“Welcome to the Proven, Practical, Profitable Innovation podcast! I am Richard and I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day to listen to this podcast.
Today I’m going to be sharing with you some of the most helpful thinking I’ve ever experienced regarding innovation strategy that can really make a difference in your business.
Please be sure to listen to the end of this podcast where I give you an exciting preview of future podcasts.
If after listening to this podcast you feel a need for more help, please contact me directly—my email is richard@i2ge.com. You can also go to my website—i2ge.com– where you can explore many innovation topics, especially check out the DIY Innovation Training on the menu bar. We customize all the training programs to our clients’ unique needs and circumstances.
OK, let’s get into today’s very important topic—innovation strategy.
While I have subscribed to the Harvard Business Review for many years, I have not frequently found information that is both proven and practical. Having spent six years in academia as a professor at Arizona State University—after spending 26 years at Procter & gamble and Gallo–, I developed a view that people in academia do not have a clear understanding of the real world. Most of their perspective, in my opinion, comes from being an observer of business rather than as an operator of a business. When you are a business operator, you have a very high appreciation for information that is both practical and proven. Having said that, in the June 2015 issue of the Harvard Business Review I found the best ever thinking and advice on how to develop a powerful innovation strategy. Since there is so much help in this extensive article by Gary Pisano, a Harvard professor, it will take more than one podcast to share all of the high quality insights that can help your business.
So let’s dive in.
In the opening headline of the article, the author makes the point that over the last several decades businesses have invested heavily in innovation – time and money – only to be frustrated with the results in many if not most cases. You recall from an earlier podcast where I shared that 75% of all new products and services fail within five years, with most failing within two years. For companies who think they’re pretty good at business, this can be pretty frustrating.
For good or bad, companies often have an overall business strategy. I say for good or bad because business strategy efforts often produce a written document that frequently just gathers dust or is not kept current in a rapidly changing world or was not well developed and thought out in the first place.
Putting aside for a moment how well developed an overall business strategy is, companies frequently fail to develop a companion innovation strategy even though innovation is probably critical to the success of the overall business strategy. To be clear, companies do think about how innovation can help, but it is often thinking about tactics and processes. For example, companies can get caught up in how to best reorganize R&D, utilizing open innovation/crowdsourcing innovation, and setting up alliances with other companies. This is not strategy.
Successful innovation requires a system. How is a company going to go from identifying the most promising innovation paths to developing big ideas consistent with those paths to developing business concepts and designs to selecting the best projects to fund and bring to market. How are you going to do this? This question needs a well-thought-out answer or your risk of innovation failure becomes very and unacceptably high. Maybe most importantly, the right answer for your company is probably unique, which makes it very difficult to just copy what some other well respected innovation company is doing.
A business strategy and innovation strategy need to go hand-in-hand. These strategies cannot be developed at lower, functional levels of the organization since functional interests may be at odds with total company interests and this can torpedo innovation success. As a result, business and innovation strategies require the deep involvement of a company’s most senior leaders.
The development of an innovation strategy requires the perspectives of 1) competitors’ strengths and weaknesses along with a view about how to develop competitive advantages in your type of business and 2) the company’s strengths and capabilities that can be deployed to create those competitive advantages.
In thinking about these two points, the crucial question becomes how can innovation create better value for customers? Value is the critical part of the equation. Value includes functional efficacy and efficiency. Value includes the price someone pays for the benefits delivered by the product.
Value can be created in many ways. You can deliver the same performance at a better price – net, there is a value advantage. You can deliver much better performance at a relatively better price – net, this is another way to create a value advantage. You can make it more convenient that can save time, which has an economic value creating a value advantage. You can make it more reliable, which is another way of saving money relative to competition so that you create a value advantage. While all of these may sound attractive, smart business people know you need to choose which avenue to go down. Capabilities required to develop each of these potential value advantages can be very different. You need to know your strengths and the marketplace environment to guide which choices are best and right for your business.
Another critical question is “how is your company going to ensure the company’s value goes up as a result of your innovation efforts?” So many companies grasp at the fool’s gold of having a technology patent or a patent of any kind. They think this creates a barrier to competition. The truth is, companies have so many ways of delivering a specific set of benefits and value and your patented technological solution is only one of those ways.
So if a company cannot rely on a patented technological solution alone to create its value delivering advantages, what can it do to ensure that it financially benefits from innovation? Often a patented technological solution is a starting point, not an end point. This solution needs to be bundled together with additional capabilities delivering relevant and compatible customer benefits.
A great example of this is Apple. They were not the first ones with a smart phone or a tablet that we know as the iPhone and iPad. Yes, the hardware is very good. Bundled with the hardware are a highly functional and intuitive operating system and more apps than we ever thought possible. Both Apple and external apps formed an operating environment with the hardware to create significant competitive advantages against major, highly capable competitors like Microsoft, Google with their android operating system, and Samsung.
The other associated learning from innovation successes is that the first innovation is important but a program of continuous innovation is necessary to maintain and build whatever initial success a company achieves. Just think about the annual updates to the iPad and iPhone operating systems and a continuous flow of new and often amazing apps.
Ongoing close.
What you can do today with this information. The major point from today’s podcast and part two that follows is that if you count on innovation to grow your business, you must have – not nice to have – an innovation strategy.
First, this article suggests an innovation strategy should be developed for every company that relies on innovation for growth. Least you think that this suggestion applies to a minority of companies, in my experience the vast majority of companies do not have and innovation strategy.
Second, the Innovate2Grow Experts or i2Ge experts have led well over 100 innovation projects with medium to very large companies. Almost universally, we have seen the lack of a comprehensive innovation strategy. Our experts get hired because of their proven track record in inventing many high potential ideas. As I mentioned in a previous podcast, Doug Hall – the founder of Eureka Ranch – and I have both remarked how clients go off-site, invent products with very high potential for success, and then as little as a month later those ideas have been virtually neutered. I’m not saying that 100% of this could be avoided with an innovation strategy, but I truly believe many, many more big ideas would survive and thrive.
Third, with 75% of new products failing, the lack open innovation strategy or a very weak one is a significant contributor to this unnecessarily high failure rate.
Fourth, given these two points, I believe it is very important for everyone listening to this podcast depends on innovation for success to create a well thought out innovation strategy utilizing the excellent guidance in the article on reporting on here.
If you would like to see the key written points from this podcast, you can find them in my blog – i2ge.com/blog.
If you would like to contact me, please email me at richard@i2ge.com.
If you would like to create far more robust innovation capabilities within your business, I have a complete portfolio of training programs that we tailor to your unique needs. If you would like to learn more, go to the Innovate2Grow Experts website – i2Ge.com and click on DIY Innovation Training.
One of my six books is Proven Practical Innovation That Delivers Results. This very low-cost book is available at Amazon in paperback and has a Kindle book. Is truly packed with lots of practical help.
Importantly, if you found this podcast helpful, please consider helping us with a five-star rating for these podcast. Thank you in advance for your support.
A preview of the next podcast I.
The next podcast present part two of how to develop a powerful, practical, and proven innovation strategy. You will learn about the various kinds of innovation and in what business situations each is most appropriate. Following this podcast you will, in combination with part one, have the ability to start defining the unique innovation strategy that is right for your business.
Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Please have a great day.
This is Richard and I want to welcome you to the Proven, Practical, Profitable Innovation Podcast. As always, I greatly appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to listen to this podcast. My promise is that in every podcast I do my best to share information that will help you in your business – any business and at any time.
As you know by now, this podcast shares the very best practices available today for you to be successfully innovative and creative. I draw from my decades working in and with both very large and small businesses. As an innovation entrepreneur I’ve been hired by major corporations and small businesses to help them become much more innovative.
This podcast concludes our idea generating exercise series with one of the most innovative people in America today – Kari McNamara. In this series of interviews with her, we explore some five very intriguing idea generating exercises. This interview explores a creativity exercise she calls musical chairs. In the second series we dive into some actual case studies with well-known companies where she has been the key external leader.
If you have a need to make your business or your life more innovative, at Innovate2Grow Experts we offer a complete portfolio of training so that you can do it yourself. For example, we can help you develop and fine tune creative idea generation for any need at any time so that you get at least 12 times more ideas than brainstorming.
You can always contact me by emailing richard@i2ge.com.
Please be sure to listen to the end of this podcast where I give you an exciting preview of future podcasts.
Kari McNamara has led well over 100 inventing sessions, many of which led to the introduction of products that sold more than $100 million in their first year. She absolutely knows how to generate a high level of quality creative and innovative ideas from virtually any group. This is another in a short series on creative idea exercises that can really help you today.
So let’s get into our interview with Kari about an idea generating exercise she calls “musical chairs.”
Musical Chairs
Make a list of the leaders or people you admire most.
Pick a strong personality – someone who has achieved something you want to achieve.
Write down all the things you admire about them.
List at least 10 people.
Randomly pick one, and ask yourself how your business or product line would change if that person were in charge. What would they do differently? What would they change?
If you would like to see the key written points from this podcast, you can find them in my blog – i2ge.com/blog.
If you would like to contact me, please email me at richard@i2ge.com.
If you would like to create far more robust innovation capabilities within your business, I have a complete portfolio of training programs that we tailor to your unique needs. If you would like to learn more, go to the Innovate2Grow Experts website – i2Ge.com and click on DIY Innovation Training.
One of my six books is Proven Practical Innovation That Delivers Results. This very low-cost book is available at Amazon in paperback and has a Kindle book. Is truly packed with lots of practical help.
A preview of the next podcast. CASE STUDIES?
Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Please have a great day.
Discuss the critical elements that determine our success.
Suggest some additional alternatives and variations that are also proven to be effective.
Show how the other three elements of quantum idea generation can put a turbo booster on these exercises.
Kari’s three exercises – what they have in common.
Examples of how stimulus can prompt new ways of thinking about needs, opportunities, and creative solutions.
Grab bag – involved random stimulus where the main criteria was something that captured our attention, we thought it was interesting and even provocative. It is an exercise where each object gets special, focused attention as opposed to dealing with a group of stimuli at one time.
Kitchen chemistry –this is especially good for food and beverage exploratories, we get to consider a wide range of stimuli in different combinations a challenge many of our preconceptions. In this exercise groups of stimuli, often unexpected combinations, challenge us to think in new and different directions.
Uncle moneybags – removing conscious or subconscious barriers to our creativity, in this case money. This is a barrier that often stands in the way of people broadly considering potential creative solutions.
Break the laws – this is another creative exercise that has the same basic purpose as uncle moneybags. In this exercise you are asked to write down all of the innovation related do’s and don’ts in your business. What you identified them, you then are given the freedom to completely ignore all of them. This is a powerful exercise because it again removes barriers that usually are in people’s thinking in a way that limits their creativity. Breaking free creates freedom to explore new dimensions, which can often lead to the big, breakthrough ideas.
Reduce fear: fear of looking bad in front of your peers and even your boss.
To varying degrees they all get us out of our comfort zone.
When we are in our comfort zone, is the equivalent of being inside the box, which as I’ve mentioned before makes it very difficult to get out of the box thinking.
Need to be faced with the unusual, the challenging, and even the inspiring.
The other factors in quantum idea generation.
Diversity: most of the examples that Kari shared were in a creative group with only people inside the company. For example, the engineers at the utility pole device company.
All exercises work much better when we have increasing levels of diversity.
Levels of diversity – a mixture of functions and disciplines from within the company, people within the company and external expertise, and add to this people with high levels of creativity and big picture business perspectives.
Left/right brain.
The three exercises she shared with us are modestly right brain in orientation. When they are only modestly right brain, left brain people can still feel reasonably comfortable and be creative.
The break the laws exercise: left brained people love this because it gives them greater freedom and right brain people love it because they love freedom in almost any form.
Always be aware of the makeup of the people in your creative session. Many company disciplines, like manufacturing and supply chain, tend to have a strong left brain orientation. That’s not to say that there aren’t some truly right brained folks. Utilize creative idea generating exercises that will optimize creativity based on the left and right brain group composition.
Reducing fear.
As mentioned earlier, break the laws and uncle moneybags are too creative exercises that can significantly reduce fear – fear of being confined by the way things have been done in the past and fear of needing to have ideas fit into a specific budget constraint.
Exercises that allow a certain amount of fantasy and freedom to let the creativity go wherever it wants to go, can help significantly reduce the air.
Please recall earlier advice. Provide strong and consistent positive feedback, especially when people share ideas that clearly step outside the box. Make sure that bosses within the group understand they are important role – no judging of ideas or people.
So what can you do with this series.
First, you have some specific step-by-step idea generating exercises that can be used in many/most creative sessions.
Second, make sure that you incorporate all four elements of the quantum idea generation model. Remember it’s not always black and white. There are degrees of diversity, degrees of stimulus, degrees of left/right brain exercises, and degrees to which you can reduce fear. Do your best in the circumstances you are faced with.
At Innovate2Grow Experts or i2ge.com we have more than 100 pages of creative idea generating exercises. This gives us great flexibility as we go through a creative session. While I’ve always entered a multiple days project with a minute by minute game plan of exercises, I always call audibles which results in different exercises being used. Certain exercises are best for certain purposes. As we learn about the group’s dynamics, we go with the flow and utilized exercises that optimize creativity.
“Welcome to the Proven, Practical, Profitable Innovation podcast! I am Richard and I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy day to listen to this podcast.
This podcast continues a series with one of the most innovative people in America today – Kari McNamara. In this series of interviews with her, we explore some five very intriguing idea generating exercises. This interview explores a creativity exercise she calls uncle money bags. In the second series we dive into some actual case studies with well-known companies where she has been the key external leader.
Please be sure to listen to the end of this podcast where I give you an exciting preview of future podcasts.
If after listening to this podcast you feel a need for more help, please contact me directly—my email is richard@i2ge.com. You can also go to my website—i2ge.com– where you can explore many innovation topics, especially check out the DIY Innovation Training on the menu bar. We customize all the training programs to our clients’ unique needs and circumstances.
As background, Kari McNamara has led well over 100 inventing sessions, many of which led to the introduction of products that sold more than $100 million in their first year. In the series on quantum idea generation, talked a lot about how the process with its core elements generates at least 12 times more ideas than range. In this series of podcasts, Kari shares with us some of her favorite specific idea generating exercises that work within quantum idea generation.
She absolutely knows how to generate a high level of quality creative and innovative ideas from virtually any group. This is another in a short series on creative idea exercises that can really help you today.
So let’s get into our interview with Kari about an idea generating exercise she calls “uncle money bags.”
Uncle Money Bags
What would you do if you had $100,000,000? Many people constrain their thinking based on the resources they currently have.
This encourages them to think about what they would do in an ideal situation – where money was no object – and then work backwards from there.
Seems simple on the surface, but this usually works really well. People often discover they can do a lot more than they think.
If you would like to see the key written points from this podcast, you can find them in my blog – i2ge.com/blog.
In just a moment I’ll share with you information about the next very helpful podcast. The written details from this podcast are available at i2ge.com/blog.
Please take a few additional moments to visit i2ge.com which is the website for Innovate2Grow Experts. You have the opportunity to get free and very valuable insights not available in these podcasts
And if you like reading more innovation insights, one of my six books is Proven Practical Innovation That Delivers Results at Amazon as a paperback and Kindle book. This book can help you learn how to become spectacularly better than your competition and how to guide that work with a well grounded vision and strategy. It’s very low-cost, an easy read, and packed with information you can immediately use.
Please make sure to listen to the next podcast that continues our series on proven idea generating exercises. Kari shares an exercise that she calls break the laws. It’s amazing the ideas you can generate when you take off all the constraints and have the freedom to go just about anywhere with your idea generating.
I know that you have a lot of choices about how to spend your time. Because you took time to listen to this podcast, I am deeply appreciative of that time. I really look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Please have a great day.
This is Richard and I’m glad that you can join us at the Proven, Practical, Profitable Innovation Podcast.
This podcast shares innovation best practices from my decades as a leader in the innovation industry and best practices from other major leaders and thinkers in the innovation and creativity business. The sole focus of this podcast is to share best practices that you can immediately use in your business, regardless of the type of business that you’re in, to help you sell more and make more.
This specific podcast continues a series with one of the most innovative people in America today – Kari McNamara. In this series of interviews with her, we explore some five very intriguing idea generating exercises. This interview explores a creativity exercise she calls kitchen chemistry. In the second series we dive into some actual case studies with well-known companies where she has been the key external leader.
Since the focus of this podcast is proven and practical best practices, when you need more help we offer do-it-yourself training. You learn by doing. You learn by working on real current needs in your business. At the end, by learning to do it yourself you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars versus hiring external consultants. To learn more about how to do this go to i2ge.com and click on DIY Innovation Training on the menu bar. Each training program is 100% customized to your unique needs.
You can also go to the same website for a wide range of innovation insights and research.
Please be sure to listen to the end of this podcast where I give you an exciting preview of future podcasts.
Kari McNamara has led well over 100 inventing sessions, many of which led to the introduction of products that sold more than $100 million in their first year. In the series on quantum idea generation, talked a lot about how the process with its core elements generates at least 12 times more ideas than range. In this series of podcasts, Kari shares with us some of her favorite specific idea generating exercises that work within quantum idea generation.
She absolutely knows how to generate a high level of quality creative and innovative ideas from virtually any group. This is another in a short series on creative idea exercises that can really help you today.
So let’s get into our interview with Kari about an idea generating exercise she calls “kitchen chemistry.”
Kitchen Chemistry
This is a fun one…especially if your challenge is related to the creation something tangible.
Gather items with different tastes, aromas, textures, sizes, delivery methods, etc. They don’t have to be edible – just interesting. I once used room fragrances to inspire fresh thinking in snacking…
Start playing. Mix and match. See what you can create – what new tastes, what new experiences, where does it take you?
And you don’t have to have the right solution right in front of you. You can say “if this did this and that was more like that, it would be even better!”
Before sharing information on the next podcast, if you would like to see the notes from this podcast just go to i2ge.com/blog.
I have been fortunate enough to publish six books on a variety of topics – one of those books was also published in China and Germany. My book on innovation is Proven Practical Innovation That Delivers Results. Like these podcasts, it easily and quickly delivers truly proven and practical information you can use to sell more and make more. This book is available at Amazon in paperback and as a Kindle book.
Don’t forget if you need more help go to i2ge.com and click on DIY Innovation Training, which is on the menu bar.
I am particularly excited about the next podcast because we continue our series on some of the most productive idea generating exercises. The next podcast features a provocative idea generating exercise the challenges us to think bigger than we would normally do. Kari calls this exercise Uncle Money Bags.
I know that your time is valuable and I greatly appreciate the time you spend with me today. I look forward to reconnecting with you very soon. Please have a great day.
This is Richard and I want to welcome you to the Proven, Practical, Profitable Innovation Podcast. As always, I greatly appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to listen to this podcast. My promise is that in every podcast I do my best to share information that will help you in your business – any business and at any time.
As you know by now, this podcast shares the very best practices available today for you to be successfully innovative and creative. I draw from my decades working in and with both very large and small businesses. As an innovation entrepreneur I’ve been hired by major corporations and small businesses to help them become much more innovative. Please remember that we publish at least three podcasts every week.
This podcast begins this podcast begins a series with one of the most innovative people in America today – Kari McNamara. In this series of interviews with her, we explore some five very intriguing idea generating exercises. This first interview explores a creativity exercise she calls grab bag. In the second series we dive into some actual case studies with well-known companies where she has been the key external leader.
Please be sure to listen to the end of this podcast where I give you an exciting preview of future podcasts.
If after listening to this podcast you feel a need for more help, please contact me directly—my email is richard@i2ge.com. You can also go to my website—i2ge.com– where you can explore many innovation topics, especially check out the DIY Innovation Training on the menu bar. We customize all the training programs to our clients’ unique needs and circumstances.
As background, Kari McNamara graduated with a mechanical and electrical engineering degree. Soon after graduation she joined Doug Hall at Eureka Ranch. Over more than 15 years she handled increasing levels of responsibility until her last seven years when she was the managing partner. During this period when Eureka Ranch was an important place that major companies hired to invent new products, she led well over 100 inventing sessions, many of which led to the introduction of products that sold more than $100 million in their first year.
In the series on quantum idea generation, talked a lot about how the process with its core elements generates at least 12 times more ideas than range. In this series of podcasts, Kari shares with us some of her favorite specific idea generating exercises that work within quantum idea generation.
So let’s get into our interview with Kari about an idea generating exercise she calls “grab bag.”
Grab Bag.
Go to the store with a set amount of money…wander the aisles purchasing anything that catches your eye until you hit your dollar limit. Try to buy at least 5 items.
Remove the items one at a time from the bag. Analyze each items – look at the good things, the bad things, the design elements, the copy (e.g. how they sell it) – break it down and look at all the part and pieces, taking notes as you go.
Step back and ask yourself how each element can help you solve your innovation challenge. How could it be applied to your problem/challenge…and what new solution does it lead you to?
Before sharing information on the next podcast, if you would like to see the notes from this podcast just go to i2ge.com/blog.
I have been fortunate enough to publish six books on a variety of topics – one of those books was also published in China and Germany. My book on innovation is Proven Practical Innovation That Delivers Results. Like these podcasts, it easily and quickly delivers truly proven and practical information you can use to sell more and make more. This book is available at Amazon in paperback and as a Kindle book.
Don’t forget if you need more help go to i2ge.com and click on DIY Innovation Training, which is on the menu bar.
If this podcast has helped you, you can help us by giving the podcast a five star rating…..it helps us to get the word out about the help we provide for free.
I am particularly excited about the next podcast because we continue our series on some of the most productive idea generating exercises. Even if you’re not a great cook – and I certainly am not – you will want to listen to the next podcast that Kari calls Kitchen chemistry.
I know that your time is valuable and I greatly appreciate the time you spend with me today. I look forward to reconnecting with you very soon. Please have a great day.
