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Proto Labs Launches Cool Idea! Award to Support Tomorrow’s Innovators

Published date: May 16, 2011 в 3:00 am

Tags: CNC,cool idea,innovation,invention,proto labs,prototype

Proto Labs, the world’s fastest manufacturer of CNC machined and injection-molded parts, has announced the launch of its Cool Idea! award, a new program designed to give product designers the opportunity to bring innovative products to life. Each year, Proto Labs will provide $100,000 total worth of prototyping and short-run production services to award recipients.

“We’re extremely excited to launch the Cool Idea! award because we know there’s a single Cool Idea at the foundation of every innovation that changes our lives for the better,” said Brad Cleveland, CEO of Proto Labs. “In fact, the success of our company is due to a cool idea that made quick-turn injection molded prototypes a reality. We’re eager to propel the cycle forward by supporting the next generation of innovators who may otherwise lack the resources to get their ideas to market.”

Targeting Your Innovation Efforts

Published date: May 9, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: acquisition,business model innovation,corporate innovation method,mergers,strategy,targeting,value drivers

Companies get better results from innovation by targeting initiatives at the right places. Given limited time, money, and human resources, here are six areas to focus on:

1. Your Value Drivers: What activities across your business model create the most value? Is it operational or commercial? Who is involved and what departments make it happen? Use a corporate innovation method like S.I.T. to reinvent the value driver as well as the resources that deliver it.

Procter & Gamble innovated an intelligent screening system that scanned coffee beans imported from any part of the world and selected the right proportions of each to create the desired taste. This created a huge operational advantage in producing a distinctive product within a commoditized industry.

2. Your Core Competency: What skill sets create strategic assets? Strategic assets are those that deliver a sustainable competitive advantage. By re-inventing these skills and how they are sourced and maintained, companies sustain their advantage.

AkzoNobel, a maker of specialty paint, has a unique ability to color match to near perfection thanks to their skills in chemistry and spectroscopy. Applying innovation methods to the color matching process would uncover new skills or complementary skills to fortify its strategic advantage.

3. Your Potential Acquisitions: Growth through acquisition is expensive and risky. Acquisition stifles innovation and distracts management as it focuses on integration. The answer is to use innovation methods ahead of the deal-making to clarify and enhance valuation.

IBM’s acquisition of Netezza for $1.7 billion seems excessive given the commodization of data warehousing. By applying a corporate innovation method to the target’s core products before the offer would uncover new or hidden sources of deal value. Pre-deal innovation either makes the deal more valuable or creates intellectual property to leverage against other suitors if the deal falls through.

4. Your Customer’s Processes: How does your customer use your product or service? Observe and map out the detailed steps of what customers do when they use it. Use innovation methods to re-invent the way consumers seek and derive value. This will lead to new product concepts that address these new customer behaviors.

Johnson & Johnson’s medical device unit creates detailed heat maps of how surgeons perform complicated procedures. The maps reveal the amount of time for each step, the product used, the degree of difficulty, and risk to the successful outcome. Innovation is targeted at the high difficulty/high risk aspects of the procedure where the most value will be created from breakthrough ideas.

5. Your Brand Reputation: What are you most known for in the industry and in the minds of your customer? Is it superior products, great service to your distributors, fabulous advertising, top people? Use innovation methods on how consumers perceive your brand to strengthen and reinforce brand loyalty.

L’Oreal’s professional products division leads its industry through servicing salons with product support, training, merchandising, and market insights. The use of structured innovation methods of how salons operate and service their customers would create new insights and product development opportunities. Innovating where L’Oreal is regarded as the best in the industry would reinforce its leadership status.

6. Your Strategic Capabilities: How does your company win in the marketplace? What is its “source of authority?” By innovating the way a company competes, it surprises and outmaneuvers the competition.

Barry Jaruzelski and Kevin Dehoff from Booz & Company describe three strategic orientations: Need Seekers, Market Readers, and Technology Drivers. “The most successful companies are those that focus on a particular, narrow set of common and distinct capabilities that enable them to better execute their chosen strategy.” These strategic capabilities can be innovated using systematic methods of ideation.

Feature Creep

Published date: May 2, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: corporate innovation method,Kimberly Clarke,Kohler,numi,SIT,subtraction

Companies that struggle with innovation often make up for it by adding features to existing products. They succumb to “feature creep” – the gradual and continuous addition of features and functions though nothing is truly new. While it may look improved, the added features make your product more complex, difficult to use, and more costly to produce. Over time, your core customers abandon you.

Here is an example – the Numi toilet by Kohler. At $6400, it is promoted as the top-of-the-line toilet with lots of high-tech bells and whistles:

Custom bidet: User can control pressure, temperature and angle.
Tankless design; dual flush
Motion Sensor Lid: After 90 seconds of no movement, the toilet will close.
Seat warmer
Foot warmer: A vent beneath the bowl blows hot air to warm your feet and the cold tile beneath them.
Automatic seat: For male users, a motion sensor is activated by foot and causes the seat to rise and then lower when you’re away.
LED lit back panel: Frosted glass is lit in an energy-efficient way.
MP3 hook-up: So you never have to be without your music.
Remote control: This touch-screen pad lets the user control all of these features from a wireless control.
A flat white surface designed for easy cleaning.

Instead of adding features, companies can become more innovative by subtracting features. Here is an example of the Subtraction template of the S.I.T. innovation method. Kimberly-Clarke Corporation, a global producer of paper-based products, launched their new Scott Natural Tube-Free toilet paper. Just as the name asserts, the rolls come without the cardboard tubes while still being able to fit on the average toilet paper holder.

From Foxnews.com:

“The idea has been around for quite some time,” said Doug Daniels, brand manger for Scott brand. “The tube doesn’t really serve any consumer purpose. But we’ve had a breakthrough in our technology that’s finally allowed us to do this.” For now, the process of taking out the tube remains a mystery, as Kimberly-Clarke won’t reveal its ground-breaking technology. Daniels says they’re keeping tight-lipped, since they might use the process for future products. But more importantly, he maintains that no cardboard tube means every single piece of toilet paper will be usable, without those last few sheets getting stuck to the roll.

Kimberly-Clarke estimates that the U.S. alone disposes of 17 billion cardboard tubes from bathroom tissue, equating to 160 million pounds of waste. To put that into perspective, that’s roughly the weight of 250 Boeing 747s and enough tubes to circle the earth’s equator 40 times. Daniels says that this marriage of consumer and ecological advantages will pave the way for the success of the tubeless initiative.”

The LAB: Innovating Cosmetics with S.I.T. (April 2011)

Published date: April 25, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: corporate innovation method,cosmetics,innovation,L'Oreal,lipstick,SIT

The cosmetic industry thrives on innovation and fashion design especially in the areas of product development and retail merchandising. It generates nearly US$200 billion worldwide and is growing. For this month’s LAB, we will use the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to create new innovations for lipstick, a product that dates back to the ancient Egyptians.

S.I.T. works by taking one of the five patterns (subtraction, task unification, division, multiplication, and attribute dependency) and applying it to an existing product or service. This morphs it into a “virtual product,” which is an abstract, ambiguous notion with no clear purpose. We then work backwards (Function Follows Form) to find new and useful benefits or markets for the virtual product.

Here are five innovations created by *students at the University of Cincinnati as part of the innovation tools course.

1. TASK UNIFICATION: The lipstick package has the additional task of carrying lip finishers in addition to the main stick. The color-filled lipstick sits in the center with the three finishes surrounding it in different slots. Benefits: many potential color and finish combinations; multiple uses- lipstick, blush and eye color; combined in a single unit for convenience; refillable

2. SUBTRACTION: The lipstick cap is removed. Instead, it has a slide the mechanism that moves up or down to move the lipstick in place. Benefits: allows for convenient one-handed operation which saves time; one-handed operation allows for more convenient application; capless design prevents cap and stick accidents.

3. MULTIPLICATION: The tube contains many different smaller sticks of different colors. One lipstick provides a range of colors to suit any occasion. Benefits: eliminates the need for multiple lipsticks; saves space in your purse or cabinet; many potential color and finish combinations; easy to use; refillable.

4. ATTRIBUTE DEPENDENCY: The color changes over time. One application provides a sleek, neutral color, perfect for all-day wear. But, with one or two smacks, lips become sexy and vibrant. This lipstick is ready for any occasion and can go anywhere. Benefits: eliminates the need for multiple lipsticks; saves space in your purse or cabinet; many potential color and finish combinations; easy to use.

5. DIVISION: The stick is divided into many smaller versions (preserving the characteristics of the whole). These become small, one to two-time use sachets rather than the traditional tube. Color is applied by finger. Benefits: small sachets allow for one time usage without having to purchase an entire lipstick; price is set at a level to become more affordable to a broader target audience.

*Students: Elizabeth John, Julie Maines, Ronald Meyers, Ina-Maija Tillmanns, and Maria Zumdick

Innovation Pilot Program

Published date: April 18, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: corporate innovation method,innovation consultants,pilot program

Companies can reduce the risk of adopting new innovation methods by testing them first. A short, pilot program that addresses a specific product or service line helps you understand whether a new method is right for your company. Pilot programs help keep your costs in line, and they help you reduce resistance to adopting new methods.

To organize an innovation pilot program:

1. Make the Case: A pilot program will take time and money, so you will need to build the business case before you can secure funding. Positioning is critical. The key is to show what has changed in the market creating a need to do things differently. Show the contrast how the firm’s future state would be improved if a new method is found. Offer up the pilot as a way to experiment without making huge commitments. Be sure not to attack the prevailing methods or departments responsible for innovation. Otherwise, they will push back.

2. Build the Base: Enroll other divisions to share the risks…and rewards…from the pilot. Ask peers to chip in part of the expense, even if it is a small amount. By “syndicating” support of the pilot program, you broaden the exposure to the outcome. If you try to go it alone and do the pilot without your peers, you may be seen as the “lone wolf.” If the pilot flops, you are exposed. If it is wildly successful, the others who were not involved may feel resentful.

3. Select a Method: Do your homework to understand how the method works. Make sure you can explain it to others. Study the data and know its efficacy. Has it worked in the past and will it work on this project? How is the method different from what is being done today?

4. Choose the Consultant: Once you have selected an innovation method to test, choose the right consultant to deliver it. Be sure not to do it the other way around! Innovation consultants fall into four broad categories:

INVENTION: These are consultants that help you create new-to-the-world ideas. They have a particular expertise in creativity methods or idea generation tools. Their main focus is generation of many new product or service ideas.
DESIGN: These are consultants that take an existing product, service, or idea and put some new, innovative form to it. They have a particular expertise in industrial design or human factors design. Their main focus is transforming the way a product is used or experienced.
ENGINEERING: These are consultants that help you make the new idea work in practice. They have a particular expertise in technology, science, research, and problem solving. Their main focus is building it.
ACTUALIZATION: These are consultants that help you get the innovation into the marketplace. They have a particular expertise in marketing processes, brand, or commercial launch of a product or service. Their main focus is selling it.

The challenge is many consultants claim to be all of these. How do you know what type the firm really is? Study the biography of their founder. What was the founder’s education, experience, work background, interests, etc. The founder is where the core orientation of the firm begins. Select the consultant that is best suited to deliver the method and is well matched to the business case.

5. Recruit the Team: Bring together a “dream team” of talent to participate in the exercise. The ideal number of participants is twelve. They should be from diverse, cross-functional areas of the company. Strive for one third commercial, one third technical, and one third customer-oriented (sales, packaging, customer service). Gender diversity is essential – an equal number of men and women is the ideal. Be sure participants all commit to full participation. Avoid those who want to selectively “surf” into the pilot off and on. These are your eventual naysayers who will claim they experienced the method and “didn’t find it very useful.” Chances are they beholden to another method – their sacred cow.

6. Measure and Share: Develop a factual and credible story of what happened in the pilot. Don’t focus too much on downstream output, though. These measures are often subjective and unsupportable. Instead, focus on the only measure that counts – would the team leader from the pilot program recommend using the method to his or her colleagues? Advice from one’s peers will ultimately move other teams to act.

7. Make it Stick. Can we continue to use the method without the consultant going forward? Are the methods clear? Are there training aids and tools to help teach others? Can the pilot program be extended to a general training program? What is the retention rate one month out? Six months out? How many people could be trained within your current budget cycle? How do you continue to build innovation muscle?

Innovation Competency Model

Published date: April 11, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: innovation competency model

To build innovation muscle, companies must include innovation in their competency models. A competency is a persistent pattern of behavior resulting from a cluster of knowledge, skills, abilities, and motivations. Competency models formalize that behavior and make it persistent. They prescribe the ideal patterns needed for exceptional performance. They help diagnose and evaluate employee performance. It takes a lot of work to develop one, but it’s worth it.

Here is a nice example of an innovation competency modeled developed at Central Michigan University through a collaboration of authors. It could be customized to address the specific needs of a company or industry.

Marketing Innovation: The Metaphor Tool

Published date: April 4, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: ad code,advertising,goldenberg,innovation,metaphor

The Metaphor is the most commonly used – and abused – tool in marketing communications, especially in western cultures. It is a great way to attach meaning to a newly-launched product or brand. But some approaches are more effective than others.

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

The Metaphor Tool takes a well-recognized and accepted cultural symbol and manipulates it to connect to the product, brand, or message. The trick is to do it in a non-obvious, clever way. The process is called fusion, and there are three versions: Metaphor fused to Product/Brand, Metaphor fused to Message, and Metaphor fused to both the Product/Brand and Message. Here is an example:

Academic Focus: The Rotman Business Design Challenge

Published date: March 21, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: DAAP,design challenge,Doblin,Rotman School of Management,SIT,university of cincinnati

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto will host the Business Design Challenge from March 25-26, 2011. Teams of graduate students from business and design schools in the US and Canada will work to solve a case study in the area of health and wellness. The case was developed by Doblin, a Chicago-based innovation strategy firm and the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation (CFI), who will incorporate the solutions developed into delivering improved health and wellness outcomes.

Learning outcomes include:

Understanding how design thinking broadens possibilities for innovation and develops growth strategies that strengthen competitive advantage.
Discovering new principles and tools to define new business-building opportunities to help shape the organization’s activities.
Experimenting and applying the principles and tools of business design thinking to their business on an on-going, day-to-day basis.
Generating new and tangible business ideas, which incorporate unmet user needs and strategic growth opportunities.

The Challenge

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification in Surgical Procedures

Published date: March 14, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: corporate innovation method,innovative surgery,rotationplasty,SIT,task unification

The Task Unification tool of the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., works by assigning a new task to an existing resource. There are three ways to do it: 1. allocate an internal task to an external component, 2. allocate an external task to an internal component, or 3. an internal component peforms the task of another internal component. It is a great tool to use when you have a general idea of what you are trying to accomplish. It helps you find innovative ways to do it using non-obvious resources.

Here is a unique example of Task Unification from the world of surgery:

While limb-sparing surgery for bone cancer is becoming more common, very young children with bone cancer face significant challenges and have limited surgical options. Such was the case of a five-year-old girl with Ewing’s sarcoma, a cancerous tumor, behind her left knee. Surgeons at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia used a limb-sparing technique called rotationplasty to remove the diseased portion of bone, turn the shortened portion of the leg bone in a half-circle and reattach it, with the ankle joint functioning as a knee. With a prosthetic attached to the mobile joint, the child, now 13, enjoys gymnastics and cheerleading.

Using the Task Unification tool makes you more aware of the Closed World of the problem and the resources available to you. The Closed World is an imaginary area in space and time around where the product or service is being used. It is the collection of components “right under your nose.” Using these components with the Task Unification tool produces innovations that have the element of surprise – “Gee, I never would have thought of that!”

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