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The Role of Business Schools in Innovation

Published date: July 19, 2010 в 3:00 am

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“Innovation is and will always be a major driver of business and societal success, and business schools are doing much to foster innovation worldwide. The opportunities to do more to support innovation are many and the potential to create value is high.”

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) released a new report, Business Schools on an Innovation Mission.  The report addresses what is meant by innovation, describes how managerial talent contributes to innovation, and outlines ways business schools support innovation.

Business schools must focus more on specific skills that support innovation, reinvent curricula to be more integrative, and convene executive programs that create new ideas and networks. Business schools must promote interdisciplinary research and recognize that innovation can come from advances in the theory, practice, or teaching of management. “Through outreach activities, such as business plan competitions, student consulting projects, and business incubators, business schools’ activities contribute directly to innovation in the communities they serve.”

The AACSB report recommends the following:

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification with Gifts

Published date: July 12, 2010 в 3:00 am

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Task Unification is a hard working innovation tool.  Task Unification assigns an additional task to an existing resource or component of the product or service.  Here is a clever example from Springwise. It is a service  called “Itizen.”  It allows you to physically tag a special item such as a gift or heirloom that links to a website where the collective history of that gift or heirloom is recorded and kept forever.

For example, suppose your grandfather gives you an antique hammer that’s been passed down through generations.  It was used for many significant projects, and your grandfather gives you a written history about it.  You use the hammer through your lifetime, recording special stories about it.  Then you give it to your son.  Imagine how your son might use that hammer through time.  He records his experience with the hammer so he can pass it to the next generation with the complete historical record.  The value of our worldly possessions increases as the collective history is recorded. The item has been given the additional “job” of telling its story (with a little help from Itizen).

Here is how it works:

Innovation Prosthetic

Published date: July 5, 2010 в 3:00 am

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An innovation tool is a cognitive prosthetic that helps individuals and groups overcome their human limitations to innovate more capably.  Just as an artificial limb or hearing aid compensates and augments a missing or impaired part of the body, a thinking tool does the same – it compensates and augments for a variety of cognitive deficiencies in all humans.

Yet there is an aversion to using a structured tool to be creative:

  • The Arts:  Musicians, poets, and graphic artists shun the idea of using a standard tool or template because it makes them appear less creative to their fans and the public.  But consider Paul McCartney who sold more albums in the U.S. than anyone.  In his biography, he confided:  “As usual, for these co-written things, John often had just the first verse, which was always enough:  it was the direction, it was the signpost and it was the inspiration for the whole song.  I hate the word but it was the template.”  Listen carefully to artist, Jackson Pollock, describe his approach:

    • The Sciences:  People in deep scientific fields such as pharmaceuticals and nano-technology are skeptical of thinking tools because it diminishes their sense of intellect and brainpower.  Given their heavy emphasis on research and discovery, this is not surprising.  They default to the Scientific Method.  But consider a rather successful scientist named Albert Einstein.  He used a thinking tool called mental simulation to discover the special theory of relativity.  He imagined traveling through space next to a beam of light:

    • The Corporations:  High achievers resist the use of structured techniques because it makes them appear weak to their intra-firm rivals.  Executives prefer to use their intuition.  They trust it because it has gotten them far. But more executives are recognizing the value of educating their intuition by using patterns and thinking tools to augment their experience.  They use a prosthetic:


For practitioners, using an innovation prosthetic is a no brainer.

Innovation Sighting: Cannes Lions 2010

Published date: June 28, 2010 в 3:00 am

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Cannes Lions, the International Advertising Festival, is the world’s only truly global meeting place for professionals in the communications industry.  It celebrates advertising winners each year in a variety of categories.  The 57th festival was held last week.

The Young Lions Film Competition is held the same week.  Two creatives have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a 30-second commercial. At the beginning of the week, the teams receive a brief from a charity chosen by the Festival. Forty-eight hours later, the teams’ work is judged by the Film Lions jury.  Here is a winning commercial from this year’s Young Lions Film Competition:


This commercial is an example of the Unification tool, one of the eight advertising tools described by Dr. Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues in their new book, Cracking the Ad Code.  The tool works by making new use of existing resources.  There are two unification approaches: use components of the medium, or recruit a new medium in the environment.  In this example, a water goblet has been given the additional “job” of “sounding the alarm” about the lack of access to water.  Commercials using this tool tend to be cost effective, memorable, and most importantly, creative.

Here are all eight of the advertising tools.

  1. Unification
  2. Activation
  3. Metaphor
  4. Subtraction
  5. Extreme Consequence
  6. Absurd Alternative
  7. Inversion
  8. Extreme Effort

If you had only 48 hours to innovate an award-winning commercial in Cannes, these tools would be the best  place to start!

The LAB: Innovating the Lego with S.I.T. (June 2010)

Published date: June 21, 2010 в 5:42 pm

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I just had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Soren Lund present at the PharmaBrand Summit in Monaco.  He is the Senior Marketing Director of Product and Marketing Development at the Lego Group.  He told the amazing story about how Lego markets their product and leverages the power of their user community to create innovation and growth.  It prompted me to search the blogosphere for other stories about Lego, and I can see that the company is quite popular.  Blogging Innovation, Endless Innovation, Stefan Lindgard, and various others have written useful blog posts about Lego..
Rather than talk about Lego and its innovation, I decided to apply the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to the basic Lego product – the 2×4 brick.  I created these new embodiments during the two hour break following Seren’s presentation.  With a bit of research, I learned there are some 24,000 SKU’s.  While I have some general knowledge about the product (having purchased it for my son), I must admit I do not know a great deal.  So it would not surprise me to find that I created ideas that already exist.

I start with a component list to use the first four of the S.I.T. tools:

1.    Base
2.    Posts (the little round stumps on top of the base)
3.    Tubes (the little open tubular structures inside the base

Using this list, I manipulate the product by applying a tool.  This turns it into a “virtual product.”   I use “Function-Follows-Form” to work backwards and think of potential uses and benefits for the “weird” form created by the tool.  Here are some ideas generated very quickly with S.I.T.:

Brand Man

Published date: June 14, 2010 в 3:00 am

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The role of brand manager may be the most difficult yet rewarding of all marketing jobs.  It defines much of what marketing is about.  The brand manager is multifaceted and works at several levels in a company. Duties are varied and challenging. Brand managers see the product being created and manage through all of the product’s journey. Brand manager is the most important person to have around when a new product is being created or even when an old product needs to be re-launched.

How has the role changed over the years, and what is the role’s impact on new product or service innovation?  Here is the first job description for a brand manager.  It’s from an internal memo dated May 13, 1931 that I got it from Ed Rider, head archivist at P&G’s Heritage Center, a corporate museum that documents the history of the company and its brands.

It is titled, “Brand Man:”

Academic Focus: City University London

Published date: June 6, 2010 в 3:00 am

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A survey from IBM’s Institute for Business Value shows that CEOs value one leadership competency above all others – creativity.  It is therefore timely that the City University London formed its Centre for Creativity with a goal of becoming the UK leader in the teaching, research and transfer of creativity in professional practice, ranging from informatics and engineering to business and the arts. City is already a world-class centre of applied creativity research through activities in informatics, business, psychology, music and the arts.

To achieve this objective it aims to achieve the following 3 sub-objectives:

The Voice of Serendipity

Published date: May 31, 2010 в 2:00 am

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Many products are invented accidentally.  Serendipity led to the microwave oven, corn flakes, Teflon®, penicillin, fireworks, Viagra®, chocolate chip cookies, and the most famous of all accidents…the Post-it® note.  The problem with serendipity is it’s not predictable.  It is not an innovation method one would count on for corporate  growth.  But there is value in serendipity if you can unlock its hidden secrets.  How?

In 1891, a physical education teacher named James Naismith invented the game of basketball by nailing two peach baskets to the gymnasium walls.  After the ball was thrown into a basket, someone climbed a ladder to get it out.  This was annoying, so the bottom of the basket was altered to allow a stick to poke through and knock the ball out.  After many games and many successful shots, the bottom fell out…literally.  The peach basket bottom weakened and broke loose allowing a ball to fall completely through after a shot.  The result?  This simple, serendipitous invention allowed the game to be played continuously without the interruption of retrieving the ball.  Basketball advanced to the worldwide game that it is today.

The LAB: Innovating Water Access in Developing Countries (May 2010)

Published date: May 24, 2010 в 2:00 am

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 Shortage of water may become a more catastrophic problem than food or energy shortage according to experts.  The problem affects developing as well as developed countries including the U.S..  For this month’s LAB, we will look at how the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., can be used to address such a serious issue.  The following ideas were developed by students at the University of Cincinnati working on the PUR water filtration system from Procter & Gamble.  They are excellent examples of purpose-driven innovation.  You can download the team’s complete portfolio here.

Pur trek open 1.  TASK UNIFICATION (assigning an additional job to an existing resource):  Hikers and campers can now experience PUR Trek and the confidence of having filtered water at all times anywhere they go. These 16-oz, single-serving, disposable, portable, and easy to carry drink containers offer a flat design for minimal storage, with easy-to- expand, biodegradable Tetra Pak inspired material.  For quick filling at a stream or other water source, the open top design allows the user to quickly scoop up the cool unfiltered water.  Then as the user drinks from the active filtering spout, all sediment and harmful particles are left behind in the bottom of the container.  Consumers can count on one disposable container to last up to 10 days, and they can be purchased individually or in 10- packs.

2.  MULTIPLICATION (making copies of a component but changing it):  The PUR-2-Go is PUR’s latest product targeting the needs of busy students and singles. Its two compartment pitcher is easily filled through PUR’s new electronic filter system. Integrated in the lid, this new filter works so fast that it filters instantly and makes a holding compartment in the pitcher unnecessary. The two compartments of the pitcher easily break in two. The bigger compartment can stay in the kitchen while the smaller compartment transforms into a reusable bottle of water to go.  This makes the use of bottled water unnecessary because the PUR-2-Go is just as easy to handle and quick to use. This grab and go usability of the PUR-2-Go makes it more convenient for everybody to commit to a greener lifestyle.

Academic Focus: College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning

Published date: May 18, 2010 в 12:48 pm

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The College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati has as its primary mission the creation of a better visual and design environment.  DAAP is frequently ranked as one of the best art and design schools in the nation.  Business Week ranked its design programs as one of the world’s elite. I.D. (International Design) Magazine listed UC among the globe’s Top 10 design schools – the only public institution to make that list.

A driving force at DAAP is my colleague, Craig Vogel.  Craig is the director of the Center for Design Research and Innovation at DAAP. He is also a professor in the School of Design with an appointment in Industrial Design. Craig is a leading voice in cross-University initiatives in innovation.  From the UC website:

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