The Leading Edge: Business Innovation in 2009-2013

A good presentation by Susan Landry about how the best peformers approach innovation. Nowadays, the business is looking for innovation coming from the IT and they also expect full support from the IT when launching innovative ideas.

Crowdsourcing: ideas, comments, voting. By 2010, most of your ideas will come from outside. 3 rules to leverage crowdsourcing:

• Design your challenges (clearly define the rules, assess the risks, prepare the communication and marketing);
• Source your challenges (define the processes, provide support, facilitate and improve over time)
• Leverage the results (review, decide, act and reward).

Reference: Cisco I-Prize. Cisco promoted the teaming of participants. They gathered a lot of valuable information and ideas in the process.

Idea marketplaces: a new business model that facilitates exchange. It is quite difficult to imagine sharing innovative ideas publicly, but the value (in the exchange itself) should outweigh the risk. Exemples: InnoCentive, TopCoders.

References:

• IBM WorldJam, designed as suggestion box, but with a strong focus, limited time frame, and only 2 to 4 challenges every year.
• P&G idea network (targeting 50% external ideas). Sue provides a template to fill, to try and emulate the P&G initiative.

Monitor social trends.

IT consumerization and the explosion of the web create new venues for innovation. It has already transformed marketing. The web (especially the public opinion sites, the blogs) should be constantly monitored. There is a new attitude toward time and money, that needs to be accounted for. The attitude toward technology is also changing: it becomes "invisible" (or should be kept invisible for tech refusers) and becomes only a mean to achieve a goal.

Listen to the voice of the customer! To remain focused, it helps to identify and engage the innovators among the customers. The same holds true with partners.

There are different approaches:

• Inside-out: for example, Procter & Gamble finds and acquires new ideas which they then develop internally (P&G owns the IP but it costs more);
• Outside-in: for example, eBay reaches out to an external network of developers (eBay does not own the IP);
• In-between: for example, Novartis leverages a co-development network (the IP is shared).
  

Sue defines 4 steps in the innovation process:

1. Generate ideas
2. Evaluate & select
3. Develop & implement
4. Diffuse & socialize.

This process MUST be transparent.

Each stage requires different skills:

1. Creative
2. Challenging
3. Collaborative
4. Cooperative.

Sue presents an interesting comparison chart between first movers and fast followers, which should help position oneself (which is important to determine the right innovation process to setup).

Key point: it's time to think differently, we need to focus…

And finally: innovate on innovation!