Idea and Innovation Blog

I recently met a sales executive that has been in the innovation management industry for some time – in fact, for over nine years.During that time, he has worked for six different vendors who have implemented their solutions at a variety of organizations. He told me that “the industry ha...

Wow!! Innovation is just about on everybody’s lips theses days. It’s a buzzword, a movement and a panacea to all corporate malaise. “I’ve got it Smithers, we will transform ourselves into a lean, mean, innovation machine”!!! Okay Chief, now what? Well in the real worl...

Some companies get it and others just don’t. Word-of-mouth promotion of one’s brands, activities and innovation initiatives is one of the most powerful, motivational and effective tool in a company’s arsenal. It’s viral, cost-effective and credible. So how does one build the...

Innovation as a sustainable and viral process is proving more elusive for some than first envisioned. It is becoming apparent to newer practitioners that certain key elements need to be omnipresent for the goodness to not only happen, but to last. Unless you change your entire organization overnigh...

The other day, I was having some cookies with my daughters and as it so happens, I had a moment of reckoning. We have an arrangement whereby we each twist one end of an Oreo off and exchange for the portions that we want: they want the ends with the icing and I get the cookie part only sans all tha...

As things go, there is a certain status that comes with size. Scale it seems is the street cred that makes the good..great; the known...ubiquitous; the powerful...mighty. And because folks immersed in innovation are  as susceptible as any to this seek out this revered status, the temptations is...

Like many other people out there, I have been spending some time in chat rooms, forums and LinkedIn groups regarding innovation. There are thought-provoking concepts and theories regarding this or that; many opinions, tack-tics and strategies, book recommendations – myriad advice-givers and a...

Last week-end, I went shopping and decided to buy an iPad. There are many outlets within the mall I was at where I could purchase this device; but since there was an Apple Store nearby, I decided on it. It appears that I wasn’t the only person with the same idea…because when I got ther...

When you look at the origins of innovations, one thing quickly becomes clear: it happens anywhere and everywhere, Take the innovative art of Bjork; it hails from Iceland. The Ski-Doo snowmobile; it’s from Quebec. Apple electronic devices; California. Red Bull from Austria. Creative spark ...

The following example is a case study among many highlighting why outside innovations can have such a hard time gaining traction. When I was a sophomore at college, I had an idea for a portable toothbrush.  The value proposition was to enable consumers to connect a toothpaste tube to the shaft...