Although managers might know that innovation is the only way to attain competitive advantage, they seldom know where to begin. Innovation is still a black box. Leaders don’t know where to start, how to build the necessary capabilities or even what they want to reach. The common definition of innovation being implemented ideas customers are willing to pay for doesn’t help much either. So how do start building innovation capabilities in your company?
I believe the first step to becoming more innovative is to have a common language and definition of what innovation is.
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Tagged as:
Innovation
I recently ran a series of innovation workshops at a major German IT company. The goals were to (1) raise the knowledge of innovation and innovation tools, while (2) at the same time developing ideas for innovations.
The project consisted of 3 major steps:
First senior management defined areas within which the organization should innovate. In a 2 day workshop we had a look at different types of innovation using the innovation map, what innovation could mean to the organization, and we developed an innovation roadmap. Senior management chose 4 areas to focus innovation efforts: (1) Products and markets, (2) Collaboration with the customer, (3) Future workplace, and (4) Effectiveness of the business, which was mostly about management innovations.
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Tagged as:
Action,
Innovation,
Workshop
Inspiration shower for the paperJam business club in Luxembourg.
During this highly interactive workshop you will have the opportunity to learn about a new approach to strategy. Drawing on concepts of business model innovation, breakthrough strategy, Blue Ocean Strategy and disruptive innovation, we will have a look at a comprehensive framework for thinking about how to find new growth opportunities for your business.
What you’ll take back home:
- a fresh look at strategy
- approaches to strategy and business model innovation
- a framework for describing your business and it’s business model
- inspiration and ideas on how to reinvent your business model
- ideas on how to get started in your organization.
For more details check the paperJam website.
Tagged as:
Blue Ocean Strategy,
Business Model Innovation,
Strategic Innovation,
Workshop
While this Tiger Woods story has not been that featured in Europe, I came across several articles this week while being in the US.
Honestly I don’t care what Tiger did or did not do and whether he wants to share his motives or not.
What I find interesting to look at though is how Accenture reacted to events.
As you would expect from a good corporate citizen they didn’t want be associated with Woods and this kind of behavior, cheating, drinking and all that stuff, so they drop him immediately, withdrew from their relationship. So what’s the image you get? That Accenture is a good corporate citizen, whose employees don’t engage in these kinds of activities? (I happen to know a couple of people from university time that now work at Accenture. If their past behavior is an indication,…you get the point.) Another view might be that as soon as one does a mistake, Accenture ends the relationship. Is that the rule for its employees? Still another might be that as soon as it gets a bit complicated and the going gets tough Accenture quits. Yet another way of interpreting Accenture’s behavior might be that as soon as Accenture can no longer profit from you, you’re out. I’m sure you have your own take on it. I highly doubt that Accenture and all the people having decided to drop Tiger are flawless.
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Tagged as:
Be bold
I saw a presentation by Shaun Smith at the London Business Forum on his new book to be published towards the end of the year today.
Smith argues that a major shift is happening in business and society currently and that organizations need to become bolder, braver and more innovative to remain relevant. One can’t argue with that.
Although the ideas aren’t new (at least not to the regular readers of these pages) he had a couple of interesting examples to make his case. Let’s have a look. [continue reading…]
Tagged as:
Be bold,
Innovation
I’ll be in New York from February 16 – 19 to plan a 2 day public workshop on business model innovation together with Eric Pöttschacher from shapeshifters.
Contact me if you’d like to meet or if you want to receive more information on the workshop.
Tagged as:
Workshop
Nobody really knows actually. But here are a couple of thoughts that might help you to put things in perspective. The presentation has been viewed almost 20 000 times on slideshare…so I guess it must be of some value! 
Tagged as:
Strategy
In part 1 of the reinventing your business series, I outlined 1 general approach to business reinvention, and 7 ways to invent new markets and customer segments, what I call “Market Innovation”.
This post will focus on your value proposition and I will describe 9 ways to “Value Innovation” and provide inspiration on how to enhance the value you offer.
Remember, reinventing your business is a matter of switching perspectives and challenging your mental models and the “way we do things around here”. It could well be that you employ #9 already, but then pick another one that suits you better. It’s not about implementing all 25 ways at the end. But it’s about choosing those that will bring you further. Also don’t go for the easiest one. Look at the list and think about which idea irritates you the most. Why is that so? What is your mental model in that area? Why don’t you believe that something like this can work? Why do you believe that others do work? Use the ideas not only to inspire yourself and your team, but also as a way of exploring your cognitive maps.
Let’s get started.
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Tagged as:
Blue Ocean Strategy,
Business Model Innovation,
Reinvent your Business,
Strategic Innovation,
Strategy,
Value Innovation
Any goals for 2010 yet? What about reinventing your business?
Let me share 25 ways on how you can get started. This is the first post in a 3 part series on how to reinvent your business. The series is build around the who-what-how framework. Your business is defined by who you consider being your customers, what you offer them and how you do create and deliver the value proposition. Before we start, I urge you to buy a good notebook (Moleskine seems to be a favorite all over the world at the moment). Keep it with you at all times. Print the strategies outlined here and stick them into your notebook. Write down everything that comes to your mind…let’s get started…
Before going into the details, let’s start with a more general approach. [continue reading…]
Tagged as:
Blue Ocean Strategy,
Business Model Innovation,
Reinvent your Business,
Strategic Innovation,
Strategy
