InnovationExercisesandInsightsbyLindegaard (1)

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Innovation Excercises and Insights by @Lindegaard/1

by @Lindegaard

Be Competitively Unpredictable!- Make It Happen Trough Innovation

Tis version o the Innovation Exercises and Insights by @Lindegaard is intended or sharing with others.You can find a higher quality version or printing on 15inno.com.
http://15inno.com/http://15inno.com/http://15inno.com/


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Innovation Excercises and Insights by @Lindegaard/32/Innovation Excercises and Insights by @Lindegaard

Dear riends and innovators,

Here you get a set o exercises, tools and insightsthat I hope can help you in your work with inno-

vation.

You are welcome to use this in any way you see fitas long as you give due credit.

I you are a consultant or teacher, use the exerci-ses in your interactions with clients and students.I you work in a company, use them in trainingsessions or to get some inspiration or solvingyour innovation challenges. Its up to you!

Te only thing I ask or in return is that youshare my work with your colleagues, riends andnetwork. Lets work together to make the (open)innovation movement go even urther!

You are o course also welcome to book me ora talk, session or workshop i you want a moreacilitated approach to the exercises and tools.

Best regards,

Stean Lindegaard

[email protected]@lindegaard


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Be Competitively Unpredictable! ........................................................................... 7

Open Innovation in Your Company

What is Open Innovation? Crowdsourcing?

User innovation? Co-Creation? .............................................................................. 13

Exercises:

- Why open innovation ........................................................................................... 15

- Corporate maturity ................................................................................................ 15

- Internal readiness overview ................................................................................ 16

- External readiness overview ............................................................................... 16

- ypes o external input ......................................................................................... 17- Value pools .............................................................................................................. 17

- Key value pools ...................................................................................................... 18

- Challenges-brainstorm ....................................................................................... 18

- Challenges-overview ............................................................................................ 19

- Why will executives resist your efforts? .............................................................. 19

- Why will executives support your efforts? .......................................................... 20

- Implementation barriers ....................................................................................... 20

- Organizing or open innovation ......................................................................... 21

Communication, Tought Leadership and Social Media

Great Innovators Are Great Communicators! ...................................................... 23

Exercises:

- Te big picture ....................................................................................................... 25

- Value pools .............................................................................................................. 25

- Tought leadership characteristics ...................................................................... 26

- Tought leadership industry examples ............................................................... 27

- Our initiatives ......................................................................................................... 28

- Social media tools and services ............................................................................ 28

- Your platorm and channels ................................................................................. 29

- Whats in it or me and my colleagues? ............................................................... 29

- Key barriers or so cial media ............................................................................... 30

- Overcoming so cial media barriers ...................................................................... 30

- 10 keywords or social media use.......................................................................... 31

- Social media keywords .......................................................................................... 31

- eam roles ............................................................................................................... 32

- Content creation ..................................................................................................... 32

- Te elevator pitch ................................................................................................... 33

Innovation Culture

Strategies or Building and Supporting an Innovation Culture ......................... 35

Exercises:

- oolbox and mindset: key skills or individuals ................................................. 38

- oolbox and mindset: key skills or organization/team .................................... 38

- Inspirational sources or developing toolbox and mindset .............................. 39

- People and projects ............................................................................................... 39

- Understanding/use o innovation concepts and methodologies ..................... 40- Common language ................................................................................................. 40

- Innovation boosters ............................................................................................... 41

- Innovation killers ................................................................................................... 41

- Why is your company innovative? ....................................................................... 42

- Foundation and perception .................................................................................. 42

- Need or education/overview ............................................................................... 43

- Need or education/actions .................................................................................. 43

Te Corporate Innovation eam

Open Innovation eams: What Do Tey Look Like? .......................................... 45

Exercises:

- Stakeholder expectations ...................................................................................... 47

- Jobs to get done/category overv iew ................................................................... 47

- Jobs to get done/present and uture ..................................................................... 48

- Key objectives ......................................................................................................... 48

Networking

Why Networking is Important or Innovation ..................................................... 51

Exercises:

- Current network vs uture need ........................................................................... 55

- ypes o networking .............................................................................................. 55

- Your personal / team brand .................................................................................. 56

ABLE OF CONENS


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Competitively unpredictable: twowords that spell the key to success intodays ast paced, highly competiti-ve business arena. I your companyhas the ability to consistently outma-

neuver the competition in ways theynever see coming, then the uture is

bright. I, on the other hand, your at-tempts at innovation are humdrumand highly predictable, you will bethe corporate equivalent o Wile E.Coyote, doomed to orever chasingthe more nimble, aster Road Runnerwithout success.

Why is being competitively unpredic-table so essential now? One key re-ason is the ever-shrinking window oopportunity. In the past decades, de-pending on your industry, you could

count on having three or five or evenseven years afer bringing something

new to market to make good moneybeore you needed to come up withthe next new thing to keep revenuesgrowing.

Be Competitively Unpredictable!

- Make it Happen Trough Innovation


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Tis is no longer the case. While thepace o innovation used to be ast, itwas still manageable. Now the win-dow o opportunity is getting shorter

and closing aster so youre orced toinnovate ever more rapidly. One othe best examples is the mobile pho-ne industry, where they are now co-unting in months, not years, betweennew product introductions.

Tis also makes timing a key elemento innovation as you need to hit themarket at the right time not toolate, but not too early either - with

the right offering or you all behindyour competitors, being orced to goin directions they dictate rather thancharting your own uture.

At the same time that the window oopportunity is narrowing, compe-tition overall is becoming more andmore unpredictable. Your competi-tors are using open innovation to un-

cover more market opportunities andthe results are starting to show. Andnew competitors are coming out onowhere and perhaps rom differentindustries to completely disrupt yourmarket and destabilize your industry.

Te book industry is a great examplehere. No one really expected Amazonto become such a disruptive orce asthey have turned out to be. First, they

hit the book selling industry, puttingmajor chains like Borders out o bu-siness and prompting many indepen-dent booksellers to close as well. Tatwas amazing enough but ounderJeff Bezos had much bigger plans in

mind. Now the company is not justthe worlds biggest online retailer obooks but the biggest online retailer,period, offering everything imagina-

ble, rom sofware and electronics tourniture, ood, clothing, home go-ods, and drug store items. Competi-tors like WalMart are fighting to keepup with the ease o online shoppingand attractive pricing Amazon.comoffers. Te next disruptive move orAmazon might be in data manage-ment.

With companies being able to morph

off into new business areas muchmore quickly than ever beore, yourobjective is to become one o thecompetitively unpredictable compa-nies, rather than a victim o competi-tive unpredictability.

Heres the bad news: We lack visio-nary innovation executives, leadersand champions to make this happen.

oo ofen, they are playing catch up,chasing the competition rather thanmaking their own organizationscompetitively unpredictable thro-ugh innovation not just in productsand services but also in business pro-

cesses, delivery channels and busi-ness models. Based on interactionsIve had with companies around theworld, here is why I think this is thecase:

Although many companies are mo-ving in the right direction with an

increased ocus on open innovationand business model innovation, I stillsee too many innovation leaders whoare stuck because they do not developthemselves and their teams.

One key reason is that they are notexperimenting (enough) with ways inwhich they can innovate on the inno-vation process itsel. At times, I e venmeet corporate innovation teams thathave not even heard about open in-novation. Tis is quite shocking tome and it leads me to my next point.

Occasionally, every member o a cor-porate innovation team, especially theleaders, needs to take a hard look in themirror and ask these two questions:Do I have the right mindset, the kno-whow and the toolbox needed to leadmy companys efforts or innovationin times like this? Te next questionis even more important: Do I have a

process that keeps me up updated onthe innovation trends and practicesthat my company needs to embrace tobeat the competition?

I dont think that corporate innovatorsget complacent as such. Tey are justtoo busy getting things done and theydo not set aside the time needed to in-vest in themselves. Tis becomes quiteobvious at my sessions where I ofen

ask how ofen they just sit back andreflect on the work they are doing andthe challenges they ace. Not many pe-ople at all have this time or reflection.

Tis is poor decision-making with re-gards to prioritizing ones time, and itwill hurt you in the long run.

Do you have the courage to tell thetruth (and perhaps risk your job)when you can see that your compa-ny is moving in the wrong directionwith your innovation efforts? Or doyou just accept things are they are?

Tis one is difficult as corporate in-novation teams ofen operate in or-ganizations that are political to a les-ser or higher degree. Sometimes you

need a more subtle approach, but youmust never lose your courage to spe-ak up when things move in the wrongdirection.

Most corporate innovation teamsthat I work with buy into the idea that

their key role is to acilitate in a waythat helps innovation take root at thebusiness units and to integrate exter-nal resources into the innovationprocess.

Tis is a good thing, but they do notrealize the importance o commu-nication related to these challenges.Tey need to have on-going conver-sations with internal as well as exter-

nal stakeholders i they want to suc-ceed as innovation acilitators andintegrators and too many ail on this.

Tey do not innovate on theinnovation process

Tey lack communication skillsand eorts

Tey lack the courage to speak up

Tey do not develop their mindset

and toolbox


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Other Challenges

In some companies, innovation le-aders are fighting a battle that hasnothing to do with the shortcomingslisted above. Tis is a battle that willsound amiliar to many o you. Onone side, we find a visionary innova-tion leader and a strong innovationteam. Tis leader and his team have

a vision and the ideas that can bringlong-term prosperity to the company

i they are executed well and giventhe time to do so.

On the other side, we have a CFO,who has been given the mandate tocut down on costs. Tis is air eno-ugh in tough times, but the problemis that the CFO and his allies do notreally know much about innovation.

Tey cut too deep. Tey lose their pa-tience. No wonder. You get immedia-te results by cutting costs and i suc-cessul you have to wait or a whileto see the results o innovation. I youdont know how innovation works,this becomes a no-brainer.

Te judge is the CEO. Or is it? Notreally, because the owners (the bo-

ard) judges the CEO and in sluggisheconomic times like these what mat-ters are short-term results. Heck, inmany companies you even have ashort-term ocus when the economyis doing well. Te key problem is thatno one really judges the board. Youcould argue that market does so, butin such cases the blame hits the CEO,not the board. You are stuck with theboard.

No one wins this battle. Te employ-ees are taken as hostages, the custo-mers or end-users lose out on the be-nefits o innovation and in the long

term the shareholders will suffer. Telatter is true because there is actual-ly one winner. Tat is the competitorthat decides to become competitive-ly unpredictable through innovationand gets this right.

Te challenges Ive outlined hereare tough to overcome. Tey requirehaving a smart innovation strategy,something many companies lack.

Youll also need the right culture andpeople in place, along with a structu-re or pursuing innovation that sup-ports the goal o being competitivelyunpredictable. In act, you may needto completely rethink how your busi-ness pursues innovation. Tis is hardwork. But i you succeed and becometruly competitively unpredictable,the rewards will be many and long-la-

sting. And given the pace o change,what other choice do you really have?

Essential Elements

Tere are some essential elements

that executives, innovation leadersand other employees working withinnovation should look into on the-ir path to becoming competitivelyunpredictable. Te elements include:

Innovation Strategy:How is inno-vation tied to our overall corporatestrategy? What do we want to achie-ve? Where do we want to go? Tisseems to be basic but, oddly, many

companies ail at innovation becausethey dont know the answers to thesequestions.

Innovation Setup: Innovation isabout ar more than just new pro-ducts and services. What types o oinnovation matter today and in theuture? How to do you structure in-novation? Are you aware o the im-portance o communication? Do youhave processes in place so that youlearn rom your ailures?

Innovation Culture: You need to

understand the characteristics o aculture that would support it beingcompetitively unpredictable. Tis in-cludes a common language aroundcompetitively unpredictability, cre-ating a networked culture and dee-ating the corporate antibodies thatfight against change and innovationin nearly every organization.

Innovation People: Without theright people who possess the rightskills and mindset, becoming com-petitively unpredictable will not bepossible. Here you must understandhow to identiy and develop the right

people with the right traits and skillsand the different roles to be played byexecutives, managers and employeesin a competitively unpredictable or-ganization.

Being competitively unpredictableis not a new concept. Whats new isthat visionary companies are takinga more strategic approach to it, ma-king a conscious decision to become

competitively unpredictable. Tesecompanies realize that only those bu-sinesses that deliver a steady streamo better products, services and inno-

vative business models at a rapid pacewill survive and thrive in a globalmarketplace where its possible or anunknown startup to combine rapidtechnological advances and smarterthinking to produce the next greatnew thing.

Join me as we explore how your com-pany can learn to keep the competi-tion guessing and keep your market

growing by embracing an effectivestrategy and approach to innovation.


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Open

Innovationin Your Company

What is Open Innovation?

Crowd-sourcing?

User Innovation?Co-creation?

Many people ask what open inno-vation is. I suggest that you viewopen innovation as a philosophy ora mindset that you should embracewithin your organization. In a more

practical definition, open innova-tion is about bridging internal andexternal resources and act on thoseopportunities. Te value proposition(better innovation to market aster)this gives companies that get it rightis simply too good to miss out on.

I also like this quote rom HenryChesbrough; Open innovation is a

paradigm that assumes that firms canand should use external ideas as wellas internal ideas, and internal andexternal paths to market, as the firmslook to advance their technology

Tis still leaves three other questions:

What is crowdsourcing?

Wikipedia states that crowdsourcingis the act o outsourcing tasks, tradi-tionally perormed by an employee orcontractor, to a large group o peopleor community (a crowd), through anopen call. I view crowdsourcing as

a toolthat can be used to bring exter-nal input into your organizations.

What is user-driven innovation?I view this as a technique in whichcompanies gain insights rom users,which can then be used in the in-novation process. I think that a key
http://facultybio.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty-list/chesbrough-henryhttp://facultybio.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty-list/chesbrough-henryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcinghttp://facultybio.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty-list/chesbrough-henryhttp://facultybio.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty-list/chesbrough-henry


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element in user-driven innovation isthe observation o users rather thanthe use o questionnaires and ocusgroups. Erich von Hippel is an im-portant influencer with his contribu-tions on lead-user innovation.

What is co-creation?Here Wikipedia states that co-cre-ation views markets as orums orfirms and active customers to share,combine and renew each others reso-urces and capabilities to create valuethrough new orms o interaction,service and learning mechanisms. Itdiffers rom the traditional active firm

passive consumer market constructo the past. I like how C.K. Prahaladand Venkat Ramaswamy argue thatvalue will be increasingly co-createdby the firm and the customer, they ar-gued, rather than being created enti-rely inside the fi rm.

Tese terms overlap which leavesplenty o room or conusion, butI hope this short overview helps.
http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-creationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-creationhttp://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/


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Communication,

Tought Leadershipand Social Media

Great Innovators Are Great Communicators!

Corporate innovation teams at bigcompanies need to pay more atten-tion to communication i they wantto improve their success rate o theirinnovation outcomes.

Tey need to communicate internal-ly in order to get the support neededto make innovation happen and theyneed to communicate externally inorder to be able to bring in the best

external resources to the innovationprocess.

I ofen state that when we talk abo-ut the intersection o innovation andcommunication in the orms o PR,branding and promotion, this used tobe all about the innovation outcomes(products and services). Te sales andmarketing unctions deal with this so

the innovation people did not reallyhave to ocus on innovation. Tis ischanging or a couple o reasons.

One is that innovation is getting moreand more holistic. You can no longerjust innovate in the R&D unit andthen let other unctions take over. Itis all tied together and the communi-cation skills needed to bring innova-tion to market are getting increasingimportant.

Another reason, which builds urtheron my first point is that corporate in-

novation teams that really care abouttheir success rate pay more attention

to what happens afer they let go otheir work. Te best communica-tors are ofen those who created theproduct or service i they did the-ir job well (ocused on getting a jobdone or a paying customer). I so,they need to be involved on how toposition and sell the innovation as it

enters the value chain and eventuallyhits the customers or end-users.


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What can corporate innovation teams and innovators in general do toimprove their communication skills?

Here you get some o my views.

Get started: Tis sounds obvious, butit is kind o scary to witness the num-ber o corporate innovation teamswith no ocus on the communicationaspect o their corporate innovationcapabilities. Tey have no idea whythis even matters and as such theydont have any strategy or tactical to-

ols to work with. Tey dont developtheir skills and mindset either.

Have a clear message that resonateswith the audience: oo ofen, corpo-rate unctions involved with innova-tion efforts are too caught up in theown world and thus they communi-cate with their own terms and wordseven though this might not resonatewith the audience. You need to see

the bigger picture and go beyondyour own small world.

Some might argue that this is whyyou let corporate communicationsteams do the work as they are trainedor this. Tis is true, but only to somedegree. Te biggest problem here isthat corporate communication pe-ople dont really know about innova-

tion and how this happens. Tis lacko understanding can create problemsinternally as well as externally.

Use a range of communication tools:Since most corporate innovation te-ams are not trained communicators(and definitely not in the broad sense

that I advocate or), they might as-sume this is just about exposure ontheir intranet and in traditional me-

dia channels. Tey need to go beyondthis and three unconventional waysor many would be the use o stake-holder management, networking andsocial media. We should not get cau-ght up in semantics here, but yes, Ithink the first two can be categorizedas communication tools i used pro-perly.

Combine internal and external focus:Communication has become trickieror corporate innovation teams in theera o open innovation as they needto communicate internally as well asexternally. A key reason or internalcommunication is that you can makegood things happen aster i your em-ployees believe that they are innova-tive. A key reason or external com-munication is that you need to court

potential innovation partners in yourefforts o becoming the preerredpartner o choice within the innova-tion ecosystems in your industry.

Sometimes you can and should com-bine both with the reasoning that itis easier to get good internal progressi employees can read or hear abouttheir innovation efforts in the outside

world. Perception is a powerul ele-ment when creating a strong innova-tion culture.


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Strategies for Building

and Supporting an Innovation CultureInnovation Culture

We ofen hear that a company setsout to create a strong innovation cul-ture. Tis very rarely succeeds and akey reason or this is that only twothings can really change an ailing in-novation culture or the better.

One is a truly burning platorm. Iyour company is about to go downwithin a very short time, things canchange and i the company survives

there might be room or a better in-novation culture. You get a chance ora ull reset.

Te other is the ull support o the topexecutives and this is not just one ortwo who really understand innova-tion, but a clear majority led by theCEO. Unortunately, this does nothappen ofen.

So what can a corporate innovation

team in companies that do not havea burning platorm or a totally com-mitted executive team do in order toimprove their innovation culture.


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Here you get some suggestions:

Embrace a bottom-up approach:

You need to get commitment rom

the top as well as the bottom (myBX model). I you lack the ormer,then you can engage the employeesand try to create a snowball effectin which more and more employees(ollowed by managers and perhapseven executives) get involved in in-

novation initiatives.

Here you need to look at initiatives

related to intrapreneurship, businessplan competitionsand skunk works.

You might also enjoy these reads onemployees and innovation: WhenShould Your Employees Be Innova-tors and Intrapreneurs?and Te Ca-reers o Innovation Leaders and In-trapreneurs.

Understand the overall corporatestrategy better:

We ofen hear that culture eats stra-tegy or breakast. However, this isnot the case in this situation and thus

we need to turn things around. Oneapproach could be or corporate in-novations team to gain a very solidunderstand o the overall corporatestrategy, then identiy a number o

important corporate moves (near u-ture) and try to pull the current inno-vation resources into this direction.

Tis could help bring more aware-ness, recognition and perhaps evenrespect to the innovation team justor the efforts and in particular i thisresults in some early wins. Over time

this can help change the culture orthe better.

Dont copy Google or Apple:

A corporate culture is almost carvedin stone during the early years o

the company and it takes disruptiveevents or efforts to change it signifi-cantly. Tus, it is quite dangerous to

be inspired by things like Googles20% project in which employees canwork on their own projects or 20%o the time.

Tis worked at Google in the earlyyears (not even sure it works any-more at Google), but it will be verydifficult to implement this conceptin a culture that is not used to this.Te mindset and processes needed to

support this are simply not in place.

Lots o people also bring up Appleand their ability to bring game-chan-ging innovation to market as a sour-

ce o inspiration. However, Apple isa very unique company that is hardto copy and this has a lot to do withSteve Jobs. Furthermore, it is also di-ficult to get a good understanding on

how Apple innovates, as they dontshare much about their efforts andinitiatives.

Focus on a single business unit:

I you work in large multinationalcompany, you most likely have po-

ckets o the right innovation cultu-re within t he company. You could tr yto identiy these pockets and then tryto secure ull commitment rom theleadership here and work together todevelop and launch strong initiatives.I this works well, then you can bu-ild urther throughout the companywith similar initiatives.

Step up the communication eorts:

Every company already has somegood initiatives going on and a cor-porate innovation team can use thisto start building the perception thatthe company already is innovative al-though there is lots o room or im-provement. You can check out thisarticle: Great Innovators are GreatCommunicators

Educate upwards:

It is the responsibility or corpora-te innovation teams to educate theirexecutives. Many teams miss out on

this or they do not really know howto do this.

Te challenge is to find the ways thator works in your given situation. You

might be lucky enough that your exe-cutives want to learn and then youcan set-up a training program. I theyare not really that interested, thenyou need to figure out how to triggerthem. Tis ofen involves identiying

ways in which the executives can be-nefit personally rom a stronger inno-vation culture.

Leave for a better company:

Te last resort, which I expect will beused by many as the economy kicksinto higher gear again is to get a newjob and try to make things happenin a more receptive environment.However, as this might sound lu-

ring, please have in mind that a hugemajority o companies deal with thesame kind o problems as those you

are trying to escape. You might endup being disappointed.
http://www.15inno.com/2012/04/20/intrapreneurship-2/http://www.15inno.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/strategy-innovation-corporate-business-plan-competitions2.pdfhttp://www.15inno.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/strategy-innovation-corporate-business-plan-competitions2.pdfhttp://www.15inno.com/2012/11/19/beinnointra/http://www.15inno.com/2012/11/19/beinnointra/http://www.15inno.com/2012/11/19/beinnointra/http://www.15inno.com/2012/10/15/intracareers/http://www.15inno.com/2012/10/15/intracareers/http://www.15inno.com/2012/10/15/intracareers/http://www.15inno.com/2013/01/21/innocomm/http://www.15inno.com/2013/01/21/innocomm/http://www.15inno.com/2013/01/21/innocomm/http://www.15inno.com/2013/01/21/innocomm/http://www.15inno.com/2012/10/15/intracareers/http://www.15inno.com/2012/10/15/intracareers/http://www.15inno.com/2012/10/15/intracareers/http://www.15inno.com/2012/11/19/beinnointra/http://www.15inno.com/2012/11/19/beinnointra/http://www.15inno.com/2012/11/19/beinnointra/http://www.15inno.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/strategy-innovation-corporate-business-plan-competitions2.pdfhttp://www.15inno.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/strategy-innovation-corporate-business-plan-competitions2.pdfhttp://www.15inno.com/2012/04/20/intrapreneurship-2/


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Te Corporate Innovation eam Open Innovation Teams:What Do Tey Look Like?

One o my corporate contacts recen-tly asked i I could share some insi-ghts on what corporate (open) inno-vation teams or groups look l ike andwhether there are same similaritiesacross industries. Tis prompted meto take a quick look and here I give

you short descriptions o some gro-ups with a public presence.

Shell Game Changer: GameChan-

ger is a simple, flexible, and real-timeinnovation process run by an auto-nomous team at Shell that invests inhelping people develop their novelideas rom genesis to proo o con-cept. Ideas can and do come romanyone, anywhere at any time in oroutside the company. Successul pro-jects graduate to an R&D program, acommercial license, or a new ventu-

re. Tis is the introduction to a greatread on Shell Game Changer clickthe above link to read urther.

P&G Connect + Develop:Tis is oneo the best known corporate innova-tion teams and rightully so as theypioneered open innovation. Te C+Dinitiative is the key piece o P&GsGlobal Business Development groupwith about 80 people making this the

biggest open innovation team I knowo.
http://www.managementexchange.com/story/shell-game-changerhttp://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/http://www.pgconnectdevelop.com/http://www.managementexchange.com/story/shell-game-changer


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Weyerhauser: Linda Beltz, Directoror echnology Partnerships / OpenInnovation at Weyerhaeuser has sha-red great insights on how to organizeor open innovation in her many pre-sentations and talks. I find that a keytake away rom her work is that youneed a hybrid / balanced approach.

General Mills Worldwide Innova-tion Network (G-WIN): Tis teamhas won awards or their efforts andas you can read in this article, theyconstantly iterate their approach oracilitating innovation throughoutthe company. You should also checkout this advice on starting an openinnovation program.

LEGO: It sounds strange given LE-GOs many external touchpoints, butthey only started their team a yearago. Tey are only two guys, but theyare seeing strong progress within the-ir targeted value pools o internal em-ployees, entrepreneurs, kids and adultans and companies / institutions.

AkzoNobel Networked InnovationProgram: Tis is a more inormalprogram based on about 15 peopleacross the different business unitsand unctions. Such a setup providesmore flexibility and i they can com-bine this with direction and action, itcan become quite powerul.

Natura: Tis Brazilian company star-ted their open innovation efforts 5years ago and they are starting to get

their share o attention. You get anidea o their setup at the end o the

article (above link). It seems as i the yhave a small team o 5-7 people ledby Adriano Jorge. You can read abouttheir ocus areas in his LinkedIn pro-file.

With regards to similarities amongthese groups, I notice that with the

exception o P&G Connect+Develop,

the teams are fairly small having2-15 people on board.Getting the ri-ght people on board and in charge is crucial as individuals really canmake or break such initiatives. Mosto the teams have also been in placeor at least 3-5 years indicating that

it takes time for such initiatives totake root internally as well as exter-nally.
http://www.15inno.com/2012/05/23/a-corporate-innovators-advice-on-open-innovation/http://www.generalmills.com/Company/Innovation/G-Win.aspxhttp://www.generalmills.com/Company/Innovation/G-Win.aspxhttp://www.15inno.com/2012/06/21/fivetipsfromgeneralmills/http://www.15inno.com/2012/06/21/fivetipsfromgeneralmills/http://www.15inno.com/?s=legohttp://www.ninesigma.com/File%20Library/White%20Papers%20and%20Reports/AkzoNobel-20Case-20Study-20vFinal.pdfhttp://www.ninesigma.com/File%20Library/White%20Papers%20and%20Reports/AkzoNobel-20Case-20Study-20vFinal.pdfhttp://www.ninesigma.com/File%20Library/White%20Papers%20and%20Reports/AkzoNobel-20Case-20Study-20vFinal.pdfhttp://www.managementexchange.com/story/innovation-in-well-beinghttp://www.managementexchange.com/story/innovation-in-well-beinghttp://www.ninesigma.com/File%20Library/White%20Papers%20and%20Reports/AkzoNobel-20Case-20Study-20vFinal.pdfhttp://www.ninesigma.com/File%20Library/White%20Papers%20and%20Reports/AkzoNobel-20Case-20Study-20vFinal.pdfhttp://www.15inno.com/?s=legohttp://www.15inno.com/2012/06/21/fivetipsfromgeneralmills/http://www.15inno.com/2012/06/21/fivetipsfromgeneralmills/http://www.generalmills.com/Company/Innovation/G-Win.aspxhttp://www.generalmills.com/Company/Innovation/G-Win.aspxhttp://www.15inno.com/2012/05/23/a-corporate-innovators-advice-on-open-innovation/


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Te Corporate Innovation eam

Te reason or creating a networkingculture is obvious once you look atthe current and uture direction oinnovation. Lets start by disposing

o the myth o the lone genius - theTomas Edisons and the AlexanderGraham Bells o yesteryear - arrivingat a breakthrough innovation on his/her own.

Tis model wasnt true then, and eveni it were, it simply does not hold truein todays complex business organiza-tions. echnology and the challengesthat must be solved have become so

complex that many - perhaps evenmost - companies can no longer relysolely on their own internal innova-tion geniuses, no matter how brilliant

those people may be.Innovation is increasingly about ha-ving groups o people come togetherto leverage their diverse talents and

expertise to solve multiaceted chal-lenges that cross multiple disciplines.o make this happen within your or-ganization - and beyond as you movetoward open innovation - requires anetworking culture that is designed,supported, and modeled by yourcompanys leaders.

Another key motivation or settingup networking initiatives is based on

the simple act that the knowledge oany company is inside the heads othe employees. Discovering and di-stributing this knowledge has always

Why Networking is Important for Innovation


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Lack of time: Many o us simply donot have the time to network and bu-ild relationships. It is necessary to de-velop a strategy and initiate projects,but you also need to give your peopletime to invest in initiating and ma-intaining both internal and externalrelationships.

Lack of skills: Some people are na-

tural-born networkers; many othersare not. But the basics o effective ne-tworking can be learned, just like anyother business skill. With appropriateinstruction and motivation, wallflo-wers can learn to work a room. Byproviding your people with this typeo training, you will give them a skillthat will be invaluable throughouttheir careers.

Lack of focus: A community or anetwork will only work i it connectspeople who share a common expe-rience, passion, interest, affiliation, orgoal. Your people need to have waysto find and join groups that are rightor them and right or your compa-ny. In other words, you and your em-ployees should only network whenthere is a good reason to do so. Ran-

dom networking rarely results in any-thing but wasted time, which devalu-es networking in peoples minds andmakes it harder to encourage them totry it again.

Lack of commitmentand structu-re: Te networking-will-take-care-o-itsel-and-you-do-not-need-to-work-at-it attitude is not the approach

to take toward building what is incre-

asingly a core innovation skill. Buil-ding a networking culture requirescommitment and structure to sup-port it.

Networking on the Personal Level

On a personal level, I can offer threekey tips on how to help a newbie ne-tworker master this important skill:

Only network if you have a purpose.I strongly encourage you not to listento the people who say you should ne-twork with everyone within sight so

as to not risk losing any opportuni-ties. You are already busy, and timeis the most precious thing you have,so do not spend time on activitiesthat do not serve a higher purpose.Tis also goes or networking groups,which can be very useul. However,you should only join such a group iyou have a purpose. It is also just fi neto leave the group once that purpose

is ulfilled.

Learn to turn on the switcheven if youre an introvert. Somepeople believe only extroverts canbecome good networkers. However,

psychologists classiy introverts aspeople who gain energy rom beingalone. It does not matter how outgo-ing or shy they may or may not be.Tis is true in my case. I would ca-

tegorize mysel as an introvert. I liketo be by mysel. I have no problem atall meeting other people, but I preerto be by mysel or with my amily. Mytrick, and the trick introverts mustuse, is that I can turn on the switch

been a challenge, and now, more thanever, the ability to leverage a compa-nys collective knowledge and expe-rience is critical to innovation. Fur-

thermore, establishing the ability tobring knowledge and potential newinnovation insights in rom externalsources demands a strong networ-king culture supported and modeledrom the top.

What a Networking Culture Looks

Like

So what does a good networking cul-

ture looks like? Its such a new con-cept that there arent a lot o examplesavailable to illustrate it, but here aresome key components o a good ne-tworking culture:

Top executives have outlined cle-ar strategic reasonswhy employeesneed to develop and nurture internaland external relationships. Tis inclu-

des making clear how your company-s networking culture links with andsupports your innovation strategy.

Among the things to consider is

what types of networksyou hope to

build to support your innovation e-orts. I your organization is movingtoward open innovation, possibilitieswould include peer-to-peer networksor people working with open inno-

vation in different companies, value-and supply-chain networks, eedernetworks, and events and orumsconnecting problem solvers and in-novators with your company.

Leaders must walk the walk, notjust talk the talk. By making them-selves available at networking eventsand by being visible users o virtual

networking tools, they model the de-sired behavior and motivate othersto participate. Afer all, who doesntwant a chance to exchange ideas withthe top brass?

Networking initiatives mesh closelywith your corporate culture. Tis isnot one-size-fits-all; each company-s networking efforts will differ. Youcan take bits and pieces, concepts and

theories, knowledge and experien-ce rom others, but you still need tomake it work or your own company.

People are given the time and me-ans to network. Frequent opportu-nities are provided to help individu-als polish their personal networkingskills. Not everyone is a natural ne-tworker. But almost everyone can be-

come good at it with proper trainingand encouragement.

Today, networking not only hap-pens in the real world. You also needto make this happen in the virtual

world using a range o social mediatools and services.

Potential Roadblocks

In working with companies that aretrying to build a networking culture,here are some reasons Ive identifiedor why such efforts can ail or not re-ach the hoped-or degree o success:


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and go into a networking mode.I have learned networking techniqu-es, and I believe that having had towork harder than natural extroverts

made me a better networker.

You can become a better networkerby investing in a better understan-ding o how networking works andhow you can use networks to meetyour goals. Let me share a ew tipson how to turn on the switch beoreyou go to an event or a conerence:

Do your research before you go toan event. Know who you want to meet

and be prepared.

Everyone seeks upward connectionswhen theyre networking. If people you

want to connect with see you as in-ferior, they will think you are wastingtheir time. And networking time isoen very limited. However, most pe-ople are polite and will give you oneminute. So have your pitch ready andbe prepared to make the most of yourbrief opportunity. If you are prepared,things will go much easier even for in-troverts.

Do the necessary follow-up work assoon as possible.

Leverage the power of six degrees

of separation to reach anyone in theworld. Tis reers to the idea that ia person is one step away rom eachperson they know and two steps awayrom each person who is known byone o the people they know, theneveryone is an average o six stepsaway rom each person on Earth.

Tink o someone who could reallyinfluence your career and see howmany steps it would take you to con-nect with that person. Youll ofen besurprised that you dont even need

six steps; it can ofen be done in justthree or our connections.

Heres how this works in terms o ne-tworks. Networks clump people toge-ther with other people who share thesame values or have a common areao expertise. Te larger group usual-ly only has a ew people connectingoutside this group; these people are

the brokers or bridge builders whoconnect groups with groups. Te roleo brokers explains how six degrees oseparation works. I you connect witha bridge builder, that person will thenconnect you with another bridge bu-ilder, and so on and so on until youreach the person you want to reach.You can become ver y valuable by be-coming a broker yoursel. Also, con-necting others creates riction, which

creates new ways o thinking andprosperity, so or innovation leadersand intrapreneurs, being a broker canbe particularly valuable and exciting.


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Layout and Prepress:

w w w . f a s s d e s i g n . n o


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Stean Lindegaard

[email protected]

@lindegaard

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