Mark’s Innovation Expertise – 24 Things to Explore

I recently had a follow-up conversation with a judge at the Hult Prize and we got talking about innovation. My current work has been on Scaling, now put into book format (available at startscaling.com). Scaling is highly relevant for innovation. I consider innovation to be the process of developing new things that deliver value. The key is delivering value. […]

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Lessons Learned from the $10 Million Google Giveaway for Good that Wasn’t (Yet)

I just came across an article on Wired / CNN on the famous Google $10M giveaway to celebrate it’s 10th birthday. Here are my thoughts on some lessons we need to take away from this experiment in Collective Intelligence: Design your plan for both massive volume and complete lack of entries – public domain systems […]

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Forrester Update: Poor Use of Idea Management Systems

I was chatting recently with Chris Andrews, an analyst at Forrester Research, on the topic of Innovation Management. We discussed how the industry was evolving, indeed how interest in the area has exploded the last 18 months. At the same time, he shared concern that many of his research clients on the company side complained […]

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“How Useful is a Suggestion Box?” – a response

I noticed a recent post from TradingMarkets.com on the old fashioned suggestion program. The article is quite good – and I posted a response online (below). Mark Turrell: “Thanks for revisiting the age-old suggestion box! I wrote a white paper about technology was replacing the dreaded dusty old box-with-a-padlock. My firm, Imaginatik plc, was one […]

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Bad Case Study of Open Innovation: Brightidea Customer Feedback Portal

Innovation is all about the process of doing new things that deliver value. Open innovation is about innovation with people outside the firm’s walls. Good Innovation processes are vital. Bad innovation processes – especially for Open Innovation – are deadly. Let’s look at an example: Brightidea. Before I get into the detail, I’d like to […]

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Idea Management Market: New Branch of Competition

I came across a news alert on “idea management” today from a vendor I had not heard of before: Gensight Group. Their press release covered the release of its new Version 8 software for Project Portfolio Management, that included an idea management toolset. I have not had the time nor the inclination to do a […]

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Comment on Brightidea post: annoying web site did not let me post properly

Don’t you get really annoyed when you have a great comment to make to an article… but the web site is bust and doesn’t accept comments. Well, once again this has happened to me, but instead of just getting upset, I’ll post a link to the article here, and my comment below. Great thoughts should […]

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Myth #4: We Need Simple Idea Management Systems

I am a great believer in simple systems. The ideal solution is one that is so elegant, that any complexity is hidden from end users so that they would never know it was there. As an owner of two iPhones (one for Europe, one for the US), I know this to be true at a […]

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Myth #3: “We need lots of ideas”

This is one of the most pervasive of the Top 10 Myths of Idea Management, the notion that in order to get good ideas, you need to start with lots and lots of ideas, good and bad. This myth stems from the work of advertising guru, Alex Osborne, in brainstorming in his 1953 book, Applied […]

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Myth #2 “People need money before they will share their ideas”

Motivation is a critical component of any innovation program, particularly in Enterprise Idea Management. There is a belief, misplaced in my experience, that financial rewards are the primary motivation for contributions, and the absence of any financial reward will lead to poor uptake of a program. Once again, this is one of the Top 10 […]

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