The Decline of the Corporate Lab Rat?

Cass PursellThe Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), is an organization that was once described as a think-tank for rich countries. In a recent publication, the OECD defined innovation as “new products, business processes and organic changes that create … Read More

Innovation Lessons From Italian Furniture Design

James Todhunter

I stumbled upon an interesting article courtesy of the developerlife blog.  The article, “Radical Design, Radical Results”, is found on the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge site and presents some fascinating insights from HBS visiting scholar Roberto Verganti.

Verganti … Read More

Creative Thinking

Praveen Gupta

Recently, I asked a group of students to raise their hands if they thought they were creative. I saw about 20% raising their hands that they were creative. To validate my understanding I asked them to write at least … Read More

Strange Attractors and Ideality

Michael S. Slocum

Dissipative dynamical systems contain some sort of friction. The chief feature of a dissipative system is loss of energy. A pendulum swinging in air will have dissipation. Energy is lost continuously through the various kinds of friction experienced … Read More

Training For The Innovation Ultra-marathon

James Todhunter

In “Forget about an idea marathon,” Katie Konrath uses the metaphor of racing and marathons to discuss how to work on creating a lot of ideas when the need arises.  The analogy is interesting because in business, the race … Read More

Innovators in My Neighborhood

Praveen Gupta

Writing for realinnovation.com makes me look around for new ideas to write about. It occurred to me that my neighbor, who a few years ago showed me a charger for cell phone was also working on a spa system … Read More

The IBM Study on Innovation

Jack Hipple

The IBM Innovation Study–What Does It Say?

The recent pioneering global study and interview of corporate CEOs regarding innovation and its importance provides many insights into not only the world of innvoation, but the competitive nature of it. If … Read More

Where’s My Return on Innovation?!

Cass Pursell

(Or, Is That a Canary in Your Coal Mine?)

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in partnership with BusinessWeek, conducted (from October 2006 through March 2007) its fourth annual survey of senior executives on innovation and the innovation-to-cash process.

Its … Read More

Wal Mart Saves the World

Cass PursellWal Mart is being complimented and criticized in equal measures for its Green Innovation program. As one of the most polarizing business entities in modern history, Wal Mart’s ability to elicit this kind of dueling reaction is hardly surprising. … Read More

TRIZ in ASQ’s New Issue

Katie Barry

The American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) magazine, Quality Progress, January issue’s cover story, ”Conflict and Complexity,” looks at the use of problem-solving techniques, including TRIZ, and how they could have been used to prevent the Challenger disaster.

You do have … Read More

Innovation Supersymmetry

Michael S. Slocum

A look into string theory from the field of physics will give us an interesting analogy to leverage. String theory is a method of reconciling the fact that general relativity as a theory only works if we ignore … Read More

Broken Windows of Innovation

James Todhunter

Social policy has long been influenced by the Broken Window Theory.  Strangely, I see a similar phenomenon at work in our innovation neighborhood.  I see the evidence in the language of the discussion that is used.

Usually, I don’t … Read More

Global Innovation – Part II

Praveen Gupta

While going to India for participating in the convocation events at IIT, Chicago’s Bangalore campus, I was supposed to travel from Chicago to Newark, and then catch the international flight to Delhi. Due to the size and cost associated … Read More

Your New Years Innovation Resolutions

Jack Hipple

It’s the New Year. What’s new? Innovation is still the “buzzword”, but I go to many presentations at meetings where the talks are not about innovation, but about astute business choices (plant locations, etc.). I’m afraid that innovation is … Read More

Heuristic Redefinition

Michael S. Slocum

Before a problem should be solved it is important that it be decomposed into sub-systems. That way each sub-system can be analyzed and the problem can be solved one part at a time. This is an important aspect … Read More

Global Innovation – Part I

Praveen Gupta

Last month I had an opportunity to speak on innovation at the IIT Chicago’s Bangalore campus. It is amazing to see talk and walk going on in this area there. Then I visited Prakash Kappoth, Senior Manager – Knowledge … Read More

The Long Nose of Innovation

James Todhunter

A very insightful article appears in BusinessWeek online titled “The Long Nose of Innovation.”  Written by Bill Buxton of Microsoft, the article discuss the fact that great innovations don’t just happen, but rather they are the consequence of many … Read More

Competitive Excellence

Michael S. Slocum

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu –

A great idea is never enough. Excellent execution is not enough. In today’s complex business environment, … Read More

It’s The End of the Year – Do You Know Where Your Innovation Process Is?

Cass PursellDo a Google search on Innovation in 2007 and see what you return. Lists of cool inventions, next-generation product ideas. A conference or two. No mention, however, of ideas on improving innovation processes. To my mind, this is an … Read More

Balanced Innovation

Bob Carter

In order to understand the relationship between Innovation and growth, it is necessary to first understand why some new product development (NPD) projects are successful while others fail. Funding the right NPD projects is a key leadership challenge that … Read More