Innovation as a

numbers game

Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.

Peter Drucker

Innovation is intentional

In business and economics, innovation is the catalyst to growth.- Wikipedia

Innovation Is Important for Sustained Growth

BusinessOptimization

Growth

Time

ConceptCreation

ConceptDevelopment

MarketDevelopment

Re-Invent & Explore

Harvest & Exploit

Ideas Innovation

Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay.

Businessdictionary.com

Ideas are the

heart of innovation

Without ideas innovation, and eventually business,

dies

Problem:

Many companies don’t produce enough good ideas

Solution:The way to get

good ideas is to get lots of ideas,

and throw the bad ones away.

Linus Pauling

Good Ideas:

Confront the Brutal Facts:

Create a culture wherein the truth can be heard

Instead of forcing employees to speak anonymously, why not encourage them to speak openly?

Marty Neumeier

Our best ideas come from clerks

and stockboys. - Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

4 Parts Of Innovation

Choose a method to source ideas

Part 1

Two methods for idea generation

1. External Sources: Quirky’s Idea Generation Methodology

1 Create a community with an obstacle for entry ie. Entry fee or form

2 Any member (aka inventor) can submit ideas for public review3 All other members can vote on ideas and offer suggestions to

improve the original idea4 Most popular ideas move to design phase5 Both the inventor and the organization submit design prototypes6 Most popular design wins based on community voting7 More voting for taglines, positioning, branding8 Reward all who contributed to the winning idea9 Set up countdown clock for product launch10 Make product

2. Internal Sources:

Diarize Internal Innovation Time

Allocate a portion of your employee’s time to dabbling, experimenting, creating and developing ideas for the organization. Here are some examples.

• Google - 20% time• 3M – 15% time• Apple – Blue Sky Project• LinkedIn - InCubator• Gore-Tex – Dabble Time• Atlassian – Ship It Day• Facebook – Hackathon• Lockheed Martin – Skunkworks• Mattel – Platapus project

Do you know of any other ways to source ideas?

Please add comments below

Q. How do you edit for good ideas?

Part 2

Two Methods for Evaluating and Editing Ideas

Method 1:Good/Different Matrix

Good and Not Different

(me too project)

Good and Different(money maker)

Not Good and Not Different

(avoid all together)

Not Good and Different

(unlikely to succeed)

Method 2:Product/Market Matrix

Old productAnd new market

(adapt - evolutionary)

New product and new market

(create - revolutionary)

Old Product and Old market

(manage - incremental)

New product and Old market

(extend - evolutionary)

Can you suggest other ways to edit ideas?

Please add comments below

Good ideas are different. Naturally, they have a quality of uncertainty about them which can make them scary. These are the ideas to pay attention to.

Q. How do you minimize risk with good but scary new ideas?

Part 3

Stage tests.

Stage-Gate Innovation

Seed Money

Develop concept

How many projects are in your idea

pipeline?How many active

internal contributors do you have?

Small Bet

Develop strategy

Do the projects align with your brand?

How long is the time to market?

Can you hear the appetite in the marketplace?

Medium Bet

Prototype & test idea Ask your target

market

Large Bet

Launch best projects to

marketThe market dictates

your success

= an idea

Q. How do you create sustainable innovation?

Part 4

Be like Starbucks and count your ideas.

http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/

What gets measured gets done.

Peter Drucker

How else could you measure innovation?

Marc BinkleyBrand Consultant & Marketing Analyst

@marcbinkley or on LinkedIn