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The LAB: Innovating a Credit Card with S.I.T. (June 2009)

Published date: June 7, 2009 в 12:30 pm

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Credit card companies must innovate to overcome the financial and public relations consequences of recent government legislation.  The Credit Card Reform Act of 2009 is a “bill to protect consumers, and especially young consumers, from skyrocketing credit card debt, unfair credit card practices, and deceptive credit offers.”   These changes go into effect in 2010, and they will undoubtedly reduce the financial performance of card issuers.

The concept of using a card for purchases was described in 1887 by Edward Bellamy in his utopian novel Looking Backward.  Bellamy used the term credit card eleven times in this novel.  The credit card has become a ubiquitous symbol of consumerism since then.  Many credit card innovations have emerged, some useful and others wacky.  Recent innovations include: paperless statement; online statements; custom logos to display your affiliations with colleges, companies, and other groups;  a magnetic strip to read information more efficiently and securely.

The key for credit card companies is to reduce their reliance on price (in the form of interest rates, penalties, and fees) and increase their pipeline of innovative services for which consumers will be willing to pay.  That is the focus of this month’s LAB.

Are YOU an Innovator?

Published date: May 30, 2009 в 11:29 am

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Do you consider yourself an innovator?  I asked this to a group of participants at a recent PDMA workshop, and the results surprised me.  Only about half of the participants raised their hand.  Many of those had that hesitant look of self-doubt on their face.
It’s a difficult question.  How do you really know if you are an innovator?  Is it based on the number of patents you hold?  Is it a function of your job title?  Is it based on your creative endeavors like music or art?
Take this self-assessment to find out.  Place a check mark beside the statement you believe is more true.  (Click here for a printable version and for scoring instructions.)

 

Innovation Dilemmas

Published date: May 21, 2009 в 3:34 pm

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Innovation creates dilemmas, and these dilemmas can either help or hinder your innovation effort.  Dilemmas arise when we confront natural tensions between two apparent opposite ideas or concepts.  In business we face these dilemmas all the time:  cost vs. quality, centralization vs. decentralization, stability vs. change, short term results vs. long term competitiveness.  Dilemmas are dynamic but inevitable.  They don’t go away.  They must be managed over time.

The key is to recognize the difference between dilemmas, which are not resolvable, and problems which are resolvable.  Problems differ from dilemmas in that they are decidable.  We have independent options to address problems usually through some fixed trade-off between options.  Problems can be solved, resolved, and decided – once and for all.  Natural tensions are not solved or decided.  They are ongoing.  Professors Josh Klayman and Jackie Gnepp address this in their course, “Implementing Innovation and Change” at the University of Chicago.  The course helps students recognize the difference between dilemmas and problems.  They learn strategies to help manage and balance these dilemmas over time.

Here are the innovation dilemmas (tensions) I observe in organizations:

Innovation Archetypes

Published date: May 10, 2009 в 7:47 pm

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An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all.  Archetypes put context to a situation.  We use archetypes, for example, in marketing.  We create brand archetypes to assign a personality to the brand.  An example of such a model is shown at right.  In political debate, it’s useful to understand whether a commentator is an “archetypical democrat” or an “archetypical republican.” This helps frame their comments so we know where they are coming from.
Listening to the Voice of Innovation is the same. As I read blogs, interviews, and books on innovation, I try to determine the author’s innovation archetype so I know where they are coming from.  I observe at least four of these.
The four Innovation Archetypes are:

The LAB: Innovating a Surgical Mask with Task Unification (May 2009)

Published date: May 3, 2009 в 11:30 am

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Crisis creates opportunity.  That certainly has been the case for surgical mask makers and retailers as people scramble to buy them to protect against the H1N1 swine flu virus.  Companies and governments are ordering masks by the case load.  The surgical mask has become the number four selling item in women’s apparel at Amazon.com, moving ahead of another strapped item – the bra.  The rush to protect against the virus extends beyond surgical masks as people seek any form of protection.  Soon we will be tracking the pandemic on our iPhones.

Surgical masks have been around since 1860.  Since then, lots of innovation has occurred.  One of my favorites is shown here – a clear mask so that doctors and nurses can see each others’ face to improve communications. The fashionable surgical mask idea has been around for a very long time, but it is back with a vengeance.

There is debate about the value of surgical masks in the operating room.  Experts question whether they protect people from viruses like swine flu.  At best, masks seem capable of short term protection from large particle droplets transmitted at close contact.  Masks prevent transmission both to and from the wearer.

Given the questionable efficacy of surgical masks, this would seem a ripe opportunity for PROBLEM-TO-SOLUTION innovation using a methods such as TRIZ and Goldfire.  For this LAB, I will use Systematic Inventive Thinking (SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM innovation) to see if there are novel ideas to extend the value of the surgical mask and perhaps address some of the unmet needs as well.  For this exercise, I am using a 3M 8210 respirator version that is N95 rated.  We start by listing the components:

Design the Future of Mobile Communications

Published date: April 21, 2009 в 10:05 pm

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It’s time to put innovation into practice.

LG Mobile Phones, the fastest growing mobile phone brand in North America, is partnering with crowdSPRING, an online marketplace for creative services, to announce a new competition to define the future of personal mobile communication.  U.S. residents age 18 and over can have a chance to design their vision of the next revolutionary LG mobile phone and compete for more than $80,000 in awards.  See http://www.crowdspring.com/LG for details on how to submit your ideas.

Here is how submissions will be judged:

How to Innovate!

Published date: April 17, 2009 в 2:55 pm

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This step-by-step method helps you invent new products or services using templates. Templates channel your creative thinking so you can innovate in a completely new way. It is not brainstorming. It is a structured process to focus your creative output.

The way it works is by creating a hypothetical solution first, and then imagining a problem that it solves.  This is exactly opposite of the traditional way people invent.  Usually, we start with a problem, then we try to invent solutions to it.  That is not always effective because many times we do not know all the problems consumers have when using a product or service.  When reverse the direction (SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM), we uncover many new useful problems worth solving, and we have an innovative solution to apply to it.   It’s cool!  And it works!

Follow these steps:

1.  Select a product or service to innovate.

2.  Create a list of its components.

3.  Apply a TEMPLATE to each component.  This creates a VIRTUAL PRODUCT.  It is virtual because it does not exist.  It should not seem to make any sense to you at first.  That is okay…that is how the method works.

4.  Take the VIRTUAL PRODUCT and think of all the ways it could be useful.  What problems does it solve?  What benefits does it offer?  Who would use it?

5.  Repeat the process using a different component.

6.  Repeat the entire process using a different TEMPLATE.

Here are the TEMPLATES:

  • SUBTRACTION:  removing an essential component and keeping only what is left
  • MULTIPLICATION:  making a copy of a component but changing it in some way
  • DIVISION:  dividing a component out of the product and putting it back somewhere else, OR taking the component and physically dividing it
  • TASK UNIFICATION:  assigning an additional task to an existing component – giving it a new job in addition to its existing job

Lg-mobile-VX11000-lean-large EXAMPLE:  The Cell Phone

List the components:

  1. Earpiece (making sound)
  2. Microphone (picking up sound)
  3. Keyboard
  4. On/Off Switch
  5. Battery
  6. Volume Control
  7. Antenna
  8. SMS texting
  9. Address Book
  10. Menu
  11. Voice mail
  12. Casing
  13. Display Screen
  14. Camera
  15. Carrying Clip

Apply a TEMPLATE:  (example)

  • SUBTRACTION:  Imagine a cell phone without the earpiece (so the cell phone cannot make any sound).  This is our VIRTUAL PRODUCT.  Now imagine what it would be good for.  Ask yourself these questions:
    • Who would use a cell phone that did not have sound? 
    • What usage situations or social situations would this be particularly useful for? 
    • What would be the benefit? 
    •  How would it work?

THE IDEA:  It is a new kind of cell phone that is only for SMS texting and Twittering.  It has a different rate plan than regular cell phones.  It has a keyboard that is optimized for fast inputing.  It has an excellent address book and screen display so that you can send texts and tweets very fast.  The screen is large so you can share it with other people.

  • Now repeat this process for each component and each TEMPLATE.  Keep good notes of your new ideas.  Combine ideas together to create completely new-to-the-world concepts for a cell phone!

Want more examples?  Visit The LAB.

The LAB: Innovating a Computer Keyboard with Attribute Dependency (April 2009)

Published date: April 13, 2009 в 12:46 pm

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Zachary Campau is an MBA candidate at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan who I met last week while lecturing there.  He was intrigued by Systematic Inventive Thinking, and he emailed me with a proposition.  He noted that I preach a lot about the value of team innovation, but I don’t practice what I preach.  He noticed in my LAB series that I innovate alone, thus not taking advantage of the power of collaboration.  He was right.  So I accepted his offer to join me in my next LAB posting…this one.

We decided to innovate a computer keyboard using the Attribute Dependency tool.  But there is more to the story.  We did this all via phone while he was in Ann Arbor and I was in Naples, Florida on holiday.  In fact, I decided to multi-task by both innovating with Zach while doing one of my favorite pastimes: fishing.  My ultimate dream was to create a BIG innovation while simultaneously catching a BIG fish.  Of course, luck would determine the ultimate outcome.  The big innovation was something I could count on happening.  Fish, on the other hand, tend to be less cooperative.

Innovation at the U.S. Automakers

Published date: April 8, 2009 в 7:46 pm

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As some U.S. automakers face inevitable restructuring, the key questions are what should they become?  What is the best way to do it?  The answer depends on what battle they think they are fighting.  In simplest terms:  should they build better cars?  Build cars better?  Build cars?

Consider the battles U.S. automakers have fought against the Japanese and other automakers.  How has Detroit done in:  design?  quality? productivity? brand building?  Given the steady loss of market share and margin, they seem to be losing.  There are a variety of reasons, some of their own making and some not.

There is one battle worth winning more than the others – the battle of ideas.  U.S. automakers need to outperform the competition in one definitive way – systematically develop and deploy a steady, uninterrupted stream of novel ideas and inventions across all aspects of their business.  At the risk of falling deep into the “easier-said-than-done” category, I offer my blueprint for change for U.S. automakers: reframe, retrain, and redeploy…a model based on my own experience.

The LAB: Innovating a Garage Door Opener (March 2009)

Published date: March 28, 2009 в 10:00 am

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Teaching people how to innovate is rewarding.  It empowers them.  It unlocks their minds to believe that innovation can happen “on command.”   People realize there is no excuse for not having enough ideas or being innovative once they have been trained.

This month’s LAB features the output of one of my students, Michael Sanders, in my class, “Applied Marketing Innovation.”  For the final exam, students were assigned a product at random.  They had three hours to apply all five templates in the Systematic Inventive Thinking method to come up with true new-to-the-world innovations.  They were graded on how correctly they applied each template as well as the novelty of their inventions.  Michael’s assignment:  Garage Door Opener.  Here is what he did.

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