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COFES Blog
Apr
1
Written by:
Brian Seitz
4/1/2007 6:20 AM
During the past several months I’ve been hopping around different organizations looking at how they are operating in the product creation sense; large corporations, small businesses, and all sorts of companies in between. It’s a sad story; we’ve become a corporate society run by spreadsheets and email. I don’t want to slam Microsoft for this, they're in the same boat wandering around the ocean of innovation hoping to find a gem to latch onto. Neither has IBM after downsizing again and webifying its processes been able to kick start serious innovation there either. So what is it that makes innovation so hard in businesses?
Are there no really new innovative ideas out there? I doubt it. There are plenty of things going on if we care to notice. Do we not have the right people on board? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe the maverick you hired isn’t in the right role or hasn’t a supportive organization around him or her to truly be the catalyst for innovation you’d hoped for. Is it a funding issue? Are you trying to squeeze innovation out of a turnip? Creativity takes some investment. I’m not saying throw tons of cash at the problem, that won’t solve the issue either. However, maybe you should look at how you’re funding and creating incentives to be more creative. Maybe its time that’s lacking? Are you’re people so busy doing daily tasks, staff work and organizational activities they lack the time to be creative and just grab for the first possible solution on the table?
Or maybe, just maybe you haven’t really looked at innovation seriously. When you think about innovation is it just a plaintive call for more creatively from everyone? Do you just look at the product line and figure what can I change to it to add some WOW, some spice, something to boost sales! You, my friend, are not looking to be innovative; you’re looking at getting the numbers on your spreadsheet to look better. Which is not a bad thing; it’s just not the same thing.
3 comment(s) so far...
Re: Innovation
Often times we think of innovation as creating the Next Big Thing (NBT). If an idea doesn't meet the NBT criteria it is unworthy to be called innovation. This thinking can actually hurt innovation.
In innovation, like most things, you have to crawl before you can walk. If you and your team are unable to innovate at the small scale, make the simple internal changes, you will have many problems doing the big things.
Innovation should be a culture not a management line item. Culture, like good wine, requires time and constant nurturing.
There's no one answer to innovation, just a lot of possibilities.
By Mark Winnie on
4/21/2007 7:23 AM
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Re: Innovation
Research is turning money into knowledge; Innovation is turning knowledge into money. Geoff Nicholson, VP, 3M
Last year at the Delphi Group Innovation Summit we clarified the difference between invention, an event, and innovation, a process. Then it becomes clear what it takes to enable innovation. It isn't about creativity. It is about inertia.
Jack Ring
By jring281 on
4/21/2007 7:21 AM
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Re: Innovation
To paraphase a famous comedy quote: Invention is easy, Innovation is difficult. While the two are both potentially useful i.e., incremental improvement I would say is just as important as innovation. I would say innovatin IS a NBT. Many people wish to label an incremental improvement as being innovative because it has a much higher cache' than plain old incremental improvements in the USA. My question is if innovation is such a hugh deal; how come Toyota is creaming US Automakers with its incremental improvement mentaility. That being said I don't think we should stop the quest for such.
Innovation from my perspective takes your perspective on how things are done today and twists them around. Reexamining how to do something different and potentially better is a good goal, however, so is incremental improvement.
Does this mean you can't have both? I don't know. It seems that the two are mutually exclusive in one corporate culture during the same. time
By bseitz on
4/21/2007 7:45 AM
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