Посты с тэгом: corporate innovation method

Learn Innovation! Innovation Suite 2010

Here is an opportunity to learn  innovation directly from the people who taught me.  The course is called Innovation Suite 2010 and will be held in New York City from May 24-26, 2010.  You can register for it at http://www.sitsite.com/academy/.

Here are the goals of the course:

  • Be able to independently apply SIT innovation tools to your own business issues to arrive at solutions that you would not normally think of.
  • Learn how to develop a culture and practice of innovation in your organization utilizing only existing resources and structures, resulting in a less traumatic organizational change.
  • Begin to work on a relevant issue and arrive at some ideas through the 3-day workshop and the coaching hours.
  • Gain facilitation skills and receive support for conducting innovation mini-sessions in your organization.
  • Network with like-minded innovation lovers from a variety of companies, and learn how they approach innovation.
  • Be able to implement the knowledge acquired in the course upon your return to your company thanks to a structured follow-up program.

The course fee is $2,800 which includes course tuition; coaching hours; SIT materials including an internal “mini-session facilitation kit”; 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches and 1 dinner.  The course fee will be rebated back to you if your company orders a project from SIT by October 1st 2010.

Systematic Innovation Tools: The Course

Published date: April 12, 2010 в 2:00 am

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I am teaching my innovation course, Systematic Innovation Tools, at the University of Cincinnati this month. The course is a fusion of Systematic Inventive Thinking and The Big Picture marketing framework.  The Syllabus can be downloaded, but here are some details about it:

“This course focuses on how to create value and growth through
innovation in new and existing markets. Students will learn the skills
of innovation and how to apply those skills within the context of a
marketing strategy framework. Students will apply innovation methods
across the entire marketing management continuum including strategy,
segmentation, targeting, positioning, and the 4P’s. The course will be
taught using interactive workshop methods and techniques throughout.
Students will first experience these facilitation techniques while
learning innovation. They will then learn and practice these techniques
so that they can apply them routinely throughout their graduate
experience and beyond.”

Two aspects of this course are unique.  First, we don’t just talk about innovation…we DO innovation.   This current group of 31 graduate students are very bright and skillful when learning and applying innovation.  The other unique aspect is the creation of new products and services that are formalized in a hypothetical company catalog – The Dream Catalog.  This is an effective way to take new innovations and rationalize them into a coherent pipeline for growth.  Students work in teams to create an actual Dream Catalog within an assigned category.  We have six teams for the following clients:

  1. Pitcher1_box_large Procter & Gamble:  This team is innovating the PUR Water Filtration system to make the product line more adaptable in a variety of markets and situations.
  2. General Tool:  The team is innovating a medium sized jet engine to find new improvements or features that would extend the use of the engine into non-aviation applications.
  3. Cincinnati Art Museum:  This team is creating new ideas for how the museum displays art to create a whole new user experience for its visitors.
  4. Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati:  The students in this team are creating new clothing products and accessories for people with Down Syndrome.
  5. Twist Design Studio:  This new start-up company will feature unique, custom-made wedding and corporate invitations.  The students are using structured innovation to create completely new forms of invitations and paper-based products.
  6. Metro Innovation:  This organization holds innovation competitions on behalf of sponsoring cities to drive economic development.  The assigned students are using innovation tools to re-invent how the competitions are run.

For the final exam, students will be given a product randomly (with no advance preparation).  They must use each of the five templates of innovation (Subtraction, Task Unification, Multiplication, Division, and Attribute Dependency) on that product to create new-to-the-world inventions.  They have to take each invention and plot what strategic quadrant of The Big Picture would be most suitable. It demonstrates: 1. mastery of the skills of innovation, and 2.  the ability innovate within the context of marketing strategy.

I will post some of the results the Dream Catalogs and the final exams here on the blog. 

Kill Your Innovation Champion

Published date: April 5, 2010 в 2:00 am

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Here are five things companies need to do to develop the organizational structure, culture, and incentives to encourage successful innovation:
1.  Kill Your Innovation Champion:  It seems like a great idea to establish an “innovation champion” – responsible and accountable for driving innovation within the organization.  In reality, it stifles innovation.  Assigning a champion lets everyone off the hook.  Why innovate when we have our “champion” to do it ?   A study by the Association of Innovation Managers found that when companies assign innovation champions and establish separate funding, it threatens the R&D and the commercial departments.  “This kind of sponsorship opens the door for subtle forms of sabotage if the established business units believe that the innovation funding is inhibiting their ability to accomplish short-term objectives and take care of current customers. Without involvement, the commercial arm of an organization can also claim no responsibility for success or be blamed for failure.”  Instead of relying champions, a better approach is to encourage “innovation
subversives
.”
If you won’t kill your champion, no worry – they will go away on their own.  The study also looked at what puts innovation managers at risk.  Of the 15 innovation champions in the study, 10 left their organizations and became consultants, 4 joined smaller or start-up companies, and 1 retired.  None returned to a Fortune 500 company.
2.  Don’t Give Credit for Good Ideas:   Tanya Menon from the University of Chicago describes the paradox of an external idea being viewed as “tempting” while the exact same idea, coming from an internal source, is considered “tainted.”

“In a business era that celebrates anything creative, novel, or that demonstrates leadership, “borrowing” or “copying” knowledge from internal colleagues is often not a career-enhancing strategy. Employees may rightly fear that acknowledging the superiority of an internal rival’s ideas would display deference and undermine their own status.
By contrast, the act of incorporating ideas from outside firms is not seen as merely copying, but rather as vigilance, benchmarking, and stealing the thunder of a competitor. An external threat inflames fears about group survival, but does not elicit direct and personal threats to one’s competence or organizational status. As a result, learning from an outside competitor can be much less psychologically painful than learning from a colleague who is a direct rival for promotions and other rewards.”

3.  Fire the Lone Innovator:  Innovation is a team sport.  Keith Sawyer in his book, Group Genius highlights one of the most significant aspects of successful innovation – that groups of people are likely to be more creative than individuals working on their own.  A properly facilitated approach with a carefully selected “dream team” of employees yields innovation sooner, better, and bolder than the lone genius.
4.  Teach Innovation:  Innovation is a skill, not a gift.  It can be taught using structured innovation processes and templates.  Many universities offer courses and programs to learn innovation.  It is unacceptable that a corporation seeking growth through innovation would not have its employees properly trained in the skill of innovating.
5.  Build Innovation Muscle:  The best companies see innovation as an ongoing capability, not a one time event.  These companies work hard to build muscle around this capability so they can deploy it when they need it, where they need it, tackling their hardest problems.  Companies do this to keep up with the ever changing landscape both inside and outside the firm.  What does it mean to build innovation muscle?  I think of it as the number of people trained, the frequency of using an innovation method, and the percentage of internal departments that have an innovation capability.  Call it an Innovation Muscle Index:  N (number of trained employees) x F (number of formal ideation events per year using a method) x P (percent of company departments with at least one employee trained in an effective innovation method).   Innovation Muscle Index = N x F x P .

Voice of the Emergent Customer

Published date: March 15, 2010 в 2:00 am

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Are some customers better than others at developing new concepts?  Professor Donna L. Hoffman at the University of California Riverside thinks so.  Emergent customers  have a unique ability to “wrap their head” around a new concept and improve it.  She created a scale to identify them so companies hear the voice of the “right” customer during new product development.

Emergent customers are better at imagining how concepts address latent unmet needs.  Dr. Hoffman describes it as a “unique constellation of personality traits and processing abilities that enables such consumers to engage in a synergistic process of visualization and rationalization to improve product concepts.”  Those characteristics are:

  • Openness to new experiences
  • Reflection
  • Experiential and rational processing style
  • Verbal (rational style) and Visual (experiential  style)
  • Creativity (self perceived)
  • Creative personality
  • Optimism
The study included 1124 respondents and compared performance of those identified as emergent customers against those of lead users, early adopters, and a control group.  The emergent customers significantly outperformed the other groups.

Innovation Sighting: The Division Template on a Cell Phone

Published date: March 8, 2010 в 2:00 am

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LG Winners LG Electronics is about to announce their third annual Design the Future Competition.  Last year, more than 800 entries were submitted by consumers with their take on the future of mobile communications.  The winning entry is the focus of this month’s Innovation Sighting.  From LG:

“LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) recently named Emily Albinski from Wading River, NY the winner of its 2nd Annual Design the Future Competition.  The idea competition challenged participants to create a concept to define the future of personal mobile communication.  First place winner Albinski, a professional full-time freelance designer, created the CC on the theme of connectivity. The winning concept of a modular phone, which could be used by LG in the future, includes a “core” phone that can be inserted into a touch screen or netbook shell depending on the user’s needs.  By design, the winning concept would allow users to connect in many different contexts and environments. Albinski, a science and technology enthusiast, refined and laid out her concept in just four days.”

Her concept demonstrates the Division Template of the corporate innovation method, S.I.T..  Division works by listing the components of the product or service, then dividing out a component either physically, functionally, or by preserving the characteristics of the whole.  Emily “divided” out functionality of the traditional cell phone, then embedded it into different environments and platforms to create new innovations.

Umbrella-today To make it even more interesting, it is useful sometimes to place the divided out function into less obvious environments.  For example, imagine the cell phone functionality is embedded into an alarm clock. A musical instrument.  An umbrella.  Using SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM thinking, imagine how this would work.  What problems would it solve?  What benefits could it deliver?  Who would want such a device?  For example, perhaps your umbrella is notified when it should be carried with you that day.

Congratulations to Emily and all the winners.  I am looking forward to the next round!

Innovating to Compete

Published date: March 1, 2010 в 2:00 am

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Innovating is a form of competitive behavior.  When we innovate, we compete with someone or something.  We innovate to survive. We innovate for glory.  We innovate to win.  Leaders of organizations need to understand and leverage this competitive aspect of innovation to embed it into the organization.

Innovating to compete occurs at many levels:

  • At the national level, governments compete with other nations for trade, economic power, and global political influence.
  • At the municipal level, cities compete aggressively to attract investment, firms, and employees to stimulate jobs and economic growth.
  • At the industry level, competition among sectors is fierce.  Industries want to attract customers, investment, talent, and favorable government treatment.
  • At the company level, firms want to be more competitive by differentiating themselves in the marketplace.
  • At the business unit level, franchises compete with one another for budget resources and manpower.
  • At the individual level, peer rivals compete with each other for promotion and bonuses.
  • At the personal level, we compete with ourselves to achieve a new “personal best” when overcoming challenges.

Here are suggestions of what leaders can do to embrace competition and drive innovation:

The LAB: Innovating an Aquarium Using S.I.T. (February 2010)

Published date: February 20, 2010 в 3:31 pm

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 There are a 183 million pet fish in the United States, more than double the number of dogs.  Fourteen million U.S. households
have fish.  During the past decade, the pet fish category grew by more than 20% making it one of the fastest growing in the industry.  For this month’s LAB, we will apply the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to the mainstay of fish keeping – the aquarium.

Here are five unique aquarium concepts invented by one of my graduate students, Janette Douglas, at the University of Cincinnati as part of her final exam in “Applied Marketing Innovation.”  For the this exam, each student was given a product randomly.  They had three hours to create new-to-the-world concepts and demonstrate proficiency using each of the templates.

To use the S.I.T. method, Janette starts with a component list:

  1. glass panels
  2. lid
  3. bottom of tank
  4. fish
  5. gravel
  6. plants
  7. filter
  8. water

Here are her ideas:

1.  SUBTRACTION (remove an essential component):  Remove the fish.  Make the tank a “plant only” tank.  The benefits are: lower maintenance, lower cost, more flexibility, and more room in the tank.  The target audience is people who enjoy the peaceful nature of an aquarium but don’t want the responsibility of taking care of an animal.  (DREW’S NOTE: this idea actually exists today, especially for a niche of aquarium owners who “aquascape“.

2.  TASK UNIFICATION (assign an additional job to an existing resource):  Assign the gravel the additional job of regulating water temperature. The benefits are: no need to monitor water temperature as it is self-regulated, easy to add fresh water without having to worry about temperature, and less expensive as you do not need a separate water heater.  Target audience is people who tend to make frequent changes to their home’s temperature or people who live in climates with extreme temperature changes.  Feasibility is a question mark – not sure if this technology exists or could be developed.

Double Tank 3.  MULTIPLICATION (make copies of a component but with a qualitative change):  Multiply the filter but change direction of flow – instead of filtering waste out, the second filter adds components to the water.  The benefits are: easy to add vitamins and other useful chemicals making it easier to control water quality.  Target audience is people who have exotic fish that require specific water conditions.

4.  DIVISION (physically or functionally cut the product or component):  Cut the glass in half. This creates two separate spaces in the aquarium to support two separate marine environments side-by-side.  Target audience is people who want to enjoy fresh and saltwater tanks.  It could also be used by
marine biologists who want to use two separate tanks to do research (manipulate one side and compare results to the other).  (DREW’S NOTE: this product exists).

5.  ATTRIBUTE DEPENDENCY: (create or break a dependency between internal and external attributes):
The glass panels change (clarity) depending on the oxygen levels in the external air and internal water environment so that adjustments can be made accordingly.  Potential benefits: greater accuracy of water composition in relation to the external air.  Target audience is fish hobbyists or scientists needing to carefully regulate oxygen for specific types of fish or plants.

Janette did a nice job on this final exam even though she is not an aquarium owner.  What I like about this example is that is shows how well people can innovate even when they are not experts in the product or service.  I doubt that a person who had
never seen an aquarium could have generated these ideas.  But with just a general knowledge about the domain, people can innovate routinely using structured innovation methods.

Innovation Sighting: Subtraction on CPG Products

Published date: February 15, 2010 в 2:00 am

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Here are two CPG products from this week's Best New Product Awards.  I tried them at home and noticed a pattern.  That pattern suggests a different way to use the Subtraction Template of the innovation method, S.I.T..  The question is whether that pattern can be replicated on other products to create line extensions and new categories. 

The first product is the Bounce® Dryer Bar from Procter & Gamble.  The second is the Scrubbing Bubbles® Toilet Cleaning Gel from SC Johnson.  See if you can spot the pattern in each:

Did you see it?  Each product has had an important step subtracted in how the product is used.  The conventional way to use the Subtraction Template is to list the components of the product or service, then remove a component, usually an essential one.  Using SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM innovation, we take the hypothetical solution (The Virtual Product), and imagine problems that it solves.  These two products were created by listing the steps of how the product is used instead of the components.  The step: "consumer places product onto usage area" was subtracted.  In essence, the product has to "get" itself to the usage area or be installed in the usage area permanently so it can be used on demand. 

Let's see if we can replicate this idea with other CPG products.  Here are nine products and how a new product could evolve using this same pattern.

  1. Deodorant:  Instead of applying deodorant with an applicator, the product now has to reside under the arms on its own.  How?  Perhaps it could be embedded into clothing or undergarments.  Perhaps it is woven into the armpits of undershirts.  After a number of uses and wash cycles, it is replaced with a new dosage.
  2. Shaving Cream:  Instead of slathering on shaving cream out of a can, we remove that step and embed shaving cream into the handle of the shaver.  It dispenses as the shaver is used.
  3. Lip Balm:  We remove the tube applicator of the lip balm and place the balm somewhere else so it can be called into service when needed.  The question is: where?  This is a tough one because there is no intervening element such as a shaver, toothbrush, or washing machine as with the other examples.  Perhaps it could be stuck to your lips like the tiny, thin teeth whitening strips.  When you press your lips together, you get a dose of lip balm.
  4. Detergent:  Instead of pouring detergent from a bottle, the product is pre-loaded into a container within the washing machine.  The washer knows how much product to dispense based on how much laundry is placed inside. 
  5. Mouthwash:  Here is another tricky one because there is no intervening element.  Here is how it might work.  Instead of pouring mouthwash out of a bottle into your mouth, we have the product dispensed to the back of the tongue (where bad breath starts).  From where?  Sinus cavity, a tooth area, lips, etc.  Applications onto the body are  tougher because there are "less forgiving" areas to pre-install product as with the two cleaning product examples.
  6. Toothpaste:  Instead of squeezing toothpaste out of a tube, we pre-load it into the toothbrush.  It dispenses automatically.  This is the same idea as the shaving cream.
  7. Eye_Drop Eye Drops:  Instead of using an eyedropper to pour liquid into the eye, we place a thin coating on the eyelid.  When you squeeze your eye shut, the eyeball is moisturized.  This one is a stretch, but the concept could hold true with the right technology.  It would make it much more convenient than leaning your head back and taking aim with that little bottle.
  8. Hair Spray:  Similar to the shaving cream and toothpaste examples, we pre-load hairspray into a specially-designed hairbrush that meters it out as needed. 
  9. Floor Cleaner:  The cleaning solution is pre-loaded into the handle of the mop or somehow stuck to the floor where it can be accessed when needed.

Perhaps we will see some of these at the Best New Product Awards of 2011!

The LAB: Innovating the iPad with Attribute Dependency (January 2010)

Published date: January 31, 2010 в 4:07 pm

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Lab_2

 

Apple’s iPad creates a new category of consumer electronic somewhere between smart phones and notebook computers.  Success depends on how well it embeds into our everyday routines at work, home, and elsewhere.   Success also depends on how well it creates new routines.  A great innovation tool for this is the Attribute Dependency template of the corporate innovation method called S.I.T..  This template creates (or breaks) dependencies between attributes of the product and the external environment.  The iPad already has many of these.  My favorite, for example, is the ability to show the correct display no matter how you hold the device.  There is no up or down.  It is an example of breaking a dependency between screen orientation and device orientation.

To use Attribute Dependency, make two lists.  The first is a list of internal attributes of the iPad.  The second is a list of external attributes – those factors that are not under the control of the manufacturer, but that vary in the context of how the product or service is used.  Then create a matrix with the internal and external attributes on one axis, and the internal attributes only on the other axis.  The matrix creates combinations of internal-to-internal and internal-to-external attributes that we will use to innovate.  We take these virtual combinations and envision them in two ways.  If no dependency exists between the attributes, we create one.  If a dependency exists, we break it.  Using Function Follows Form, we envision what the benefit or potential value might be from the new (or broken) dependency between the two attributes.

I created a matrix when demonstrating the use of Attribute Dependency on the iPhone.  To save time, I am going to use the same matrix for the iPad.
Here are five new innovations for the iPad along with the attribute dependencies that led to the idea:

1.  LOCATION-JOB TYPE:  The iPad has GPS, so it knows what room it’s in at home or the office.  Once it senses its location, it automatically loads the application or screen display that is most suited for that location.  Alternatively, the iPad could default back to the last application that was in use at that particular location.  So if you walk into the kitchen with your iPad, it would automatically pull up the menu application.  If you walk into your boss’s office, it pulls up apps and information related to work.

2.  USER-MUSIC SOURCE:  The iPad will become a family appliance like many others in the home now (TV, microwave, etc).  Unlike other appliances, the iPad will sense which family member is using it (by touchpad sensors), and adjust settings such as source of music, font styles, multi-touch behavior, apps, etc.

3.  BATTERY LIFE-TIME:  Same as the iPhone idea, the user can switch to a “battery conservation mode” that will power down features not needed (color screen goes to black and white, wi-fi off, vibration off).  Or, the iPad does it automatically depending on time of day such as at nighttime.  For travelers who like to keep the device on all night in their hotel room, this would save time and battery life.

4.  FUNCTION-TIME:  The iPad knows what day of week it is, so it would adjust its settings and functions to that day of week.  The “Sunday” iPad acts and works differently than the “Friday” iPad.  It knows our routines day-by-day, and it adjusts to an optimal configuration accordingly.

5. LINKAGES-VIDEO QUALITY:  As the linkages to things like email, SMS, YouTube, etc. change, so does the video quality.  This is an odd one because you would think the user would want the same video quality for everything. Perhaps the advantage here is that the screen optimizes size, resolution, brightness, and other qualities to adjust to the application being used.

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification with the iPhone

Published date: January 25, 2010 в 2:00 am

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The iPhone is an incredible platform for innovation.  As it becomes more popular, it invites even more innovation.  Many of the iPhone’s functions demonstrate the Task Unification template of the corporate innovation method called S.I.T..  Task Unification is a pattern that assigns an additional job to an existing resource or component within a product or service.  To use Task Unification in practice, we start by listing the components of the product or service.  Then we assign non-intuitive tasks to some of the components randomly.  The idea is to create weird, ambiguous “virtual products” that don’t seem to make any sense.  Then we work backwards from this hypothetical “solution” to a possible problem that it addresses.  Linking the solution to a problem creates an idea.

L5-technology-universal-remote-adapter Here are two recent examples of Task Unification in the iPhone.  What is unique is the use of a resource that is often overlooked: the charger receptacle.  The device shown at left plugs into the charger receptacle and turns an iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote. It’s made by L5 Technology, and was launched at CES 2010.  It controls any compatible device within 30 feet using a free app from the App Store.

Mophie-credit-card-reader-iphone

Another clever example of Task Unification shown at CES was the Mophie credit card reader device. It lets you take payments with your iPhone using a third-party app and a device that attaches directly to your phone.  I have seen a similar device used exclusively at Apple stores, but this is the first available for the consumer market.

Check out more iPhone innovations yet-to-be-seen.

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