Report 103

Your newsletter on applied creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business – delivered to your e-mail box on the first and third Tuesday of every month.

Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Issue 109

Hello and welcome to another issue of Report 103, your fortnightly newsletter on creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation in business.

Information on unsubscribing, archives, reprinting articles, etc can be found at the end of this newsletter.

GUEST WRITER

I am delighted to introduce another guest writer, John Higgins, who has kindly contributed a concise, informative article on the innovative thinking behind micro financing. If you would like to contribute an article, please contact me before writing your article. If you've already written a piece that you think might be suitable for Report 103, please feel free to send it to me. But be sure you have copyright/authorisation to reprint first. (Note: all guest writer contributions are copyright by the authors themselves unless otherwise indicated)

NOBEL THINKING ENHANCES INNOVATION

By John Higgins

You too may be inspired by the Nobel Peace Prize 2006 award to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. Loans to poor people without any financial security and little documentation had appeared to be an impossible idea. No commercial bank was interested in giving tiny loans to poor people. The financial consequences of such investment were purchases of; agricultural commodities for manufacturing, products for re-sale and cell phones to provide services. The human consequences; relief of debt, ability to provide for families, financial security and life with dignity were even greater.

It’s a great example of innovation, with much to learn.

• On the day Muhammad Yunus reached into his pocket to lend $27 to 42 people he did not have a business plan. He did not know that he would be repaid. He did know that there was a problem. His first step was a prototype solution.

• When he was able to see that it was effective he asked himself, “If you can make so many people happy with such a small amount of money, why shouldn’t you do more of it?” ‘Why not?’ is a great next step.

• Destitute widows, abandoned wives and beggars do not have loan collateral. Proving the impossible meant stepping outside the selection criteria of the current paradigm. Nothing new can happen with old idea selection criteria.

• The experts (guardians of conventional wisdom) said it could not work. Although initially considered difficult and revolutionary the concept of self help through micro-credit has become the new development paradigm. New and different is always challenging. Personal commitment and belief is essential.

What is currently impossible in your business? Could suspending criteria and investing tiny amounts of money in impossible places lead to new vision, insight and wealth creation?

About the Author

John is passionate about application of the very best thinking in innovation. His speciality is appropriate use of the toolbox for creating new value through science and technology. Tools include; selection criteria, technology forecasting, technology roadmaps, project valuation including real options analysis and application of prospect theory to investment decisions. John has 25 years experience in manufacturing industries. He has engaged in production, supervision, research, process and product development, project management, team leadership and strategy development. Services include consulting, customised executive coaching and seminars.

John can be contacted at or, www.virtual.co.nz/index.php/JohnHiggins/JohnHiggins

EASIER SAID THAN DONE

Press Release, Erps-Kwerps, Belgium

The Baumgartner household today announced the official launch of their new culinary innovation centre. According to CPO (Chief Papa Officer) Jeffrey Baumgartner, the new culinary innovation centre would replace the family kitchen and function as an innovation hotspot for the family, fuelling innovative thinking and experimentation.

Already the culinary innovation centre has seen the development of a highly innovative linguine with spicy Provençal sauce. Meanwhile, senior research and play officers, young Mr. Baumgartner and even younger Mr. Baumgartner have released a steady stream of snacks from the new culinary innovation centre, assuring CPO Jeffrey that the snacks are essential for their continued innovative performance.

Says Baumgartner “The new culinary innovation centre is proof that the Baumgartner household is an innovation leader in Erps-Kwerps and demonstrates our family's commitment to innovation!”

Ridiculous?

Ridiculous? Yes! But sadly it is also representational of the approach many organisations are taking to innovation. If you don't believe me, do a Google News search on Innovation (or just go to http://news.google.com/news?q=innovation). You will find that most of the articles you see are not that different from my press release above. Organisations are labelling all kinds of divisions, departments and actions as innovation centres. But there is seldom an associated change of culture or true adoption of creativity or innovation in these innovation centres.

There are several reasons why this is happening.

1. “Innovation” has become a sexy business concept and an almost painfully trendy word. Businesses feel a need therefore to bandy the word about in order to show that they are innovative and assure customers that they have adopted the latest sexy business concept.

2. Although an innovation plan is relatively easy to implement in most organisations, the lack of clarity and structure that is necessary for any truly effective innovation strategy scares most senior managers. Corporate leaders - many of whom have been trained in MBA courses that preach analytics, measurability and highly structured business planning – are uncomfortable with true innovation which demands freedom from strict structures and is difficult to analyse. Innovation succeeds when you free employees to think, experiment and try out risky ideas, many of which will have a negative affect on cash-flow, in order to discover and develop the innovative concept which leads to a highly profitable new idea.

3. Senior managers often hand innovation over to a middle manager and charge her with making the company more innovative. However, they do not give her any real support, training or the mandate to implement any real change in the organisation. Sadly, an innovation plan generally requires some fundamental changes in operations and culture (see point two above).

As a result, innovation becomes an example of an old English cliché: “Easier said than done”. Indeed, many organisations find it so easy to say they are innovative, they never get around to actually becoming innovative.

Consequences

This excessive use of the word innovation has several consequences not only for the companies misusing the term, but also for the innovation community and the business community.

1. Companies believe they have acted on innovation and so do not take further steps to become even more innovative. If a research and development (R&D) centre is renamed the Innovation Centre, but R&D people still have to get every project change approved by multiple committees of risk adverse financial people, there will be no change whatsoever in the firm's innovative output.

2. Employees see that innovation is just another term for business as usual and so become disinterested in innovation. The R&D people in our example above are likely to feel demotivated by empty name change of their unit. They will see that a lot of time and effort has gone into renaming their centre, but no time or effort has actually gone into actually allowing them to be more innovative. As a result they are likely to become demotivated and even less interested in innovating.

3. It makes reading up on innovation dreadfully boring. Google News has a nifty notification function that allows you to receive e-mail notification of news articles and blog posts on any key word. I receive a daily Google News e-mail linking to all articles and popular blog posts with the keyword innovation. It usually includes about a dozen links. At best there are two or three items per week worth reading.

4. It makes those of us who take innovation seriously look bad! And that's not good, is?

Jeffrey's Solution

My quick fix solution for the problem is to focus on the concepts of creativity and implementation rather than the word innovation.

What can an organisation like yours do? The first thing is not to look for opportunities to use the word innovation. Rather, look for opportunities actually to be innovative. And the truth of the matter is that in business, innovation is the result of the implementation of creative ideas. In order to be innovative, you need creative ideas. Indeed, you need lots of creative ideas, because most of the creative ideas you get will not lead to innovation.

But you if you aim for lots of ideas, you will get some real gems. You need to innovate those. And you need to be ruthless about it, because many of those ideas will be risky. Indeed, some of them will fail. But if you are ruthless about implementing the best creative ideas, you will also implement ideas which are highly innovative and highly profitable.

And, before you know it, your company won't be talking about innovation any more. It will be innovating.

By the way: a tool like Jenni idea management software service (http://www.jpb.com/jenni/), which includes as much support as you want from us, is a highly effective and cost efficient method of soliciting, capturing and reviewing lots of creative ideas from your employees and even your customers or business partners. Contact me or your nearest representative (we have people in the USA, UK, Australia, Brazil, Benelux, Norway and Italy at your service!).

GUEST WRITER AND PARTNER

Speaking of representatives: OI Solutions, who represent us and particularly Jenni idea management in the UK, also organise creative and innovative events designed to help managers – and sometimes the entire company – think in new, creative ways. Here Peter Eales of OI Solutions writes about some of the events they have run and the benefits gained.

INNOVATIVE AND CREATIVE EVENTS

By Peter Eales

Innovation with Events Management

Creativity and innovation are what characterises the work of the teams at o i solutions and MCA Directors. Its not mere implementation clients are looking for but ideas stretching the boundaries and to test individuals. So what’s funny, interesting, different, new? Let’s share some of the excitement!

Examples of Events

Hitting the Right Note

In an attempt to both instil unknown levels of confidence amongst their presenters and literally amaze their audience, we secretly taught a client’s main presenters how to sing and dance on stage during the conference – all part of a serious business presentation in its “Hitting the Right Note” concept.
Directors on Ice

Just to cool the nerves, we also trained the board of directors of a blue chip company how to skate so that they could actually perform a dance routine on ice, whilst the entire conference was staged from the centre of the rink!

Turkey Heat – hell and heaven

And just imagine 24 hours of hell as conference delegates checked into their 5 star hotel in Turkey expecting the best but experiencing the worst: rudeness, no amenities, no service, cold inedible food, no bar, and a complete failure to honour any of the published timings…..

….until the hoax was revealed with the words “Never treat your customers like we treated you” opened the conference for real and got delegates really thinking about the meaning of customer service, and being transported into conference heaven for the remainder of the week!

Stand-up Comedy Training

And now, in its endeavours to continue producing unusual ideas to stimulate audiences into getting their act together, o i solutions and MCA have devised a novel training approach working with professional entertainers to develop a comedy workshop format, aimed specifically at the business and corporate world.

What’s New? What’s the market telling us?

Customers are more adventurous but still rely on us for the ideas: thank goodness we are pretty surreal! Sustainability has replaced “outward bound”; people want to put something back and give something not just escape from the office and let off steam. Clearing beaches, planting trees and repainting schools has replaced paint-ball shooting! Programmes like the UK’s Apprentice where would-be entrepreneurs are set challenges are what senior managers like to see replicated in some shape or form with a creative, idiosyncratic twist for their brand. We did this with one multi-national raising thousands for charity in less than 12 hours. Another noticeable shift has been events are cross-departmental, no longer just sales or marketing plus and an increase in the number of women in marketing compared to years ago.

About the Author

Peter Eales is by background a plc marketing director and as well as running the company he is a Board Member (Deputy Chair) of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) SE – where he is a Fellow. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing. The CIM put on hundreds of events many of which Peter gets involved with. There are around 50,000 members in the CIM.

o i solutions are the jpb partner for the UK. The company is a Marketing Innovation and HR consultancy. www.oisolutions.co.uk

More on innovative events at:
http://www.oisolutions.co.uk/services/marketing-events-consultancy/innovative-events.aspx

Showcase Events Video:
http://www.oisolutions.co.uk/services/marketing-events-consultancy/video.aspx

Contact Peter Eales: +44(0)1202 706 975

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Have got an opinion about any of the articles you have read in Report 103? Do you simply want to talk innovation? If so, please e-mail me! I have meet a number of fascinating people and have even made a few good friends as the result of correspondence with readers like you. E-mail me at jeffreyb@jpb.com.

LATEST IN BUSINESS INNOVATION

If you want to keep up with the latest news in business innovation, I recommend Chuck Frey's INNOVATIONweek (http://www.innovationtools.com/News/subscribe.asp). It's the only e-newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on all of the latest innovation news, research, trends, case histories of leading companies and more. And it's the perfect complement to Report 103!

Happy thinking!

Jeffrey Baumgartner

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Report 103 is a complimentary weekly electronic newsletter from Bwiti bvba of Belgium (a jpb.com company: http://www.jpb.com). Archives and subscription information can be found at http://www.jpb.com/report103/

Report 103 is edited by Jeffrey Baumgartner and is published on the first and third Tuesday of every month.

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