Innovation Consulting

Can Technology Replace Teachers

2011-12-17T12:10:00.001-08:00

Can Technology Replace Teachers?

Posted on November 15, 2011

The following article has been submitted by Lindsey Wright. Lindsey is a writer and can be reached at lindseywright39 @ gmail dot com. I’ve posted my comments in the comments section below.

Can Technology Replace Teachers?

What is the role of teachers in today’s technologically driven society? That is really the main question to ponder when discussing whether technology can take the place of educators in the near future. Within the past decade people have started to take online courses and master foreign languages through computer programs such as Rosetta Stone, so imagining robots taking over the education realm isn’t that far-fetched. Even though technology can do many of the same responsibilities as educators, there is one thing that guarantees that technology can never take their place. Human relationships. A teacher does not just transmit knowledge; he or she guides his or her students. Teachers are mentors who encourage students to develop critical thinking skills and apply them to life. Teachers also pass on social skills and develop a moral compass to their students so transmitting knowledge is just a small part of what a great educator does.

via ipadinschools.com

$135 Million? No Thanks

2011-12-17T12:08:00.001-08:00

$135 Million? No thanks …

by LANGDON on DECEMBER 10, 2011

At the risk of restating the obvious, it would seem that the most notable thing that happened in the world of innovation in 2011, at least as far as the business world is concerned, was the sad death of Steve Jobs.

His biography sits at number one on the best seller lists, and when was the last time a book about innovation held that spot? I don’t think it’s ever happened before!

But that is what the biography of Job is really about: how this extraordinary man managed not only to express his unique vision through decades of breakthrough work, and how he managed at the same time to organize a company around his efforts, and then how that company came to be valued as one of the top companies in the world, just behind (or above, depending on the stock market on any given day) the world’s mightiest oil behemoths.

via innovationlabs.com

Do “Lean” and “Innovation” Go Together?

2011-08-04T11:24:00.001-07:00

via innovationlabs.com

Once the Toyota management system became more widely known by the single word “lean,” it became a fad and a mantra (and also a boon for authors and consultants who have been able to help companies adopt the lean mindset and methods). In the process of doing so, a great number of companies and indeed entire industries have been quite substantially transformed. Lean Innovation

Can IT Help Lead Innovation? -

2011-07-12T20:04:00.001-07:00

If your company has refocused on innovation, it’s not alone. After deprioritizing innovation in 2009, companies recommitted to innovation in a big way last year, according to the Boston Consulting Group's Innovation 2010 survey (PDF) (conducted in conjunction with BusinessWeek). The global management consultancy found that despite a stalled economy, 72% of companies consider innovation a top-three priority and 84% consider innovation a way to reap the benefits of a recovering economy. Two thirds, 64%, plan to boost innovation spending.

Such a focus is wise: BCG found that innovators outperformed their industry peers by a full 12 percentage points over three years. "Becoming better at innovation is the single most important thing you can do," write the authors.

But just what is innovation, in the context of an IT department or established business? Defining the term can seem like a challenge. "There are far too many long-winded definitions of innovation, and many of these tend to focus on the whole debate around incremental versus disruptive innovation," says Tom Koulopoulos, CEO of the strategy and innovation consultancy Delphi Group. These academic discussions do little to focus people on the core of what innovation is a how it should be measured, he says. "So let's keep it simple: Innovation is any change that adds value to a process or product." Another definition is offered by Jatin DeSai, CEO of the management and innovation consultancy the DeSai Group: "Innovation is when you use ideas to make money.”

The promise of a financially fruitful outcome — now that makes any CEO smile. In fact, most experts agree innovation efforts are difficult indeed without CEO participation, because innovation efforts inherently involve risk. In addition, innovation depends on creativity, which relies on thinking and acting differently, says DeSai. Most organizations are designed exactly for the opposite behavior: Employees are taught to conform, to follow a predictable process, to assure certainty.

It is just those issues of predictability and risk that arise when discussing IT's innovation potential. IT is more often seen as an innovation block rather than as an enabler, says Langdon Morris, partner at innovation consultancy InnovationLabs. He points to his recent experience with a hospital industry client. The client has been developing and making significant progress on a long-term and wide-ranging innovation program since 2008, including customer communication initiatives focusing on Web and mobile applications.

The problem, Morris says, is that progress in these areas has stalled because of IT. The initiatives are blocked at every turn: It's not our priority; this project has too many security risks; we don't have the manpower. At Morris’ client, people working on the customer initiatives have the impression IT is working against them. Such roadblocks cost the company money and brand equity. "If this was just one company then it would not be worth mentioning,” he says, “but it is very common.”

John Pipino, CIO at innovation consultancy the Doblin Group, has had similar experiences. He says that in companies where technology is not the end product, the IT department is more likely to be a barrier to innovation than to drive it. In his view, there are three main reasons. First, IT is generally given two broad mandates: support the company strategy and stay on budget. Using the IT budget to support business strategy is difficult in companies where that strategy is not clear, or at least not clear with respect to IT.

Even when strategy is clear, Pipino says, time and money are tightly calculated, and innovation does not respond well to those pre-formatted conditions. IT — like HR and legal — is often dedicated to compliance, which is a fixed process. This is another condition to which innovation responds poorly, he says.

Finally, opines Pipino, IT often believes that it is innovation. IT is not alone in this self-perception. Such a view is often also held by product development, R&D, and marketing groups, he says. Still, disputes about “who owns thought leadership” discourage creative thinking and introduce interpersonal tension — two more conditions that inhibit innovation.

The company's view of IT can also problematic. Much has been written over the years championing the CIO's right to a "seat at the table" and IT's strategic function. The reality may be quite different. IT is increasingly marginalized and commoditized, says Koulopoulos. In most companies, IT is a support function and not a strategic function, though Koulopoulos believes that such a view is a mistake.

IT does have the potential to play an important role in a company's innovation efforts, Koulopoulos says. IT is typically the only group that crosses the existing silos and otherwise disconnected parts of an organization. "Who is better suited to build an innovation practice?" he asks.

Pipino also believes in IT's potential to participate in innovation. "Going from a sketch on a napkin to run-time code is a discipline the rest of the firm could benefit from," he says. "Outlines, story boards, wire frames, prototypes, proofs of concept, testing cycles, pilots, and roll outs are coin of the realm for development projects." In other words, the everyday tools and processes upon which IT relies have much benefit for the innovation process. That said, "IT can regularly contribute to innovation only when they have a strong connection to the ultimate customer of the company," Pipino adds.

Customer. That's a word that comes up often when discussing IT's role in innovation. That's because innovation is about adding value, and you can't do that without understanding your customers, both internal and external. If innovation is ultimately about making money for the company, it's not hard to see why learning about your customers — really understanding their needs — is crucial. IT needs to discover how to use its capabilities to improve communication with customers, and also how to make it easier for people to work inside the company, says Morris.

DeSai says that the most innovative IT groups he has worked with share a strong commitment to making money for their internal customers and innovative methods of doing so. When IT departments can help find new insights about customers, markets, macro trends, competitors, and technology-enabled business models, they can be a strategic practice such as the marketing and finance departments, says Jatin. But gaining this level of business savvy requires work; IT staff need to truly learn how the business makes money.

To participate in innovation, IT must be seen as a competitive advantage, not merely a support function. To help lead your company's innovation efforts, you must first change any such views and perceptions. In other words, run IT like a business.

IT departments must master the delivery and quality demands of information systems first, says Jatin. This means IT must demonstrate that it is making money for the organization — coming below budget and helping the organization achieve a customer centric focus — and not just a cost center for the organization. "Only then, they have the ‘right to be at the table’ and help drive the overall innovation and technology agenda for the entire organization," he says.

Apart from larger discussion of innovation, IT leaders can start with innovation in their own groups, even in less-than-ideal conditions. "I don’t think IT organizations should wait for the world to change or improve," says Jatin. "Ideas come from people; if you have people, then you can start to innovate now," he says.

Jatin suggests that you can create such a climate in your department, and accomplish this much faster than any big innovation program led from the corporate office can roll out. You can do this in part by looking at the everyday with fresh eyes. For example, promote questioning. He recommends, promoting "the four whys" for every project discussion. Don’t just take accept the status quo. Ask why should something be done, or why now, or why that way, or why not this path vs. that path? This starts to push people to get out of the usual way of thinking, so that they can rethink possible solutions. Learn and teach to dig deeper, just to see what possible new solutions to an old problem are. In fact, a questioning spirit may be one of the most important skills shared by innovators.

Though innovation requires creativity, it actually relies on structure. Koulopoulos and others recommend systematizing your innovation process. Definitions and measurement are crucial. What is innovation for your group and company? Don't leave it abstract or unclear. And be sure that you create clear measurements as well. After schooling your team on innovation, be sure they know exactly what's expected of them, recommends DeSai, and integrate those behaviors into the HR performance management process, even setting up a reward fund if possible.

Most important: Make innovation a priority. It won't “just happen.” Despite the plethora of hurdles, IT is crucial to innovation. "I believe that IT departments can be the best program managers for innovation," says DeSai. "Especially when IT departments are in partnership with marketing, they can create powerful platforms to gain deeper understanding of current and future needs of the customers."

via h30565.www3.hp.com

Langdon Morris was interviewed for this article.

The Future of the Textbook | iPad in Schools

2011-06-30T14:54:00.001-07:00

I’ve written about how I feel the iPad is going to revolutionize the way people access content – and specifically how it can change the experience of accessing textbooks. Here’s a short video that gives a very good look at the possibilities.

via ipadinschools.com

The Billion Dollar Pump

2011-06-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

When a company achieves greatness, one of the unwelcome side effects is that its leaders become tempted by new challenges elsewhere.

So is Apple’s triumph in the market going to cause the company to start bleeding executives?

via innovationlabs.com

One Year of iPad in School | iPad in Schools

2011-04-09T12:29:00.001-07:00

Here's a recent blog post I made about some of the articles in the news these past few weeks - one year after the iPad was released. It's likely that these are early adopters but the tide is turning and I can imagine that the iPad (or something like it) will be standard issue in schools in the near future.

http://www.ipadinschools.com/276/one-year-of-ipad-in-schools/

Apple’s Next Moves?

2011-03-10T14:14:00.001-08:00

via innovationlabs.com

A new blog post by my business partner Langdon Morris about what Apple's next moves might be. It's fun to test our own thinking about business model innovation and see how that would apply to a company like Apple - that is so good at surprising us!

Do iPads in School Change Behavior? | iPad in Schools

2011-02-28T14:21:00.001-08:00

via ipadinschools.com

I was just reading an article about some studies being conducted at Wharton Business School to see if the iPad changes behavior in the learning environment. I imagine the study will find that it does – but we’ll wait until the research is reported.

Combine that research with a recently published study by Reed College that concludes the iPad can meet the demands of a higher ed curriculum, and it’s likely we will see more iPads showing up on college campuses in the near future.

Do iPads in Schools Change Behavior?

Turning Point for News Media | iPad in Schools

2011-01-30T16:04:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

I hope you have had a great holiday time and the new year has started off well.

Over the holidays I made a short video about what I believe is a fundamental turning point in the way media – and particularly news media will be consumed.

Wave One

Initially people accessed news either through one of five means – newspapers, magazines, radio, television or word of mouth. I would call this the analog means of accessing news. It’s analog and it’s also somewhat serial – meaning you access one ‘story’ at a time and there isn’t really a good way to get a big picture of all the stories and/or to pick and choose what you want to know about. The ‘news’ was pushed or fed to people by the publisher.

Wave Two

The first major transition for these news sources and for consumers accessing news stories took place with the introduction and proliferation of the internet. Instead of always getting news in the traditional five ways much of the same content was digitized and made available through a web browser. Most of this was free although some news outlets were able to charge for access to certain content in certain forms.

Wave Three

The next major transition – and what I believe is a major paradigm change – is taking place with introduction the iPhone, the iPad, and the subsequent introduction of apps that run on these devices. Most recently Apple introduced the App Store for Macintosh and Google introduced the App Store for Chrome – both of which now are redefining the way that applications are accessed, updated, and used.

Now, almost all of the traditional media houses are creating dedicated applications – apps – that can be run on either a computer screen, a tablet screen, or a phone screen. These apps are optimized for the specific content being made available in some combination of video, audio, and text formats.

There are also applications like FlipBoard being developed that translate ‘content’ from Facebook and Twitter and turn that content into a magazine format – allowing the user to ‘flip’ through the content and go deeper only on the stories that are interesting to them. Peter Yared of Venture Beat calls this the ‘ipadification of the web’ and something he feels is actually good for the internet and internet based content. I agree with him.

The point has come now where people will not surf the web for web pages and they won’t be changing channels on a TV or on a radio. They will be accessing ‘channels’ via specifically designed and build applications. Want to access specific content? There’s an app for that!

The iPad in High School

via ipadinschools.com

I believe the turning point for how people will interact with and consume news (specifically) is upon us. The introduction of the iPad and now the proliferation of apps on mobile devices, computers, and television screens will usher in a new paradigm of media and content consumption.

Innovation at the base of the pyramid

2010-12-20T17:02:00.001-08:00

via innovationlabs.com

There are lucrative markets all over the world that companies are vying for, and innovation is playing a role in all of them. The middle class is growing rapidly in India and China now, and millions of people join the global economic engine in these countries each year. But many people who live at the base of the economic pyramid are also seeing more economic opportunities.

Innovation Consultants are finding ways to address the 'bottom of the pyramid' with new and very unique approaches. We've been participating in that innovation as well.

Technology Trends in Schools | iPad in Schools

2010-12-12T15:59:00.001-08:00

via ipadinschools.com

I was reading an article about some technology trends that schools will need to be aware of – and likely pursue – in 2011 and thought I would write about them. I’ll go through the list from the article I read and make some comments. These trends should impact the use of iPads in Schools over the next 12 to 24 months.

Tablet Wars Begin | iPad in Schools

2010-11-24T15:46:00.001-08:00

via ipadinschools.com

As the iPad continues to have success in the many countries it is now available in, other computer manufacturers are starting to announce and deliver their offering into the tablet market (I’ve listed a few of them below). For school personnel – teachers, network administrators, and policy makers – the advent of new tablets could present a problem. Will other tablets take the place of iPads in School?

InnovationLabs Newspaper

2010-11-20T10:03:00.001-08:00

I can't say that I totally understand this - but we now have an InnovationLabs newspaper that is generated from the twitter feeds of the people I follow (and the people they follow??). You can see it at http://paper.li/innovationlabs

iPad Apps for Middle School | iPad in Schools

2010-11-16T13:27:00.001-08:00

via ipadinschools.com

The following is a list of iPod and iPad apps that can be used in middle school learning environments. I’ll keep this updated as I find new apps that could be useful!

iPad Apps for High School | iPad in Schools

2010-11-08T16:51:00.001-08:00

The following is a list of iPod and iPad apps that can be used in high school learning environments. I’ll keep this updated as I find new apps that could be useful!

via ipadinschools.com

iPad applications that can be used in High School settings.

Summary of the Innovation Master Plan Framework

2010-11-01T19:04:00.001-07:00

Summary of the Innovation Master Plan Framework

by Langdon Morris, Director, InnovationLabs

Abstract

I’m nearing completion on a book about the Innovation Master Plan framework, but I’ve had so many requests for a summary of the key concepts that I’ve prepared this white paper. As I continue to work toward completion of the book I welcome your thoughts and feedback on the ideas presented here. Please me send an email with your comments. Thank you!

Is there any doubt in your mind about the importance of innovation?

Do you feel that innovation is vital to the future of your company? And perhaps to your own future?

Since you’re reading this, it’s reasonable to assume that you do. And of course I agree with you.

The problem is that innovation, the process of innovation, can be very difficult to manage. It’s risky and expensive, and entirely unpredictable. Einstein reportedly said, “It’s called “research” because we don’t know what we’re doing.” And even if we think we do know what we’re doing, the results frequently fail to live up to expectations.

Innovation is important and difficult; all of this is obvious. So now what?

Certainly we have to get better at it by applying tools and methods that will help to improve the process and the results. Even better would be to adopt a systematic approach that includes tools, but also goes beyond them to address the bigger pattern, the large scale risks and opportunities that your organization faces.

That’s the idea behind The Innovation Master Plan. It describes a system for innovation, and helps you design and implement your own Master Plan so you can make it happen.

Contents

introduction

why innovate

what to innovate

how to innovate

who innovates

where to innovate

conclusion

Share and Enjoy:

via innovationlabs.com

A new publication summarizing the Innovation Master Plan Framework.

The iPad Crosses the Chasm | iPad in Schools

2010-10-27T17:54:00.001-07:00

via ipadinschools.com

I’ve often wondered why some things seem intuitively obvious to some people while other people might never come to accept an idea without the validation of some ‘authority.’

As an outsider to the schooling system it seems to me that teachers and administrators are often limited in what they can do – even if they know its’ the right thing. I started this blog to explore the use of a new technology in the schooling environment – because it seemed like an obvious winner.

Purpose and Method of the Innovation Portfolio

2010-10-18T14:51:00.001-07:00

The purpose of the innovation portfolio is to increase the likelihood of success at innovation, whose purpose in turn is to reduce the inevitable risks related to being in business in the first place, which is the problem of change.

via innovationlabs.com

The most recent blog post by Langdon about the Innovation Portfolio.

Structure Wins When Designing Conferences

2010-10-11T19:46:00.001-07:00

via innovationlabs.com

I’ve helped design a number of conferences over the years, often working with organizations who want to make significant changes to the format of their conference so that it can be more productive. I offer some options here that you may wish to consider for the design of small conferences (20-50 participants).

A new blog post by Bryan Coffman about the structural elements of conferences and how they can be changed to influence more interaction and creativity.

Using iPad in Archeology | iPad in Schools

2010-10-01T20:37:00.001-07:00

via ipadinschools.com

Imagine how this kind of application can be applied in school settings. Not only does this change the dynamic in the classroom but it also untethers the learning from inside the classroom and allows students and teachers the option of taking the learning outside – into the community. Doesn’t that make sense? Isn’t that the kind of learning we would imagine for our children? The iPad in Schools" makes so much sense!

What Might Innovation Award Winners Look Like in Five or 10 Years? - WSJ.com

2010-09-28T09:10:00.001-07:00

Langdon Morris, one of the founders of InnovationLabs, is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about innovation. Langdon has recently edited a book for one of our clients about the opportunities for doing commerce in Space. Space Commerce is available at Lulu.com ( http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/space-commerce/12551110 ) or you can read about it at http://www.atwg.org.

As an innovation consultant and collaborative design facilitator we have the privilege of being exposed to a wide variety of interesting organizations and projects. Space Commerce is a completely brand new marketplace that will likely evolve over the next several decades. This third book by the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG) is a broad and fascinating survey of the important topic of Space Commerce. "The authors are genuine experts within their fields, and many of them have been together in the loose collaboration of the ATWG for two decades. They share a common impatience with incremental development and bureaucracy, and will lead the reader in exploring the frontier of this emerging business venue.”

Here's an excerpt from the WSJ article and the link is below:

Heavy-Lift Launching

A critical obstacle to any sort of space-based future is getting some rather sizable objects beyond the reach of the Earth's gravity.

But Langdon Morris, a partner with the InnovationLabs LLC consulting firm, notes that while state-invested companies in the U.S., Russia and Europe have developed "heavy lift" launch capabilities, one private firm is moving to surpass them all in terms of payload capacity—an innovation that could slash launch prices and make larger payloads commercially viable.

SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., says it hopes for a 2013 launch of its Falcon 9 Heavy rocket, which is designed to carry payloads of up to 70,000 pounds into low Earth orbit, about one-third more than the Space Shuttle, which is the largest-capacity launch vehicle now in operation.

"Cost-effective heavy-lift launch will enable new space commerce industries," says Mr. Morris.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989304575504513109245490.html

The Theory Behind: Innovation Metrics

2010-09-27T22:33:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of metrics, indicators, and other important data-to-consider that I've collected over time. Some of them I've personally used in projects, others are references from books and articles whose origin I have lost. I will be adding more in this same post as they come up. Feel free to recommend some in the comment section and if they are valid I'll add them up.
Remember you should select metrics according to your Innovation Strategy and processes, as well as your company’s balance scorecard and other KPI. Some measures showed here are not metrics but will definitely help you manage innovation or at least create good business presentations.

Investment and Resources
Budget percent allocated to innovation efforts
% of capital invested in innovation activities such as submitting and reviewing ideas. This percentage can also be divided in each type of innovation: incremental or radical.
% of workforce resources dedicated to innovation. It can be measured in employees’ hours, number of employees or technology, not only money.
Number of innovation tools or methodologies available in the company.
Margin requirements for investment
Innovation Resource utilization (%) = Asigned / availability.
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R&D
% of capital invested in R&D.
R&D Productivity = Lifetime Gross Margin / Lifetime R&D
R&D spend as % of revenue = Revenue / R&D overlay * 100.
R&D budget that is non-internal
Free time allowances for R&D employees
R&D staff turnover
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Idea Generation
Number of ideas submitted by employees in a period of time.
Number of idea submitted that follow the innovation strategy / total of submitted ideas
Number of ideas submitted by customers
Number of ideas submitted by suppliers or alliances
Ratio of number of concepts to actual products = Actual Products / Total number of concepts. How many ideas actually come true?
Number of apt ideas generated per creative sessions or workshop
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Project Selection
% of Killed Projects = killed projects / total projects submited. If the percentage is high maybe you are being too strict and you should review your selection criteria or maybe your selection criteria is OK but need to work in the quality of ideas.
% of early no’s on project proposals = number of projects killed at the first stage of proposal / total number of killed proposals. Why are projects being killed so early? Killing a project before it causes more costs is good but beware on what you are killing and why.
Sum of costs of “killed” projects or stopped active projects.
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Organizational Culture
% of employees that belong to minority groups. See the post “Tolerance and Innovation”.
% of employees that have innovation as a key performance goal.
% of employees that have received a training in innovation methodologies.
% of executives time spent on strategic planning rather than day-to-day operations.
Number of employees that have different educational or cultural backgrounds (mutidisciplinary and multicultural)
Number of entrepreneurs in the company individuals who have started their own business or show signs of business leadership and ambition.
Number of new competencies (skills or knowledge acquired by employees which differ from the business core knowledge and skills).
Number of innovation experienced team members
Number of cross-functional initiatives
Number of creative thinking sessions or workshops
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Portfolio Management
% of new products launched vs. The entire portfolio.
Product Innovation Index Number of new, innovative, or upgraded product features distinguishable from the previous product.
Number of new lines of products launched.
Number of new markets entered in the past year.
Number of ongoing ventures / experiments / investigations.
Number of times in the past 5, 10 or 15 years that the company’s core business has changed or redefined.
New product success rate (meeting expectations)

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Process / Execution
Reduction in new product/process development time/cost
Within target budget/sales/profits
Number of gateway returns
Product / Servics characteristics meeting customers expectations
Product / Servics characteristics meeting company's strategy
Percentage of innovation projects outsourced
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Timming and Launching
Time to market. (you can divide it in different stages and measure times, comparing it against expected time or earlier times to market)
Number of projects late-to-market If you were already working on a project but competition launched it first.
Number of Engineering Changes before launching (effectivness of the design group)
Number of Engineering Changes after launching (especially useful for IT)

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Sales and Revenue
% of sales due to new launched product or services = Sales from launched products / Total sales.
% of revenue that comes from partnerships or joint ventures.
Break-even time
Average time-to-profitability for changes to existing products or services
Average time-to-profitability for new products or services
Return on investment
Return on equity
Sales Growth
Residual income
Average of prices paid by costumers
Average annual sales per costumer

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Other results and Value
Cost, development time, delivery time, quantity and price of products and services offered.
Share of Wealth = the change in the company´s market value / the change in the total industry’s market value during the same period of time.
Market share increase / decrease because of new products.
Market penetration increse because of new products.
Consumer's brand recognition and perception because of new products.
TAM (Total Adressable Market) created by new products or services
Number of clients increase / decrease because of new products
Frequency of repeat costumers
Number, complexity and size of customers, partners and suppliers
Customer satisfaction with innovation activities
Number of customer complaints.
Number of recalls or cost of recalls.
Numbers of New Product innovation awards / Design recognitions receibed
% of shelving won because of new products
Number of strategic alliances (suppliers, other companies, government, educational institutions)
Geographic diversity of products and sales
Number of new patents granted
Number of scientific papers, articles or publications where brand is advertised as innovative by others (Blogs included!)
Competitive position within industry
Amount and quality of customer data acquired related to innovation
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If you want to apply the best metrics and measures personalized for your company and with IT systems that support them... hire ChromaticWorks ;)

via thetheorybehind.blogspot.com

A great set of innovation metrics to compliment the list in Langdon's white paper.

Nussbaum: China, India, Mexico, and Brazil Embrace "Design Thinking"

2010-09-26T13:03:00.001-07:00

Design Thinking is spreading throughout the world. This article identifies a number of firms that are embracing Design Thinking as one of their <a href="

http://www.innovationlabs.com/topics/innovation-tools/">innovation tools</a> and connecting a global network of design experts to local needs.

Nussbaum: China, India, Mexico, and Brazil Embrace "Design Thinking"

Nussbaum surveys a unique network of innovation leaders in the "CIM-B" countries.

If you’re a business or an NGO with an operation in Asia or Latin America, where do you go when you want some serious local design thinking? You might start by calling my colleague and friend Carlos Teixeira, a Brazilian-born assistant professor at the School of Design Strategies, in Parsons The New School for Design.

Carlos has a Ph.D in design from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, one of the leading intellectual centers for design thinking in the world. Carlos heads a research lab called the Design Knowledge Networks Lab and he's the only guy who's tracking the growing network of locally-owned innovation consultancies in emerging markets that do strategy using design thinking.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662340/nussbaum-china-india-mexico-and-brazil-are-jumping-into-design-thinking

Front End of Innovation Blog: “EPIC Insights” Podcast Series Features Innovation Authority Mark Johnson

2010-09-26T12:52:00.001-07:00

Innosight Chairman and Author of “Seizing the White Space” Offers Blueprint for Operationalizing Innovation
“Get out of your own way,” advises business model innovation authority Mark Johnson. For established Fortune-class companies, in particular, this may be the first and most difficult step toward building and sustaining a culture that fosters the capacity to innovate and create new growth opportunities.
Johnson – with his business partner, Harvard’s Clayton Christensen – has mastered the art and science of helping companies harness disruption for competitive advantage.
In this first installment of the expert interview series, “EPIC Insights: Innovation Activation,” Johnson outlines the framework for an organizational approach to managing radical change that can not only inoculate a company from disruptive external forces, but predispose it to shaking things up from within.
Mark Johnson will share his model for unlocking transformational growth opportunities in detail at IIR USA’s 1st Annual EPIC (Entrepreneurial Partnerships Innovation Conference) October 27-29 in New York City.

Listen to the podcast
Download the transcript or read it below
Greetings and welcome to the Institute for International Research Podcast Series: “EPIC Insights – Innovation/Activation”. This will be the first installment in a series of interviews with thought leaders and experts in the Innovation/Activation domain, each of whom will be featured at IIR’s First Annual EPIC Event taking place October 27th through the 29th in New York City.
This group of speakers encompasses a wide variety of industries and functions, but they share one common denominator. Each of them has a unique talent for realizing the untapped commercial potential of what I’ll call: “The innovation surplus stockpiled in the minds and on the shelves of corporations and individuals alike.”
Today, we are very fortunate and most delighted to welcome Mark Johnson. He is the Chairman of Innosight and the author of: “Seizing the White Space – Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal.”
Before we get started, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your background and a little bit about Innosight?
Mark: Sure. Well, my background, I started actually in the US Navy. I went to the US Naval Academy and spent eight years in the nuclear power program of the US Navy on a surface ship and was in the first Gulf War and decided to get out. I enjoyed the management aspect of the Navy, but not deployment. So, ended up going to Harvard Business School. That’s where I met Professor Clayton Christensen of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” fame and we decided to start a company together to apply the principles of disruptive innovation. We started Innosight together in January of 2000. So, Innosight’s been around for just a little over 10 years. We are a strategic innovation consulting and investing firm and we are really focused on helping companies identify and develop new growth opportunities to help them address disruption that may be happening to their industry or just stagnation in their core markets. So, how do you create those really powerful, game-changing, new growth opportunities and how do you make that a repeatable process? That’s what Innosight’s about. It’s a pretty dynamic duo. (Laugh).
Can you tell us a little bit about: “Seizing the White Space.” What inspired you to write the book and tell us a little bit about it.
Mark: Well, the company started based on disruptive innovation. Clay Christensen’s work from “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, which was all about how well-intended, good management run companies all of a sudden lose their way. So, what was the root cause behind that? It became about these disruptions; these disruptive technologies, these innovations that happen that topple the top firms. As we dove more into the work, we realized that it wasn’t really about disruption in the sense of the technology. It was really that companies weren’t able to address the threats because of their established business model. We intuitively knew that, but we didn’t really have a good understanding of what does it mean when we talk about business models and business model innovation. So, this book is really about getting deeper and understanding in a fairly straightforward and as fairly simple a way as possible how to understand a business model, how to innovate a business model and how to manage that kind of innovation to create new opportunities. But also as it relates to simply managing the change that might be necessary in the organization to get out of its own way and do things differently to create that new growth opportunity.
It’s almost a professional Darwinist aspect to it as though these companies don’t really seem to have the, if you will, intuition to adapt to anything that might come along the way. Is that kind of the approach that you are looking at here?
Mark: That’s exactly right. I mean, they have the intuition of when they are going to be threatened or at least the insight to know when there is a threat on the horizon. Or the idea that: “Boy, we better do something different” as it relates to trying to come up with a new product or do things for a customer a different way. But, when it comes to the organizational adaptation, having to organize a different way or operate and coordinate in a different way or turn a profit in a different way, those things are very difficult for companies to do.
They have a real hard time, just as people do, of really changing in any fundamental way. So, one of the ways to help is to get at why a company is in business in the first place and what is the core DNA of what makes a business successful? If we can get at that and self-recognition of what we are about as an organization, then we have a better chance of understanding how we might need to change it to address the fundamental changes that are happening in the environment.
So, with that as a background, let’s use that as a launch pad into discussing a real concept that you referenced, obviously in the title of your book, but frequently elsewhere. And that is the concept of white space. Can you explain what this means to our listeners?
Mark: Well, white space is not a new term. I think it’s at least perceived to be an area that’s about doing something that’s unchartered; an unchartered market, uncharted territory, a whole brand new market. An area where some company or some individual hasn’t gone before or it hasn’t been developed. Those are all true statements, but as I thought about white space in the sense of a clean slate, of going into those places that one has not gone before, I think the crisper definition of that is when companies not only have to go into a new market, but when they have to change again the way they make money or the fundamental way they organize and have a different, say, operating model. When they have to make those changes to the fundamental business model, that’s truly a company’s white space. That’s where the slate really is a blank slate and they have to really think in a way that puts pieces together in ways that hasn’t happened before. When you think about new markets, you can say that’s white space and unchartered territory, but oftentimes companies are leveraging what they’ve done all along. They’re just putting it into a new context. Therefore, they are not really working off of a blank slate. They are doing things the way that they’ve known how to do it for a very long time. That’s the distinction I’m making.
On some level, we are talking about being equipped to handle what might be considered an external threat. But, on another level, I think what you are getting at (and correct me if I’m wrong) is a company’s innate ability to think differently and to exploit opportunities that really they might have been blind to because they are accustomed to, again, doing things in a very traditional sort of conventional way, dependent upon the company’s culture. When you and I spoke earlier, you mentioned that even very established and stable traditional companies periodically need to undertake what we’ll call “radical steps”, even if the threat isn’t immediate. So, I’m wondering if you could elaborate on that. Why do you believe it? And could you provide us with a couple of examples of instances where this approach has been successfully embraced, as well as perhaps instances where it wasn’t embraced to the company’s detriment when it should have been.
Mark: Sure. Well, I think every company faces the reality that the market is going to change before them. Products that were once highly differentiated over time become commoditized and growth in these markets slows as more and more people are consuming and the market becomes saturated. So, they can face growth gaps. They can face margin pressures as these products commoditize. They can face new technologies that come in that disrupt the existing technology, such as what happened in the computer industry and the personal computer disrupting the mini computer, which actually disrupted the mainframe computers. So, there’s technological evolution. There’s just major market shifts that happen, such as what we are experiencing in energy and clean tech and the need to have renewable energy for the whole concern about the environment. So, the reality is that any company that sustains or lasts for a long time is going to face some of these market forces. And the ability to be able to undertake radical change (being able to do things fundamentally different to address what might be a whole new customer with a new value proposition or a major change that’s going to happen in the industry) requires the ability to not only establish and extend their core business, but create new business opportunities that in the term “radical” is radical compared to operating and just strengthening the core business.
A number of companies have demonstrated in a very successful way the ability to periodically make these radical steps while continuing to operate and sustain the core business. For example, IBM is a maker of mainframe computers, but was still able to understand that personal computers could be disruptive to mainframe and its mini-computer business. They established a separate operating company that worked in a different way down in Florida to sell personal computers, which were very disruptive to the mainframe business. Disruptive in the sense that it was a different business model; it was a different way of making money and operating and distributing to customers. Hewlett Packard set up a different way of selling printers with its inkjet printer group that was run in a very different way than the laser jet printing group that was in Boise, Idaho. It was able to do both, but it required the ability to set up a different business. Apple Computers, as we all know the famous story about the iPod, that was a big shift for Apple because it was doing something they never did before, which was to get into music retailing; an entirely new market for the company. And it required not only selling a product, but a service called: “iTunes.” And then, of course, there have been all kinds of added businesses since then. But, again, it’s been a very successful example of being able to embrace doing things radically in order to, in Apple’s case, address declining market share and break out of the role of being the perpetual niche player in the personal computer market.
On the failure side, unfortunately, there are a whole host of failures to cite. Kodak was never really able to embrace digital imaging until it was too late, I think, for the company to be sustainable or relevant in any real way. The whole newspaper industry, as an industry, has been so late to the game of being able to address its disruption through the Internet and be able to devise things that go beyond just putting newspapers online, but coming up with whole new business models to embrace delivering content in novel ways. The list could go on. In the airline industry, established incumbents like Delta trying to get into discount airlines, but only doing it half-heartedly with Delta Song and as a result, having to shut down only a few years after its start.
The one that always comes to mind for me is Smith Corona in word processing. But to your point, sometimes these aren’t overnight events. They can be death by a thousand cuts, sort of gradually. What is of interest to me is that you were talking about innovation. You mentioned that it can be disruptive from multiple perspectives. So, operationally being one example. Obviously, your market is another and so on and so forth. So, we are not necessarily talking about line extensions or the sort of safe innovations that companies typically turn to. This is, at its core, almost a business model for innovation that you’re going after. Is that safe?
Mark: Yes. The focus here is really about those circumstances in going after whole new growth or addressing a threat where serving a customer in a fundamentally new way because you are now in a new market or because the existing market has been reinvented. In order to serve that customer in that value proposition it’s going to take not only changing the product or changing the marketing approach, but the organizational approach behind that, the business model, to include the way that you make money. That would have to change, as well. That’s what I mean by business model innovation. There’s those fundamental, systemic, organizational, financial changes in order to support the ability to serve either new customers in fundamentally new ways or existing customers in fundamentally new ways because you’ve moved to get to that next level of need through them, such as they want to just have something done in a much more customized and convenient way.
I guess the million-dollar question is how to do that. And along those lines, “radical” is a very scary word for most people and, certainly, for most organizations. But, according to you it need not be provided the organization has the appropriate structure in place. So, you advocate a framework, almost a philosophy, a methodological approach to innovation. Can you tell us a little bit more about this?
Mark: Well, I think the first point about white space is to think about: “Well, gosh, this is this area of high ambiguity” as a way I define it, where you have to change the whole way you operate and turn a profit, as well as reaching these new customers and new markets, etc. So, you have all of these unknowns and assumptions of how are you going to go and do that? So, then that level of mystery leads companies to say: “I’m not going to do that because it seems so risky and so scary.” Especially compared to the way companies are sustaining themselves day-after-day, which is they have a core business and they are basically executing and operating because they know what they are doing and they’ve been doing it for a very long time. So, if you’re going to go into this now stark area, stark contrast from what the core business is doing, you have to go in with some structure and some way of thinking about how do you de-risk some of those elements that you’re going to have to address and how do you get started and how do you think about the steps? That’s where coming up with a definition and a framework for a business model is the first step. It’s to understand what is your core business model, how does it work and then going into these new markets. We need a way to say: “How do we build the appropriate business model to achieve this new growth area that’s in our white space?” The very first step is to start with the most important piece of the business model framework that I articulate in my book, which is you have to understand the most important, unmet jobs that these customers you are trying to reach need to get done and build a powerful value proposition, an offering that defines how to address those jobs. Once you’ve done that, then you can talk about designing on paper a business system using again the Four-Box Model that can address that value proposition. That’s the second step. Then the final step is to recognize that any new business creation effort requires iteration. No successful new venture has got it right the first time. In fact, 90% of successful new ventures change their business model four times before they get it right. So, for the third step, you have to have an approach that’s about learning and testing, but not learning and testing like you would do in an R&D setting or a product development setting. It’s got to be in a large market in the market. It’s about what AG Lafely of P&G said was transactional learning. So, if you can think about those three major steps (focus in the market to understand important, unmet jobs and build value propositions that you know are compelling. Second, get into design thinking mode to construct a business model that can address, in the right way, those value propositions and then third, have the ability to test and learn in the market, which means go more slowly that what an established business would do with its market and customers). Then you have structure and you have a process and approach by which you can make these new areas of growth much more predictable and much more disciplined.
It’s an interesting complement, for lack of a better term, to what the EPIC Conference IIR is putting together is all about, which is really about creating strategic partnerships to activate what, again, I’ll call that innovation surplus that’s tucked away on shelves at many companies collecting dust and sitting in the back of people’s minds. Where do the principles that you’re advocating fit into this and how can they be applied to bring some of these neglected ideas to life?
Mark: I think the first point I would make about this is oftentimes the innovation ideas that are tucked away in the shelves are product ideas, are concepts, are technologies, or inventions that just haven’t yet been commercialized. I remember having this workshop or actually a CEO Summit that included Bob Higgins, who is the Managing Director of Highland Capital Partners. And he observed, going through this business model effort and discussion, said: “I recognize now when we invest in technologies and companies that have these technologies, our outcome is really 50/50 of whether we’re going to be successful. But, every time we invest in great business models behind these business ventures, we win.” So, I think where this fits together, or where I know this actually fits together, is understanding that great businesses are about wrapping great business models around enabling technologies and products and ideas that have the opportunity to have impact and have the opportunity to get commercialized and sustained through the means by which a company can create economic value for itself. But, that requires these business model techniques, this understanding about how value is created and delivered, then captured beyond just the innovative product ideas and sort of unique ideas in order to create true success. I think for an audience like EPIC, which has many entrepreneurs, of course, and investors in it, getting beyond the investment in just the technology to understand the importance of the business model that needs a wrap around it and the ecosystem can get us to a higher level and a higher hit rate in a much more predictable pattern of success.
One final point on this question is I’ve talked about this in a Harvard Business Review article I wrote about jumpstarting the clean tech economy. The reason I wrote it is because I observed with clean tech, we have all this investment in technology; billions and billions of dollars, venture-backed, Government-backed and we have a lot of effort going on to try to get the right policies in place to get these technologies actually implemented in the market to be true renewables. But, I don’t see much investment in any real, serial-incubating of businesses of matching that into target markets where you could actually think about this systemically and making it happen. Until we can get beyond just technology and policy to integrate with business model understanding, we are not going to see the actual commercialization of things the way we would if we had a broader view of what are the different levers of innovation beyond the technological one.
For anybody who is listening, if you would like to hear more from Mark Johnson, he is going to be our Keynote Speaker at IIR USA’s First Annual EPIC Event that’s taking place on October 27th through the 29th. I believe Mark is speaking on the 28th, if I’m not mistaken, in New York City. Mark’s presentation is entitled: “How Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs can Unlock Transformational Growth Opportunities through Business Model Innovation.”

via frontendofinnovation.blogspot.com

Here's a podcast with Mark Johnson, Chairman of Innosight and author of "Seizing the White Space." In this he talks about business model innovation and how large organizations need to continually harness disruptive innovation for competitive advantage.

What’s the Right Person Worth in the Knowledge Economy? Ask Mark Hurd.

2010-09-09T19:21:00.001-07:00

via innovationlabs.com

Specifically, the chart shows Oracle’s stock price, and that jump is an increase in the price of Oracle stock between the closing on Friday, September 3, 2010, and the opening on Tuesday, September 7. Over the weekend Oracle announced that Hurd was being hired as co-president of Oracle, about a month after he resigned as CEO of HP in the wake of a personnel scandal.

Flying Cars and Personalised Robots by 2110 say Children of Today

2010-09-06T18:22:00.001-07:00

Have you thought about including young people in your innovation process?

Ideation or idea generation is one part of the 'innovation funnel.' There are a lot of processes we can use to come up with new ideas and sometimes it can pay to spend a little time in unique places. Like Hauling, the post before this one, asking young people might be one of those places.

Does your ideation process include something wild? Have you asked the young people in your life about their future?

A junior think tank has predicted that flying cars, personalised robots and homes made entirely out of recycled materials will all be commonplace in 2110 Britain. The research, commissioned by housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, asked a panel of over 1,000 seven to 11 year olds how they thought we would live in 100 years time, with some interesting results.

You can read the whole story here:

http://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/news%20and%20events/Schools%20and%20Community/Future-predictions-by-children-of-today

Brilliant Market Research - Teenagers Showing Off Latest Trends

2010-09-06T15:01:00.001-07:00

This is cool. Teenagers doing market research for you! They are called Haulers! What an interesting addition to your innovation process.

Like, OMG, I totally found the hottest trend!
Young women showing off their shopping mall finds in front of a webcam? That may not sound like compelling viewing to some, but these so-called "haul" videos can attract millions of viewers, and marketers are taking notice by offering gift certificates to some of the more popular "haulers." Submitting your brand to the uncensored reviews of teenage girls may sound like a risk, but at least one expert believes "it's a pretty good deal for everybody." National Public Radio (text and audio)

Unlimited Paid Vacations

2010-09-06T14:48:00.001-07:00

Here's a very interesting strategy that is counter-intuitive and could possibly contribute to creating the kind of culture needed to differentiate your company. I could see how this could become a part of an innovation process.

Companies reward workers with unlimited paid vacations
One in 100 American companies now offer their workers unlimited paid vacations, a counterintuitive strategy that HR experts say can boost employee loyalty without significantly impacting the bottom line. Traditional holiday allotments are a "relic of the industrial age," says Netflix vice president Steve Swasey, and workers who are happy in their jobs don't tend to abuse the system. "We have people who never take a vacation for three years and then take a 90-day trip someplace," Swasey says. "But they've earned it." National Public Radio (text and audio)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129137542