722 Posts Found

What I notice when I work with […] companies applying those [Six Sigma, TRIZ, 5 Whys, root cause analysis] was those tools tend to make you dig deeper into the first understanding of the problem we have. […] That they kind of get caught by the details. That, in a way, is a bad way to work on problems because it really assumes that there’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Problems / Solutions, Thought

Because innovation in a group relies on the ability to make new connections among the diverse experiences of its members, leaders must create a climate in which individuals can free-associate and use both their total life experience and that of their fellow group members. The group’s leaders should set the tone by being inquisitive and self-silencing to let other information rise. They should continually prime … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Cass R. Sunstein, Ken Favaro, Reid Hastie | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Innovation

Make seriously ugly prototypes. No really, your early iterations should be hideous. You don’t need to worry about how it looks yet. But there’s also a hidden benefit. When something is ugly, people don’t fall in love with it. Especially with influential people inside a company, if you show them something that’s physical and they see it, they will lock on it. This actually also … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Caitlin Kalinowski | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Innovation, Management

Specific staffing choices and high investment levels can prolong the lifespan of corporate venture capital units.

Content: Article | Author: Vibha Gaba | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Venture Capital

The things we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity.

Content: Quotation | Author: Margaret Wheatley | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

Innovation is culturally agnostic in one sense and highly culture-sensitive in another. While in theory, nothing prevents every country in the world from having its own Silicon Valley (although it would look different from place to place), there are seven cultural “universals” shared by every truly innovative society.

Content: Article | Author: Gordon Redding | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Innovation, International

The quiet heroes of innovation do the little things that bring big ideas to life.

Editor’s Note: this article also tells the interesting story of the development of penicillin.

Content: Article | Author: Andrew Hargadon | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Innovation

In the age of big bang disruption, inward-looking growth strategies can be risky. It comes as no surprise then, that there are a large number of companies turning to partnership with small high-tech firms to ensure faster and more effective innovation.

By directly engaging with outsiders – consumers, suppliers, universities and even competitors – large companies have been able to develop highly efficient innovation processes and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Raghav Narsalay, Serena Jing Qiu, Suning An | Source: Accenture | Subject: Innovation

Hacking does not ascribe a specific intent, and nothing about the skillset itself is right or wrong. In fact, hacking is a tool, an approach. In the same way a knife can be used for evil (to murder) or to heal (a scalpel used to perform a life-saving surgery), hacking can be used to destroy or rebuild. While hacking can clearly be used for wrongdoing, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Josh Linkner | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Innovation

“People just aren’t naturally oriented towards innovation or change,” says Loran Nordgren. “If you were dealing with totally rational agents, you could sell your innovation on the grounds of its functionality—in other words, why it’s a good idea. But you are almost never dealing with totally rational agents.”

Thankfully, if you are convinced that a certain new product, fresh strategy, or overseas expansion is exactly what … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Loran Nordgren | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Productivity / Work Tips

There’s an amazing study by Justin Berg, a Stanford Graduate School of Business professor. He looks at circus performances—think Cirque du Soleil—and collects all these original acts done by different kinds of circus artists: jugglers, dancers, acrobats. He asks people to evaluate their own performances, and then he asks managers to evaluate them as well, and then he has performers judge each other’s videos.

Finally, he … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Grant | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Creativity, Decision Making, Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior

In business management, it is easy to fall victim to the buzzwords or trends of the day when historical understanding and consciousness are lacking. When that happens, authors and thinkers purport to create something new, when they are really only serving old wine in new wineskins. This recalls the comments of the philosopher George Santayana that history will repeat itself for those who do not … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Hermann Simon | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: History, Innovation

Building a better mousetrap isn’t enough to set you apart. In fact, incumbent competitors have a number of advantages that could kill your startup, including entrenched distribution channels and consumer familiarity. Start to dethrone incumbents by making users a little uncomfortable; to make “better” matter — and users care. In many ways, your quietest, most steadfast competitor is indifference. The bottom line is you have … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Bret Taylor | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Innovation

UCLA Anderson Professor Florian Ederer says that compensation packages should leave some room for experimentation and failure.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Florian Ederer | Source: UCLA | Subject: Innovation

No matter how strong their ingoing balance sheets and market share—and sometimes because of those very factors—incumbents can’t seem to hold back the digital disruption tide. The champions of disruption are far more often the attackers than the established incumbent. The good news for incumbents is that many industries are still in the early days of digital disruption. Print media, travel, and lodging provide valuable … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Chris Bradley, Clayton O’Toole | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Strategy

When it comes to innovation, there’s only one right way to segment: by customers’ needs, what they value and their WTP [willingness to pay] for a product or service that delivers that value.

Content: Quotation | Author: Madhavan Ramanujam | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation, Marketing / Sales

The root of all innovation evil is the failure to put the customer’s willingness to pay [WTP] for a new product at the very core of product design. Most companies postpone pricing decisions until after the product is developed. They embark on a long, costly journey of hoping they’ll make money rather than knowing they will. You can ensure your product not only stays alive, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Madhavan Ramanujam | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Customer Related, Innovation, Marketing / Sales, Pricing

While nimble startups chasing the next trend are exciting, the truth is that companies rarely succeed by adapting to market events. Rather, successful firms prevail by shaping the future. That can’t be done through agility alone, but takes years of preparation to achieve. The truth is that once you find yourself in a position where you need to adapt, it’s usually too late. […] Truly … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Greg Satell | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Strategy

Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.

Content: Quotation | Author: Albert Szent-Gyorgyi | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation, Thought

Here’s how to find the ideal external contributors and solutions for your R&D pipeline.

Content: Article | Authors: Mehdi Bagherzadeh, Raghav Narsalay, Sabine Brunswicker | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subject: Innovation