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Manufacturing's New Innovation Labs

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:00:00 GMT

In what now seems a distant past, company research facilities like Xerox PARC and Bell Labs fueled innovation and growth for dominant American manufacturing firms. As the pace of technological change has quickened and the costs of R&D have grown, that model has ceased to work. Meanwhile, global competition has intensified the imperative to innovate; even long-standing manufacturing companies, such as Parker Hannifin, Timken, Kennametal, and United Technologies, strive to have 20% or more of their products be new or substantially revamped each year. …

2012 Innovation Resolution: Turning Ideas Into Money

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Innovation is an indispensable force that turns ideas into money. It is the lifeblood of any organization. In order to implement sustainable innovation in 2012, you need to define innovation in a manner that makes strategic sense for your organization, and have the know-how to properly construct and use a process, plus the will to keep the process on course.

Innovating From the Bottom Up

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 07:00:00 GMT

Companies don't need a ton of money to do innovative things. What they need is a willingness to listen to good ideas from their employees. Here are seven ways to innovate from the bottom up.

Strategies for Success in Product Innovation

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Two strategies prime your pipeline for faster, more profitable product development.

Every manufacturer must define its approach to innovation. At some companies, including Swagelok Co., innovation is a core value. The innovation mindset extends across the entire enterprise at these companies, from the business offices to the shop floor.

So, how does product innovation benefit a manufacturer? Product innovation and the developments that flow from it enable companies to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Product innovation opens the door to increased brand equity, faster technology adoption rates, larger returns and an environment primed for further innovation. It also makes work fun. Associates are challenged, invigorated and feel appreciated when they know their best ideas will become reality -- for everyone's benefit.

I'll describe two key strategies for success in product innovation. One, determine the relationship between technology development and product development in your company and how they can best work together. And two, follow best practices in matching technology and product development priorities with customer needs.

Innovation Is Everyone's Job

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:34:59 GMT

To what extent are you responsible for innovation in your company? The reality is that unless they're in research or product development, most people in organizations don't think of themselves as innovators. In fact, many managers discourage their people from inventing new ways of doing things -- pushing them instead to follow procedures and stay within established guidelines.

Innovation is the Leading Imperative

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 07:00:00 GMT

We believe leadership effectiveness represents a transition from “accountability for business survival”, to “being accountable for a thriving business”.

Survival Just Won’t Cut It Anymore
Over the past few years, powerful icons of business success have been brought to their knees or buried, making survival seem like success. However, survival just won’t cut it anymore.

Productivity has been the star of the economics show, but it will move to a supporting role. This is largely because “productivity is about fixing the past, and innovation is about creating the future”.

The devastating impact of collapsed financial markets destroyed business’ equilibrium. Then risk became the mortal enemy, cost cutting became an art form and reducing costs to build the bottom line became the norm. This is not a sustainable model, however.

Three Reasons Why You Should Not Start Innovation with an Idea

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

The fuzzy front end of innovation confronts you with a lot of questions. In my new book Creating Innovative Products and Services, I try to answer the questions raised with the FORTH innovation method.

Innovation is synonymous for getting ideas. Sure! But there are great risks in starting product or service innovation with an idea for three reasons.

Five Reasons Companies Fail at Business Model Innovation

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Business model innovation is the new strategic imperative—by now, this is becoming more generally acknowledged. But companies routinely fail at self-reinvention because they are so busy pedaling the bicycle of their current business models they leave no time, attention, or resources to design, prototype, and test new ones. Even where investments are made in innovation, those efforts are focused on new products and services delivered through today's business models and on making the current models operate more efficiently. These are important to do, without doubt. But they are hardly sufficient in the highly networked 21st century, when business models don't last as long as they used to and incumbents increasingly face the risk of disruption.

Booz: Corporate Culture is a Key Factor in Successful Innovation

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

For the past seven years, management consulting firm Booz and Company has identified the 1,000 public companies who have spent the most on research and development in the previous year. And in that near-decade of research, Booz has consistently shown that there is “no statistically significant relationship between financial performance and innovation spending, in terms of either total R and D dollars or R and D as a percentage of revenues,” as reported in the forthcoming Winter 2011 issue of Strategy and Business, a quarterly magazine published by Booz.

Grow Revenues and Profits with Innovation Governance

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:15 GMT

Sopheon’s own, Bryan Seyfarth discusses a recent SymphonyIRI study about consumer products and the results may surprise you.

Bringing truly innovative products to market—on a consistent basis—has long been a challenge for consumer products companies. A recent SymphonyIRI study found that 90 percent of consumer products launched in 2010 were brand extensions as opposed to truly new brands. Only three percent achieved blockbuster status (year-one sales of over $50 million).

Innovative Product Mashups

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Sometimes innovation is as simple as turning a ketchup bottle upside down. But what about putting bug repellent in clothing or carbonation in milk? It's convergence culture gone wild.

Innovation: What's New?

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Innovation is all about creating “the new”, but if you hang around innovators long enough you begin to get the feeling that while lots of “new” things are being brought to market, innovators continue to use “old” approaches to do this. Recently, however, Arthur D. Little published a study on The New Face of Innovation designed to reassure us that new innovation approaches were indeed being developed as well.

The Future of Product Innovation for Retailers

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:48:37 GMT

The future holds good news for retailers both large and small: the product innovation game is changing. Tracking new product innovation from its development to eventual launch, there are now resources available that have the potential to change this entire process and evaluate its impact more precisely. Most retail executives and their manufacturer vendors would agree that until now there has been little emphasis or new solutions that help both parties achieve long-term innovation sustainability.

New Study Finds Top Innovators Achieve 32% Higher Commercialization Success Rates with New Products

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:48:37 GMT

In an exclusive for inKNOWvations, Tina Cassler reviews a new study on top innovators and their success with new products.

A new study of innovation best practices shows that companies excelling at ideation and product development have significantly higher commercialization success rates for new-product projects. It found the proportion of projects entering development that become commercial successes was 32% higher for best-in-class innovators than for average performers. The study was conducted by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) in partnership with the Product Development Institute Inc. (PDI). The research was based on input from 257 respondents, about half of whom came from the manufacturing sector.

What Works: 6 Best Practices of Innovation and Product Portfolio Management

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:48:37 GMT

Featured guest author, Keith Duncan discusses six best practices of successful innovation and product portfolio management.

For over a decade, our sole focus has been to help our customers grow organically through the strategic use of innovation governance software solutions. Our track record of helping more than 200 of the world’s leading companies to adopt innovation and product portfolio management best-practices is unique; no other company in the world has helped implement innovation governance as often as we have. Along the way, we have learned a number of lessons with our customers about what works (and what does not) that we have incorporated into our software solutions, our implementation methodologies, and our roadmap for the future.

Thinking Outside the Mailbox

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:06:43 GMT

As the Canadian-born chief executive and chairman of mailing equipment and software giant Pitney Bowes Inc., it’s up to Murray Martin to ensure the 91-year-old Stamford, Conn.-based company maintains its strength in its traditional postal services businesses, while expanding into new technologies, such as ticketing, QR codes and location-based data. In an interview with the Financial Post’s Matt Hartley, Mr. Martin discusses how he approaches innovation, the future of postal networks and new technologies the company has identified as priorities.

CPG Companies Increasingly Rely on Shopper Marketing

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Shopper marketing -- defined as "strategy- and insight-driven in-store or retailer-specific marketing that includes some form of equity-building messaging" -- has become a widely practiced and transformational approach in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, according to the 2011 Futurescope survey from GfK Interscope.

Realizing Innovation's Full Value

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Many of us agree innovation = invention + commercialization. Commercialization is usually defined as launching the ‘invention’ so you and your customers realize value. But how many of us include how well we’ve extracted the innovation’s value in the market as part of our innovation process? Probably, not many; it’s just not that easy. Whirlpool, a long-time innovator, discovered that many of its innovations were not succeeding as planned in the marketplace. Moises Noreña, Whirlpool’s Director of Global Innovation, was tasked with finding out why and fixing it. He recently detailed how they went about it.

Sustainable Innovation What Some Leaders Do that Others Don’t

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

H. H. Dow, the founder of Dow Chemical Company, once said, “If you can’t do it better, why do it?” That quote captures the commitment to innovation, which thrives in organizations where leaders are dedicated to making a difference in the long-term sustainability of their companies and their world. And what is the secret to their stamina and ultimate success? They create an environment that fosters creative behavior and innovation. People who work for these companies are tolerant of uncertainty and motivated by the opportunities that lie in transformative change.

Innovators Don't See Different Things - They See Things Differently

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

I don’t know why, but an awful lot of people seem to be very confused about what innovation means and how it really works. Innovators are not geeks with giant-sized brains that think plaids, stripes, and polka-dots all match.

And, more often than not, they don’t have a single patent or Ph.D. to their name.

Need Innovation Hire an Entrepreneur

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Corporations should hire young entrepreneurs on a short-term basis to help develop new products or solve critical problems.

Twenty years ago, "entrepreneur" was spelled "L-O-S-E-R." If you were a bright, talented college grad, the only road to success was by working your way up the corporate ladder.

Roadmapping for Agile Strategy

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:00:00 GMT

In this month's inKNOWvations, Dr. Robert Phaal explores strategic roadmapping to support innovation and strategy.

The strategic roadmapping method is widely used in industry to support innovation and strategy, ranging from product planning to business strategy and public policy development. The approach is flexible, and can be readily adapted to suit the particular business context and strategic issues of interest.

How to Turn Great Ideas Into Great Products

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:00:00 GMT

In this month's inKNOWvations, Dr. Bryan Seyfarth discusses five common issues which prevent companies from generating more high-value ideas and specific principles to employ for effective idea management.

Sometimes companies don’t have enough ideas. Other times they simply generate a lot of bad ideas. And by “bad”, I mean low-value ideas or ideas that don’t contribute to the organization’s strategic goals.

Research findings by the Product Development Institute show that 79% of companies admit to having too few high-value projects in their portfolio. This is confirmed by what our customers tell us all the time: “we have no problem generating lots of ideas…what we need is better ideas.”

Innovation Killers: The Status Quo Police

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Nobody admits to being the innovation killer in a company. We call these folks the “dinosaurs that won’t change.” Or “nay-saying ‘Dr. No’ middle managers.” But when you meet these people, they don’t admit to being innovation killers. They believe, deep in their hearts as well as in their everyday actions, that they are doing the right thing for the business. And that’s because they’ve been chosen, and reinforced, to be the Status Quo Police.

Achieving Success in the Fuzzy Front End Phase of Innovation

Tue, 17 May 2011 18:08:52 GMT

Activities in the front end of the innovation process are often difficult to anticipate, overview and perform. Yet they are critical to successful outcomes of the innovation process. In light of a growing managerial interest in the front end, this article identifies key success factors for managing the front end, balancing acts which innovation managers need to address, as well as key contingencies affecting front end activities. Proficiency in the front end is indeed no easy task, but will have an enormous positive impact on performance for those firms that succeed.

Feels Like the First Time: Innovation Through Product Experience

Mon, 16 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

When was the last time you experienced your product like it was your first time?

Product development is a process of cycles -- followed by closure. We innovate and create a new concept. Assemble teams to research, develop, manufacture and market the product or service. We then ship it to market.

And then...what?

The Worst Failure of All is Wasting a Failure

Sun, 15 May 2011 06:00:00 GMT

We often ask executives to tell us about their biggest innovation failures. A recent example is disconcertingly typical.

In interviews with a dozen senior managers from a large company, two particular failures came up over and over again. Clearly the company was painfully aware of these two failed projects. The problem came with the follow-up question, "Why did example A fail?"

Roadmapping for Accelerated Innovation

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:00:00 GMT

In this month's inKNOWvations, Dr. Robert Phaal explores roadmapping as a flexible and customizable approach to innovation.

Innovation is vital to the success of all organizations, faced with ever-greater challenges of global competition, new technology developments and the increasing complexity and pace of business change. Firms need to organize their innovation, with structured phase-review management processes commonly used, along with methods such as portfolio management, quality function deployment, scenario planning and technology roadmapping.

When to Gamble - and When to Fold? Innovation Strategies for a New Economy

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:20:30 GMT

In the world of business innovation, it's not always best to be first. Just ask trailblazing mobile communications giant Motorola, which in the 1980s and 1990s spent a whopping $7 billion to achieve the ambitious goal of a global, satellite-powered phone network -- only to find the costly technology was outdated when it finally arrived.

Crunch Time on the ‘Fuzzy Front End’

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Retailers and consumers are placing more demand than ever on the need for variable production capacity, but CPG companies are struggling with contingency planning.