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Tag Archive for 'innovation'Page 2 of 2
January 21, 2009
What should companies do in order to become more innovative?
December 1, 2008
No innovation please, we’re too busy.
A few weeks ago I spoke to a high level manager in a financial institution. We talked about his (truly) impressive activities in the field of innovation, and then he surprised me somewhat by saying: “In 2009 we plan to freeze innovation activities.”
Since the company is not a client of ours, I wasn’t directly affected by this decision, but still, I was curious to understand what stood behind it. Another victim of “the Situation”, I said to myself, but to my surprise he went on to explain: “We have so many good ideas now that we need to pause with innovation and focus on implementation.”
This approach is, in my eyes, a symptom of one of the biggest and most common misconceptions in the field; that innovation is all about coming up with ideas of what to do (products, services, whatever it is you do). The corollary is, obviously, that once you have these ideas you don’t need to be bothered with innovation any longer, all you need is to “just” implement.
In reality, the situation is nearly the opposite. Continue reading ‘No innovation please, we’re too busy.’
November 19, 2008
Harry Potter and the definition of innovation
A week ago I started teaching an SIT course in the Bar-Ilan University. After an interesting discussion on the value of innovation, one of the students asked the most basic academic question: “what is your definition of innovation?”
Well … What is my definition of innovation? I suddenly realized that in 10 years of teaching innovation & facilitating innovation processes I have never thought of a definition for the darn thing …
Continue reading ‘Harry Potter and the definition of innovation’
November 11, 2008
Sustainability and Innovation at SIT’s Innovation Community
Our latest Innovation Community meeting focused on Sustainability and Innovation.
The Israeli Innovation Community brings together, for networking and enrichment, top managers and individuals with an interest in innovation. The meetings are interactive, informal and down to earth, and always include discussions among the participants and with the lecturers.
Continue reading ‘Sustainability and Innovation at SIT’s Innovation Community’
November 3, 2008
Innovation in times of recession
The recent cancellation of Columbia University’s planned December session of its Executive Education course, “INNOVATION AND MARKETING“, came as no surprise. It is common wisdom in the business world that in times of recession, one must first cut the Training budget and then the Innovation budget. So this course received a double-whammy.
This phenomenon is quite logical. Innovation’s ultimate goal in any organization is to spur growth. In a period when growth is pretty much out of the question, investment in innovation seems capricious. Companies need to become more insular, stop the bleeding, cut the “luxuries” they have become accustomed to in times of plenty, and weather the storm. Not to mention the shareholders breathing down the Board’s neck to show some sort of profit margin, even if it means letting go a few hundred or thousand “salaries” or “headcount” that they will inevitably rehire a few months later once the R-word has passed.
These companies, however, overlook two essential aspects of innovation. Firstly, while the output of innovation should Continue reading ‘Innovation in times of recession’
October 20, 2008
Innovation and “the situation”
Last week I had a conversation with a VP of the local office of an international ad agency in Europe. The topic was, no surprise, “the situation”. We started with some obvious observations such as:
a. Everyone is worried
b. No one knows what will happen
c. Their CEO had just emailed to stop all expenses immediately so they don’t know if they will be allowed to engage in a project
d. Next year all their clients will probably advertise less, so they are afraid that billings will drop and they will have to fire people.
But then we moved on to some other points, some obvious as well and some less (to me, at least) about the opportunities (no cynicism, this time) inherent in the crisis:
Continue reading ‘Innovation and “the situation”’
August 20, 2008
Sustainability & Innovation : a love-hate relationship?
A few months ago, we were invited to take part in a conference, near Washington DC, called Greener by Design.
Our theme there – we gave one plenary session and several of what we call “Innovation Flashes” in between the other sessions - was Sustainability & Innovation. When they hear the title, cynics often say “this year’s buzzword and last year’s.”, and I have to admit there is something in this remark. Still, for most companies, both them and their clients do want products to be sustainable, and competition does demand that offerings be more innovative. So in the end, not much choice these days but to aim for both S and I.
But why do we sense that a tension exists between innovation and sustainability?
Continue reading ‘Sustainability & Innovation : a love-hate relationship?’
