A great article on innovation in todays WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204830304574133562888635626.html
Look away from the lampost
I suppose a cynic might claim that “great” means that it agrees with the recurring themes and principles discussed in this blog. Specifically:
as well as other ideas.
Take the time to read it!
Leave a Comment » | 
Co-creation or User collaboration, Customer Research Methods, Experiment, Ideation, experiential innovation | Tagged: crummy trials beat deep thinking, Ethnography, Ideation, lead users, probe and learn, Storytelling, wall street journal | 
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Posted by gschirr
Business on Twitter
Commercialization of the social networks is inevitable. Dell has posted over $2,000,000 in sales.
[ RT @mashable Making Millions via Twitter: @DellOutlet Surpasses $2 Million in Sales http://bit.ly/NkKHR ]
Social Networks and Medicine
Social networks may have implications for the delivery of services.
The doctor who makes house calls is at best a niche market (see “Royal Pains”) but there is presumably a benefit to more interaction between a patient and the doctor. The potential for improved service is discussed in this NYT article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/health/11chen.html?_r=1&hpw
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Internet effects, Online service delivery, communication | Tagged: Dell, online social networks, service and networks, Twitter | 
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Posted by gschirr
This 2005 article from Deloitte is interesting…(but it is so 2005–premeltdown). A great quote:
“Product innovation gives less than three months competitive advantage. Process innovation gives at least 12 months competitive advantage.” - Sir John Bond, Chairman HSBC, 2001
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/DTT_DR_GlitteringPrize_May2005.pdf
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financial services | Tagged: Deloitte, financial service innovation | 
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Posted by gschirr
More on the importance of storytelling for innovation:
RT: @GuyKawasaki Chief Storytelling Officer: why CEOs need to be great storytellers. http://trkk.us/?bSG
This is a followup on an earlier post:
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Posted by gschirr
Storytelling, innovation and organizational change
How do you get an organization to share an innovative vision and push for change?
A common theme, from different perspectives, is the power of stories to impact organizational culture and promote change and innovation. Stories help sell the vision…
A research article showed that storytelling can help diverse team members work together on innovation — Organizational Storytelling and Technology Innovation (Maureen MacLeod; Elizabeth Davidson, System Sciences, 2007)
Another paper discusses design and storytelling:
http://www.uiah.fi/joiningforces/papers/Rivera-Chang.pdf
A business book shows that storytelling ignites action in knowledge-era organizations: http://www.stevedenning.com/thinksmart.html
Another blog suggests success through storytelling: http://www.innovationcompass.com/innovation_compass/2006/10/business_succes.html
Organizational change and storytelling: http://businessinnovationfactory.com/weblog/archives/2006/04/twentynine_word.html
Leave a Comment » | Process Innovation, communication | Tagged: communication and innovation, innovation, organizational change, Storytelling, storytelling and innovation | Permalink
Posted by gschirr
The NY Times has an article on “social design” or bringing designers together with social scientists to improve organizational problems; in this case excessive time off by government workers.
It seems to me that the application discussed might better be called organizational design, but it has significant implications to service, so as the Times suggested it might be called service design as well, another reminder that in service product cannot be separated from process.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/fashion/25iht-design25.html?_r=1&hpw
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Posted by gschirr
One of my enthusiastic professional sales students (Lee Bradshaw) somehow managed to produce a press release on his thriving online site while preparing for his finals. Check out Fitnoke:
1 Comment | Internet effects | Tagged: Fitnoke, Fitnoke.com, Lee Bradshow, online fitness, Roanoke | Permalink
Posted by gschirr
An innovation consulting firm lists five steps to success in NPD in a down economy. Three of them are:
To see the complete list and explanation from newlogic consulting go to: http://www.newlogicusa.com/_downloads/innovation_in_a_down_economy.pdf
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Is it best to ignore your customers?
Innovation thought leaders such as von Hippel, Utterback and then Christensen, have written about the risks of listening to customers when trying to innovate. A fellow blogger defended Facebook’s policy to ignore users by pointing out that if Porsche paid attention to its customer surveys they would build a Volvo:
Of course Utterback, von Hippel, Christensen, and probably Facebook are not saying to ignore customer needs — their point is that customers have trouble expressing their deepest needs and understanding that there might be solutions to their most important problems. Academics refer to latent needs and contextual or sticky information to label this problem.
The solution is to not to ignore customers but to try to get to these latent needs. This may mean putting less weight on surveys and hiring anthropologists to do ethnography instead of hosting another focus group. Think voice of the customer, site visits, lead users, experimenting, rapid prototyping, probe and learn, and open source.
Leave a Comment » | Customer Research Methods | Tagged: Brainstorming, Christensen, contextual information, disruptive innovation, Ethnography, experiments, Facebook, focus groups, hire an anthropologist, ignore your customers, latent needs, lead users, open source, probe and learn, radical innovation, rapid prototyping, site visits, sticky information, Utterback, voice of the customer, von Hippel | Permalink
Posted by gschirr
Cross functional development teams seems like a no-brainer:
However, managing cross-functional teams is not trivial. There is a rich literature in management on difficulties in communication, increased turnover and conflict from diversity. So it should perhaps not have been that surprising that the Henard and Szymanski meta-analysis did not find cross-fuctional integration to be a strong antecedent of success in product development.
The current issue (March) of the Journal of Product Innovation Management is a special issue devoted to cross functional teams in new product development. I have not yet read the full issue, but will likely post more info as I read it.
For those who like a summarized version, NC State put out a news release about two of the articles that were co-authored by members of its faculty.
“When it comes to leading a team tasked with developing new products and bringing them to market, new research from North Carolina State University shows that being nice and playing well with others gives you a very real competitive advantage. One new study shows that project managers can get much better performance from their team when they treat team members with honesty, kindness and respect. A second study shows that product development teams can reap significant quality and cost benefits from socializing with people who work for their suppliers.” The full release is here:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/ncsu-sst031709.php
[A quick note to basketball fans. I will likely extend my 20-year record of losing a Tokyo-based "March Madness" pool as I indeed selected Radford to beat North Carolina.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/bigsouth/2009-03-12-radford-cover_N.htm]
Leave a Comment » | communication | Tagged: cross functional teams, diversity, henard and szymanski, JPIM, North Carolina State University, NPD, PDMA, Radford University | Permalink
Posted by gschirr
March Madness: Take a look at Radford University
One of the delights of every NCAA tournament is the little or little-known school that makes its way into the “sweet sixteen” or even the final eight. Even if I weren’t a professor at Radford and didn’t know some of the fine young men on the team, I would keep an eye on them. RU has a cool story — a 6′11′ 260-pound center who has only played B-ball for 5 years and spoken English for 2 and a 55 year old rookie coach. Check out the story on USA Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/bigsouth/2009-03-12-radford-cover_N.htm
Or the local press coverage:
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/mcfarling/wb/197116
The bad news? The #$%@ seeded them 16th, so they play game one against North Carolina, who ESPN says is the most talented team in the country and who the NYT said is the favorite to win it all. As noted in the USA Today story a 15th or 16th seeded team has never gotten to play Cinderella…
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Cinderella, March madness, NCAA tournament, Radford University | Permalink
Posted by gschirr
