Next Level Innovation Blog

Do you still believe your R&D department is your main source of Innovation ?

An innovative company has its ear to the ground

Attentive listening feeds our brains with input and provides fuel for ideas. That’s why listening is a primary catalyst for creative thinking and innovation. How does that fit in the real world of business?

To paraphrase John Patrick, an early Internet pioneer at IBM, on the evolution of business: The old model was plan, build, deliver. The new model is iterative – sense and respond, sense and respond. In other words, it’s listen and change. Respond to trustworthy input with appropriate change – in minutes, instead of months. Today’s best solution can always be improved tomorrow.

A corporate culture that fosters innovation is very externally focused. And given the furious pace of evolving technologies around the world, keeping an ear to the ground to constantly monitor what’s going on is a 24/7 priority.

More input from more sources from more places becomes fertile soil for new ideas. Then comes critical filtering and analysis, working toward the place where insight and true innovation can burst into the mix. This is how we can solve the most important problems in business and society.

Listening is also important for tapping into outside opinion for a critique of new ideas. So you go where almost all really good ideas are being talked about – the Internet. Blogs ;-) , wikis, RSS feeds, social bookmarking and multi-day jams are collaboration or “social networking” capabilities that promote innovation unlike anything we’ve seen before. Here you can get feedback from experts that’s unvarnished, worldwide and almost instantaneous.

Watch for yourself. The ideas drawing the most skeptical interest on the Net could well be the emergent breakthroughs we prize. And innovative listeners are focused on sensing and responding.

Hopefully your R&D guys had that message too. Don't worry if there are on the net all day long !

Innovation is so eeeeeeeeasy

Just the other day I had to get a new ISDN telephone at home, whatever big corporation makes these things, the people designing them don't seem to have kids who keep dropping the handsets all the time... (opportunity to innovate #1 - LISTEN to your customers) (and DOOOOO something about it)

Not a Big Challenge. I thought. Wrongly. Whatta mistake-a to make-a! Just try to order a handset from 3 years ago. Of course they don't make that model anymore! You have to get new ones including the base station, just a lousy 450 euros... (opportunity #2 - if something works keep providing it and don't force your customers to buy a whole new set)

Well no Big Deal for a dude like me. I shop all the time on the Net, seen it all, I'm sure every week some kind of package is delivered at the door. You should just see the neighbours in the small village where I live when the coffee is delivered. At the door. All I wanted was a non-Siemens phone because of numbers 1 and 2 above. Gimme a design kinda phone, I ended up with Philips. Nice looking handsets! Just try to pick one.... 50+ choices and all described as "DECT ISDN telephone with/without voicemail". Uhmmm.... You don't seriously believe I'm gonna click on all 50 of them just to see which one I neeeeeeed!?!?!? (opportunity #3 - put the user (=customer) in the center of your thinking --> User Centered Design).

I thought about setting up a complaints web site/blog where people with similar experiences can put their frustration to work. I found there already was one. But took me 2 days to find it and now a week later I can't find it anymore. Still an opportunity for somebody to do it right (opportunity #4)

Innovating is not difficult, start with the biggest frustrations...

Take care,

Chief

--- Still Believing ---

Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen verandert

Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen heeft de laatste jaren een verandering doorgemaakt: van "verantwoorde team uitstapjes" (waarbij een team zich een dagdeel gezamenlijk inzette voor een goed doel), naar "partnerships" of allianties tussen een bedrijf en een not-for-profit organisatie. Partners werken bijvoorbeeld gedurende langere tijd samen aan project waarmee beide partijen graag worden geassocieerd.

Ik verwacht dat in de toekomst meer aandacht komt voor de wederzijdse benefits van de deelnemers. Het expliciet benoemen van de verwachtingen, de mijlpalen en de behaalde resultaten voor alle partijen, toont de meerwaarde voor de deelnemers en vormt daarmee de basis voor de continuiteit van het maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen.

Corporate innovation process

As i read on Corante - Ideaflow this report is still being edited, but might be very interesting to have a look at. Among other things, it gives a clear overview of the corporate innovation process.

Is Innovation counter intuitive ?

Is it any wonder that companies, like the humans who build them, seek stability, familiarity and security? Oh, the comfort of rules set in stone, ironclad policies you can lean on and institutional practices based on tradition.

With every passing day, that kind of safe, predictable business culture is more passé. Like it or not, it’s self-perpetuating, a prescription for more of the same. In our global, hyper-competitive business world of the 21st century, we know that sameness is a prescription for stagnation, or worse.

Innovate to compete. That’s the current trend. Creativity is considered the core competence for sucessfull organizations. New products, new services, new business models. That’s the way to grow. Agility, flexibility and responsiveness to customers and markets are the characteristics of leading companies.

But transforming a company into an innovative one is pretty difficult. Why? Because encouraging unconventional thinking is simply that: counter–intuitive, “not the way we do things around here.”

Innovation has its roots in an attitude that permeates a company. It’s openness to unexpected and unsettling ideas – from the board room to the plant floor. Even more essential, it’s willingness to modify old habits and maybe rock the boat. It demands courage and readiness to change.

Innovation starts on the inside, in the corporate mindset. And where it takes hold, companies are apt to adjust and grow and look distinctly different on the outside, too. And maybe it also requires some courage from the shareholders?

Innovation is like a dishwasher

Image and quote from Jangandabla.com:

"Is innovation any fun? Is it just to come up with a new idea? (...) I think that innovation is fun - but also hard work..."

Sparking a culture of innovation takes a life of its own

In the CEO Survey 2006 senior executives believe generating growth through innovation is essential for the success of their business. The survey points to six vital innovation enablers. One of them is a climate for creativity working environment, where inspiration thrives & creativity flourishes.

In The Ten Faces of Innovation you will find the human elements of innovation to the workings of your organization. It is about developing the personas of your team to maximize it influence on innovation. The right innovation project at the right time can spur a companywide movement.

As the InnovationNetwork defines: “People creating value through the implementation of new ideas”. All great movements are ultimately powered by humans. Which role(s) do you play as marketer in the innovation process to keep your business moving forward?

Ants! Innovation at your feet.

As of 2006 there are approximately 12.000 known ant species. The biomass of all these ants on this globe exceeds that of any other species, they can survive in almost any environment and exist for over a 100 million years. Talking about getting big by being small! Our society resembles an ant mound in which small organisations can act big, just by realising innovation, that equals cooperation. IT enables them to act like ants, to collaborate faster, broader and deeper.

But it is not just small organisations that need to cooperate for growth. Like the rhino needs the oxpecker (a small bird) to keep its skin healthy, large organisation need to cooperate with their customers. Listen, get inspired an act. It is no more a do-it-your-self society we are living in!

So, I´m just wondering what we can learn from nature, will National Geographic guide us through? Will your cat bring us the next breakthrough? In a broader view, I wonder where we should look to actually find ideas for innovation...

Collecting opinions in the field through podcasting

As part of the activities around Next Level we have been busy recording a podcasting series called Opinions in the field.  The series is aimed at an internal IBM audience and in the series young professionals interview colleagues on how they see innovation.

Most of us having never recorded a podcast before, had to learn very quickly how to do this, and at first we certainly underestimated the time and effort it takes to create a good podcast! It turns out sticking a microphone under someone´s nose spontaneously doesn´t do the trick...

However, organising this podcasting series have really made me see the power of new media. It was not only valuable for myself, the other young professionals and  experts to have discussions on how we innovate in our daily work, but since we published the interviews on our intranet, a lot of reactions have been coming back from people!

Not only that they thought it was interesting and fun(ny) to listen to, but also people wanted to know more about the subjects colleagues talked about, and about the possibilities of podcasting. IBMers have contacted us with their own ideas on setting up similiar types of series.

To me this is what makes trying new tools so interesting, the unexpected reactions and good ideas that follow on.

Innovation that matters video

At IBM, we also sing songs to explain how Innovation can help you. Watch and listen to the video.