Посты с тэгом: method

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.

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:

Innovation Anxiety

Published date: March 8, 2009 в 5:46 pm

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Innovating is hard work.  Perhaps the most difficult aspect is dealing with the anxiety that comes with following a systematic innovation  method. The process forces innovators to start with uncomfortable, abstract concepts that seem silly and worthless.  These are called preinventive concepts because they occur right before the moment of innovating.  Successful innovators learn how to deal with and control the anxiety at this critical moment of invention.  But there is a catch: some are better at it than others.  Fortunately, there is a way to determine if you are more or less anxiety-ridden from these effects.

Anxiety is a natural part of the SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM approach.  What causes it?  Finke, Ward, and Smith describe it in their classic book, Creative Cognition.  Once you have transformed an existing situation (product, service, etc), it becomes a hypothetical solution to a yet-to-be-found problem.  The trick to great innovation is to construct preinventive structures that have these properties:

The LAB: Innovating The Kindle with Task Unification (January 2009)

Published date: January 30, 2009 в 5:18 pm

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As we await the arrival of Amazon’s Kindle 2.0, it is a perfect time to begin innovating their next generation device.  Anytime is a good time to innovate, but it is especially meaningful to innovate just as you launch your latest innovation.  It tells the world you are serious about creating a sustainable pipeline of new growth opportunities.

This month’s LAB uses the Task Unification tool of Systematic Inventive Thinking to create new concepts for the Kindle.  The definition of Task Unification is: assigning an additional job to an existing resource.  The general idea is to break the current product down into components and then systematically give each component a new task or activity.  This creates an abstract “pre-inventive” form that we then take and discover potential benefits, target markets, and adaptations that would make the innovation very useful and unique.  This is what I call “Solution-To-Problem” innovation.

My goal is to come up with innovations that are not obvious or mere incremental changes in functionality of the current device.  If that is all we wanted, we could look at the iPhone or other electronic gizmo for ideas.  I don’t own a Kindle (yet), so I will work from the Kindle User’s Guide to make my component list.

  1. Screen Display
  2. Control Buttons
  3. Keyboard
  4. Cursor bar
  5. Select Wheel
  6. Dictionary
  7. Speaker
  8. Wireless
  9. Storage
  10. Battery
  11. Search (Software)
  12. Music Player

As I try to do in all LAB sessions, I created the following innovations in about an hour:

1.  SCREEN:  Kindle makes reading easier.  It tracks how fast you read and adjusts the scrolling speed to a comfortable level.  The screen resolution adjusts to your eyeglass prescription to optimize readability (brightness, contrast, text size).

2.  SOFTWARE: Kindle helps you become a better reader.  It keeps track of how much you read, the level of difficulty, when you read, at what intervals, and at what speed.  It becomes a “reading trainer” by suggesting ways to improve your speed and comprehension based on your patterns.

3.  STORAGE:  Kindle is a book management system.  It keeps a complete inventory of all books you own or have access to, digital and physical.  It relates the material you are reading now in a newspaper article or blog to books that you own so that you are aware of the connection.  It flags you to view material in books you own as it may be relevant to what you are reading now.  It connects context.

4.  CONTROL BUTTONS:  Kindle controls other things in your home.  It becomes a universal remote to control room lights, stereo, and TV.

5.  WIRELESS:  Kindle is a social tool.  It connects you with others who have a Kindle.  It alerts them on what you are reading at that moment in Twitter-like fashion.  It connects members of a book club who are all reading the same book, and it allows members to bookmark and comment on parts of the book, all shared wirelessly or perhaps via Instant Messaging.  Kindle sends what you are reading to your Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, or blog so that others can see what you are reading…now.

6.  SPEAKER:  Kindle translates words and speech.  It has Text-to-Speech function so you can highlight a written passage and then hear it spoken in words over the speaker.Google-maps-street-views

7.  WIRELESS:  Kindle enhances your imagination.  It integrates Google Maps with what you are reading so that you can visually see the location that is being discussed or described.

I can’t wait for Kindle…3.0!

Choosing Innovation Consultants

Published date: March 16, 2008 в 2:18 pm

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Choosing an innovation consultant is challenging for two reasons: the client is not always clear what type of innovation they want, or they are not sure what type of innovation a consultant offers.  Here are three factors to consider when choosing an innovation consultant:  1.  TYPE of consultant, 2.  METHOD used, and 3.  ROLE of the consultant.

The innovation space has become so crowded that I group them into four types (I-D-E-A):

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.  While true for some, my sense is that all firms started off as one type and then expanded to cover the others.  The question to ask yourself is: would you be better off matching your need to their original core expertise, or would you be better off going to a one-stop shop…a firm that can do it all even though their core expertise is, say, design.  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.  The other practice types get bolted on later.

Step Two is understanding their method.  The first question I ask consultants is, “Do you know how to innovate?”  The second question is, “How?”  I want to understand their method of innovation, and I want to be able to explain it to other people.  I want to know the efficacy.  Has it worked in the past and will it work on my project?  Show me the data.

Step Three is understanding the role of the innovation consultant.  Is this a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach where you are given some software or other resource to create innovation on your own?  Is this a DIWY (do-it-with-you) approach where the consultant leads and facilitates groups of your employees to innovate together?  Is this a DIFY (do-it-for-you) approach where the consultant takes your problem specification and comes back with their recommended solutions?  Or, is this training?  All of these roles are valid depending your need.

I am impressed with the talent and variety of the consultants in the innovation space today.  It becomes even more impressive when you select the right one for the job.

Measuring the Immeasurable

Published date: February 17, 2008 в 10:27 am

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Innovation, like most other things in business, gets caught in the trap of “how do we measure results.”  Innovation managers at Fortune 100 companies find themselves confronted with this question in their efforts to raise innovation capabilities.  In the end, measuring innovation doesn’t matter.  Measuring innovation methods is where the focus needs to be.
The typical approach to measuring innovation is revenue from new products.  The usual question is: “Show me a product generated from an innovation workshop and its first year revenues.  My response to this might be: “And let’s compare that to the revenue NOT produced from ideas NOT generated because of a lack of innovation.”
Some aspects of innovation are immeasurable.  During an innovation workshop several years ago, an engineer in the group had a depressed look on his face.  It struck me as odd particularly because we had just completed a vibrant round of ideation with many new possibilities.  The entire group was energized except this one individual.  Out of concern, I asked him if he was feeling sick or in pain.  What he told me struck me hard.  He said, “No, I’m feeling fine.  It’s just that I NOW realize, after this round of ideation, that an idea that I have been holding onto for a long time…won’t work.”
I remember thinking, “Wow!  What is the value of giving UP a failed idea so that you can now direct your full focus and energy to new pathways?”  This ideation session freed this individual’s mind AND motivation to move in new directions.  He would no longer waste his productive time pursuing a pet idea in favor of better possibilities.  He would begin creating value not from an idea generated, but rather from an idea given up.
How do you measure THAT?
The question is not: “Let’s measure innovation to decide whether we should do it.”  Rather the question should be: “Which innovation method gives us the most results to improve our business?”  Companies should compare methods using simple metrics like: total ideas generated.  From this tally, break it down further to: new ideas versus ideas we already had; ideas actually pursued; ideas likely to be pursued; ideas never to be pursued.  The key is to compare apples to apples.  I once asked a colleague how she liked using a particular method by an innovation consultant in the local area.  She said that she loved it.  I asked, “Compared to what?”  No response.
The best practice from Fortune 100 companies is to build and measure innovation competency…the inputs of growth, not the outputs.

Innovation vs. Leadership

Published date: January 19, 2008 в 4:50 pm

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Which is easier to learn: innovation or leadership?   That is one of my favorite questions to ask during  keynotes and workshops, especially to groups of accomplished leaders.  What amazes me is the answer I get back:  overwhelmingly, groups of executives say that leadership is easier to learn than innovation.
I could not disagree more.  I’ve experienced some of the best leadership training in the world starting with the U.S. Air Force Academy and all the way through to Johnson & Johnson’s many leadership training programs.  These programs were complex, psychologically-based, and multi-dimensional.  Leadership training is big business.  The demand is high, and the task is tall.  Executives flood to these programs to learn new insights and nuances of this highly people-based activity.  It is tough to learn leadership.
I learned innovation in a matter of minutes.  The process is clear, rules-based, and rigorous.  Anyone can do it.  When facilitated appropriately, you cannot NOT innovate.  The process forces original, novel, and highly creative ideas to come out of your head.
So why do executives feel that leadership is easier to learn than innovation?  My sense is that many have not been exposed to a bona fide innovation method.  These executives want organic innovation more than anything to drive growth.  Yet many are missing a simple insight what it takes…to invest themselves in learning innovation.  Once executives feel what it’s like to innovate on demand, they get it.  They start thinking about execution, scalability, culture aspects, resources needs, measurement, accountability, strategy, alignment….all the traditional things leaders think about…to move an initiative forward.
GE is perhaps the best example of a company that invests in innovation as much as it does leadership with its Imagination at Work program.  For GE, the question of which is easier to train…innovation or leadership…is moot.  They avoid the “leadership bias,” and they invest appropriately in core innovation skills to drive growth.

Innovation Subversives

Published date: January 13, 2008 в 1:38 pm

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Jim Todhunter offers sound advice for innovation champions who are feeling lonely in their efforts to evangelize:

“This is where many innovation evangelists fall down.  Too often, we are so wrapped up in our own world of high performance innovation practice; we forget that many people don’t have the frame of reference to get what we are describing.  We need to slow down and articulate the message more clearly and use clear examples that demonstrate how sustainable innovation practice builds the company’s value.”

This strikes a familiar chord with my colleagues in the Fortune 100.  Not only can innovation champions feel lonely, they can become extinct if they are not careful.  The Association for Managers of Innovation studied why corporate innovation champions struggle to survive.  The study looked at what actions and behaviors put these managers at risk in their efforts to evangelize.  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.  Most of the consultants have as their clients Fortune 500 companies and, in some cases, their former employers.

My advice: stop evangelizing and start doing.  Use a proven innovation method on a mainstream issue or product and let the results speak for themselves.  Don’t ask permission.  Don’t call it innovation.  Don’t preach the “..see, I told you!” message.

And then…do it again.  I take advice from Thomas Bonoma’s classic HBR article from 1986, “Marketing Subversives:”

“I found that under conditions of marketplace change, success depended heavily on the presence of marketing subversives in a company.  Subversive marketers undermined their organizations’ structures to implement new marketing practices….And no matter what higher management had decided to allocate to various marketing projects, the subversives found ways to work around the official budget.  They bootlegged the resources they needed to implement new, more appropriate marketing practices.”

The same can be said about innovation.

Are you feeling lonely as an “innovation champion?”  Forget it.  Get suited for subversion.

Innovation Roundtable

Published date: December 26, 2007 в 7:05 pm

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The Marketing Science Institute has formed a new Innovation Roundtable to explore common issues and challenges in the world of corporate innovation. The roundtable representatives are from Johnson & Johnson, GE, P&G, Diageo, Eastman Kodak, AT&T, Kraft, Merck, Thompson Healthcare, Praxair, Aetna, and General Mills. I had the pleasure of hosting the last meeting held at the Endo-Surgery Institute, J&J’s world class training facility for minimally invasive surgery. The group plans to meet twice a year.
Topics at this last meeting included:

  • How and why is innovation an important issue for your company?
  • When, how and by whom was this issue identified? Who currently “owns” it (and why)?
  • What steps have been taken to address this issue, with what results? What steps are planned?
  • What internal or external resources have you used (do you plan to use)?

For part of the agenda, the group practiced using the SIT innovation method on a product category from a member company (Kodak). We decided to make innovation a regular habit at our meetings so we can “walk the talk” not just “talk the talk.” Our goal is to try out a new innovation method at each meeting.
We are fortunate to have Professor Don Lehmann from Columbia Business School as our academic advisor. Don is a prolific researcher in the innovation space (and many others).
Next meeting will be held in conjunction with MSI’s conference, “Innovation and Co-Creation,” in Seattle June 16-18, 2008.  Check out MSI’s great collection of working papers and publications on innovation.

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