In the first parts of this article series we argued that that the scope and nature of innovation is changing. Big Data, Social Innovation, Additive Manufacturing (3D-Printing etc.) Design Thinking, Lean Start-up, etc. are becoming Good Practice in innovation management. We argued that in “making innovation things right”, i.e. in the back-end of the innovation funnel, many firms have established …
Excellence in the Fuzzy Front-End – Part 2
In the first part of this article series we argued that that the scope and nature of innovation is changing. Big Data, Social Innovation, Additive Manufacturing (3D-Printing etc.) Design Thinking, Lean Start-up, etc. are becoming Good Practice in innovation management. We argued that in “making innovation things right”, i.e. in the back-end of the innovation funnel, many firms have established …
Excellence in the Fuzzy Front-End – Part 1
Study after study shows that “innovation” has a premier spot on the Top Management Agenda. True, the word “innovation” may be overused. So for example, upon learning that the “Peanut Butter Pop Tart” was one of the most important innovations of a USD 15B food company, the Wall Street Journal remarked: “Some CEOs spray the word ‘innovation’ as if it …
Leading firms are discussing with innovation-3 about “Open Innovation inside the firm”
Open Innovation inside the firm (sometimes also called intra-firm Open Innovation) is an extremely hot topic in Central Europe. And innovation-3 is in the sweet spot of helping leading firms to use the “wisdom of the internal crowd” for driving innovation performance. In the second half of May, innovation-3 will conduct a one-day workshop on this issue with clients and …
Integration of B2B customers in Open Innovation
It is now 10 years since Henry Chesbrough published his groundbreaking book on the “new imperative for creating and profiting from technology”. A lot of insight has been generated since then about how firms could win the innovation race by leveraging the expertise of a connected world with exponentially growing and globally distributed knowledge. Probably the largest part of material …
Recording of Expert Panel discussion now online
On May 31, innovation-3’s Frank Mattes moderated an Expert Panel Discussion on making innovation pay. The session focused on methods to increase the rate of innovation, reduce individual level costs per innovation and encourage fail fast methods. This session was also looking for unusual ways that organizations have managed to drive innovation execution to make returns on their innovation investments …
Open Innovation conquers the whole value chain
Last week I had two very interesting discussions with two global companies that are far advanced in implementing Open Innovation. One of these companies is the lighting division (let’s call it ‘Lighting corp’ for the sake of confidentiality) of a world-leading electro-technical MNC, the other one a globally leading FMCG company (let’s call it ‘FMCG corp’). These discussions took place …
The true value of collaboration platforms
A couple of days ago I spent a day with 40 top innovation managers and experts at BrightIdea’s Birds Of A Feather EMEA event in Zurich. The practitioners came from leading companies such as UBS, Sony Ericsson, Philip Morris, SWIFT, Merck and Genzyme. I hosted a lively round-table discussion on the questions “What makes up an Open Innovation culture and …
How to sell an innovation idea
Every new innovation idea – and this is certainly true the more radical it is – has first of all to get Top Management’s awareness if it ever it is to be realized. In my consulting experience I had dozens of opportunities (or challenges, depending on how you want to see it) to sell an innovation idea to Top Managers. …
Critical Success Factors for Collaborative Idea Management
Quite a large number of companies are using tools for collaborative idea management. Recently I reflected my own project experiences with a group of innovation managers from a number of companies. We searched for the Critical Success Factors in collaborative idea management. Our final list showed 8 success factors:
Keeping up a constant flow of ideas at BASF
Recently I spoke with Dr Thomas Weber, Managing Director of BASF’s Future Business, about what it takes for a large company to maintain a constant flow of innovation ideas and a spirit of enthusiasm to feed the pipeline. BASF Future Business (www.basf-fb.com) opens up new areas of business for BASF, the chemical industry’s leading player. It is geared to exploration …