introducing the customer-centric worldview from the GoodExperience Newsletter

colored table salt in 5 colors! via Jason at Kottke.org

forward into the past by Bill Buxton in the latest issue of the TIME magazine

Where the Best Ideas Take Wing Unsung ARS, one of the most innovative labs in the world, is doing some cool things with feathers again in the latest issue of the TIME magazine

Critical Mass book review on Innovation Watch

how to anticipate wrenching change by ChiefExecutive.net written by Leonard M. Fuld – EXTRACT follows –
Here are three ways to avoid being overwhelmed by inevitable change:

Learn to appreciate – and internalize – the fact that major changes in your industry are inevitable. Analyze potential changes on the basis of certainty and impact. For example, a group of senior managers at a certain health care company told me recently that of the many trends swirling about the pharmaceutical industry, the matter of whether new delivery technology will replace some of their company’s therapies is both uncertain and potentially high impact to their business. This means it is worth watching but not necessarily acting on. This was exactly the position that executives at Kodak and Sun found themselves in-facing an uncertain yet potentially high-impact trend.

Use an early-warning system to create different futures, different worlds, in which your company may find itself. The best way to understand my point is to compare how a professional baseball game looks on a television screen, from a two-dimensional perspective that mostly shows a pitcher versus a batter, and then from the three-dimensional view of a box seat, where you can also see the coaches giving their signs, the fielders positioning themselves and the base runners taking their leads. Suddenly, the game becomes richer, and more complex. Most strategic plans envision a two-dimensional world, one obvious set of rivals governed by certain predetermined industry forces. But companies that use an early-warning system see the whole field, and make the necessary adjustments.

Identify legitimate but clear signals that will forewarn of change taking place. Early-warning scenarios don’t just appear, they emerge relatively slowly. Executives learn to catch the signals by acting out scenarios, such as via carefully orchestrated war games, and thereby learn to appreciate the intensity of approaching tsunamis. In Kodak’s case, silver prices and the early application of digital-imaging technology were all signals. RISC technology and open-source software were two signals indicating rapid change for Sun.

Adam Bostock at the if++ Innovation Forum by AcroLogic recently mailed me asking three questions. It was an interesting thought process and I am sharing my answers here. Would love to hear from you too!

What you find the most innovative and exciting developments in innovation?
One thing that immediately comes to my mind is systems like the IdeaAs in Action by SouthWest Airlines – very functional and usable implementation of a system which enables incremental as well as radical innovation from the employees themselves. These systems are few and far between and have not been replicated with 100% success.

Are the innovation consultants applying quantum leap innovation to their own field?
No, Innovation Consultants are not at all applying radical innovations to the field of innovation and creativity! I have been thinking on this myself! Very very interesting – if one of us develops an innovation for the innovators – it will be a great business opportunity!

What is the value of an idea?
The value of an idea – the originator, in most cases over values his/her idea an the person who has to approve it, in most cases, under values it! The value of an idea should not be determined only by the revenues it will bring to an individual or an organization, the value should alse be determined keeping in mind the implementability and acceptance value of the idea. An idea might be fabulous conceptually, but it might not be practical to implement – maybe because the requisite technology does not exist or is expensive – such ideas should not be completely trashed – they should be hung onto and when the techonology does become reachable – bang! the idea should be implemented!

So what do you think?
–What you find the most innovative and exciting developments in innovation?
–Are the innovation consultants applying quantum leap innovation to their own field?
–What is the value of an idea?

You are welcome to either leave a comment or e-mail me regarding this!

The Innovation Game by Sara Driscoll talks about how “Innovation has no timeline or budget, and needs to be tested many times and in many different ways before anything innovative is ever produced. For true technological innovation this is true, but innovation within the channel is constrained by both budgets and time. This makes it no less innovative.
Innovation isn’t necessarily discovering hyperthreading or the latest security standard, reinventing the internet or redesigning the microchip. Often the whole point of innovation is not simply to solve a problem, but to recognise exactly what the problem is in the first place. And it doesn’t end there. Channel players who believe that solving a problem in a different way is the answer are only halfway there.
End-users often don’t welcome innovation because it spells change, and because no matter how good a new system is, an old system will always have two advantages: it is established and it is understood.
It is the task of the channel to not only solve the problem, but to ensure end-users recognise why the innovation is needed. Buy-in is the essential ingredient to any real innovation, because without acceptance it will be stopped in its tracks.“

is it possible to retire creativity?

how to make creativity contagious? from management today

The Second Globelics Conference
some of the papers (PDF), relevant to Innovation are as follows:
problem sequences and innovation systems;
a methodology of sustainable innovation;
innovation and productivity in developing countries;
technology clubs int he world economy;
marketing, innovation and performance in the South African wine industry;
dynamics of innovation systems: lessons from India;
knowledge spillovers, absorptive capacity and economical performance of SME’s;
impact of modularity on technological innovation;
Beijing regional innovation system;
interaction between university, institute and industry;
types of product cannibalization tactics under the circumstances of sustainable innovation;
why do similar firms respond differently to changes;
policy design and intervention in the innovation diffusion process;
the dominant force in sustainable innovation systems;
biotech innovation systems in China;
the framework for innovation of complex product systems;
regional innovation systems in China;
technological innovation capacity assessment;
systems of innovation and varieties of capitalism;
sources of industrial innovation in the Korean innovation system;
organizational learning and the gender;
comparing systems of innovation through a constructive approach;
research on evaluation methods of high-tech innovation projects for the enterprise;
international R&D in companies from developing countries;
understanding HongKong’s system of innovation;
effectiveness of the enterprise’s knowledge base;
inequality, innovations and development strategies;
enterprise cluster innovation system and regional economy;
dimensions of enterprise innovation;
innovation diffusion in emerging markets;
financial institution innovations in China;
sustainable innovation as a new development opportunity;
towards a taxonomy of innovation systems;
paradox and innovation of organizational career development;

This was a selection from a total of 170 papers and there are more coming! Will keep you updated when new ones are added, if you would like to do it yourself, check on the last page of the papers listing for the Second Globelics Conference.

Great post on IdeaFlow and a comment by moi! ?(Leaving intelligent comments is so tough! It’s so much easier to just say “Hey! What a great post!”)

Conference Bike – I would love to ride that! What a *kewl* idea! History of the creator and the Bike.

Magic or Myth? Innovation in Business. Article by the Institute for Emerging Issues. It starts with how important innovation is, goes on to give a short description and how innovation is important to firms. It then goes to give examples of the following firms:
–Glen Raven “Celebrating 125 years of continuing innovation”;
–Apple “Live wirelessly for less”;
–H.L. Patrick (i was unable to find a website – any clues?);
–Toyota “Moving forward is knowing you’re on your way”;
–Brayton International – it’s a Steelcase company “Do what you do better”;
–Asheboro Elastics “The leader in elastics technology” (sad website! – but apparently change is on the way…);

Found a new mailing list for *innovation*. It is by EPA and I’m not sure what it’s about. Have signed up and if it’s interesting will let you know too. If you are interested in finding out for yourself, visit the mailing list webpage – EPA Innovation Mailing List.
Ahh! Just got the confirmation for the mailing list – this is what its says “This listserver is provided by EPA’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation (OPEI) to share information about innovations in environmental programs. It highlights innovations described in recent EPA press releases and provides a web link if available for obtaining more information. It also describes new reports, events, and other developments relevant to environmental innovation. This is part of EPA’s continuing effort to improve public access to critical information.“