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

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

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!”

Business Model Innovation

Published date: March 7, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: business model innovation,corporate innovation method,innovation suite,SIT

Business model innovation was one of many hot topics at Innovation Suite 2011. The conference hosted thirty two invitees from nine countries and a variety of companies including GE, Bayer, Kraft, and SAP. On the minds of many was how to create new business models to transform a company and move to higher ground.

Business Model Innovation is defined as follows (from Wikipedia):

Business model innovation results in an entirely different type of company that competes not only on the value proposition of its offerings, but aligns its profit formula, resources and processes to enhance that value proposition, capture new market segments and alienate competitors.

Here are four ways to conceptualize a new business model:

The LAB: Innovating Inflight Services with S.I.T. (February 2011)

Published date: February 28, 2011 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: airlines,corporate innovation method,inflight services,innovation patterns,SIT,tools

Airline service innovation seems like an oxymoron considering the industry’s reputation for low quality. But the industry is fighting back to improve its image. Companies that specialize in inflight entertainment as well as airframe manufacturers are accelerating the use of new technologies to deliver more value in the air. That’s good news for an industry that has focused way too long on cost-cutting. The next battle for supremacy will be won by airlines and aviation companies that innovate services across the experiential “journey” in a sustained way. For this month’s LAB, we will create new-to-the-world concepts for the inflight service experience using the S.I.T. tool set.

We begin by creating a list of the components of the product or service. We select a component and we further break it down to its sub-components or attributes that we can focus on. We then apply a tool to that component to change it in some way. This creates the Virtual Product. Working backwards (“Function Follows Form”), we envision potential benefits of the modified service to both the customer and the company.

Here is a list of components:

Innovation Sighting: The Division Template on Music

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

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: beatles,creativity,division template,innovation method,music

The power of the SIT method lies in the fact that inventors, for thousands of years, have embedded five simple patterns into their inventions, usually without knowing it. These patterns are the “DNA” of products that can be extracted and applied to any product or service to create new-to-the-world innovations. Here is an example of an innovator working diligently to create a new innovation in the field of music – called “Music for Shuffle.” The inventor, Matthew Irvine Brown, is using the Divison technique to create musical phrases that can be played together in any random order. The phrases interlock with each other to create a continuous stream of music – a song. Listen:

Music for Shuffle #01 from Matt Brown on Vimeo.

While this music may not make the Billboard top 50, it may open up a whole new way to think about song generation. With this innovation, he introduces the idea of taking a song, physically dividing out parts of it, and rearranging it to create a better outcome. Music exists because of patterns. Blues music, for example, is a 12 bar I-IV-V progression. The Division technique works by dividing a product or service (or one of its component) either physically or functionally and then rearranging them to form a new product or service. The technique is particulary useful to help break structural fixedness, the tendency to see objects as a whole.

To extend this idea, imagine taking the most popular phrases out of songs and “repacking” them together to create a new song. For example, take a phrase from “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin and a phrase from “Freebrird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and link them together at natural interlocking point to create a new phrase. Now imagine taking tens of thousands of phrases from top selling songs and interlocking them randomly to find the most interesting sounding ideas. These new phrases would create the starting point to make adjustments and improvements for better sounding music.

For some, the use of a template seems to defeat the creative purpose. But in fact, most creative people used some form of pattern to “bootstrap” their innovations and get to a higher level. The Beatles, for example, have sold more records in the US than anyone. How? They used templates.

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