Innovation - The Threefold Path

innovation Like we said in a recent newsletter, generally speaking, innovation is great for consultants and bad for managers (or leaders as we call them now). Bad for managers/leaders because innovation is notoriously hard to do. Most innovations don’t work. Creativity is an arcane and unmanageable thing, like dreaming or ‘being present’. On top of that, organisations don’t tend to follow through on innovation. You can easily end up with egg on your face. Great for consultants because you can dive into an organisation and make significant, short-term interventions. A cynic might say you can be a bit unsettling and disruptive, bounce some ideas around, facilitate in a challenging sort of way and get out without being responsible for what happens in the long term. Read the rest of the newsletter article… More to the point, innovation is one of those non-subjects that writers, academics and theorists (as well as consultants) have swarmed around – precisely because it’s such a vague topic. Twenty-five years ago, when TQM was going to do for business what Obama is going to do for America, innovation meant suggestion schemes. End of story. You put out a box marked IDEAS and occasionally someone would put an IDEA in it. Mostly people put in Mars bar wrappers and chewing gum. Your biggest worries were: •

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What to do if someone came up with a really good idea. Should you give them an extra week’s pay at Christmas? Free lunch? Shares in the company? How to remove the IDEAS box discreetly without losing face when it all goes horribly wrong.

But, having said all that, innovation is enormously important and this page is designed to flag up some interesting starting points if you want to know more. We’ve mentioned a few Triarchy books and articles but most of the people and sources listed here have no connection with us and have paid us nothing.

The threefold path Businesses that come up with good new ideas (products and services, of course, but also ways of delighting customers or saving money or doing things faster) and put them to work are often the ones that adapt best, keep up and continue to make profits in difficult times. Businesses that can do that again and again are almost bound to do well. So, it pays to be able to institutionalise creativity and innovation.

1. That reveals one main thread of the talk about innovation: managing, embedding and institutionalising it. Look for mentions of “innovation management” on these pages. 2. Another important strand is: where do we get ideas from? Customers? Competitors? Clever, wacky and slightly degenerate members of staff? The world at large via the Web? Look for mentions of “open innovation” and “crowdsourcing” for more on this. 3. A third strand concerns how to get from creative idea to commercialised innovation – the “implementing” and “harvesting” stages.

Resources You’re probably here because you’re trying to find out more about how to ‘manage innovation’ (a cat herding euphemism if ever there was one). You may be studying it or researching it or teaching it or actually trying to do it. In which case, you may be looking for helpful places to start. If so, here goes:

Blogs A lot of (too many) people are blogging about innovation and innovations. Here are some of the best: •

Although he’s now stopped writing here, Richard Oliver has some really interesting things to say about Managing Creativity at Purposive Drift.

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The Innovation Weblog rightly calls itself “a meta-index of the latest innovation trends, news, technology, resources and viewpoints. It covers topics including innovation research and best practices and strategies, innovation management, business use of Weblogs for ideation and collaboration”. It’s a good way to stay up to date with business innovations.

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The Innosight Blog, which is the group blog of Clay Christensen’s Innosight team, is often interesting on strategic innovation issues, though the writers sometimes seem short of things to say (and why wouldn’t they be, given my previous mutterings about innovation as a new subject?).

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Ellen Di Resta’s Foresight 20/20 blog is a thoughtful and considered contribution on consumer research and insights that can be used to drive innovation in the businesses that serve those consumers.

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Andrew Hargadon’s blog on technology, design and creativity is here.

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Mike Docherty of consultants Innovation2 blogs on innovation and entrepreneurship here.

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Katie Konrath gathers and blogs about new ideas remorselessly but successfully. Worth following. (Her recipe for creativity – there’s no magic, just keep practising”.)

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Paul Sloane’s good but earnest blog on innovation. Avoid the tips on how to tell a joke. He also seems to do the British Quality Foundation’s Innovation Unit blog.

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Jeffrey Phillips’ excellent thinking on sustainable innovation is at Innovate on Purpose.

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James Todhunter’s blog is at Innovating to Win.

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An often fascinating blog on the science of creativity from psychologist Keith Sawyer.

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Drew Jones and Todd Sundsted have an edgy blog and publishing business at notanMBA. Drew published the clever and provocative The Innovation Acid Test with us.

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For a corporate/marketing perspective on innovation and innovation methods, see Drew Boyd’s blog at Innovation in Practice.

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Everybody loves baldy Seth Godin. His blog on marketing (mainly) and innovation (quite a bit) is always worth reading, even if you have to take your subsequent irritation with the man to therapy.

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Patty Seybold is great on engaging customers in the innovation process.

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Our own Andrew Carey’s blogged version of Inside Project Red Stripe (the story of The Economist’s innovation project) is here.

Social Media Here are a few places to start. If you’re on Linked-In, or are prepared to join, there are several hundred groups devoted to innovation in a professional context – innovation and marketing, innovation management, and so on. There’s a full list here. Or some of the best are as follows: Innovation and Entrepreneurship Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing Creative Solutions If you use Delicious, have a look at the innovation tags. Otherwise start here. If you tweet, you don’t need telling that a search like this will tell you what’s going on out there.

Business Schools If you’re looking for an MBA program[me] or summer school or executive education malarkey on innovation management, you’re presumably looking at Business Schools (or B-Schools or even DSchools). Amongst those business schools specialising in innovation, six of the best known are: •

RSM Erasmus University MScBA Management of Innovation - Master - RSM Open Innovation - Executive Education - RSM Innovation - Executive Education - RSM

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Cranfield School of Management Innovation Management: Strategy & Implementation

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Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge

MPhil in Innovation, Strategy and Organisation •

Kellogg School of Management Center for Research in Technology and Innovation

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Manchester Business School Innovation, Management and Policy

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Copenhagen Business School Innovation Management in a Knowledge Society

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North Carolina State University Center for Innovation Management Studies

Innovation Consultants There are steaming piles of innovation consultants and you might think that you shouldn’t trust them on the grounds that, if they were any good, they’d be out in the world making a living from innovating rather than telling you how to do it. But, in fact, some of them rather good. Here are a few that we rate highly: Centre I Workshops, coaching and consultancy. Creative4Business Offer workshops, speakers and consultancy in the UK. Destination Innovation (Paul Sloane) Workshops and facilitation in the UK. Idea Champions (Mitchell Ditkoff) Creativity, leadership, teamwork, innovation culture consultants. John Kao (Kao and Company) Strategy consultants in the USA to public and private sector organisations and governments. Jeneanne Rae (Peer Insight) US ‘thought leader’ on innovation management and design strategy.

Before that, of course, you might think that you should read up on innovation. (Which, we agreed earlier, is what you might be doing here.) In that case, you could start with any of these articles:

Innovation Articles Breakthrough/Disruptive Innovation A collection of articles on the subject (c.f. the incremental innovation article below). Building an Innovation Factory How to systematise the innovation process in your organisation. Closed Source Innovation A collection of articles on the subject (c.f. the open source article lower down the list). Eight Ways to Generate More Ideas in a Group Kevin Eikenberry on thinking laterally – i.e. creativity not innovation strictly speaking. High-Impact Innovation Jeneanne Rae in Business Week. How to Nurture Innovation in Your Business Computer Weekly article – intrapreneurship and disruption. This relates to “institutionalising” innovation. Incremental Innovation A collection of articles on avoiding quantum leaps which (according to one school of thought) never work. Innovation is not enough Ted Levitt’s classic (1963) article on innovation and creativity. He talks about allowing executives “to do their fructifying stuff” and is a joy to read. Open Source Innovation A collection of articles on the subject – check out your prejudice that “crowdsourcing” is going to mean lowest common denominator results. The Ignorance of Crowds What’s wrong with the open-source model. (See above). The Discipline of Innovation A great Peter Drucker article on how it’s not all about flashes of creative genius. The Perils of Innovation Overdrive Bill Taylor on ‘innovation run amok’. The Trouble with Out-of-the-Box Thinking Interview with Andrew Hargadon on continuity and innovation – see the article on disruptive innovation above. What not to do Ten ways to inhibit innovation.

From The Economist: 10 Lessons From Innovative Teams A neat Scribd e-article based on Andrew Carey’s book about innovation at The Economist Drifting, Angst and Pan-ic If you liked the previous article, this is another free e-article about the pros and cons of leaving an innovation team to get on with it rather than setting clear guidelines. If you want something meatier than articles, here’s a selection of books on the subject that we recommend (sometimes with reservations):

Innovation Books Awake at the Wheel - Mitchell Ditkoff - 2008 A Stone Age fable about big ideas: how to have one, how to overcome resistance to it and how to get your idea off the ground. Business Innovation in the 21st Century - Praveen Gupta - 2006 Describes a business innovation called Brinnovation (breakthrough innovation on demand). If you can cope with the silly compound word (or sicompord as we call them), you’ll like the book. Creative Compartments – Gerard Fairtlough - 1994 All about trust, openness and communication in innovation groups. Gerard did it at Celltech, so we know it works. Get Back in the Box - Douglas Rushkoff - 2005 Stick to your knitting, go back to what you’re good at and innovate from there. Good to Great – Jim Collins - 2001 A rightly famous book about leadership, culture and technology, as well as innovation. Harvard Business Review on Breakthrough Thinking - Teresa Amabile et al. - 1999 A collection of good, but now rather dated articles from HBR on the subject. Harvard Business Review on Innovation - Clayton Christensen et al. - 2001 A collection of key articles from HBR (pre-2001). Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Peter Drucker - 1985 Another classic book on how to foster innovation in your organisation. Drucker is the master. Nobody messes with Drucker. Innovation Nation – John Kao - 2007 How to make America the world-leader at innovation again – includes some coverage of other countries (like Singapore, Denmark and Finland) that are good at it. Inside Project Red Stripe – Andrew Carey - 2008 Case study of an innovation team at The Economist – taking in current thinking on teamwork, innovation, Web 2.0. Strategy + Business described it as a meta-book (a good thing) and, if you want

to read just one book, try this, because it takes in all the others. [n.b. it’s a Triarchy book, so we’re biased]. Jamming – John Kao - 1997 An inspirational book about how to improve your organisation’s capacity to innovate. Some people find John a bit over the top. It’ll help if you’re American or young or have had an irony bypass. Making Innovation Work -Tony Davila, Marc J. Epstein, Robert Shelton - 2005 Innovation consultants prescribe how to measure, manage and deliver on innovation. Open Innovation - Henry Chesbrough - 2003 How to identify internal and external sources of ideas and take them to market via multiple paths. Out of the Crisis – W Edwards Deming - 1982 A classic book on management style – still well worth reading. Outside Innovation – Patty Seybold - 2006 A clear call to turn to your customers to invite them to design your company’s next innovation. Seeing What's Next - Erik Roth, Clayton Christensen & Scott Anthony - 2004 How to predict which innovations and innovative companies are going to succeed. Smart World – Richard Ogle - 2007 Cognitive science and the art of creativity – fascinating. The Art of Innovation - Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman - 2001 Behind the scenes at US design firm IDEO. The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb - 2007 Why humans are bad at expecting the unexpected. This book has acquired a sort of cult status because it explains rather nicely why we are so often very stupid. The Circle of Innovation – Tom Peters - 1999 Tom Peters at his best – an inspiring, though outdated – look at ways for businesses to adapt to the unexpected. The Innovation Acid Test – Andrew Jones - 2008 Andrew examines half a dozen innovative businesses in Europe, the US and the Far East and shows that they are using design, architecture and anthropology (rather than the classical business model of Mathematics, Economics and Psychology to promote innovation in human-centred enterprises. [n.b. this is a Triarchy book, so we’re biased]. The Innovative Leader - Paul Sloane - 2007 How to get and present a vision of innovation, win people round and fight the fear of change. Paul appears in the blog list and the consultants list. There’s no stopping him.

The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton Christensen - 2000 Looks at disruptive innovation and the problem of whether to ask your customers, when it comes to innovating (because they know your business and know what they want) – or avoid them like the plague (because they don’t actually understand your business and don’t know what they want until you tell them). Clay has squeezed every last drop of goodness out of this excellent idea. The Medici Effect - Frans Johansson - 2004 Argues that creative breakthroughs most often occur when we bring ideas from one field into another, crossing disciplines and cultures. The Myths of Innovation - Scott Berkun - 2007 Taking many historical examples, the book focuses on collaboration, persuasion and knowing when an idea is good enough. The Ten Faces of Innovation - Thomas Kelley & Jonathan Littman - 2005 Focuses on people and team-building at US design firm IDEO. (IDEO is also a centre of attention in Andrew Jones’s clever Innovation Acid Test). The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowiecki - 2004 The book that started everyone thinking about how to harness collective wisdom in the cause of creativity and innovation. It’s sort of old hat now, but still worth reading.

Innovation Case Studies BERR UK Government website case studies. Dull but righteous. How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity In-depth HBR Case Study.

Creativity Tools Brainstorming How to generate a lot of useful/less ideas very quickly. Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It A thought-provoking collection of meditations based on 30 of Heraclitus’ epigrams. Works a bit like the I-Ching and requires the same suspension of incredulous disbelief. Forecasting A series of tools for predicting and forecasting technology innovations. Much duller than Heraclitus. Free the Genie 55 cards to unlock creativity and unblock the process. Sorry about the language.

IFR A tool for visualising and finding the ideal, final result. Spot the acrid nymph. Oblique Strategies 100 dilemmas to help you move on when you’re stuck – worth having in any situation. Fun. We love these. Reframing Matrix A way of generating different perspectives. SCAMPER Checklist of changes you can make to an existing product. Sticky Wisdom Exercises, tools, insights, stories and case studies to help you find your creativity. TRIZ A problem solving technique based on logic, data and research. Ten Things to Do in a Conceptual Emergency A Triarchy book this from the IFF. It’s a lovely thing, very thought provoking and great to leave lying on your desk or to read ostentatiously on the train. Who wouldn’t want to marry a girl/boy who was equipping her/himself to act well in a conceptual emergency?

Innovation Self-Assessment Innovation Quiz Business Week’s fun innovation quiz. LOL? We nearly ROFLed ourselves. Chambers of Ireland A half-day programme to introduce companies to undertaking a self-assessment of their company’s innovation capabilities. The Business Innovation Audit Detailed printed guide with 10 questionnaires covering culture, competency, performance management, etc. [Disclosure: one of a series of self-assessment audits published our sister company Cambridge Strategy Publications.] The Innovation Exchange Assess your organisation’s innovation culture online. UK Government Self-Assessment Questionnaire How well do you manage the process of innovation – online self-assessment.

Software Entreprise Innovation Software From Qmarkets Idea Management Software Ingenuity Software LLC Innovation Management Software From Hype Softwaretechnik GmbH Suggestion Box Software From Hype Softwaretechnik GmbH

Innovation Websites These are the daddies – much more than blogs, more comprehensive but (perhaps) less helpful than this page. The Business of Innovation CNBC innovation series online. InnovationTools Pulls together a huge number of resources on business innovation. RealInnovation Tools, techniques, events, jobs, news. Excellent site.