Front End of Innovation

Richard Branson, Chairman & Founder of Virgin Group on Customer Influenced Innovation

2009-11-13T10:46:00.003-05:00

Here's a video interview I recently came across from BusinessWeek in which best-selling author & entrepreneur Seth Godin asks Virgin Group Founder & Chairman Richard Branson whether he finds innovation coming directly from his customers. Watch the minute and a half clip below. Enjoy!

Boston Universities fuel innovation

2009-11-12T16:48:00.003-05:00

In an article at Boston.com, Business Update credits universities with the ability to promote Massachusetts as the most patents per higher education institution. It doubles the next state. Boston also hosts more start up companies created by university research. Read more about Boston's accomplishments here.

The Front End of Innovation conference also takes place in Boston. It will take place May 3-5 at the Boston World Trade Center. In addition to universities being a huge source of innovation and ideas, do you find that conferences can prove to be an innovation epicenter too?

FEI Europe Keynote Speaker: Scott Anthony

2009-11-11T09:30:00.005-05:00

Today we'll be profiling FEI Europe keynote speaker Scott Anthony, Managing director of Innosight Ventures and author of three books on innovation.

Scott is the Managing Director of Innosight Ventures. He previously was the President of Innosight's consulting arm where he worked with Fortune 500 and start-up companies in industries such as media (print and broadcast), consumer products, investment banking, transportation and logistics, healthcare, medical devices, software, petrochemicals, and communications equipment.

Scott is a judge in the Wall Street Journal's 2009 Innovation Awards. He is a faculty member of the Leadership, Innovation, and Growth Program at GE Crotonville. Scott is also a member of the Board of Directors of Media General.

Scott has written three books on innovation: Seeing What’s Next with Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business Press, 2004), The Innovator’s Guide to Growth with Mark Johnson, Joe Sinfield, and Elizabeth Altman (Harvard Business Press, 2008), and The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times (Harvard Business Press, June 2009). He has written articles in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Sloan Management Review, Advertising Age, Marketing Management and Chief Executive, is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Online and serves as the editorial director of Strategy & Innovation.

Here's a YouTube clip of Scott Anthony introducing the concept of disruptive innovation.

Make sure not to miss his keynote session Seizing the Silver Lining at the Front End of Innovation Europe Conference in Amsterdam this February 8-10. Remember if you’re planning to attend the conference make sure to mention priority code FEINOVBLOG when registering to receive €300 Discount which Expires This Friday! Hope to see you all there!

Bio courtesy of Innosight Ventures.

In the Mood

2009-11-10T15:09:00.010-05:00

C. Engdahl
The Big E of Big E Toys

“Do you have to be depressed to write a sad song? Do you have to be in love to write a love song?”
- William Miller [played by Patrick Fugit] interviewing Stillwater guitarist Russell Hammond [played by Billy Crudup] from the Cameron Crowe written and directed film Almost Famous

Among musicians and other artists, the notion that mood and attitude can have an affect on one’s creative output is a generally accepted truism.

Picasso’s “Blue” period.

Alanis Morisette’s album Jagged Little Pill.

Virtually every poem written by Emily Dickinson.

Countless other examples.

All were affected by mood, attitude, and intellectual dissonance.

These are the elements that fuel art.

A number of years ago a relatively obscure musical duo called Billy Pilgrim (who got some radio play with their song Sweet Louisiana Sound and whom I always referred to as the Indigo Guys because of their sound similarities to the Indigo Girls) put out an even more obscure album entitled Billy In The Time Machine. (For all those closet music genealogists out there, Billy Pilgrim was comprised of Kristian Bush, now one half of the mega country duo Sugarland, and Andrew Hyra, brother of actress Meg Ryan). The album was a limited success, yet was particularly interesting to me because of the approach taken by the group during its recording. Billy Pilgrim decided they would only work on the recording if all participants were in good spirits. Only good moods were allowed. If anyone had a bummer of a day, was a bit gloomy, or otherwise mentally preoccupied with something other than sunny days, they’d avoid the recording studio. As you might expect, the album took a long time to complete. Years.

(As an aside - because of its delay, I can’t help wonder whether Axl Rose set down some variation of these parameters while working on the Guns ‘N’ Roses release Chinese Democracy.)

Moods, good and bad, affect art.

But what of innovation?

From what well do good ideas spring?

And under what mental circumstances should we evaluate our ideas?

Common sense (as well as research) suggests positive moods promote creativity, flexibility, and cooperation - all the workings of a solid idea development system. And although negative moods, as is the case in the world of art, can produce inspired innovative works, we generally equate positive demeanor with creativity and innovation.

But innovation is a process. And at various points along its arc, a little negativity isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Recent research by psychology professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales suggests negative moods might have intellectual benefit. The study, published under the title Think Negative! in the November/December edition of Australasian Science journal, showed that people in a negative mood were often more critical of, and paid more attention to, their surroundings than happier people. Happier people were more likely to believe anything they were told. “Negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas wrote.

But why might this matter for innovation?

Although perhaps counterintuitive, because no one wants to promote cantankerous attitudes at the office or be around generally grumpy people, the study suggests to me that perhaps we should use good moods to generate innovative ideas, yet harness bad moods to evaluate them.

How many times have you emerged from a Stage-Gate® meeting (or some other project evaluation session) aggravated and cranky? How often do your meetings get prolonged and increasingly unproductive because decisions go unmade? I can’t imagine you went into the meeting with such a bad attitude. There’s typically a certain level of excitement and optimism before most meetings. Hope springs eternal. Today, you think, will be the day you give the green light to your next great innovation.

But…

“Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages,” Forgas wrote.

So consider this. The next time you go into a Stage-Gate® meeting, go in already cranky and frustrated. Perhaps you'll make better decisions and the meeting will be a bit more productive. Perhaps you’ll emerge a much happier person.

What is a truly innovative business?

2009-11-09T10:28:00.004-05:00

Morgan Witzel of the Los Angeles Times recently looked at the book "The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage" by Roger Martin, the Dean of Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. In this book, he states that the key to success is design thinking, and taking all of the creative talents of your team and sending them towards one goal. Businesses, for the most part, have been relying on two models: the analytical and the intuitive. Martin then spends the book focusing on why it is important to harness both models. Do you harness your innovation analytically or intuitively? Do you think your innovation could grow if you combined them? Read the full article here.

President Obama on Innovation and Sustainable Growth

2009-11-06T12:32:00.003-05:00

Being that it's a Friday we'll keep a light post today. Here's a video from when President Barack Obama visited Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, NY back in September in which he lays out his vision for innovation, growth, and quality jobs. Take some time to check out the video below. Enjoy!

Innovations in the online search industry

2009-11-05T09:10:00.000-05:00

The Silicon Valley Mercury News has broken down the recent innovations taking place in the search engine industry. With Bing and Microsoft gaining ground slightly on Google, Google could soon face their first real challenge as the search leader. Search is now an important function of people's use of the internet, and is currently the #2 activity for users, behind using email. New innovations in the industry include Microsoft announcing that Twitter updates will be available in real time with their searches and Google followed up with improving their music searching functions, allowing users to go straight to the songs. Read the full article here.

From the stance of a internet user, I think that the Microsoft/Google/Yahoo challenge is great. We, as surfers of the internet, have the chance to benefit from this healthy competition. We can utilize search capabilities to improve our performances and gain the knowledge that we need to know faster. What do you think will be the next big turn in search innovation?

NACCM 2009: Two-Way Invention: Co-generating New Products and Services with Your Customers Through Ongoing Dialogues Online

2009-11-04T11:22:00.002-05:00

Here's an interesting post on customer-driven innovation from our live coverage at the NACCM event in Phoenix. Make sure to subscribe to their feed if you haven't yet already to receive live updates.

In today’s presentation, Sami Hero, Vice President of Global Web Strategy at LexisNexis shared his company’s approach towards social media engagement and its evolution. LexisNexis built their web strategy over the past several years. In 2007, they launched their Web 2.0 initiatives and engaged in sporadic blogging, building focus groups and using Net Promoter Scores to gather feedback from their customers. In 2008, their focus was on building solutions and services for customer problems and creating 17 customer communities. Growth continued in 2009 as they developed global websites and grew customer communities to 30+. LexisNexis continued to grow its customer engagement in 2010 by adding mobile applications, building deeper customer relationships, and making it a common practice to listen.

Customer-driven innovation needs to be measured says Hero. It takes special talent…find them in your organization and “let them loose”. Age doesn’t matter, skill set does. When asked what skill sets are most important, Hero said that people with excitement, those that display strong writing skills, and those who are passionate about customer engagement make the best choices for managing customer conversations.

LexisNexis actively listens to its customers and users through their website. Hero sees the value in these community sites as customers tend to go back to the main website. When at the main site, customers typically end up buying something. This cross promotion has significant value to an organization says Hero. He cautions us, however, in that if you aren’t giving good content, your community will die. Invest the resources to keep the customer conversations alive.

FEI Europe Track Spotlight: Generate Partnerships

2009-11-04T09:32:00.003-05:00

We'll be alternating between speaker profiles and track spotlights from the event every Wednesday leading up to FEI Europe. This week we're focusing on the Generate Partnerships track, which will help make open innovation & external collaboration work.

Moving beyond the fundamentals- you will discover specific tools and techniques that make open innovation and partnerships really work for your organization. Though Open Innovation (OI) can be a difficult process to manage, creating an organizational structure that supports OI can unlock several opportunities for your organization. New for 2010 – in an interactive panel hear how companies are overcoming Intellectual Property challenges. Plus a new sessions on working with venture companies to build future growth as well as a session on metrics and measure that drive OI success.

Some of the companies speaking on this track include Logitech, GlaxoSmithKline, Heineken, Nestlé Co, J&J, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem just to name a few. Make sure to download the brochure for a complete run-down on topics covered. Hope to see you in Amsterdam in February!

Putting Someone Else In TOMS Shoes

2009-11-03T15:38:00.005-05:00

C. Engdahl
The Big E of Big E Toys

“I believe that you can do good by doing well.”
Blake Mycoskie - Chief Shoe Giver, TOMS Shoes

Chances are you’ve already read or heard about this company. Perhaps it was a story in Time magazine, a feature in People, or one of another dozen or so articles in prominent magazines or newspapers across the country during the past couple years. Or maybe you saw the “More Bars In More Places” AT&T television advertising spot earlier this year. It was kind of a cool spot. But even if you’ve heard about this company, their story is worth telling again. Their approach to business is totally Gonzo Innovation.

A couple years after taking third in the 2002 reality television show The Amazing Race II, entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie returned to one of his favorite destinations from the show – Argentina. While there, visiting a remote village, Blake was struck by the number of barefoot children who were unable to afford the basic footwear worn by most locals. In that moment, seeing that many of these children had infected cuts on their feet and wondering what he might be able to do about it, Blake Mycoskie had an epiphany. In that moment, the underlying “One for One” premise of TOMS Shoes was born. And in May 2006, after developing a more commercially viable version of the alpargatas (simple roped soled shoes) worn throughout Argentina by everyone from farmers to polo players, TOMS Shoes became a reality.

Later that first year, made possible because of caring TOMS customers, Blake with a group of family, friends, and staff, returned to Argentina to distribute its first 10,000 pairs of shoes. As of August 2009, TOMS has given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need throughout the world, with plans to give over 300,000 pairs in 2009.

Wow.

From the company website:
“TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about.”

TOMS (short for Shoes for Tomorrow) is everything Gonzo.

It is infused with passion

It is filled with purpose.

It’s efforts are experiential.

It’s team is committed.

For a consumer, shopping with TOMS equals giving. The company’s “One for One” business model has transformed customers into benefactors. And in doing so, TOMS has created a truly sustainable gonzo business that isn’t dependent on fundraising for support. Pretty amazing.

Perhaps you should consider putting someone else in TOMS shoes this holiday season.
_____________

TOMS shoes are available at department stores and specialty shops throughout the U.S. Find a retailer or purchase online at http://www.tomsshoes.com/.

[This entry was posted simultaneously on gonzoinnovation.com]

What works in the West might not work in the East: ensuring the integrity of the ETS

2009-11-02T11:04:00.002-05:00

Why some EU Member States need to restrict carbon trading

EU member states cannot avoid taking different approaches to the implementation of the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) if the integrity of the system is to be sustained. What works in the West might not work in the East.

There are questions whether new measures by the Lithuanian government to restrict the use of cash gained through the carbon sales in the second phase of the scheme are in line with the spirit of the EU ETS to provide a flexible mechanism and cash incentive for the companies for the reduction of carbon dioxide across the block.

The idea of emissions trading was to provide a flexible mechanism to stimulate environmental progress in our most polluting industrial sectors. Lithuania takes the view that in order to preserve the integrity of the ETS in fighting climate change, governments must implement legislation that would underpin and reinforce the rules on carbon trading, but also lay a foundation for sustainable development of a country, particularly in the face of economic downturn. Every country has a specific economic and social background that requires differentiated approaches in steering a state towards a sustainable economy. It means that EU regulation will have to be adjusted to the requirements of individual members.

Voluntary investments towards pollution reduction can be expected among the EU ETS operators in developed member states, such as Netherlands, in part because of the exposure to international competition, caring for the company brand as well as public checks and balances ensure operators investing in ‘cleaning up’. But other countries without these ‘drivers’ cannot engineer a laissez-faire move towards carbon reductions and a greener economy. In these cases regulation can and must fill in the void to surge financing of economy greening.

Lithuania is facing closure of the Ignalina Nuclear Power plant in 2009 and subsequently moving towards dirtier and more carbon intensive fuels in the coming years. Still, Lithuanian companies are able to sell allowances they didn’t need - in turn making profits but passing CO2 costs on to consumers. It happened at a grand scale during the ETS phase 1, when companies were making up to €35 million in profits and no investments towards pollution reduction, transforming industry or cleaning up production processes, which could have eased the need for additional allowances in the future.

The existing surplus of permits if not managed properly is failing the “polluter-pays principle” as it represents “hot air” in the system. To avoid permits being bought and used without any effort towards emissions reductions having taken place, some governments especially amongst the new member states will have to take a more active role.

Thus article 5 of the Climate Change Financial Mechanisms Act, which sets a duty upon the operators to use the proceeds from the permits trade exclusively for the environmental projects, has been introduced in Lithuania. Under the new law, companies sustain a level of discretion which projects to spend the carbon revenue on: from implementing best available practices to environmental programmes that can be rolled out on a wide scale. The new regulation applies only until 2013, when centralized allocation of emissions allowances is proposed by EU authority and the auctioning share as opposed to free allocation is envisaged to be bigger. But in response to dialogue with the European Commission over the contested national allocation plan and the need for the government to promote the transformation of industry to minimise the impact of ever decreasing free allowances, the Lithuanian government felt such regulation is necessary.

It will help to sustain the integrity of EU ETS, promote sustainable development, and to protect the public from hefty energy prices that will be inflated by the need of extra EUAs in the face of changing energy sources in Lithuania and cut of free allocations.Indeed such legislation is being considered by other new member states in the Czech Republic and Poland, which are both reported to be considering placing restrictions on how revenue raised from selling EUAs is spent in the third phase of the scheme.

FEI Facebook Fan Page is Now Up!

2009-11-02T10:59:00.001-05:00

We've recently launched the FEI Facebook Fan Page! Make sure to add FEI as a fan below.

Become a Fan of FEI

Internet Addresses May Soon Have Non-Latin Script

2009-10-29T10:07:00.004-04:00

The language used for internet addresses may soon expand from Latin script to non-Latin script enabling more people around the globe to use the internet in their native language. This week in Seoul the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which is the non-profit group that oversees domain names will meet to discuss implementing non-Latin alphabets into assigned names and numbers. The BBC reports that this could potentially open up the Web to more people around the world as addresses could be in alphabets such as Chinese, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic.

Hear more on the subject in this special BBC podcast.

FEI Europe 2010 Keynote Speaker Profile: Adrian van Hooydonk, Director Design, BMW Group

2009-10-28T09:49:00.005-04:00

Every Wednesday leading up to the event we will be profiling a new keynote speaker for the Front End of Innovation Europe 2010 Conference in Amsterdam. Today, we're profiling the Director of Design for the BMW Group, Adrian van Hooydonk.

Adrian van Hooydonk is a Dutch car designer currently working as BMW's Chief of Design. Before assuming the position in 2006, he was the President of BMW's Designworks USA studio in California eventually becoming the protege of controversial designer (and former BMW CoD) Chris Bangle, who has since become the Director of Design for the entire BMW group (including its subsidiaries Mini and Rolls-Royce. He studied at Delft University of Technology in Holland, and later at the Art Center Europe in Vevey, Switzerland, until 1992.

As the Director of Design for BMW he oversaw many projects including this BMW Vision EfficientDynamics Vehicle. Take a look below!

Make sure not to miss Adrian's session at FEI Europe The Future Sustainability and The Joy of Mobility and BMW's LIVE unveiling of their new concept car! Hope to see you all there!

Show, Don't Tell

2009-10-27T15:59:00.005-04:00

C. Engdahl
The Big E of Big E Toys

A classic mantra for fiction writers is the adage “Show, don’t tell.” In storytelling this basically means a writer should write in a manner that allows a reader to experience the story through character actions, words, and thoughts rather than simply through the narrator’s exposition and summarization. By showing rather than telling, readers can discover for themselves the underlying meaning and depth of a narrative. And although it can take more effort and time, showing brings a story to life in a way that simply telling cannot.

The same mantra can be applied to marketing and product development. Whether we recognize it or not, we are all storytellers. We are trying to capture the hearts, minds, and bodies of our customers through engaging narratives. This might take the form of traditional messaging and advertising, or through product innovation that takes customers on some sort of new journey. As such, we should strive to show, not tell.

I was perusing my November 2009 issue of Wired magazine this past week in an effort to stay abreast of everything Wired magazine publisher Howard S. Mittman calls “new and innovative in the world.” In addition to reading the interesting articles and checking out the product reviews, I found myself looking fairly closely this month at the various product advertisements throughout the magazine. I do this from time to time. Superbowl ads only come around once a year, and sometimes I simply need a little fix of current messaging and branding tactics.

As I visually accumulated more and more ads from this month’s Wired, I began to notice something. Perhaps it was a new phenomenon. Perhaps not. I don’t remember seeing it before though in such abundance. It seems advertisers are increasingly using the word “innovation” or “innovative” in the text of their ads. From energy, to cars, to computers, to clothing. Anything can be innovative. And advertisers want us to know it.

By definition, the word innovative basically means “new and different.” I suspect many advertisers though are looking beyond this simple definition and are hoping to capitalize on other generally accepted associations of the word – cool, cutting-edge, quality, industry-leading, forward-thinking, etc. Innovative isn’t inherently good however. An innovative product or service could just as easily be untested, unreliable, or gimmicky rather than cool and cutting-edge.

I personally am most interested in whether something meets my needs, resolves a problem, or otherwise satisfies me in some way. I don’t really care whether you call the product innovative or not. And I certainly don’t want to be told that a product is innovative – at least not by the manufacturer or its advertising agency. The word innovative should be reserved for product reviews or informative stories by third party observers not intent on trumpeting their own horn.

I can appreciate the inherent difficulty and limitations that exist in print advertising. Not a lot of space. No moving parts. No sound. The challenge to select the perfect words and present the perfect image is great. I still want companies to at least make an attempt to show how and why a product is right for me though. I don’t want to be told it’s innovative. To do so seems a bit shallow, or even disingenuous, or at the very least lazy. “Innovative” has unfortunately become a catch-all word meant to represent all that is good. Forgive me though if I don’t take at face-value the words printed in an ad or included in a press release.

Maybe I’m wrong. But if you keep telling us and not showing us how new and different your products are, the word innovative will get tired, not wired, real fast.

Innovation means squat without sweat

2009-10-26T09:23:00.003-04:00

Brad Spirrison of The Chicago Sun-Times writes that it's difficult enough in white hot economies for innovators like Michael Wielgat, who has recently invented the life-saving Hero Pipe for firefighters, to introduce new ways of doing things. A recession can give detractors another reason to throw cold water on untested techniques. Sometimes the only way to get through to anyone is by being a pest.

In his piece, Spirrison discusses inventors who never took "no" for an answer and who have successfully marketed their inventions. For their stories, please visit the article.

Five Technologies That Could Change Everything

2009-10-21T13:40:00.003-04:00

The Wall Street Journal reports this week that next few decades, the world will need to wean itself from dependence on fossil fuels and drastically reduce greenhouse gases. Current technology will take us only so far; major breakthroughs are required. So the writer, Michael Totty offers up these five technologies:

SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER
ADVANCED CAR BATTERIES
UTILITY STORAGE
CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
NEXT-GENERATION BIOFUELS

We've discussed a few of these on this very blog, but we'd like to get your input. Is Tolly's tally an accurate account of what we may see in the future? What is he missing?

Five Technologies That Could Change Everything

Ideas That Go Up In Smoke

2009-10-20T02:34:00.008-04:00

C. Engdahl
The Big E of Big E Toys

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.” - from the poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake

From the comments and messages I received following last week’s post “And The Nobel Winner Is...” it’s clear the divide concerning the perceived worthiness of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize is fairly large. Many people it appears either believe anything and everything concerning the president is worthy of a celebration throughout the universe ala Return of the Jedi when the Galactic Empire was destroyed. Or they believe Arizona State University still shouldn’t award an honorary degree to our Commander-In-Chief. It seems the political associations of this year’s prize prevented some from digesting the overarching message of last week’s post. Simply put, peace requires collaboration.

It’s a new week now. And with my natural apolitical tendencies fully restored I have chosen to tackle a decidedly lighter, if not simply airier topic. I’ll do my best to stay off the politics.

Have you ever had a great idea when you’re really, really tired?

Have you ever had a great idea after getting really, really drunk? [If you’re still wondering, the matching BFF tattoos you and your friends got while in Cancun a few years ago don’t count as a great idea.]

Have you ever had a great idea after getting totally baked?

Or rather, do you have a vague recollection of having had a great idea after getting baked? And are now trying to recapture that fleeting thought?

If so, perhaps you should try highDEAS.com.

It's positioned as the site to share “the best ideas (while you’re high)”.

It’s a place where you can “Submit highDEA (before you forget)”.

The site is obviously a bit of a farce and should be taken tongue-in-cheek. But the site itself, however absurd you think it might be, is actually fairly clever. It does provide a solution to a problem. And although from a practical, business standpoint, you’ll not find much inspiration or useful thought nuggets in its web pages, some of the stuff is kind of funny when you think about it. Then again, most of it is pretty juvenile and stupid.

A few of the more realistic highDEAS that made me think a little extra if only for a moment included:
Flavored glue
Bras with pockets
Bag in bag (a second compartment in a bag of sunflower seeds used for spitting out shells)

But such tangible, lucid posts are few and far between. The most interesting post I found though was a bit surprising. It wasn’t really an idea but rather a diatribe wake-up rant from one pothead to his less than motivated brethren.

sasquatch.oil writes: Get Off Your Ass And Live
“To the lazy folk, Get your sh%t together. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE smoking Ganj as much as anyone else (like everyday), and I understand that at times you get unmotivated (as do I), but don’t live the stereotypical PotHead life. Sitting on the couch. Sleeping the day away. Eating yourself out of house and home. No job.

Smoke your grass and go on an Adventure! Explore! Stay in good company and please be safe. The World is a Beautiful place, but she can also be a Bit#h.”

For anyone that’s ever had a great idea, or sadly many great ideas, and never done anything with them, I say Get Off Your Ass And Innovate. Mark Twain once wrote “a person who won’t read has no advantage over one that can’t read.” The same is true with innovation. Do something with your ideas.

It’s late now and I’m a bit tired. But I’ve sort of got the munchies.

One final pondering before I sign off though.

What kind of innovations might Bill Clinton have come up with had he inhaled?

Sorry. I couldn’t resist a final puff of politics.

Innovation Action Lags Talking by 35% - New Research

2009-10-19T13:02:00.004-04:00

By Dan Keldsen - Co-founder and Principal at Information Architected

In a recent study of over 180 companies, Information Architected Inc. (IAI) found that while most organizations view innovation as critical to their success, less than half of respondents are proactively DOING innovation.

Highlights:

84% view innovation as critical, yet only 49% have put in place any formal process to manage innovation

68% of the surveyed organizations’ management believes that innovation should be managed as a corporate asset and process, yet only 49% have any form of executive management presiding over innovation.

The difference between theory and reality was also stunning in the application of technology to manage and magnify innovation.

Although innovation management is NOT about technology, it can certainly be fine-tuned and enhanced through the application of technology.

In fact, 56% of the individuals surveyed stated that it is imperative that an organization deliberately leverage technology in order to maximize the value of innovation management. Yet 35% stated that there was a lack of effective collaboration and communication technologies within their organization.

Other key findings include:

When asked to identify the criticality of several components to innovation management, corporate culture surfaced as number 1, with 71% stating it was absolutely critical.
The majority (61%) of respondents stated that serendipity (accidental or coincidental innovation) was the least critical component of innovation management.
82% felt that innovation did not have to be disruptive in order to have significant impact.

IAI will publish a whitepaper that details all the findings of the study later this month, and hold a no-cost webinar to discuss the findings on Thursday, October 29 at 2pm ET (-5 GMT).

To register for the webinar and receive notification when the whitepaper is released go to:

About the Survey

This IAI Innovation Management survey was conducted during the second quarter of 2009, and was administered through an online survey instrument. A total of 180 business professionals participated in the survey, representing a full array of vertical industries and company sizes. (Demographics can be provided.)

Partial underwriting of this Survey was provided by:

Archived Web Seminar - Do Consumers Really Care About Corporate Social Responsibility? New BuzzBack Case Study with Nestlé

2009-10-16T09:09:00.000-04:00

If you weren't able to make it to yesterday's live web seminar "Do Consumers Really Care About Corporate Social Responsibility? New BuzzBack Case Study with Nestlé" here's your chance to view the archive. Martin Oxley, Managing Director at BuzzBack Europe and Jeremy Pace, Consumer Science Specialist at Nestlé showcased new online research techniques that identified consumer driven issues and emotions of CSR.

Watch the hour-long archive. Enjoy!

FEI Europe 2010 Keynote Page is Now Up!

2009-10-15T13:42:00.004-04:00

Just a quick reminder to sign-up to receive Front End of Innovation email updates and gain exclusive access to the 2009 FEI US Executive Summary Report. This includes key learnings and actionable takeaways from the entire event.

Keynotes for FEI Europe 2010 include Scott Anthony, author of The Silver Lining An Innovation Playbook For Uncertain Times and Adrian van Hooydonk, Director of Design for the BMW Group just to name a few! €500 Discounts are still available! Make sure to check out the FEI Europe keynote page where you will find plenty of resources, videos, and articles from around web on the speakers. Enjoy!

What your manager doesn't want you to talk about

2009-10-15T06:00:00.003-04:00

Have you ever been pitching a brilliant new idea to your manager and in the middle of your brilliant pitch they check their Blackberry to see if anything important has arrived? Before you blame your manager, RIM, or whoever invented email, take a look at what you're talking about.

I spent an hour on a webinar yesterday frustrated at the inability of the presenter to recognize that I didn’t give a darn about the features of his offering. I’m not sure, but I may have dozed off. I know that I checked email every few minutes. And to be fair, the offering WAS very cool, and the email that came in was decidedly not.

Unfortunately, because of the distraction of all the “cool things” the offering could do (and the ensuing distraction of a frantic quest for a more interesting email) it took me about 45 minutes to figure out that was what the system does really well. The presenter bouncing all over his web-based offering didn’t help me figure that out. I’ll blame it on my marketing background; I want to know about benefits (WHY) first, and features (WHAT) last.

Perhaps people’s obsession with features is a strategy to justify one’s existence and big budget to the organization. My frustration stems from the fact that too many otherwise smart people get tunnel-vision and lose sight of the fact that the features – characteristics – of a product (like size, weight, buttons, appearance, functionality) or service (what is done, the offerings, what you see people doing) are not important to the person you’re selling the concept to until they are deep into the decision-making process.

This is true whether you’re talking about your customer, consumer, end-user or your boss. Yep, especially when you’re trying to sell the next big idea, it’s best to lead with the benefit to the user, the insight that says WHY the benefit is important to them, and then eventually get to WHAT are all the really cool features it offers.

It’s too easy to get sucked into the tunnel, seeing only WHAT your service/product does rather than WHY you do it for your customers. Until you’ve identified the WHY, you haven’t distilled down the importance of your product/service/idea, you’ve only described it. When that happens, it’s unnecessarily harder to convince people to buy or support your offering. Remember, “The true purpose of business is to provide ongoing and recognized value -- and to continue to stay in business by providing it.” So say Margaret King and Jamie O’Boyle of Cultural Studies and Analysis -- a company that is outstanding at figuring out the value of a service/product (For more, See the “Business and Culture,” article in our newsletter, The Innovative Brain.

So when you’re selling an idea and you see people lose interest, get distracted, interrupt you with questions you’re not ready to answer, check their email or generally nod off, remember to focus on the WHY not the WHAT. Convince them of the WHY, and the WHAT becomes useful information rather than an impediment to the approval process.

You can read more about how to sort features from benefits here or how to sell ideas through the organization here. You can also argue the point with me at the Innovation Immersion next week in La Jolla, CA. It'll be a great conference, and I hope to see you there!

So what are some of your secrets for getting people to accept your innovative ideas?

Are you ready to design your perfect ride?

2009-10-14T13:33:00.005-04:00

Today at Epcot's Innovation Pavilion, Disney is introducing a ride where they're allowing children to use their knowledge in mathematics and engineering to design their preferred roller coaster. This new attraction at the Pavilion allows children to be introduced to the basics of mathematics and engineering involved in creating a ride, then allows them to use that knowledge to create the track path choose the car they'll ride the ride in. Then they're taken to a simulation machine to experiences what they've designed. Read more about this new ride here.

I think a ride like this is great for the coming generation. It injects knowledge into the normal amusement park experiences, and shows children that math and science can be fun. Do you think more amusement park rides will follow suit? Not only does it introduce a new aspect for the amusement park industry, but creates a situation where the designers can comprehend physics and engineering in an everyday situation.

And The Nobel Winner Is...

2009-10-13T15:50:00.007-04:00

C. Engdahl
The Big E of Big E Toys

“As Alfred Nobel recognized, peace cannot be achieved by one man or one nation. It results from the efforts of men of broad vision and goodwill throughout the world. The accomplishments of individuals need not be remembered, for if lasting peace is to come it will be the accomplishment of all mankind.” – Henry Kissinger, from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech December 10, 1973*

For those of you that tuned in last week and read "Collaborate and Win (a Nobel Prize)" you may have noticed a few Nobel prizes absent from my analysis. (For those of you that missed last week’s post) I had used the historical record of the Nobel Prize for Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine to demonstrate the increasing importance of collaboration in these scientific fields. Those with even the most basic awareness of Nobel happenings however probably recognized that I did not incorporate Literature, Economics, and the Nobel Peace Prize into the breakdown.

The history of scientific endeavors – those of physics, chemistry, and medicine – generally speaking is characterized by the gradual build of one idea upon another. Previous work becomes the basis for new revelations and discovery. There are inherent links from one scientific exercise to the next if only because science is measurable, testable, and repeatable. In some respect, the history of science could be viewed as one, big collaboration.

Literature does not share these qualities. Although literature has historical traditions with influencers that shape its arc, new literary endeavors are not dependent on prior knowledge and history as in scientific endeavors. Unless you consider the work of editors, agents, illustrators, and publishers as a form of collaboration worthy of inclusion in such circles as the Nobel Prize, writing by its very nature is a solitary endeavor. A piece of literature can and often does exist as a reflective point in time, created by a lone genius. It should come as no surprise then that the Nobel Prize in Literature has never been awarded to collaborators.

In the annals of scientific history, economics is a relative new-comer. Some view it as the bastardized child or distant cousin of real science. It does not include some might say the rigors and traditional measurements and corresponding experimentation of other scientific fields of study. And thus is not worthy of sharing the same stage. Even the Nobel Prize (which isn’t actually awarded by the Nobel Foundation but rather Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s Central Bank) wasn’t established until 1968, and was awarded for the first time in 1969. There is some evidence to suggest however collaboration is still an important element within economics. Since 1969, including the 21st Century, it appears 15 prizes (including my personal favorite John Nash in 1994) were awarded based on some type of collaboration. It’s worth noting however that even in these cases some appear to have been awarded to economists who shared fields of interest and investigation but whose actual collaboration may have been loose at best.

So what of the Peace Prize?

To what extent is collaboration rewarded in this realm? The very nature and purpose of the Peace Prize seems altogether different than the other Nobel Prizes. Peace seems like such a monumental endeavor that to award the Prize to an individual would be oxymoronic. To some extent though I suppose the prize must simply be viewed symbolically.

Since the first award in 1901, the vast majority of Nobel Peace Prizes have been given to individuals. A few organizations, such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and the United Nations have also been recognized, but there are only ten or so other instances of identifiable collaboration. The most famous of which include Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin in 1978, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in 1993, and Arafat, Peres, and Rabin in 1994.

There has certainly been much hullabaloo around the recent Nobel Peace Prize given to President Barack Obama. I’m not concerned though whether you think President Obama is “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize isn’t up to you or me. It simply is what it is.

Yet for whatever President Obama has or hasn’t actually accomplished to date, I’m led to believe he does understand the true nature of lasting peace – collaboration.

Excerpts from remarks made by President Barack Obama shortly after receiving news of the award include:

“Let me be clear, I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”

"Throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement, it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes."

“These challenges can't be met by any one leader or any one nation. And that's why my administration has worked to establish a new era of engagement in which all nations must take responsibility for the world we seek.”

There’s the key phrase: ALL NATIONS MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WORLD WE SEEK.

Perhaps more so than any other endeavor, peace requires (demands actually) an unprecedented level of responsibility and collaboration.

________________________

*As the Laureate, Henry Kissinger, was unable to be present on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1973, the acceptance was read by Thomas R. Byrne, Ambassador of the United States to Norway.

You can read the full text of President Obama’s remarks here.

BMW Innovation Days: The Mini That Roars -- and Tweets

2009-10-13T11:37:00.004-04:00

Motortrend reports that BMW's Innovation Days is a developing in-car communications system dubbed Mini Connected Live. The idea behind the new technology is to add all the functionality available in popular smartphones (such as Apple's iPhone) to the actual car itself. Specifically, the system would allow the driver to use smartphone apps through the vehicle's user interface, rather than on the actual smartphone. For more information about innovations at BMW, please visit the original article here.

Adrian van Hooydonk, Director Design, BMW GROUP will be speaking at the 2010 FEI Europe event in Amsterdam. His presentation, "The Future Sustainability and The Joy of Mobility" will be on Monday 8 February, 2010. He will also be showcasing an exclusive preview of BMW's new concept car at the event!