → workability → integrity in action

• intimacy — this is about people and emotions. Where the individual is sensitive to others’ feelings and experiences, and shows compassion.
• inspiration — ideas, creativity and vision comes before the potential for success. It is all about what is possible in the future, as anything and everything is possible.
• workability — focuses on if it can be achieved, what is needed and if those conditions are present to be successful.
• integrity in action — evaluates the relationship between the walk and the talk: “if you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk”. The individual looks to achieve alignment and action to get to results, and holds people accountable.
• resilience — the individual tends to learn from failures and move forward. Enjoys exploring unanswered questions and is intrigued by what makes things work or not.

As an example, if your #1 approach is inspiration and your boss starts with workability for problem solving and evaluating ideas, there is an immediate mismatch. This understanding can help you determine how to present your ideas, but also how to interpret the feedback.

Support group: mentors, champions and sponsors

Learning can be a messy and frustrating process. Mentors, champions and sponsors can be invaluable by providing insights into their own experiences. Honest, tactful and at times forceful feedback can provide invaluable professional development experience for anyone.

• Mentors share their experiences and insights in a way that help connect and guide the individual. They create a safe environment where learning and feedback can happen comfortably. The role of the mentor is multi-faceted: a big sister/brother, role model, friend, teacher, …
• Champions have personal interest and ownership in your results. They believe in your ideas, understand and support the project. They work at breaking down barriers, actively promoting and cheering for you.
• Sponsors provide the support needed to help clear obstacles and gather resources. They may or may not be the same as champions. They are focused on aligning business purpose and goals with the overall organizational strategic goals. Ultimately the sponsor has the power and influence within the organization to make things happen. And, they are accountable for the final outcome.

Users and customers

Your users and customers are invaluable at providing insights and test driving your concepts. The theory of diffusion of innovations could help explain the characteristics and expectations on each customer segment. Your goal is to avoid asking the right questions to the wrong group.

Innovation and Adoption Life Cycle

Random strangers

Randomly chosen strangers can provide interesting insights. The selection could be a completely random sampling, such as by approaching shoppers in a mall, or it could be randomly selected experts from the field, or those attending workshops and forums… As they don’t know you, they can give straight responses, without any preconcieved history, circumstances, politics, … Group settings could encourage feedback and stimulate interesting discussions.

And finally…

Now that you know who your critics are (or can be), get out there and be criticized! Your ideas will thank you.

Technorati Tags: feedback, constructive feedback, idea critiques

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.

As the profitability equation demonstrates, the ultimate goal of a firm is to offer products with differentiated attributes that customers are willing to pay high prices for, while keeping costs and competitors out. Costs come in the form of:

• product attributes: materials, features, complexity, usability all contribute to the cost of the product;
• production costs: including manufacturing, labor, supplier, packaging, shipping;

Learn where to focus next by analyzing your existing costs and their impact in the dimensions of quality, labor, production processes, materials, environmental impact, replacement costs, energy costs, and customer service. Do the same analysis from your customers’ perspective with regards to their cost of doing business. Look at ways that you can reduce their labor costs through workflow automation, reduced need for skilled workers and job training through better usability, or with reduced energy and raw material usage.

As you lay out your cost improvement projects, don’t just go for small incremental changes. Incremental improvement will not be enough for your customer to buy or upgrade to your product, especially during economic hard times. Look for creative solutions that enable you to innovate in multiple dimensions, such as reducing complexity and materials while improving usability and building on your brand image.

In your quest for cost reduction, also remember to look for areas where costs can be completely eliminated, such as retiring product lines, removing functionality that is impacting support costs, getting out of markets that are not profitable, or fully automating existing processes, removing the need for any manual labor.

Revenues are derived from the quantity of the product/service sold at a price that the customer is willing to pay. The price is based on the attractiveness of that product or service to the customer, i.e. its attributes. You can improve profitability through:

• increased revenues by enabling new products and services;
• enabling new business models;
• increasing the value of the existing product and thereby commanding higher prices;

For growth, investigate product line extensions, potential new add-on products and services, changes to your existing business models, as well as entry into adjacent markets. Recently I noticed Dremel extended their tool line into the pet care marketplace. In your analysis make sure to look for growth markets and solutions that allow you to build upon the strength of your core business in order to minimize risk.

In the same manner, investigate how you can increase the revenues of your customers. Look for ways where they can easily and cost effectively extend their offerings, such as through an online presence, and making themselves more attractive to their customers.

Perhaps there is no better time to evaluate and question your existing processes that during the slow times. Your first step could be as simple as asking yourselves “what is the dumbest thing we do” (from the Think Differently blog) to kick-start the inquisition of the reasoning: ‘cause we’ve always done it this way.

Starting with the customer and understanding what they want will put you on the path to building attractive products. Anthony Ulwick describes his outcome-driven method to innovation in his book What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services. As he indicates, customers buy products and services to help them get jobs done: faster, more conveniently, more efficiently, more cost effectively. At the same time, customers use a set of metrics (performance measures) to judge how well a job is getting done and how a product performs. However, rarely does the customer understand or accurately voice their desired outcomes for a given job. So, understanding and effectively addressing these unserved or under-served expectations is key to the firms’ innovativeness.

Also, incorporating agile development methodology and tools into your development processes will help your team to effectively deal with undeterministic resource challenges. Of course, agile development provides more benefits to your innovation process, as I outlined before.

Your brand can benefit you in many ways:

• enabling you to charge premium prices;
• sell more of your products, allowing you benefit from economies of scale;
• provide greater acceptance of radically different offerings, reducing your sales cycle;

Disappearing into the void because of reduced marketing budget is no excuse for putting your brand on the backseat. Look for creative ways to strengthen your brand and have fun doing it.

In addition, building your ecosystem would help you gain preference over your competitors as well as expanding your customer reach, such as with NetFlix extending their on-demand streaming service with Roku, XBox, TiVo and others. Keep on the lookout for these strategic partnerships and alliances to build your brand and ecosystem.

You might have your strategy down, but your ability execute is the the final key to your success. Robert Neiman’s Execution Plain and Simple: Twelve Steps to Achieving Any Goal on Time and On Budget is a valuable resource for anyone in the leadership role. Below is his 12-step process.

1. Take responsibility – Who me?
2. What’s that again? Define your assignment in writing
3. Organize your core team and create a strategy
4. Get input and support from key players: refine the strategy
5. Hold a compelling kickoff event to create momentum
6. Make all the pieces fit. Use plans, schedules, budgets and controls
7. Yes, I really mean it. Make demands effectively
8. Follow up like crazy without driving people crazy
9. Use political skills to win constituents and overcome opposition
10. Use creative problem solving to overcome unforeseen risks, delays and obstacles
11. Energy flagging? Manage an intense push to get the final results and rewards
12. Capture and spread what you learn

Use metrics to really focus on your results, but remember to avoid common metrics mishaps that undermine your intensions. Good luck!

Update: Also check out the Interview With Jana Matthews by Robin Fray Carey on MyVenturePad for advice on what to do and more importantly what not to do in a downturn.

Technorati Tags: innovation, economic downturn, profitability

“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)

Throughout history we see examples of people who recognized the necessity to change and take action, while others did not. Nokia, established in 1865, started by making paper as their original communications technology and is now the world leader in mobile phones. But then we have many others, such as US railroads and recently Motorola, that miss the necessity for change and have failed to diversify in order to prosper. People are natural problem solvers. However, some solve problems with solutions that are already in existence, creating incremental improvements, while others change the landscape by inventing and innovating a more radical solution.

“…Everything, therefore, which gives to the state strength and prosperity, such as agriculture, inventions, and industry, as well as everything which preserves and protects it from injurious influence from without, such as the defence of the walls, fortresses, and harbours, is under her immediate care.”
–About the Goddess Athene (Athena) from Theoi Greek Mythology

Potentially, it was the Greek goddesses of the time who influenced Plato’s emphasis of “mother” as a trait for invention. After all, where would our past be without Gaea, Athena and the Muses… Yet, I can’t ignore the female traits that do seed the invention and innovation process, nurturing it to full potential. As you read through my thoughts below, think about your innovation culture and see how it can be further augmented through these insights.

Women as the nurturer

Inventions, innovation, creativity and change all need to be nurtured, protected and cared for. A sense of urgency can come and go, but it is the nurturing that feeds the overall process. Nurturing is a natural part of who we are, male and female. However, women, in particular, are biologically built with this instinct to care and protect, and to develop lasting relationships.

For inventions and innovations, nurturing takes different forms. It involves creating a space for risk taking. It is also about creating an environment where conversations can occur, where people from diverse backgrounds can comfortably discuss possibilities and are encouraged to seek differing viewpoints. An environment where failures are seen as stepping stones, where focus is not just about following rules but breaking from the mold to experiment with what is possible. Where it is not just about the short-term results, but longer term thinking; not about fame but for the good of society.

Women as the keeper of the next generation

Women intuitively contribute to the survival of the species. It is in part driven by our biological clock, the overall desire to have children. And, it is about the desire, the necessity to better society overall. In other words, women are the keepers of the next generation, as highlighted by non-profit organizations.

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.
–About CARE

As mothers, women rely on their vision to help prepare their children for the world, and also to limit/stop having children. They are in tune with their surroundings, steering their family towards prosperity, beyond just survival. (More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want by Robert Engelman) When troubles are seen on the horizon (necessity), a mother will do anything required to protect her children (invention). It is this long-term thinking coupled with short-term balancing that enables the survival of our species. It is this constant recognition that there is a bigger purpose, vision and mission at stake that drives our actions.

Motherhood as a job

Today’s reality might be completely different if the railroads asked the question “what business am I really in?“. Very possibly, their answer could have been “we are in the business of transportation, and not just railroads.”

As mothers, we know our job is our children. We are in the business of ensuring humanity prospers. This purpose focuses us, continuously drives us and evolves us to make the right decisions for our collective future. We stay focused, keeping the eye on the big picture, while managing day to day details.

Motherhood as creative chaos

What can I say, motherhood is chaotic. But, it hits that creative spot that is a powerful stimulant of the invention and innovation process. Needing to constantly juggle among the numerous hats we wear, mothers maintain a constant sense of urgency in everything we do. Complacency is not our strength, we constantly strive to do better.

Women as collaborators

You have very likely heard the term “It takes a village to raise a child.” Mothers recognize the powerful impact that society outside the family has on a child’s well-being, and promotes an environment that meets all of a child’s needs. This understanding carries to all other aspects of their lives, where women strive to build collective groups that can tackle mountains by promoting a vision that pulls together unlikely individuals.

Women’s DNA: values and qualities

The 2005 Caliper study “The Qualities That Distinguish Women Leaders” found women leaders to be more assertive, persuasive, willing to take risks and to have a stronger need to accomplish goals than male leaders. The highlights of the study’s findings are:

Finding 1: Women leaders are more persuasive than their male counterparts
Finding 2: Women leaders feel the sting of rejection, learn from adversity and carry on with an “I’ll show you” attitude
Finding 3: Women leaders have an inclusive, team building leadership style of problem solving and decision making
Finding 4: Women leaders are more likely to ignore rules and take risks

As the world is becoming flat and connected, a feminine way of leading is increasing in importance. It is these feminine traits that will help ensure the world understands and is principled about values that really matter, and gets things done.

Technorati Tags: invention traits, innovation, women, motherhood, nurture

“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.

Design connects, bridges creativity and innovation. As a verb, design is a problem solving approach. It enumerates possible options and enables a process to explore and experiment for that optimal solution. As a noun, good design delivers a quantifiable benefit and value that can be measured economically, socially and environmentally. What makes a good design will differ depending on the designer and its user. However, the principles of good design should not change. Here is my list of what makes Good Design. What do you think?

Useful and Useable

The foundation of good design starts with the needs of the user. Many firms failed because they missed the mark in their attempt to identify the real customer need (or even the real customer). The functionality, utility and usefulness of a product is important, yet not enough. It can be useful, but if it is not useable, again it won’t be successful. Yes, universal remote controls are definitely needed, and the concept is useful. However, how many are actually useable?

Focused

Good design is purposeful and potent. In delivery of its functions, it has the right scale and simplicity. It is perfectly balanced. It is self-explanatory. You don’t need to spend your time and effort on user documentation or training programs that are long and tedious. It has a clear and compelling message that doesn’t require a translation. It is just understood.

Impactful

Whatever the design methodology is used (human-centered design, social design, interface design, …), good design touches as many facets of human experience as possible during the product’s life cycle.

And, good design is desirable. We need aesthetically pleasing products and services that we can relate to, emotionally connect with, and perhaps even find inspirational.

Resilient

Good design is durable and thorough. It is designed to forgive common and uncommon human errors and variations in use. It adapts to differing user abilities to provide the right experience for the any user.

The best designs are timeless: Frank Lloyd Wright, Mont Blanc, Swiss Army, Harley-Davidson, Moleskine, Martin guitars… Their brands embody quality, style, dependability and distinction — building a loyal following and an iconic status.

Unique

This is not to say the product or the design concept never existed before. However, as good design bridges creativity and innovation, it brings a new perspective and in the process becomes the de-facto definition. Perhaps the new perspective is through a common sense solution that wasn’t observed before, or a counter-intuitive way of looking at the problem, or maybe a reduction in complexity that fits the application better, and at times a new invention that smooths rough edges. No matter which, good design lends itself to innovative products and services.

Holistic

The world is interconnected. We use products/services within the context and constraints of the system we live in. Good design recognizes and incorporates these elements into the overall process, ensuring solutions that are doable and workable. Good design encourages an ecosystem of complementary products, literally building a life of its own.

Conscientious

Good design is conscientious. As it has a holistic view, it recognizes that it is part of the environment, respects where it comes from and aims to protect. It keeps focus on conserving energy, carefully manages material usage and makes sustainable material choices to minimize environmental impact, encourages reuse and plans for long term use by designing for adaptability and durability.

Technorati Tags: design, principles of good design

Lets review innovation and sustainability definitions from previous posts.

• Innovation is about the implementation of a new idea for the purpose of creating value: value for the firm and value for the consumer.
• Sustainability is achieving outcomes that can be maintained indefinitely without depleting the support system or endangering present and future needs.

With that, it only makes sense to incorporate sustainability and sustainable business and management practices to our innovation process, and more importantly ensure it is the foundational principle of our innovation management activities. To refresh, innovation management is focused on managing and directing the firm’s resources and energy utilized for innovation to generate successful economic and competitive rewards.

As always, we have to tailor the concept of sustainability to our situation at hand. So, instead of taking a cookie cutter approach, this article highlights key areas to take into account as you are incorporating sustainability strategy into your innovation management activities. As each industry, technology, culture, target customer, and location have their own unique social and environmental challenge, customizing and developing your sustainability strategy will require planning and time.

In case you are questioning the need to incorporate sustainability strategy into your innovation management activities, let me repeat… Developing sustainable innovation management strategy is all about moving from traditional, resource intensive processes to methods that uses fewer resources while maximizing value. While it may not be obvious, studies have shown that sustainable development ultimately reduces development costs in the long haul, such as in the case of more optimized and environmentally friendly packaging.

Your innovation management activities are mainly founded on four key areas: culture, people/talent, technology/product and process. You can start identifying potential opportunities and sustainability issues in each of these areas by starting conversations and asking questions within your organization. As you are building your bigger picture, also use this opportunity to conduct your sustainability assessment, as it is important to understand where you currently stand in each of these areas.

• Culture — Sustainability is not just about managing the status quo more efficiently; it is also about building a culture that is mindful, compassionate about its impacts to society and the environment, and empowered to take action to improve. Global awareness of diverse cultural and ecological impacts, overall ownership and accountability, organizational learning, how well it can act is all part of building a culture that embraces sustainable choices.
• People/Talent — Globalization, resource shortages and demographic changes require your corporate sustainability agenda to incorporate your people policies. How you attract and retain talent, how your people internalize and act on your sustainability goals, how you enable your workforce to reduce its travel carbon footprint via telecommuting or video-conferencing programs, and how you sustain and nurture their creativity should all be incorporated into your sustainability strategy.
• Process — For a very generic term, process incorporates many different activities that take your innovation from idea to dissemination and beyond. For each of those activities, determine where you can make your process more sustainable and repeatable, without requiring significant resources. Ensure design and process innovation is part of your core competency, so that you are continuously looking for ways to build more sustainable products and technologies.
• Technology/Product — Evaluate every aspect of your technology and product life cycle to determine how you can incorporate sustainability strategies. In your analysis, make sure to include your value chain and your ecosystem evaluation.

In order to prioritize, start with a good understanding of what aspects of your products and services have an environmental or social component. Here are some starting discussion points:

• How/where can I reduce my environmental footprint?
• Product life cycle: Incorporate what-if scenarios to make aspects of your product more green. Redefine end-of-life concepts so there is less landfill impact. Utilize materials and processes that are more eco-friendly. And make sure to incorporate your evaluation of marketing communications.
• Customer support and service: Enable your customers to be greener: recycling programs, reduced packaging, sustainable upgrade programs. Make it easy for your customers to be green.
• Operations management: Analyze your manufacturing and transportation processes to reduce impact to natural resources. Innovate new process where applicable, such as ‘why doesn’t Amazon group my separate orders placed on the same day, and ship them all together?’
• Incorporate 4Rs across your organization, technology and products: refuse, reduce and reuse first, then as a last resort, recycle.
• Your ecosystem: Evaluate your value chain and see how your partners are handling sustainable processes, such as with recycled plastic or biodegradable materials, replacing ingredients or components with more environmentally friendly options.
• Procurement and suppliers: Evaluate your purchasing process for sustainability: recycling-friendly materials, processes and packaging. Ask for participation from employees and suppliers to incorporate sustainable practices.
• Product design: Design your products with sustainable goals in mind: reduce resource requirements, better manage all aspects of product application, dissemination and end-of-life from the time it gets to the hands of the customer to the time it ends up in the landfill. Do ‘what-if’ analysis to understand the environmental impact if demand increases. And, always simplifying your product to make it easy to be green.

As you build your sustainability strategy, you will identify new opportunities, risks and bottom line implications. Ultimately your success depends on your leadership, commitment, planning, creativity and innovations. Recognize this is a journey and track your progress using your benchmark: how well your company is performing against your sustainability requirements, and how your customers are reacting to it. Also create a sustainability knowledge center to track best practices, policies and learnings. Make your goals and progress public, and share it with your organization. This will ensure everyone is living up to the same standards. Employee engagement is crucial for any sustainability strategy.

Technorati Tags: sustainability, innovation management and sustainability, sustainability strategy

You might have heard about the cotton farmers in India. The ones that are committing suicide as they can’t pull themselves out of the perpetual debt cycle created by the seed and pesticide industry. Recently, Asia was also in the news as they are experiencing a shortage of talent and lack of skilled staff in environments that expect high growth. As you might have guessed, this growth is coming as more layoffs are occurring in the US.

Our measures for economic prosperity are certainly broken. Today, we mainly measure economic growth in terms of consumers’ buying power. Yet, Adam Smith argued that the benefits of the free market should not be limited to individuals, but inclusive of the society as a whole: The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics). Unfortunately today, over-consumption is one of the biggest threats to our environment and society, as The Story of Stuff highlights so well.

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) established the following definition for sustainability: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This implicitly captures that our decision making process has to be global, taking into account any present and future implications to our renewable and non-renewable resources, including our ecosystem.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development points out that “sustainable development is good for business and business is good for sustainable development.” For me, this is common sense. Companies that think about and respect their environment, their society and their employees before they act tend to be well managed firms. Eventually, this also reflects in their financial performance. As popularity, transparency and awareness of green energy, fair trade, organic produce and socially responsible firms grows, your customers will expect sustainable business practices from your firm.

The truth is that concerns over sustainability are sprinkled across all aspects of our lives: our newly established exercise regiment, the weight-loss we recently achieved, striving for a certain living standard or wondering how much longer you can maintain your hectic work schedule, … At the same time, sustainability is about your values and the evaluation of your actions against those values.

For me, the concept of sustainability is very personal. It is as much about achieving well-being for myself and my family as it is about reducing or eliminating the overall stress and impact I have on my ecosystem. It is also about recognizing the cause-effect relationship of my every event and action, and realizing that each outcome has an impact to my sustainability goals which should be incorporated into my planning. With that, here is my definition of sustainability and what it means to live a sustainable life:

Achieving outcomes that can be maintained indefinitely without depleting the support system or endangering present and future needs.

Implicitly stated, ecosystem, society, self/individual and economy are intermingled and need to be carefully balanced to achieve my vision of sustainable living. At the same time, simplicity, self-renewal, incremental improvement and innovations are needed to maintain the process indefinitely.

Perhaps the most challenging part of sustainability is in its operationalization: what should be your sustainability goals, how do you know if you are on track, and what should be measured? As always, this will be based on your definition, your situation and your goals.

I urge you to reflect on your own definition of sustainability, what it means to you and if you are living true to your values. Yes, sustainability may seem like the latest fad, especially with the way firms are embracing it for their marketing. But, starting with sustainability and designing it into your life, your products and processes is a sound business practice. Whether it is idealistic and achievable or not, the road to achieving a sustainable future starts with you.

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Ellis Jones compiled an easy to use quick reference guide that can help us steer businesses towards becoming more environmentally conscious and socially responsible. The author shares key information and tips for each area where we spend our money, as well as highlighting how companies are doing relative to one another. Though it is not a comprehensive list, it is a great start. Here are some unfortunate tidbits from the book:

• Here is another good reason to switch to fair trade and/or organic chocolate and coffee: child slavery is involved in the production of up to 40% of all chocolate in the industry, and coffee farmers are on the brink of starvation. Nestle is the corporate villain, which is also #6 in the top 10 worst companies.
• Wal-Mart is #3 on the top 10 worst companies list. Their bad deed includes documented exploitation of child labor, and major toxic waste dumping fines.
• General Motors is #1 polluter in the auto industry. I wonder if they would have maintained that #1 position, if they instead invested the $50M in their operations rather than paying the lobbyists.
• You may have noticed the cigarette industry is heavily targeting the developing countries. If you have to smoke, try American Spirit. They use 100% additive-free tobacco, along with other socially conscious activities.
• Who would have thought vitamins and animal welfare would be related? Centrum (Wyeth) is a corporate villain due to numerous federal ethics violations.

You can check out the better world shopper for more top 10s, sources used for compiling this information as well as a downloadable version of this list for your iPod.

So, what does this have to do with Helvetica, a documentary on typography? Before I jump to that, Helvetica is a delightful movie. The documentary gives a different perspective into something we tend to take for granted everyday: fonts and our emotional connection with them. It is all about the world that Helvetica (Neue Haas Grotesk) was created in, how it appealed to modernists, post-modernists and captured the interest of creatives that continuously push the envelope with design.

A company’s brand is its one of most valuable asset. Brand is a set of intangible values, such as beliefs and attitudes, that differentiate a firm’s product or services from another firm’s. For customers, brand highlights the additional value that they will receive from that firm.

Finally, here is the connection. During the documentary, Helvetica was referred to as the font of choice to give brand image the illusion of having social responsibility and accountability, even if that may not be the case. I know I am now paying more attention to the typefaces used in corporate communications. What do you think, is there a connection?

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• Design decisions: environmentally friendly material selections, architectures that specifically focus on less power usage, equipment selection that is energy efficient;
• Project management methodologies: reduce paper usage for reports, etc., invest in collaborative technologies to reduce travel as well as enable individuals to work from home;
• Development and testing tools: virtualization tools to help reduce the number of needed servers for development and testing;
• Programs and promotions: recycle older products and parts, reduce packaging waste, use greener materials for sales brochures;

Yes, going green and the environment requires a shift in our thinking. However, it is not an either/or type of question. Going green will improve your customer relationships, and ultimately save money for your firm and your customers.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle is the familiar 3Rs focused on producing less waste by the environmentally aware consumers. As a family, we include a 4th R: Refuse: refuse to clutter the environment with unnecessary waste.

Apply the 4R philosophy (Reduce, Reuse, Refuse, Recycle) into your projects. Remember, every little step counts.

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