Historically, it has been believed that innovation is an outcome of some genius working in a specific lab. In order to come across this Eureka moment, very specific conditions are required, so most never venture towards developing such innovations. Instead they pat themselves on the back simply because they enabled the implementation of someone’s business innovation. This however, is faulty thinking as such moments arise, not only due to moments of inspiration, but due to collective efforts. That sweet spot needs to be found where innovations can ideally be explored. A new matrix has been developed to identify the exact combination. The innovation equation thus equals a degree of connectivity into the degree of sharing multiplied further by the degree of interactivity.

Source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/12/04/innovations-degrees-of-connectivity-interactivity-and-sharing/

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

It ahs repeatedly been observed that in human consumption patterns, rituals play a big part. That is why marketers use them to the hilt when making connections with brands. Tea in essence is just a beverage, but it is associated as a social occasion, as leveraged by Brooke Bond in India. Similarly, there are many beer brands, but Corona and Magners have added layers of rituals to differentiate their respective brands. Similar packaging to leverage emotions has also been done by the likes of Oreo, Apple and Rolo. In order to ensure a ritual serves the purpose it is essential to leverage an existing consumer behavior rather than trying to create something new. It must be relevant and add brownie points to the consumer in some way or the other, such as making one look more knowledgeable or enhancing social worth besides of course improved taste. It must be enjoyable and easy to execute. In the present context, it is very important to make it shareable so that the brand enjoys organic digital marketing through sharing on social media outlets. The entire user experience needs to be rethought to position the brand accordingly.

Source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/10/20/rituals-the-secret-to-instant-innovation/

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

The high-end restaurant business is fraught with several risks and associated turbulences. While they can often pre-book months in advance, and charge hefty fees, enormous levels of perfection are required to succeed. While cooking as an art is essentially creative, top restaurants stress on consistency. Thus, the kitchen staff need to hone their perfection over hundreds of hours before they can be trusted in. Getting three Michelin stars is a matter of great prestige but requires through consistency. In this melee for consistency, many lose out on creative terms. For this, there is another list called the 50 Best Restaurants of the World, which values business innovation. While Noma has received top rank in this list, it only has two Michelin stars. On the other hand, a restaurant in France founded by the legendary Paul Bocuse, has had three stars for the longest time, but does feature anywhere on this list. Creativity and innovation are not mutually exclusive though and some have married the two together. Examples include the Fat Duck in London and El Bulli in Spain. These restaurants’ experimentation labs are very different to those of FMCG giants.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/01/how-the-best-restaurants-in-the-world-balance-innovation-and-consistency?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_monthly&utm_campaign=technology&referral=00208&spMailingID=18901396&spUserID=OTY0OTMwNTk5NwS2&spJobID=1181731529&spReportId=MTE4MTczMTUyOQS2

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

Walter Isaacson is one of the leading biographers having done books on Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. Now he has done a piece on Leonardo da Vinci, because for him, the cycle gets completed by da Vinci. Fortunately, da Vinci left back a lot of content on paper, which Isaacson reckons is the best method of data warehousing as retrieving is less difficult. The one thing, where Isaacson has identified patterns among all his subjects, is that they all had the ability to think across topics and not be siloed. Benjamin Franklin studied at the University of Pennsylvania, renowned for its encouragement to pursue subjects across fields and not be stymied by departmentalization. Da Vinci has the ability to not only switch between art and science but to actually bring out the best in both. All these personalities mentioned were misfits in their own lives. They would not confirm to binding societal norms. They were constantly curious and wanted to know new things. Da Vinci, like the others made a lot of mistakes along the way, as attested through the findings on his notebooks. But he kept persevering and finally succeeded.

Source:http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/leonardo-da-vinci-steve-jobs-benefits-misfit/

Uploaded Date: 06 February 2018

Innovation is often described insufficiently. It is considered the solution to customers’ problems. Yet, most often it creates new answers to questions never posed before. Business innovation thus needs to be focused towards the near term of up to ninety days to make it more relevant. This includes the time needed for building, modifying and releasing the physical product. Innovation may be divided into three types which as Incremental, Radical and Disruptive. It gets incremental when rapid results are sought. Here, the focus remains on peripheral attributes such as its messaging, packaging or claims. Innovation is radical when it closes out the efficiency gaps with tools such as right-sizing, outsourcing and automation. Then there is disruptive innovation, creativity comes to the fore and alters an existing model. There’s also an urgent need for preventive innovation, which does not create new products but blunts out the disruptive forces of competitors. The trend for innovations must be in the ration of 70-20-10 in the order of evolution, preventive and creative.

Source:http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/10/09/3-innovation-types-evolution-preventative-creative/

Uploaded Date:06 February 2018

The last decade has been one of tremendous advancement globally in business innovations. Uber was unheard of a decade back, while a stateless digital currency has now become the darling of investor. Artificial intelligence (AI) can now even power self-driving cars. Data warehousing has advanced so much that a single mobile phone now contains more information than an entire building of 1970s computers would. However, closer introspection suggests that while the pace of innovation has been tremendous, the fruits have not percolated evenly in society. Primary research has become more expensive and complex. That is why instead of single scientists or small groups, there are now large teams working together on solving complex problems using expensive equipment. GDP growth and productivity rates have also gone down. One filed where rapid improvement has taken place is genome editing using the online tool called Crispr. The search continues for the next great American idea that will propel society further ahead.

Source:http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2017/12/15/innovation-spending-economic-growth?__twitter_impression=true

Uploaded Date:19 January 2018

L’Oréal has been collaborating with carmaker Renault to develop an electric spa concept car. Similarly, Delphi and Mobileye are jointly working on an autonomous driving design. Unfortunately, such cases of open innovation are quite rare in the business world. Even when such collaborations succeed in developing the intended product, the adoption rates for the final are palpably low. A study conducted by Accenture confirmed this view, with half the respondents claiming that such partnerships are not yielding the desired results. Political and cultural factors are usually the reason with a lot of gatekeepers preventing such adoption. Even external design firms are facing this inability to break such deadlocks. Those that have succeeded have adopted certain tactics such as creating a multi-layered network involve a dense network of contacts. More levels of contact usually improve chances of winning contracts. A sense of equal ownership need to be fostered between the various players. In this manner, the external agency is considered a provider of business consulting but is not completely overhauling the set processes. Collaborative partnerships need to be marked with relevant milestones aided with project management terminologies such as scrum and kaban. It also builds transparency between the two sides. The external inputs provided need to be open enough in nature so that there is room for periodic improvisations. Finally, a pilot study must be launched at the outset so that a prototype may be developed around which the final modelling can be done. This will also shorten innovation development cycles.

Source:https://hbr.org/2017/12/open-innovation-generates-great-ideas-so-why-arent-companies-adopting-them

Uploaded Date:19 January 2018