When Terrible Things Happen To Good Innovation Projects
We have finally realized that innovation and transformation are not optional for the long-run well-being of a large organization. But that is a far cry from having the capability to do something with that understanding. The good news is that the things that sink innovation efforts are often easy to eliminate. Yet we first need to identify them. By…
Measuring Innovation Culture
For long, it has been said that measuring innovation culture can’t be done. Culture is often described as a set of common values, beliefs, habits, attitudes, and behaviors attributable to a group of people or, to a larger extent, the whole organization. Most, if not all, organizations already measure culture – they might measure the performance or…
Orchestrating Internal and External Innovation Ecosystems
As innovators, we sometimes feel like we are living in two separate worlds simultaneously. There's so much happening at a high pace outside of our organization – we need to stay on top of developments to play the desired role in those ecosystems. Internally, things seem to move less fast, yet you can't afford to miss being part of the right…
How Healthy is Your Business Ecosystem?
Businesses are changing the way they’re organized. The more traditional model of hierarchical supply chains is increasingly being replaced by business ecosystems- a dynamic group of independent partners that work together to deliver integrated products and services. The main reasons for the ecosystem-model becoming popular is that an ecosystem…
Courageous Cultures: How To Build Teams Of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers And Customer Advocates
Employees have ideas, and most leaders really want to hear them. And yet somehow, there is a disconnect. When Karin Hurt and David Dye were working with clients all over the world and across a variety of industries, they always heard the same complaints form business leaders: Why am I the only one that sees these issues? What's wrong with my…
Ideas Are Not Enough. What's Your Innovation ROI?
Innovation is no longer optional for organizations today. Capital is fleeing to the innovators, leaving the laggards behind. If you compare the “innovation premium” - an organizations’ market capitalization divided over its revenue of innovation – you’ll find there’s quite a gap between leaders vs. laggards in any given sector. Innovative…
How To Organize Innovation For High Performance
How to organize innovation? That’s one of those questions with no single right answer- yet at the same time, it’s one of those big decisions you need to make one way or the other. How to organize innovation has been a widely discussed topic in the last couple of years. Many big companies have tried to build labs, accelerators, and other programs.…
A Checklist for Maximizing Your Corporate-Startup Relationship
Like any relationship, it takes work to make the best out of your startup collaborations. Often, these relationships start with excitement and optimism, but once that honeymoon period is over, frustration can set in as one or both partners wake up to the reality that they are not achieving all of their goals and expectations. During our recent…
Venturing Into the Future of Mobility at Goodyear
Goodyear – a 124-year old company – continues to evolve its business and adapt to the changing expectations of customers in the new mobility space. Within its lab, Goodyear’s innovators build strategic relationships with startups aimed at creating knowledge and ultimately digitizing the existing assets to develop successful innovations like AndGo.…
Transparency, Recognition and Self-Appointed Teams: Fostering Employee-Driven Innovation at Scale
Most companies have a large and powerful source for innovation that, to a large extent, is left unused – their employees. Tapping into your employees' collective genius can create a potent pipeline that delivers growth, and it also raises engagement within your company. Looking inward to get started is not only the ‘right’ thing to do- it also…
How World Class Companies Manage Their Innovation Portfolio
Managers often make the mistake of believing they can choose a winning idea on day one. That's not how innovation works. The best way to find a good idea is to invest in loads of ideas, then see which ideas are showing traction over time. The more ideas you have, the better chance you have of finding something of value to create a new…
The Mindsets Needed for High-Performing Innovation Teams
Large organizations are usually really good at incremental innovation. That's what they're wired to do. But when it comes to true disruption, most corporations struggle to drive permanent, repeatable, and scalable growth. As innovation absorbs money and resources and needs investment and protection, corporates must shift from thinking about growth…