Categories: Innovation InsightsThe traditional way of collecting ideas is brainstorming. Many firms have found that they require a process to brainstorm, a form of structure, to help them manage people issues and to get higher quality ideas. To achieve this, there is a burgeoning industry of ideation consultants and facilitators.
I am writing this note in [...]
Entries from September 2005
September 22, 2005
Ideation Facilitators are Part of the Problem – the Jerry Seinfeld Syndrome
September 22, 2005
Designing a Decent Innovation Conference – Some Guidelines
Categories: Innovation Insights, Innovation Conferences
I hate bad conferences. You sit in a room, surrounded by bright, interesting people, watching a series of PowerPoint slides. The first speakers overrun, there is no time for questions, and you only get to speak to people in hushed whispers at your table, or a quick hi in the restroom [...]
September 21, 2005
A Message to Innovation Directors – Take off the Blindfold
Categories: Innovation Insights, Innovation Conferences
I have just got off the phone with the most blinkered VP of Innovation imaginable. This man is responsible for innovation in a manufacturing firm employing thousands of people, and his new revenue target is well in excess of $25m. And yet, he was entirely uninterested in anything to do with [...]
September 20, 2005
We will solve all the impossible problems – eventually
Categories: Innovation InsightsToday I am writing in a flying tube that, according to the wisest people just one hundred years ago, cannot fly. I am typing into a tiny computer – my second HP iPaq – despite claims that there would only be a need for a few computers – ever. Before I left the [...]
September 17, 2005
The Patterns of the Past Define the Future – Unless Something Changes
Categories: Innovation InsightsThe past is an excellent guide to the present, if nothing changes. It is also a good predictor of the future if no change is planned, or the proposed changes do not address the weaknesses of the past.
It is nigh on impossible to criticize a group’s current innovation or product development initiatives – [...]
September 13, 2005
EnterpriseInnovator – "Innovation Capacity – Not IT Spend – Matters Most" – a critique
Categories: Innovation Insights, Innovation Software
I had a conversation yesterday with a top 10 innvoation guru – you have read his book, I am sure, if you are working in the field. The discussion turned to IT and how IT supports innovation initiatives. At this point, I now go back to my notes… and he said [...]
September 8, 2005
Technology and the Fortune 500 – A New Type of Software Company?
Categories: Innovation Insights, Innovation SoftwareMany thanks for Avi for the comment:“Mark – I agree with you 100% when you say that … Idea Management is fundamentally a people and management process supported by technology… Do you think, however, that long term this reality will transform your firm to more of a professional services company with [...]
September 6, 2005
Turn your Shower Stall into an Ideation Zone
Categories: Innovation InsightsI just watched a FedEx Kinkos advert – a group of executives cram into a shower stall. The leader, surprisingly bald (most executives have good hair), is asked why they are all in there tohether. “We are opening a new business next week – and I have my best ideas in the shower”. [...]
September 5, 2005
What the Hell is Google Doing?
Categories: Innovation Insights,Innovation News CommentaryGoogle is always in the news – adding all kinds of new business services to their core search and advertising business: wireless access, telphony, news aggregation, and the built-it-yourself software company. I was reading a BusinessWeek article – “Google’s Grand Ambitions” – Sept 5 (registeration required). By the sound of things, [...]
