There are no original ideas left.

Sure, it’s kind of a cynical thought, but try and brainstorm a completely new concept, whether for a business, an advertising campaign or even a limerick, and you’ll start to think it's true. It can sometimes be a stretch to come up with anything that hasn’t already been thought of.

The bulk of any operating budget is devoted to sustaining the status quo. That's what generates most sales and virtually all profits. It's also where your company gets most entangled in commitments, incurs the majority of its liabilities, and is most exposed to competitive threats, particularly from commoditizing offerings.

In the waning days of the second World War, Vannevar Bush, science adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, penned a report that served as the blueprint for what would become America's enormously successful information-technology industry in the second half of the 20th century. With the grandiose title “Science, The Endless Frontier”, Bush (no relation to the current president) laid out a vision for government-funded science and engineering that would unite academia, industry and (this being wartime) the armed forces. This it achieved by, in effect, keeping them apart.

Are you currently evaluating the processes that underpin your innovation and new product development strategies?  Are you looking for new ways to help you blow the dust off the "fuzzy front end" of innovation?  Then consider joining Sopheon for one or both of these events: Driving New Product Development in the Food & Beverage Industry, April 18-19 in Amsterdam  and the Food Technology and Innovation Forum, May 3-4 in Chicago.