How does one glean ideas? And how do you sort them without losing good ones that may not 'fit' the existing model but would be disruptive?

What does Dentsply International, a midsized manufacturer of dental products in York, Penn., have in common with Kobe Steel, a Japanese metals producer? What qualities are shared by Cadbury Schweppes, the European candy and beverage company; Tata Motors, the up-and-coming Indian automaker; and Google, the superstar of Silicon Valley? What links Caterpillar, the leviathan of earthmoving equipment, with Apple, the nimble conjurer of the iPod Nano, and Adidas, the German purveyor of sportswear? What does Toyota have in common with Christian Dior?

The success of the entrepreneurs behind Digg, YouTube, and Facebook is undoubtedly inspiring a growing group of young, energetic, and self-reliant hopefuls. Although many of them were in middle school during the dot-com boom, Generation Y'ers are seeing upstart companies worth big bucks for the second time in their lives and are increasingly willing to gamble that their startups will fly.

Join Sopheon for the first in its 2007 "Winning Practices for Innovation Management" Webinar series. Johan  Skåntorp, Vice President of Global Product Planning for Electrolux on Thursday, February 8, as he discusses:

Is innovation one of your organization's top priorities for 2007? Then you'll want to plan to attend one or all of these new industry events on infusing your new product development pipeline with new, innovative, commercially viable concepts. Sopheon has partnered with these leading organizations to sponsor these executive eventsn in the US and Europe: