Blue Yurt

Jennifer Burns asked:


Death and renewal lead to a constant innovative cycle of the market generated by new firms that prosper until a new substitutive technology is introduced to the market. Consequently, in order to remain competitive companies must combine the existing resources in order to create a new use of current resources, create combinations, or, simply, innovate. Schumpeter views innovation as the driving force of economy; going even further, the concept of innovation encompasses emergence of new products and strategies, new sources of supply of raw materials, markets, and organizational changes. As such, business strategy cannot be viewed net of innovative processes, as innovation influences companies and markets both externally and internally transferring innovative strategies of companies into competitive advantages.

Innovative activities took different forms and led to various consequences both locally for companies and economy overall. For instance, the U.S. innovative revolution was characterized by growth of managerial education resulting from separation between ownership and control. Being started at the beginning of the 20th century, industrial corporations by the end of World War II created strong managerial organizations for further development of new technological solutions. In the late 1970s and later on in 1980s, Japanese companies gained competitive advantage in the industries previously occupied by U.S. companies. Three different kinds of institutions led to success of Japanese companies: lifelong employment, banking system, and cross shareholding. As such, the innovative approach on organizational level tends to vary significantly from country to country and is a factor of the historical period and technological solutions applied within this period.

When it comes to speaking about firm innovation, there are three major facts, as highlighted by scholars. Firstly, technological knowledge is embodied in minds of individuals and is evident in the routine operations of every organization. Secondly, innovative knowledge is dynamic and evolves over time as individuals gain experience and are able to create new approaches. Going even further, innovative solutions are the products of intra and inter organizational interactions; as, innovation is a collective act. Thirdly, operations of companies are characterized by highly unstable and mobile environment. Having limited access to information and natural doubt, companies do not interpret and process the same information in a homogenous manner. Consequently, there is heterogeneity in technological capabilities of companies operating in industry. Going even further, heterogeneity is the driving force of innovation.

Innovation has also been viewed from a systematic approach, which resulted in emergence of the term Innovation Systems, or IS. The concept was introduced in 1980s as a result of extraordinary growth of Japanese and East Asian economies that received particular attention from scholars. At the same time, United States and European economies were in stagnation. The IS approach attempted to explain the dynamics of the changing configuration of economy. Two theoretical frameworks for the study have been introduced: the historical – empirical approach and interactive learning based approach. The two approaches are essentially different in that interactive learning based offers primarily a theoretical foundation, whereas historical – empirical approach establishes a framework for empirical research to examine performance of individual companies in varying national contexts.

As such, the concept of innovation has been discussed from three perspectives – organizational, systematic, and firm levels. Consequently, when discussing implications for business performance in the 21st century, it is crucial to consider all three dimensions.

Jennifer Selby Long asked:


Copyright (c) 2008 Jennifer Selby Long

Earlier this week, my husband and I spent time with my sister and her family near Portland. What on earth does this have to do with innovative companies? Read on.

On Sunday, my nephew, Logan, was busily working on a homework assignment with his friends Ryan and Dillon. It was amazing what these three sixth-graders were doing. They created a video about the Himalayas, complete with slides culled from the internet, homemade cardboard mountains, a painted-foam demonstration of how the mountains were formed, an action sequence involving India moving through the ocean to join the Asian continent, detailed explanations about the earth’s crust, and the grand finale - Indian music played in unison on a cello, electric guitar, and trumpet. O.k., it was an, um, unusual way to score the piece, but I had to admire their boldness in charting new musical terrain.

It was amazing how much innovative thought these three kids put into their creation and in bringing it to the market (the market in this case being their teacher, Mr. Lee).

Even more amazing was the all-out fanatical mobilization of eight adults (all of the kids’ parents, plus Kirk and myself) to execute the project after it hit an enormous speed bump. After spending hours trying to get their video on to a DVD for the class, Logan asked for help. Many hours later, the various parents who had tried to figure it out threw in the towel, got a little sleep, and went to work.

Since they were unable to transfer the video to DVD, my sister gave up her computer for the day (the one she needs for her business, by the way), so Logan could take it to class to play the video.

The kids tried to get the volume high enough for Mr. Lee to hear, but he couldn’t hear it, and admonished them for wasting 30 minutes of class time. Believe me, I had a few choice words to describe Mr. Lee at that point, none of which can be printed in this newsletter.

He did, however, give them one more night to fix the problem.

That evening, as the tension mounted, it was an all-out technical SWOT team attack. Luckily for my family, I married an IT guy.

Even though Kirk doesn’t do much hands-on work with computers these days, he dove in and started problem-solving, eventually finding an obscure program that was out on the internet, which he downloaded and used to transfer the video to DVD. He is now the family hero.

In all, we estimated that the kids spent 15 hours creating the video and at least four more trying to transfer it to a DVD, and the adults spent a whooping 18 hours bringing the creation to life, while also pursuing their other work responsibilities, the ones associated with our jobs, that is. We were tempted to send Mr. Lee an invoice.

Now, here’s the connection with innovative companies. Doesn’t this make you wonder how the naturally creative and innovative processes of children, and the rabid enthusiasm of parents to support their kids’ innovation, turn into the idea-crushing, soul-smashing bureaucracy of the workplace?

The pithy answer is that companies and markets are bigger and a lot more complicated, and adults don’t care about their own ideas as much as their kids’ ideas, and there’s some truth in all that.

However, some companies do manage to pull off significant innovation, much to their advantage. It comes down to a dozen factors that are directly correlated with innovation. Some of them are obvious, while others are surprising. They are:

1. Support and encouragement of taking risks rather than maintaining the status quo. In the words of Guy Kawasaki, “Don’t worry, be crappy.”

2. A corporate leadership team that plans for most of the company’s growth through the development of new products and services, and is diligent in ensuring that the best ideas are exploited and less promising ideas killed early on.

3. Inspirational leadership with an inspirational vision.

4. High trust relationships, relatively free of interpersonal conflict.

5. Investment in and encouragement of skill development at all levels.

6. Substantial, sustained information sharing, which creates well informed employees. These employees can apply their extensive knowledge of customer desires, the company’s goals and strategies, and competitive threats to improve their own work, as well as offer innovative solutions beyond their own immediate area of responsibility.

7. Family friendly or “life friendly” work practices. Some examples are flexible office hours, child care, part-time arrangements, or telecommuting. Take note: this one I found through quite a bit of research, not through my direct experience, and it amazed me that it was directly correlated with innovation. I had always seen this as an all-around good idea for attracting and retaining employees, but did not realize that it is directly correlated with innovation success. Go figure. I learn something new every day.

8. Demonstrable valuing of differences. This includes the traditional dimensions such as gender, race, physical disability, etc. as well as the less visible dimensions, such as different ways of thinking or approaching the work to be done, different personal values, religious or spiritual beliefs, different lifestyles, etc.

9. Semi- or fully autonomous teams, who are free to solve most problems and make decisions on their own or by working directly with other teams — without escalating to management for approval. This can and should include decisions about which of their creative ideas to further explore and which to kill off.

10. Direct employee involvement in innovation via routine team briefings with feedback, and involvement in the decisions on how work is organized and outcomes improved.

11. Goals relevant to innovation such as increase in number of new services launched, success rate of innovative products and services, decrease in non-value-added work due to process innovation, better speed to market, etc., and a means of measuring progress toward them.

12. Adequate resources to exploit ideas. Some examples include hiring temporary staff to cover some routine day-to-day functions while key team members dedicate themselves to bringing up a new business, funding market research for new ideas, and hiring process engineers to teach employees how to map and improve their work processes so they can free up more time to pursue new ideas.

As I look back on Logan’s project, I see a lot of these.

The kids never questioned the necessity of going through many creative ideas and rejecting them before landing on the winner.

I must begrudgingly admit that Mr. Lee is excellent at pushing the kids to grow through the development of something new on their part rather than rote memorization, and he invests an incredible amount of time encouraging the development of their skills.

The kids and parents have gotten to know one another well, and enjoy a high level of trust with relatively little interpersonal conflict, and they accept their children’s individual personalities as they are–quirks and all.

The kids had to work as an autonomous team, working through conflicts and making decisions without escalating to Mr. Lee.

And the list goes on.

In a way, what it takes for a company to innovate is not so different from what it takes for a kid to innovate, after all. It just takes a lot more discipline, focus, change management, and people skills.

The kids took their DVD to class the next day, and played it for Mr. Lee. They got an A+.

Jackthesmuggler asked:


 

Innovator-(noun)-Someone who introduces a new way of doing something : One who renews or creates a new style.

 

There have been many men who have added to the NFL game. Men like Vince Lombardi, the great motivator come to mind. Men like Hank Stram are thought of as well. No conversation about innovating and changing the way the NFL game is played could be had without mentioning coaches like Bill Parcells,Bill Belichick as well as Cleveland Brown coach Paul Brown.

In this article I have chosen to highlight 3 of the NFL’s all time innovators. George Halas, Bill Walsh and Tom Landry.

These three men have made strides and changes to the NFL game that still resonate in todays game and will continue right on up into the future.

George Halas





George Halas was probably the most important person ever associated with the Chicago Bears NFL franchise. Starting out as an employee with the A.E Staley Company in Decatur Ill,Halas played on the company football team. It was Halas who selected his alma mater’s colors of orange and navy blue as the teams uniform colors.

After financial losses team founder Augustus E Staley turned control of the team over to Halas in 1921.In 1922 the name was changed to “The Bears” in tribute to the Chicago Cubs who let the Bears play their games at Wrigley Field.

Not only did Halas play for the Bears,he also handled the team business and even sold tickets. Even more incredible,Halas even coached the team. After 10 years Halas retired from coaching as well as playing. In 1933 Halas was right back to coaching for another 10 seasons.

By the end of the 1930’s Halas (with help from University of Chicago coach Clark Shaughnessy) mastered the T Formation system, which was a new and dominating style that helped the Bears win the 1940 Championship game. All the NFL teams began to copy Halas and his system. With the Bears repeating as Champions in 1941, the 40’s became known for the Bears referring to them as the “Monsters of the Midway.”

The Monsters of The Midway

Halas finally retired from coaching after the 1967 season. At the time he was the oldest coach in the league. He continued as the Bears principal owner and handled team operations until his death in 1983 at age 88.

Halas had both a negative and positive impact on NFL Football as far as segregation. In the 1930’s Halas refused to sign black players to the Bears. Eventually Halas had a change of heart and helped bring black players into the league. Halas would sign Quarterback Willie Thrower, who,playing for the Bears became the leagues first black quarterback.

Halas’ innovative nature showed all over the league. His teams were the first to hold daily practice sessions.Also they were the first team to analyze film of other teams. Halas team was also the first to place assistant coaches in the press boxes where they could see the team as a whole. A method that is still used today. Halas team was also the first to broadcast games by radio.

Maybe George Halas most important contribution to the league was being a strong early advocate of “Revenue Sharing”. Halas offered to share the Bears huge television income with teams in smaller cities believing that as the league did good so would his team.

George Halas record of 63 years as a owner,40 years as a coach,324 wins,and 8 NFL Titles makes him a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame,which by the way is located on George Halas Drive. The Chicago Bears to this day still honor Halas with the initials GSH on their left sleeve.

Tom Landry



Tom Landry’s life story is a little bit better known than Halas. I mean everyone knows about ‘The Hat’.He was born in Mission Texas and attended the University of Texas. As a defensive back Landry’s star shined bright.Playing defensive back in the AAFC for the “Yankees in 1949,by 1950 Landry moved to the New York Giants. In 1954 he was even selected as an all-pro. He played through 1955 acting as assistant coach the last two (54 and 55). Landry ened his career with 32 interceptions in just 80 games.

In 1956 Tom Landry became the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants opposite future Hall Of Fame coach Vince Lombardi who was the offensive coordinator.Together they appeared in 3 NFL Championship games winning in 1956.

By 1960 Landry became the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys where he would stay for 29 seasons. After starting off the 1960 season with a 0-11-1 record,Landry would go on to win 2 Superbowls,5 NFC titles and 13 Divisional titles with a 270-178-6 all time record. Oh and did I mention Landry’s 20 consecutive winning seasons (1966-85) a league record, Impressive to say the least.

When it came to innovation Tom Landry was ahead of his time and the “Flex Defense” was his baby.With eight natural gaps along the line of scrimmage,traditional defenses had four linemen control two gaps.The defensive tackle had to control the gaps between the center and guard and the guard and tackle. The focus was on power. Take away the blocker,find the ball and then make a play.Landry had his right ends and left tackles line up in spots along the line of scrimmage nose to nose with blockers. The right tackle and left end would line up a few feet back from scrimmage,that opened up better pursuit lanes.Landry then asked his defenders up front to control one gap apiece,except for the middle linebacker. He had to control two, The Flex gave them gap control at the point of attack,allowing everyone else to pursue.

As Landry got better players the Flex became the famous “Doomsday” front.

With his offense Landry brought in the famed “Shotgun”where his quarterback could stand five yards deep allowing him to see the defense and possible holes in it. Designed first as a running play for the quarterback,Landry smartly turned it into a passing play for his mobile quarterback Rodger Staubach. The Hail Mary pass from Staubach to Drew Pearson to beat the Minnesota Vikings in that years playoffs came out of the Shotgun. Twenty Five years later every NFL team has the Shotgun in its playbook, thanks to Tom Landry.



Landry even drafted in a new innovative way. Instead of the normal short,stocky players,Landry liked tall,lean players who took long strides and could cover more ground in the pass rush. Again 25 years later all NFL teams yearn for pass rushers who are shaped more like NBA power forwards.

Landry was also first to bring in quality control coaches. Quality coach Ermal Allen would go over game film and look for tendencies of opposing teams to give Landry and the Cowboys an edge. Today every NFL team has a quality control coach and many have two.

Besides being a man of integrity and class Tom Landry will forever be known as a master builder of todays NFL and almost always the first name mentioned in any discussion about innovators of the NFL.

 

Bill Walsh



Simply known as “The Genius” Bill Walsh’s innovations on offense simply said..”changed the game. Walsh was best known as the creator of the “West Coast Offense. The unstoppable offense that if done right was nearly full proof.

Walsh began his football career as a somewhat average end at San Jose State in 1952-53. In 1954 he started his coaching career at Washington State High School in Freemont CA. Not long after that Walsh was hired as a assistant coach by future legendary head coach Marv Levy at California.

Walsh then moved on to Stanford before beginning his pro coaching career with the then AFL’s Oakland Raiders in 1966. In 1968 Walsh joined the Cincinnati Bengals where he worked for legendary coach Paul Brown.It was with the Bengals that Walsh gained complete control over an offense.

Walsh begain working on a scheme that used short drop backs and uncomplicated receiving routes. Walsh practiced these schemes over and over during practices. These schemes years later became known as ‘The West Coast Offense” a name Walsh never liked.

Walsh hated running the ball. He preferred a smooth flowing air game. After a falling out with Paul Brown, Walsh left the Bengals for another short stay with Stanford as well as the San Diego Chargers. In 1979 he accepted the job to rebuild the San Francisco 49ers. In Walsh first stint as coach his record was 2-14. Earlier in 1979 the 49ers drafted a young quarterback named Joe Montana to whom Walsh turned over the starting job. It was a match made in heaven. By 1981 the 49ers had their first Championship.



Under Walsh the 49ers added Ronnie Lott,Charles Haley,Rodger Craig and the great Jerry Rice to whom Walsh he considered like a father.

The number of successful coaches who came off the Bill Walsh tree reads like a who’s who of great NFL coaches. George Seifert,Mike Holgram,Dennis Green,Sam Wyche,Ray Rhodes,and Bruce Coslet. Many of his assistants passed on Walsh’s knowledge to other coaches including Mike Shanahan,Jon Gruden,Brian Billick,Andy Reid,Pete Carroll,Gary Kubiak,Steve Mariucci and Jeff Fisher.

Walsh also created the Minority Coaching Fellowship program in 1987.This program helped minority coaches get jobs in the white-dominated position. The program was later adopted league wide.

Walsh compiled a record of 102-63-1 with the 49ers. He won 10 of his 14 postseason games along with 6 division titles. Walsh was elected into the Football Hall Of Fame in 1993 mostly because he was a master with a chalkboard and a piece of chalk. I cant think of many men who did more to shape football more going into the 21st century.

 

In closing I would just like to add that while exploring these three men Ive come to see how much each of them embody the spirit of the innovator. Each in different ways but yet each of them seeing a need to take what had already seemed perfected and making it that much better. It was truly fun for me to write this article as it forces me to dig deep within myself to see if I have the spirit of the INNOVATOR.

 

Brad Barrett asked:


Innovative products need to be marketed and sold differently than other offerings since they require a special customer who is receptive to innovation. Most customers are skeptical and will wait until innovative products are mass marketed.

Here are a few suggestions on how to market innovative products:

• Not everyone will understand the need for the innovation. They will need to be educated about the problem. Think of it from their perspective-why should they care? Help them understand the problem that needs to be solved and how your product addresses that problem.

• Explain how your product is different. People buy things because of the differences not because it is the same. If your

offering is truly innovative, this won’t be a problem.

• Be authentic. Customers are drawn to sellers who believe in the offerings. Your enthusiasm will be contagious and appealing. If you fake it, they will see right through you.

• Position your product as a high-quality alternative. Innovation and quality make great companion benefits. Take the high road.

• Consider the impact of premium pricing. People are aware that innovative solutions cost more. Price the offering based on value.

Innovative products need a customer who appreciates the value of the new product. Don’t waste your time on the late adopters or laggards-they will only buy when they have no other alternative.

Instead look for the innovative buyer or early adopter. Truly innovative buyers leave tracks. They buy other innovative products and visit leading edge websites. The good news is that they will seek you out since they are always on the hunt for the next new thing-so make a lot of noise so that they can find you.

John Bradley Jackson

© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

Andrew Carey asked:


In April 2006, when its Internet Strategy Group met to discuss ways of improving the company’s presence on the Internet, The Economist was doing very nicely, thank you. Global circulation had just passed one million; Roll Call, a sister magazine, had become the most widely read publication in the US Congress; and new titles had been successfully launched in China and India.

All in all, it was a time when most companies might have been happy to build on what they’d got. Instead, The Economist approved a proposal from their CIO, Mike Seery, to recruit a team of five people plus himself from within the Group, remove them from their current jobs, and give them £100,000 and six months to launch an innovative web-based product, service or business model.

The enthusiastic young team encountered all kinds of problems and challenges. Many would be immediately recognised by any innovation team. The solutions they found were often ingenious and the lessons they learned could be applied in thousands of businesses around the world.

In a rare move, The Economist team invited me into their offices to observe them at work over the next six months. Here’s the condensed version of what I saw and learnt - for teamworkers, innovators and other readers in a hurry.

Team selection

Mike Seery recruited his fellow team members from across The Economist Group. He set out to attract people from editorial, sales, marketing and IT. He also managed to bring team members from around the world to the London-based project.

But gathering team members from such different backgrounds meant they had a lot of catching up to do before they were able to work together efficiently. For a long time, the techies’ knowledge of emerging technologies left some of the others floundering. And a lot of team-building needed to be done before the business of team-working could get under way.

The Economist also kept open each team member’s job for the six months that they were on Project Red Stripe, and team members were recruited on the understanding that this wasn’t an opportunity for people who were bored with their jobs or wanting to leave.

Lesson 1:

Consider carefully whether it’s better to bring together a team who already know each other, share a common professional language and have skills in common – and then buy-in extra skills as needed. Or do you prefer a broad knowledge-base but allow extra time for team members to get used to each other?

Lesson 2:

Recruiting team members who want to return to their old jobs at the end of the project ensures that you don’t just get people who are bored with their work. But loyal employees are not necessarily the most creative. The angry and disaffected may have some of the best ideas.

Crowdsourcing

Although team members brought their own ideas about what The Economist should do next, they began by asking readers and other interested parties. In so doing, they put their faith in ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’. In fact, ‘the crowd’ didn’t come up with anything the team hadn’t already thought of. So you could argue that the time they spent crowdsourcing was time wasted. But what if they had come up with something spectacular that way? How would you ever know without asking?

Lesson 3:

Think very carefully about who is best placed to identify the best innovation for your organisation. Is it you and your team? Your customers? Experts? Or the world at large?

Freedom

The team had enormous freedom. There were no guidelines on what sort of innovation they should look for and they were free to launch the idea without first getting approval from the directors. In practice this caused a lot of headaches and the team weren’t willing to jeopardise the business by launching an idea they believed in without first getting approval from the top. And, when they asked for approval, they didn’t get it.

Too much freedom can also cause problems with creativity. The Project Red Stripe team could do anything. At one point, they were working with top NGOs and their advisers to develop a business that would help the UN achieve one of its millennium goals. When world peace is within your grasp, why would you consider a humdrum, commercial web venture?

Lesson 4:

Be realistic about how much freedom you can give an innovation team. It may turn into a millstone.



Lesson 5:

‘Thinking big’ is necessary for a major innovation project, especially as it’s notoriously difficult to get people to think outside the box. But giving people the freedom to try and change the world may leave them dazed by the enormity of what they might achieve.

Risk

Big companies are large because they’re successful and success is a barrier to innovation. Why try something new and risky when what you’re doing now works? If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

This was true at The Economist, which didn’t need a new business and didn’t need the two key ideas developed by Project Red Stripe.

Lesson 6:

Do a risk assessment. Is the sponsor organisation under sufficient pressure to want to run with whatever idea the team comes up with?



Teambuilding

Early on, Mike Seery organised a number of teambuilding exercises. They worked well and were seen as significant moments in the team’s history and in the stories that it told about itself. But they also served to establish a particular mindset – ‘we’re good at this and this, but less good at that’.

Lesson 7:

The moments in a team’s trajectory when you most need to run team-building exercises (late on, when the team’s under extreme pressure) are, almost by definition, the moments when you haven’t got time to run them.

Drifting

From the outset, the Red Stripe team sometimes ‘wandered around’ without a clear sense of what was going to happen next and without clear rules about how it might be going to happen.

Instinctively, drifting seems like an appropriate thing for an innovation team to do; but it’s also an uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing thing to do. Some say that safety is a prerequisite of creativity. Certainly there were some members of the Red Stripe team who worked hardest and fastest when they knew where they were going.

Lesson 8:

Drifting ‘aimlessly’ can be creative, but it’s also scary. Participants (and Finance Directors) may want something more regimented. Rules and guidelines can offer direction or serve as blinkers. It may be important to have some clear guidelines in place before the innovation project begins.

Consensus

Most teams are likely to want to act democratically and move forward with general agreement that they’re on the right lines. In Project Red Stripe, different team members grew committed to different projects. That made getting a consensus for just one idea difficult.

Lesson 9:

Consider whether you should opt for ideas that excite everybody or simply for ones that command a majority. If you can’t find an idea that excites everybody, for how long should you keep looking?

Markets

An obvious question for any innovation team is whether to start by thinking about the problems faced by a particular group of people, or whether to think about improving existing products, services and skills. Theorists tend to prefer the former, but plenty of great innovations come out of companies finding new applications for existing technologies. (Think of classic innovations like 3M and Post-It Notes or NASA and Teflon).

While the Project Red Stripe team actively solicited ideas about what they should do, they did not solicit ideas about the group(s) for whom they should implement those ideas. Should they have invited an archbishop, an aid worker, a genetic researcher and others to pitch for a particular target market?

Lesson 10:

A deserving market may be motivational, even inspirational. But it doesn’t necessarily make for good business. The team may need guidelines for how to value a commercial priority against an ethical one in business.

The Economist’s Project Red Stripe succeeded in that it came up with a number of radical and innovative business proposals. It failed in that the company chose not to commercialise any of them at the time. It also succeeded in that it offered the business powerful learnings about its culture and about future innovation projects - just a few of which are shared here and may provide food for thought for other innovation teams around the globe.

Windsor Pennicott asked:


Take two random companies “A” and “B”. They are both facing stiff competition and the marketing and sales budgets are fixed in stone; how would they go about increasing revenues?

The marketing manager from company “A” might try to convince the finance department to increase its budget or try to invoke a jolt of energy into the sales force via pep talks or threats to increase sales for the upcoming quarter.

This approach, though sometimes work in the short-term, is generally very stressful and less predictable in the long-term. When quotas aren’t met everyone usually trades blame which leads to more frustrations.

Is their another way?

Enter the world of company “B” where incremental innovation is ongoing. Company “B” knows the importance of incremental innovation and thereby makes it a part of the job description. When applied to sales and marketing the result is a system that converts more prospects and turn the competition into followers.

This is the approach company “B” uses to thrive and lead the market.

Professional marketers use incremental innovation all the time to increase conversion rate. An example would be testing which headline in a split test converts more prospects.

So how would you go about getting your employees in sales and marketing to commit to your incremental innovation program? Remember, incremental innovation occurs by making a small change then conducting a test against the control then making another change and conducting another test then repeat until you have a well optimized process.

First, your employees need to know how to use their imaginations. Without the use of their imaginations breakthroughs aren’t possible. It is the thinking tool that makes innovation possible. It’s the most potent tool everyone has at their disposal. It’s not money or even superior products.

Second, they need to know how to ask the most appropriate question at each step. Using your imagination is all about asking the right questions at each step of the way which naturally leads to small breakthroughs. Each of these small breakthroughs gives you greater insights into your prospects mind which leads to better marketing and increases in sales.

Third, the incentive for following the innovation program should be one that motivates the staff to act in the way you want them to.

One might ask, why doesn’t company “A” implement the incremental innovation approach? There are several reasons, such as ignorance of the alternatives and ignorance of the ease with which any alternative can be implemented.

A marketing manager from company “A” might state, I know it’s important to innovate but how do I get my employees to innovate and how much will it cost in time and real dollars? Other obstacles include employees who are reluctant to committing themselves to an innovation program. However, if the right incentives are in place few would object.

Imagine if the sales manager had to lay off a few workers in a short while and were to say to them, if you can find a unique way to improve sales, then the additional revenues would help to justify to the higher-ups to keep everyone. In fact, this example was used in Ray Giles book “Turn Your Imagination Into Money”, one of the best books on the use of the imagination in incremental innovation. It’s available at http://www.ImaginationBook.com. Giles shows in an example how quickly sales rose by 20% when one sales manager tried this approach. And best of all it didn’t cost much - no money, only a little time. This is the kind of virtually-cost-free innovation that causes company “B” to excel.

Company “B” excels because it’s committed to an incremental innovations program and your people will take innovation seriously if they realize that as innovation increases so do sales, their commissions and bonuses.

So company “B” has a successful feedback mechanism where everyone wins. The company wins with additional revenues, the marketing manager wins with a bigger bonus, less headache and less pep talk and the sales force wins with greater commissions.

Over time, company “B” will have well tested and highly optimized marketing and sales processes that yield great results. Aren’t these the processes that every company wants? They can be implemented and best of all they are cost-free.

Kevin Eikenberry asked:


If you’ve ever taken a shower or gone on a walk, then you’ve had an idea. If you’ve ever been to a meeting, then you’ve either shared or heard idea. And even though you’ve had plenty of new ideas, do you consider yourself creative? Many people don’t - no matter how many new ideas they have each day.

If you think idea generation is directly related to innovation, and you don’t think you are very creative, your ability to be innovative will be hampered.

In reality, generating ideas is just one part of the innovation process; recognizing that you need more than ideas is an important step towards being more innovative.

There are six specific things you can do to generate innovations individually or as the leader of a group. These steps will predictably lead you to more than just better ideas but to innovations that - when implemented - will make a difference in your results.

The next time you are facing a challenge, opportunity or problem personally, as part of a team or within an organization you lead, walk through these six steps.

1.    Agree on the situation. The best place to begin in any problem solving or innovation project is to have a clear understanding and mutual agreement on what the problem, situation or opportunity is. Take the time to get past what might seem obvious. Experience shows that many opportunities are never fully capitalized on because this initial step is never completed.

2.    Step back for a look. Once you have a clear understanding of the focus of your innovation, step back and gain some perspective. This may be done by asking questions to prompt a new perspective and/or by providing time and space before continuing the innovation process. If possible, pose some perspective changing questions and table the task until later. While you certainly want to discuss your situation from new perspectives, it is also helpful to give people time to soak on these perspectives.

3.    Take stock of what you’ve got. Give yourself or the group time to take inventory of what resources, ideas and strengths you already possess that will help you in this innovation exercise. Too often these things aren’t considered until much later. By considering and inventorying them now, it will begin to spur ideas and allow your innovations to complement your strengths and resources.

4.    Affirm that you can. In order to create more ideas, you must believe that you can. Doing the first three steps primes the ideas in your mind, creating a process for spurring ideas and providing proof that you can do it. Make no mistake, your belief that we can be creative is important. Taking the first three steps here will automatically bolster your belief through action.

5.    Rev up your thinking. This is the traditional step of brainstorming (in other words this is where most people start this process!). When you rev the motor of your car, you put the “pedal to the metal.” When you rev up your thinking, we put your mental pedal to the medal. Remove all limitations to your thinking. Use all of the work you have done up until now to get started, but dive into your situation and think of any and all ideas that could possibly help solve your problem or help you capitalize on the situation.

6.    Think Yes! Once you have a large (even tremendous) list of ideas, review them looking for yeses. Yeses are things that could be implemented or could be part of a solution. Don’t simply look for the single, right answer. Think instead in terms of how many of these ideas to which you can say yes. How many of them can become a part of your solution? Once you have your list of yeses, you are ready for the next step.

The next step?

You may be thinking, “but, Kevin, you told me there were six steps.” You’re right, that is exactly what I said; but really there are seven. The seventh step comes from the first letters of the other six: A START.

The next step is to recognize that all of the other steps are just a start. What comes next is to actually start.

The final key to innovation action is to act.

Too often more time is spent on the process of creating ideas and plans with hardly any time spent capitalizing on those ideas quickly enough or at all.

As an individual or a leader don’t fall into that trap - always remember the end goal of any innovation is new and improved results. When you follow all of these steps, you improve your chances of creating innovations of all kinds - from small improvements to major breakthroughs.

Potential Pointer: Innovation is about more than ideas. Ideas in and of themselves have no value. Innovation comes from putting the ideas into a plan, and putting that plan into motion. To improve your results and solve problems more effectively, take innovative action.

Dee Reavis asked:


u running your business into the ground? Thats what you are doing if you aren’t innovating. It’s “innovate or die” you know. Products have a life cycle. Eventually they die. You have to continually give birth to new products in order to keep your company young, vital and profitable.

Gillette’s Innovation Strategy

Let’s examine the fruits of the innovation strategy for Gillette razor blades. Following is a list of the innovation made by Gillette over the years:

* Safety razor invented in 1895
* Razor marketed specifically to women 1916
* Razor dispenser 1946
* Stainless Steel blades 1963
* Double-blade razor 1971
* Disposable double-blade razor 1976
* Razor with a pivot point 1977
* Razor with a lubricating strip 1985
* Razor with spring-loaded blades 1990
* Razor with microfins 1995
* Razor with three blades 1998
* Manual Razor with battery power 2004
* Razor with five blades 2007
* Razor with rear trim blade 2007

Gillette innovated on a regular basis to provide fresh new products to market. There was only one invention, but a stream of innovations. In 1999 Gillette’s market value was $43 billion dollars.

What Does an Innovation Strategy Look Like?

Your innovation strategy should be an integral part of your business plan. SWOT analysis is an excellent starting place. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Once you know the major factors that will likely impact your business for good and bad, then it is time to make your innovation plan.

Consider how the management of Gillette might have approached innovation in the 1960’s. Their prime product, the safety razor, was no longer covered by patent protection. There were a number of competitors coming into their market space. Management attacked this threat head on. Their plan was to innovate their core product to differentiate themselves from their competition. As a result they introduced a double bladed safety razor in 1971.

This new product was a success, but their competitors soon learned to duplicate it. This threat required continuous innovation to stay ahead of the game. Gillette’s stated strategic innovation goal was to earn 40% of their revenue from products introduced within the last 5 years.

An Innovation Strategy Model

Let’s create a possible innovation plan for Gillette in the 1960’s:

Strengths:

1. Strong products for shaving
2. Strong demand for products.
3. Efficient manufacturing facilities.

Weaknesses:

1. Lack of diversity in products

Threats:

1. Increasing competition against core products.

Opportunities

1. Products for women.
2. Increased the value of products to the consumer.

From our SWOT analysis we as Gillette’s management could make the following innovation plan:

1. Goal: 40% of revenue from products introduced within the last 5 years.

2. Create diversity in the product line by introducing products for women.

3. Develop new products continuously to stay ahead of the competition.

The following action plan was used to accomplish the innovation plan.

1. Commit a significant portion of resources to research and development to innovate new products.

2. Create a diverse group of innovators from different cultures and backgrounds.

Gillette’s actual implementation of their innovation strategy resulted in research and development centers in the United States, Great Britain, Spain and Germany.

Summary

This brief look at innovation strategies has given you an idea of their importance. In addition, you now have a basic understanding of how to implement them. Without innovation a company will gradually succumb to market forces and become obsolete.