Category Archives: Innovation

On Henry Ford, Toyota and Faster Horses

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Eugene Ivanov

A consensus seems to have emerged that customer feedback, gathered through market research, is a key to successful innovation. And yet, dissenting votes can still be heard. Some folks claim that paying too much attention to customers can stifle innovation, degrade … Continue reading →

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Have too many ideas? Blame your CEO!

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Eugene Ivanov

In an elegant piece in Harvard Business Review, Whitney Johnson points to a problem that many innovative companies face: an excess of good ideas. Obviously, only a fraction of them can be pursued. But what are we going to do … Continue reading →

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Three Reasons for your Company to Write an Innovation Charter

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Eugene Ivanov

 This piece was originally posted to the Qmarkets blog A lack of executive leadership is one of the most commonly mentioned reasons for the failure of innovation. This leadership vacuum usually comes in two flavors. The company’s CEO loudly declares “Let’s … Continue reading →

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The Myth of “Unstructured” Innovation

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Eugene Ivanov

I’m grateful to everyone who commented on my post, Does Innovation Need “Structure”? Many agreed with my assertion that adopting a formalized process (“structure”) provides innovation with direction and helps create what is commonly known as culture of innovation. Yet, … Continue reading →

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Does Innovation Need “Structure”?

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Eugene Ivanov

A 2012 study by Accenture found that organizations that have a holistic, formal innovation structure consistently report better outcomes of their innovation programs. But Kevin Daly of Affinnova is skeptical. In a recent piece, Daly described Affinnova’s own survey of … Continue reading →

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Is Facebook At Work a threat to innovation management software?

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Eugene Ivanov

Last week, Facebook released a private beta version of Facebook At Work, a new enterprise collaboration suite allowing organizations create their own social networks. FB@Work will feature a News Feed of “what’s new and relevant at your company,” extended user … Continue reading →

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3 reasons why “the innovator’s DNA” is an awkward term

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Eugene Ivanov

I already wrote that as every popular topic, innovation is a powerful magnet for clichés. Unfortunately, some of them are more obstructive than instructive. For example, I’m not sure that mixing innovation with DNA is a good idea. Sure, I … Continue reading →

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In defense of brainstorming

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Eugene Ivanov

Am I the only one who’s getting tired of constant bashing of brainstorming? The latest attack that I saw, coming from Forbes, begins with the following rhetoric question: “Have you ever sat through a fruitless brainstorming session and wondered—who came up … Continue reading →

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The last mile of a marathon

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Eugene Ivanov

In the mid of September, my daughter ran–and finished!–her first marathon, and as a parent, I’m very proud of her. She then decided to take a short break from running: first, to get much needed rest for her body, and … Continue reading →

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Are We Going Crazy about Using the Word “Innovation”?

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Eugene Ivanov

This past weekend, I made a routine shopping trip to Lowe’s. Strolling around the store, I was stunned to see a large poster marking the entry to one of the aisles: New Innovation. My first reaction was that this was … Continue reading →

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