Editor | On 01, Jan 2010

Message: 1257
Posted by: Yoram Solomon
Posted on: Tuesday, 18th March 2008

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Hello,

This is my first posting with this forum, so please bear with me… I am a director for standards and strategy for Texas Instrument. I am currently working on my PhD in Organization and Management at Capella University, and am about to start my dissertation. I already submitted a dissertation prospectus, but I wanted to share the topic, and get feedback on it.

The purpose of the dissertation is to investigate the differences in the level of innovation between startup companies and mature companies. Teresa Amabile created a tool called KEYS (owned and administered by the Center for Creative Leadership), that associated creativity in organization with several organizational factors, such as resource allocation, management encouragement, team encouragement, impediments for innovation, etc. I would like to add personal factors, such as financial situation, risk acceptance, etc. I will be interviewing individuals (20-30) who worked for mature (Fortune 1000 high-tech) companies and moved to startup companies in the same industry in the last 2 to 5 years.

Any thoughts? Volunteers?

Thanks,

Yoram.

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Message: 1258
Posted by: Ellen Domb
Posted on: Tuesday, 18th March 2008

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Very interesting subject, and a frequent subject for gossip (not research) among the TRIZ consultants.   My observation, loosely supported by colleagues, is that the interest in TRIZ comes from both giant corporations and from tiny entrepreneurial corporations.  The middle is missing–in spite of all the general statistics that say that small-middle sized businesses are where the majority of new jobs come from.

So, this means that the small-middle sized companies are succeeding at being creative without TRIZ, or they are learning TRIZ without consultants, or what?  

I'm a bit disappointed that Amabile's system does not include availability of innovation methodologies and tools as one of the parameters, but if the “gossip” is valid, then it would be irrelevant.  

So, the good news is that many of us will benefit from your research.  And, you don't have to wait to publish it in an academic journal–we'll be happy to read about work in progress, either in this column or as articles.

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Message: 1261
Posted by: Yoram Solomon
Posted on: Wednesday, 19th March 2008

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Ellen,

Very interesting. I would add “innovation tools” and “innovation training” to the list of factors and questions when I conduct the interviews. Another gap was the influence of PERSONAL factors on innovation. What makes you consider startups versus mature companies? You are correct on identifying the “gap in the middle”–small-mid cap companies. Maybe my next dissertation…

Yoram.

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