How Companies Increase Innovation - WSJ.com - The Diigo Meta page

• 29 Jun 09
  

  Erick Sanchez

  innovation science business

• 25 Jun 09
  

  Eddie Osh

  innovation

• 24 Jun 09
  

  Jorge Acosta

  innovation business strategy WSJ BusinessModel communities

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  Bertrand Duperrin

  hose ideas, however, don’t really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company’s radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren’t part of the company’s core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.

  innovation ideas ideasmanagement ideagoras conversations communities communitiesofpractices

  • Problem solvers can be professionals, retired scientists, students or anyone who can answer a problem that has stumped a company’s own researchers. InnoCentive, based in Waltham, Mass., says the site gives solutions to about 40% of the problems posed.
  • Many companies set up so-called communities of practice, which are typically internal Web sites where employees are encouraged to share knowledge and skills important to the company.
• 

  Swarna Srinivasan

  Those ideas, however, don't really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company's radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren't part of the company's core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.\n\nIn other words, they have to look away from the lamppost.\n\nNone of this is easy to do. But companies that succeed may just recognize the next great opportunity, or looming threat, before their competitors do. And that's important in tumultuous economic times with rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, every once in a while, that blip on the horizon turns out to be a tsunami.

  innovation business

• 22 Jun 09
  

  Hutch Carpenter

  When companies try to come up with new ideas, they too often look only where they always look. That won’t get them anywhere.

  innovation wsj corporate

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  raman srinivasan

  Those ideas, however, don’t really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company’s radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren’t part of the company’s core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.
  
  In other words, they have to look away from the lamppost.
  
  None of this is easy to do. But companies that succeed may just recognize the next great opportunity, or looming threat, before their competitors do. And that’s important in tumultuous economic times with rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, every once in a while, that blip on the horizon turns out to be a tsunami.

  • BUILD SCENARIOS

    Many companies use teams of writers with diverse perspectives to create complex scenarios of what future markets may look like. The writers try to imagine detailed opportunities and threats for their companies, partners and collaborators. An oil company that wants to explore energy opportunities in cities of the future, for example, might want to work on scenarios with writers from construction, water and utility-management companies.

    
    

    Industry organizations and government agencies use scenarios, too, sometimes in collaboration with companies. Bord Bia, the Irish food agency, works on scenarios with global food companies based in Ireland like Kerry Group PLC and Glanbia PLC. Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk AS has shared scenarios with the Oxford Health Alliance, a British nonprofit. Novo Nordisk thus helps the cause and broadens its own views by gaining the input of alliance members.

    
    

    SPIN THE WEB

    A few companies have created Web sites that act as literal marketplaces of ideas.
    InnoCentive.com
    is a site where people and companies look for help in solving scientific and business challenges. Posters of challenges sometimes offer cash rewards for solutions: Amounts have ranged from $5,000 to $1 million. The site began as an in-house tool for research scientists at Eli Lilly & Co. to help one another. Now it is independent, with Indianapolis-based Lilly as a founding shareholder.

  • Some companies design probe-and-learn strategies that study opportunities in segments of markets the company isn’t active or strong in. This strategy goes further than deep diving by actively experimenting with new ideas in a new context. The experiments might not always work, but they will give valuable insight about future directions of markets.

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