722 Posts Found

The trouble with innovation is that it’s unpredictable. New businesses tend to be small and failure rates are high. They don’t operate with the same rhythm as core businesses, and their size and scope are insignificant relative to core businesses. That’s problematic if you’re running a P&L, and that’s why resource allocation should not be wedded to a particular line of business. It should be … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Finance, Innovation, Management, Strategy

Asking how you can make better, faster, and cheaper widgets assumes that you should be making widgets.

Content: Quotation | Author: Theodore Kinni | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Innovation, Management

Like aviators, experienced innovators use checklists. It’s how they make sure they haven’t left out any critical steps when assessing new ideas. This approach also helps company strategists and innovation leaders evaluate investments and advise new-growth teams in a disciplined way. We’ve created this brief interactive checklist to help you vet the possibilities in your innovation pipeline. Think of a project proposal you’re considering, and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: David Duncan, Pontus M.A. Siren, Scott Anthony | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Innovation

The Harvard Business School professor explains how leaders can harness collective genius to achieve innovation success.

Content: Thought Leader | Author: Linda A. Hill | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

Innovation often comes from having an eclectic approach. It’s less about expertise and more about minds that can think through details while focusing on the bigger picture. It’s about having an aptitude for both the qualitative and the quantitative. It’s also about the ability to mesh a wild idea with reality, and the fortitude to bring it to market.

Content: Quotation | Author: Lisa Bodell | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Innovation

The two most important things to know about innovation are: (a) that most new ideas are bad ones, and (b) that separating the rare good ideas from the many bad ones among new ideas is ordinarily impossible. A good deal of effort has been expended in trying to develop some reasonable procedures for the early identification of good ideas. Most such procedures involve applying existing … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James March | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Innovation

When we face a tough creative challenge, we always look to those with the most expertise. The truth is that some level of expertise matters, but the most creative solutions come from those on the fringes of the subject area, who know enough to understand but not enough to block their creative thinking. Research shows that, over the course of their careers, most individuals tend … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Burkus | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Creativity, Expertise, Innovation, Organizational Behavior

When we’re stuck on a creative challenge, it can become easy to place blame on our constraints. If we had more resources or less specific requirements, then our creativity could really soar. The truth is that creativity is highest in a constrained environment. Researchers found that individuals are more creative after engaging in tasks laden with obstacles and roadblocks. That’s why many of the most … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: David Burkus | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation, Organizational Behavior

That first mile—where an innovation moves from an idea on paper to the market—is often plagued by failure. In fact, less than one percent of ideas launched by big companies end up having real impact. The ideas aren’t the problem. It’s the process.

The First Mile focuses on the critical moment when an innovator moves from planning to reality. It is a perilous place where hidden … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Scott D. Anthony | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Management

We sometimes refer to the “designated doubters” in corporations, and these are often people in finance. They have a responsibility to make very sure that corporate and stockholders’ money is spent well; the idea is that “before we make any investment we want you to prove to us holistically and analytically that it’s a good investment.” And that makes a lot of sense at one … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeanne Liedtka | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subjects: Finance, Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

Michael Gibbs and his co-researchers—Susanne Neckermann and Christoph Siemroth—analyzed the progression of 5,000 ideas at a large IT firm and identified a few operational decisions that collectively paid off more than tenfold. Their findings, especially when coupled with those of their colleagues in academia and industry, contain four approaches companies can use to spur innovation.

Content: Article | Source: Capital Ideas | Subject: Innovation

The experience of … entrepreneurs reflects an unfortunate reality: companies are set up to perform. They are not set up to produce. If they were more capable at producing, they would not have to worry about combating disruption from outside. They would already be skilled at redesigning, disrupting, and innovating from within.

As a rule, large organizations do a poor job of distinguishing between high-profile … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: John Sviokla, Mitch Cohen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

The days of innovating in isolation are over. Instead, companies now favor interfirm collaborations such as technology alliances. The question is, how do you maximise innovation while minimising any potential downside?

Content: Article | Author: Hans Frankort | Source: Cass Business School | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Strategy

A successful innovation is a little like an iceberg: Look under or behind the innovation and you’ll see the smart practices, processes and structures that supported the success of the innovation. Herewith, six practices to avoid, and that are sure to compromise the chances of success.

Content: Article | Author: Rita Gunther McGrath | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Commitment, Innovation, Management

Finding new opportunities can be one of the biggest challenges for left-brained leaders of companies. That’s because many companies rely on a traditional brainstorming process that might yield hundreds of small ideas, but few that evolve into ventures worth exploring. In this brief audio presentation, Bain Partner James Allen discusses a different approach that companies are using to identify promising ideas and turn them into … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: James Allen | Source: Bain & Company | Subjects: Innovation, Management

In The Innovator’s DNA, co-authors Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen built on what is known about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move from idea to impact. Through their research on the world’s best innovators these authors have identified five key skills that differentiate great innovators.

In this interactive Harvard Business Review webinar, Dyer describes these five key … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Angelia Herrin, Jeffrey Dyer | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Innovation

A recent Accenture survey reveals how employers can support the entrepreneurial interests of their workforce and foster a culture of corporate innovation.

Editor’s Note: this survey is focused on large corporations

Content: Article | Source: Accenture | Subject: Innovation

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Kettering | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

Talk to any CEO about what haunts them the most and disruptive innovation will be at the top of the list. It is a logical fear: A company whose existence depends on established technologies could face extinction or loss of market leadership if a revolutionary innovation comes along. Just ask smartphone maker BlackBerry after Apple launched the iPhone. But a study soon to be published … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Innovation