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 !

Comments

[Nicoline Braat]

I definetly agree with you Marc, I think you've picked one of the biggest pittfals of innovation here.

If you see an innovative project as a one-off investment (there! we´ve done it: a smart & succesful new project..let´s pop open the champage and relax) you´re going to come out dissapointed..

It is like you say, you have to keep on your toes. You HAVE to stay open to the idea that although your solution is shaping the market now, YOU might have to let it go soon in order to stay ahead of competition..

It requires a readjustment in your way of thinking though ;-)

Did you know that John Patrick also has a blog? It's on http://patrickweb.com I thought it was funny you brought him up! I check his posts regularly and find his views very interesting.

[Jeroen van Hoof]

Marc,

I agree with your assesment. And also partially with Nicoline.

However .... turning ideas (most innovations start as ideas) into something useable takes time and money.

What we see nowadays is that this process either takes too much time ... and by the time it is there customer-base has different needs. Or it takes too much money .. and since the investment was high the willingness to immediate change becomes smaller.

So being able to innovate doesn't just happen at the idea-end of the spectrum ... to really be able to innovate the speed and flexibility has to be build into development and delivery as well. So the whole "supply-chain" becomes involved in innovation. Not just the "thinkers".

Have fun.

Jeroen (Thinking up an innovation is easy ..... making it work a different story)

[Liliann]

I do believe that research and development are just vital!

[Joannah]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Joannah

http://2gbmemory.net