A Strategy that Requires Innovation

    Every executive knows that their teams should be more nimble, should be operating at a higher speed, and should be innovating. But these are all discrete capabilities, not necessarily in service to any greater strategy, and in fact much of what passes for strategy doesn’t understand how to take advantage of these capabilities. In this article, the authors describe the Maneuver Strategy from the new book, Outmaneuver. This strategy relies on innovation to achieve its goals, rather than accommodating innovation when it must.

For at least a decade, pundits and experts have expounded on the need to innovate.  Corporations need innovation, we say, for a number of reasons.  The pace of change is clearly accelerating.  The average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has been cut in half over the last twenty years.  Customer expectations are changing rapidly.  New technologies emerge constantly.  These reasons drive the need for more innovation.  But what’s often missing is the rationale and focus.

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4 Ways Your Travel Brand Can Innovate with the Help of the Crowd

When you’re thinking about innovation in the field of travel and transportation, more horsepower, hydraulics, and fuel efficiency might come to mind. But with the pace of change increasing rapidly, it’s difficult to imagine how government organizations and private companies will be able to absorb some of the most exponential and impactful changes that are sure to come in the next decade.

Just think: if the city of New York makes over $500 Million from parking tickets, what happens in an era of driverless cars where it’s impossible to violate a parking restriction? How will the city and its citizens shift to accommodate this new trend? The good news is that NYPD and its citizens are working together to look ahead to develop new systems that help everyone live in an unpredictable new future. And I think this attitude of looking to the crowd for new ideas is one that is going to continue.

But it’s hard to know what you need to focus on first. At IdeaScale we’ve identified four areas in transportation that require innovation in order to stay competitive and maintain sustainability.

• Customer Service: This area seems obvious, but in many industries it is one that is commonly overlooked.

Read more about 4 Ways Your Travel Brand Can Innovate with the Help of the Crowd at Innovation Management.

Misconceptions About Culture

Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO at HubSpot, lists some of the most common excuses early-stage companies give when asked why conscious effort isn't put into developing culture. Entrepreneurs often point to office parties and perks, or the supposed importance of their mission as their startup's culture. They also claim culture grows organically, or that they just don't have time, Shah says. Read full article about Misconceptions about Culture visit Innovation Management. Also read our latest articles on Various topics based on Innovation along with our Online Learning Innovation Programs.

Making Work Fun to Improve Culture and Engagement

For HR and business managers, it can be challenging to create a productive workplace where employees are motivated to be engaged. It may be time to make work fun again with a variety of practices and tools that are implemented. To transform the environment of your workplace and create a positive environment. Here are a few simple changes that can benefit the business.

Schedule outings

Allow your employees to get a break from their cubicle by scheduling outings throughout the month, which can include hosting a movie night at a local theater or taking time to visit the zoo together on the weekend. This will allow them to avoid burnout and get to know one another in a new setting.

You can also schedule sports competitions that allow the staff to compete against one another over a game of baseball, basketball, and soccer. This can offer a greater sense of unity within the company and allow everyone to develop trust and transparency with one another.

Makeover the office

It’s easy for employees to have a lack of motivation when they’re surrounded by white walls and a lack of decor for several hours a day.

Send out a newsletter

Give your staff an interesting piece of reading material during the week by sending out a letter. This can provide fun facts about the company, highlight certain employees, and even provide fun activities to enjoy during the season.

Read more about Making Work Fun to Improve Culture and Engagement visit Innovation Management.

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How Innovation and Authenticity Complement Each Other in a Corporate Environment

Authenticity and innovation are two of today’s biggest corporate buzzwords. They are often considered as separate values, but in reality they have much in common and in this article we will examine the areas of overlap and potential leverage benefits.

Neither of these terms have the same definition from company to company, or even amongst individuals. For the purpose of this article we will use the following definitions:

• Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. (reference BusinessDictionary.com).
• Authenticity is the quality of being real or true, and is best understood as a social construction that has been put into place to achieve a particular aim. (Cambridge Dictionary online and Library Trends (Vol.56, No. 1)

With that out of the way, let’s examine ways in which authenticity leverages and supports innovation, and vice-versa. Some examples include:

1. Authenticity and Design Thinking

Without an authentic approach it is difficult to identify those key pain points that drive the development of truly innovative ideas.

These days’ innovation within a corporate setting is synonymous with Design Thinking (DT) approaches. The fact is that DT requires a genuine understanding and appreciation of not only what is possible, but what is most beneficial from a client / end user perspective.

2. Roles in innovation

People often think that being innovative is a singular focus on coming up with the lightbulb idea that will change everything. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The reality is that innovation requires a range of skills and abilities, and few people possess all aspects (Suzan Briganti at Totem writes about this). Accordingly, it is important for innovators to recognize their true, specific skills in the context of identifying, selecting and executing new ideas.

Read full article about How Innovation and Authenticity Complement Each Other in a Corporate Environment visit Innovation Management.

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Customer Research and Consumer Delight

Unmet consumer needs are considered the holy grail of product and service innovation: a mystical, sacred entity with unlimited value and powers for those that know how to tap into it. It would seem that with present day digitalization and social media, it is easier to connect to users everywhere through online surveys, platforms, and data mining technology. Moving from a mass-producing economy to one based on individually tailored products suggests that the gap between consumer needs and producer response are closely aligned. Yet the mystique surrounding unmet user needs remains.

This article is part of the THNK VIEWS series. We bridge theory and practice on organizing imagination and innovation by extracting key implications and offering new insights to innovation practitioners. This article builds on Philippe Duverger’s research Variety is the Spice of Innovation: Mediating Factors in the Service Idea Generation Process.

Duverger’s key findings suggest that:

• Consumers seeking variety are most likely to have the most innovative ideas, but will also switch services easily.
• When combined with enough technical knowledge and resources, these users will be able to create the products and services that will satisfy their unmet needs.
• To secure future business prosperity, greater attention should be given to finding new ways to appeal to these users, and find their unmet consumer needs.

Read full article about Customer Research and Consumer Delight visit Innovation Management.

Also visit our various programs of Online Learning Innovation Programs and also get updated with our latest Articles.

How Innovation Develops Among Individuals in Niche Social Networks

In the current digital arena, social networks have touched the lives of almost every human being on earth, allowing us to share life's novelties with friends and loved ones. However, social networks are not restricted to sharing and commenting on pictures, but giving rise to innovation among individuals to help make our world a better place.

Social networks in the form of crowdfunding sites allow individuals to give wings to their innovative ideas for a new startup. Many online communities have also been set up to find innovative solutions for existing challenges such as: global warming, energy consumption, agriculture, space science, etc.

What kind of social networks are driving innovation?

• Online project management tools from tech ventures such as FindNerd provide an android developer forumwhere tech people ideate and resolve queries as quickly as possible
• Someone with a brilliant, innovative idea for a new mobile or web app can learn app development through social networks

Here is not the End.To Read Full article about How Innovation Develops Among Individuals in Niche Social Networks visit Innovation Management.

Also read our latest articles on Various topics based on Innovation along with our Online Learning Innovation Programs.