Посты с тэгом: innovation method
Strategy+Business: Thinking Inside the Box
Books about business innovation seem to arrive as quickly as ideas on a whiteboard in a brainstorming session. But Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results (Simon & Schuster, 2013), by Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg, jumps out for its counterintuitive take on creativity.
In the book, Boyd, assistant professor of marketing and innovation at the University of Cincinnati and former director of Johnson & Johnson’s Marketing Mastery program, and Goldenberg, professor of marketing at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s School of Business Administration, assert that thinking inside the box enhances idea generation. Thus, they argue, innovation initiatives should be limited to resources close at hand, and function should follow form—that is, we should start with a solution and then consider the problem it addresses, rather than vice versa. When I asked the authors why thinking inside the box is a more productive, reliable way to pursue business innovation than thinking outside the box, here’s what they said:
“Thinking outside the box is a complete myth. It is based on flawed research from the 1970s. Subsequent research shows that simply telling people to think outside the box does not improve their creative output. It sends people on cognitive wild goose chases.
“Thinking inside the box constrains the brain’s options and regulates how it produces ideas. By constraining and channeling our brains, we make them work both harder and smarter to find creative solutions. Contrary to what most people believe, the best ideas are usually nearby. Thinking inside the box helps you find these novel and surprising innovations.
“Innovation usually results from a set of five simple patterns:
• Subtraction: removing a component that was previously thought essential to a product or service, such as the elimination of the record function in the Sony Walkman
• Task unification: combining tasks within a product or service, such as warmth and deodorizing in Odor-Eaters socks
• Multiplication: copying an existing component, such as “picture-in-picture” TVs
• Division: separating a component from the product, such as the remote control
• Attribute dependency: making two previously independent attributes dependent in a meaningful way, such as a baby bottle that changes color when the liquid inside reaches the proper temperature
“For thousands of years, people embedded these patterns in their inventions, usually without realizing it. In our method, Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), the patterns have been structured into techniques that enable creativity on demand. SIT takes a product or service and breaks it down into components. Then, you use one or more of the techniques to manipulate the components and generate new-to-the-world ideas. This allows you to tap into the very rich world inside the box.”
This article by Theodore Kinni first appeared in Strategy+Business, July 7, 2013.
Inside the Box: Webinar July 2nd
How Companies Incentivize Innovation
Ninety percent of companies do not ‘as of yet’ have a formal mechanism for incentivizing and rewarding innovation but believe “it’s something we should be doing better”. That is one of the many conclusions in SIT’s latest Insight Paper, How Companies Incentivize Innovation (April 2013).
The Tel Aviv-based innovation consulting company interviewed more than twenty companies from around the world, ranging in size from 200 to 200,000 employees. They covered a variety of sectors including finance, healthcare, consumer goods, marketing, agriculture, food, hardware and more. They interviewed people in roles across the organizations including senior management, innovation managers, engineers, marketers, and others. The one common denominator was: Innovation is important to the organization and they want to see more of it.
The research explores how companies incentivize their employees to
engage more actively in innovation. How do you get staff to move out of
their comfort zone when sticking to regular things on one’s plate seems
like a safer bet? And most innovation efforts never see the light of
day?
Other key issues addressed by the report:
- Barriers to rewarding: What’s keeping companies from using rewards for innovation?
- Rewards versus recognition: What is the difference and how do they relate to each other?
- Reward-worthy: What does an employee need to do to get rewarded?
- Types of rewards: What kinds of rewards do employees receive?
- Choice in the matter: Do employees get to choose what they receive?
- Public or private: Does it make a difference if the reward is broadcast to others?
- Time to reward: What stage in the product development process will rewards do the most good?
- Who to reward: The inventor? Implementor? Individually or team-based?
- Who decides who gets rewarded: Is this an HR function, division head, or third-party?
SIT advises companies to “invest the proper time to determine which reward would work in your company, if at all. This is not a case of one size fits all, whether between companies or even within the same company. If you choose rewards as tokens of appreciation, that could provide more flexibility in the terms and criteria in which it is given. However – if it is to act as a motivator, ensure that it will match up, otherwise you won’t see the benefits you had hoped it would achieve.”
You can download the full report here. Be sure to visit www.sitsite.com to learn about other publications on innovation.
Marketing Innovation: The Subtraction Tool in Saint Gobain Commercials
The Subtraction tool works by removing elements generally considered essential to the situation. The tool can be used in any marketing communications medium (television, print, and so on). The tool works by drawing your attention to the missing component. As a result, the ad is more memorable.
Subtraction is one of eight patterns embedded in most innovative commercials. Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe these simple, well-defined design structures in their book, "Cracking the Ad Code," and provide a step-by-step approach to using them. The tools are:
1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort
Here is an example from the French multinational, Saint Gobain, a manufacturer of construction, materials, and packaging products. To highlight the superiority of one of its product lines, it released a series of commercials including this one:
What makes this example more interesting is the “fusion” of the message and product. The glass is so superior that it seems “subtracted” from the situation. Only until we see the surprising fog on the glass do we realize the message. The commercial not only has this nice element of humor, but it also has a sense of simplicity and “ideality” – the solution appears only when needed.
To use the Subtraction tool, make a list of the components of the situation. Remove what seems to be an essential one. Imagine telling the story without this component and test how strongly the viewer’s mind will interpret the situation with the component. Make the message, brand, and missing element fuse together into one memorable visual experience.
The Stereotypy Trap
Struggling retailer JC Penny hired former Apple executive Ron Johnson as the CEO to save the company. Seventeen months later, he was ousted in what many consider a colossal failure. Why? Not because he failed to take action, but rather because he tried taking the same actions that worked for him at Apple. He was guilty of a managerial bias called stereotypy – the tendency to believe that what worked for you in the past will work for you in the future. From Time:
Johnson pictured coffee bars and rows of boutiques inside JC Penney stores. He wanted a bazaar-like feel to the shopping experience, and for JC Penney to be “America’s favorite place to shop.” He thought that people would show up in stores because they were fun places to hang out, and that they would buy things listed at full-but-fair price.
Essentially, Johnson wanted JC Penney and its shoppers to be something that they’re not. He wanted them to be more like the scene at Apple Stores, or even Target, when in reality, there was probably more overlap with Macy’s, or even Walmart.
And why didn’t Johnson understand what JC Penney’s core customers enjoyed? Well, one reason is that he didn’t really ask them. When Johnson floated plans for the chain’s radical makeover, he was asked about the possibility of trying the new pricing strategies on a limited test basis. Johnson reportedly shot down the idea, responding, “We didn’t test at Apple.”
In medical terms, stereotypy is a repetitive or ritualistic movement, posture, or utterance. Stereotypies may be simple movements such as body rocking, or complex, such as self-caressing, crossing and uncrossing of legs, and marching in place. In managerial terms, it is a blind spot caused by force fitting your current situation into past situations, causing you to believe that what worked before will work again. Consider research by Posavac, Kardes, & Brakus (2005):
“MBAs were asked to consider four marketing strategies for increasing market share for an established product: increasing advertising, cutting prices, hiring more sales representatives, and investing in research and development. The MBAs were told that, to save time, they would be asked to focus on one randomly selected strategy and to judge how likely it was that this was the best strategy. In addition to overestimating the likelihood that this randomly selected strategy was the best, they predicted that the majority of the executive board would also prefer this strategy.”
People focus too quickly on a single option, even when the option is selected randomly and there is no a priori reason for preferring this option. Worse, when we actively evaluate the situation using pseudo-diagnostic information, we make erroneous choices. We get into a new situation like Ron Johnson did. We look at the current situation to see what elements are the same or similar. Despite the differences between then and now, we convince ourselves that the new situation is close enough. We embrace a single option and fail to appreciate how different the new situation is.
For innovation practitioners, the message is clear: ignore what you have done in the past. Innovate systematically around the new situation to create combinations of strategies you never would have come up with on your own. To do that, apply a method like Systematic Inventive Thinking to give yourself strategy options that are right for the moment. Forget the business model that worked well for you in the past. Create new business models that capitalize on the situation at hand.
Innovating in Human Resources
Systematic Inventive Thinking is not only for inventing new products and services. You can apply it to a variety of functions and processes. SIT is based on the idea that mankind has used distinct patterns when creating new solutions or innovations. These patterns are embedded into the products and services you see around you. The SIT method structures your thinking and channels your ideation to take advantage of these patterns by re-applying them to something else.
Consider the human resources function of an organization. Here are suggestions of which SIT technique to apply in a variety of HR activities:
- Process innovation: HR departments support every other department with a host of processes
like recruiting, staffing, compensation, succession planning, and
performance management. The DIVISION technique is ideal for innovating these processes. Division has a tendency to break “structural fixedness,” the tendency to overlook new arrangements and configurations. To use Division, start by listing the process steps, in order, and place them on a wall using PostIt notes. Select a step and place it somewhere else in the process arbitrarily. Using Function Follows Form, try to envision new benefits or opportunities. - Organization Design: Restructuring is a way of life in the corporate world. HR is almost always involved at some level given the implications on jobs and careers. To shake things up, try using the MULTIPLICATION technique. Make a list of the job functions in an organization. Then select one, imagine making a copy of that function, but then changing the copied function is some novel way: role, location, alignment, deliverables, and so on. Using Function Follows Form, try to envision new benefits or opportunities of having both functions. Modify the idea to improve it and make it more implementable.
- Training: Companies spend enormous amounts of money on training. HR is usually involved because of the impact on performance and standards. A great technique to use here is SUBTRACTION. This technique tends to break our “functional fixedness,” the inability to realize that something known to have a particular use may also be used to perform other functions. To use the technique, list all the components of a training program. Select one at random (an essential one), then imagine all the other components left to do the training job. What would be the benefit (to the trainee, the company, to its customers, and so on)?
- Strategy: HR departments need to have a strategy to stay relevant and to deliver the optimal support. ATTRIBUTE DEPENDENCY is
the most complicated of the five techniques, but tends to produce
amazing innovations and insights. To use it, list the attributes of
your HR group (size, experience, locations, and so on) as well as
attributes of your external environment (size of company, performance of
company, performance of competition, etc). Then, create statements such as, “As X changes, Y changes.” For example, “as performance of competition changes, our HR department size changes.” - Planning: Once a strategy is created, HR groups need to plan their activities. TASK UNIFICATION is a perfect tool to innovate new plans. Like Subtraction, it helps break functional fixedness, and it helps managers see resources around them in new ways to perform new functions. To use it, make a list of the components in your HR department and outside the department. Select a component and imagine it taking on a new role. It can “steal” the job of another component, or perform a completely new function (in addition to its current function).
For more insights about using the SIT method, visit Inside the Box.
New Ideas Light Up the Brain
Canadian researchers found that areas in the reward center of the brain become active when people hear a song for the first time. The more the listener enjoys what they hear, the stronger the connections are in the region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. The study is published in Science.
From the BBC report:
To carry out the study, which took place at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, the scientists played 19 volunteers 60 excerpts of new music, based on their musical preferences. As they were listening to the 30-second-long tracks, they had to the opportunity to buy the ones they liked in a mocked up online music store. All of this was carried out while the participants were lying in an MRI machine. By analysing the scans, the scientists found that the nucleus accumbens was “lighting up” and depending on the level of activity, the researchers could predict whether the participant was likely to buy a song.
If the brain lights up to new songs, is it possible that it also lights up to new ideas?
A new method called CLARITY might give the answer. It allows researchers to see directly into optically
transparent whole brains or thick blocks of brain tissue. It was devised by Karl Deisseroth and a team at Stanford
University. “You can get right down to the fine structure
of the system while not losing the big picture,” says Deisseroth, who
adds that his group is in the process of rendering an entire human brain
transparent. Here is how it works:
Being able to see and measure a person’s reaction to hearing a new idea could be of enormous value to innovation practitioners. Evaluating new ideas is a challenge because people struggle articulating what they like about an idea. Now with advanced imaging, the value of a new idea could be judged more objectively by measuring how the evaluators brain reacts to it.
Heady stuff.
Academic Focus: Universidad Deusto – Master in Business Innovation
The University of Deusto business school is offering a masters degree in business innovation (MBI) that I believe serves as an excellent role model for other schools. It is unique because it focuses on three foundations:
- The Approach to Observation: Business Innovation needs deep strategic analysis (Observation) to understand the external environment at all levels (Macro, industry, micro, innovation systems), the internal situation of the company (resources, skills, potential and value) and foresight, road mapping and scenario analysis to forecast market threats and opportunities.
- The Approach to Creation: Together with the use of traditional strategic options to maintain and develop the company (internationalisation, acquisitions etc.), we propose developing specific solutions to solve problems, attain opportunities and challenges by developing an open environment, using design thinking methodologies and nurturing an intra/entrepreneurial spirit.
- The Approach to Execution: To successfully implement business innovation, managers and leaders need to achieve high levels of employee engagement among their workforce, foster a learning organisation where people can develop their skills with a passion for their contribution to the goals of the company. Orchestrating the different departments and functions is also fundamental to keep them aligned with corporate strategy and finally, managing innovation by constantly adjusting all the drivers that create an innovative organisation will lead to sustainable competitiveness.
The program is designed for a wide range of backgrounds including managers in strategic roles, entrepreneurs, consultants, and public sector employees. The goals of the program are:
- Promote the search for new business opportunities
- Improve the development, implementation and commercialization of strategic ideas
- Create a culture that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship within organizations
- Facilitate the integration of I+D+i activities and production/final service activities
- Innovation in Practice through the Applied Innovation Project
- Develop yourself as a leader to transform the organisation´s ability to innovate
For more information about the seven modules of training as well as a downloadable brochure, visit the Info and Admissions section.
Deusto Business School is located in the Basque region of Spain. The University has international ties with 60 different countries and each year attracts over 700 students from around the world. Deusto has over 10.000 students enrolled in more than 25 degree courses and 100 postgraduate courses.
Impresionante!
Marketing Innovation: Avocados and the Unification Tool
The Unification Tool is a tricky but effective advertising tool. Unification recruits an existing resource and forces it to carry the advertising message. That resource can come from within the medium itself or within the environment of the medium. In other words, the tool uses an existing component of the medium or of its environment in a way that demonstrates the problem or the promise to be delivered.
The tool is one of eight patterns embedded in most innovative commercials. Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe these simple, well-defined design structures in their book, "Cracking the Ad Code," and provide a step-by-step approach to using them. The tools are:
1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort
There are two ways to use Unification. First, take the medium (television, billboard, radio, and so on) and manipulate it so that some feature or aspect of the medium carries the message in a unique way. The second approach works in the other direction – start with the message, then look at the components in the consumer's environment and recruit one to carry the message in a clever way.
Here is an example of manipulating the medium:
Here are two examples of starting with the message and recruiting a component into carrying that message. What is very innovative about these commercials is how they have "fused" the message with the product itself – the avocado.