Tag Archives: Innovation

What Do Numbers Say About Different Models of Innovation?

I’m not a fan of the “idea generation” model of innovation. This approach, which I call “bottom-up,” puts the focus of innovation on ideas that are generated by employees on the ground and then channeled upwards to senior management. I … Continue reading →

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Start-ups as an enemy of entrepreneurship?

On July 27, The Telegraph published a column offering a blistering criticism of start-ups and what it’s calling a “start-up culture.” As the column author, Lucas Mikelionis, argues in the header, “Start-up culture is corrupting our youth and killing real … Continue reading →

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On Henry Ford, Toyota and Faster Horses

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!

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

 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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Is Religion an Obstacle to Innovation?

In a recent piece, The Economist touched upon an interesting topic: the link between religion and innovation. The piece refers to a study, “Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy of Science, Religion, and Growth,” published by America’s National Bureau of Economic Research, … Continue reading →

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The Myth of “Unstructured” Innovation

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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Connecting bright ideas

IdeaConnection, an open innovation service provider, and Brightidea, a designer of on-demand innovation management software, announced that they had formed a technology and services partnership. An April 29 news release explained that customers of Brightidea will now be able to … Continue reading →

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Does Innovation Need “Structure”?

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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Crowdsourcing data analysis–and everything else

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a troubling finding questioning the objectivity of the traditional market research. A team of scientists from Imperial College London conducted a study on how marketing managers choose products and services. The study showed … Continue reading →

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