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New Report – Open Innovation – What’s Behind the Buzzword? – i7 and Accenture
Posted on January 17, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Innovation, Open Innovation with no commentsInnovation is higher than ever on companies’ agenda. 62% of executives interviewed in a recent survey say their business strategy is “largely” or “totally” dependent on Innovation. In today’s globalized competitive environment, innovation has become the key criterion by which you can assess how good a company is and how good it is likely to be in the future. To give an example of this innovation play in the emblematic mobile phone industry, Apple, RIM and HTC, the three most...
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New Report – Transformative Times: New Opportunities for Business in an Era of Upheaval
Posted on January 17, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Globalization, Innovation with no commentsIn this report from the Lauder Institute of management & International Studies, students explore the ways that the business community has responded to changes in out global economy. They look at individual companies and industry trends, and analyze how startups as well as established firms are taking advantage of transformative events around the world. These excellent 20 articles identify the major challenges facing companies around the world as they try to take advantage of new...
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New Report – Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce
Posted on January 14, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Innovation with no commentsTo gain a better understanding of the role that diversity and inclusion play in companies around the globe, Forbes Insights conducted a comprehensive survey of more than 300 senior executives. All of the executives were involved in developing, implementing, or managing strategies or programs related to diversity and inclusion for their companies’ workforce. The companies that participated in the survey had revenues of at least $500 million and went up to more than $20 billion...
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China Leads World in Patent Applications and Trademark Filings
Posted on January 12, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Globalization, Innovation, Patents with no commentsThomson Reuters announced new findings on Chinese innovation today with the publication of research that analyzes global patent and trademark trends. By tracking published patent applications, examining real-world trademark and copyright infringement issues and comparing the government policies and long-term innovation strategies of China to other world leaders, Thomson Reuters research suggests that although China leads the world in patent and trademark filings, its status as a global player still faces challenges. The following are some of the key findings of...
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Gary Hamel on How Social Media Will Change Organisations and Their Workforce
Posted on January 12, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Culture of innovation, Innovation with no commentsExcellent piece from Gary Hamel - not only relating to the changing nature of the workforce, but also on how technology is being used to level the playing field in the way ideas are captured and filtered. Just excellent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVMkkModUXM&feature=player_detailpage
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The Importance of Leading: Avoid the Traps
Posted on January 12, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Innovation with no commentsExcellent new report from McKinsey on the importance of how important leadership is in the workplace. McKinsey looked at nearly 12,000 daily electronic diaries from dozens of professionals working on important innovation projects at seven North American companies. They selected those entries in which diarists mentioned upper- or top-level managers. There are four traps that the report highlights: Trap 1: Mediocrity signals: While the rhetoric is that the organisation is innovation and entrepreneurial, the action of leaders signals complacency and mediocrity. How many...
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Idea Acceleration – One of Innovation’s Biggest Challenges
Posted on January 10, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Innovation with no commentsHow many of you have a whole pile of ideas that are sitting around, often generated by an ideation platform, just waiting for acceleration. A very common issue in many organisations around the globe. Ideas are generated, put through a preliminary filter, deemed to be worth pursuing and then - nothing. Why? A number of reasons: No-one wants to take ownership because the ideas is indeed disruptive, and because it is, it sits in nobody's "patch". People feel that they will not be rewarded for pursuing it,...
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Test your Innovation IQ – take this short test
Posted on December 7, 2011 by Jeffrey Tobias in Innovation with no commentsThis is a fun, but revealing test, you should take.True/False. Comes from Forbes. Answers here. Innovation is the act of coming up with new and creative ideas. Innovation is a random process. Innovation is the exclusive realm of a few naturally talented people. The biggest obstacle to innovation is a lack of organizational resources and know-how. The most important type of innovation involves bringing new products and services to market. Teaching employees to think creatively will guarantee innovation. The most powerful way to...
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Other Recent Posts
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Booze & Company 2011 Global Innovation Index Report Released
Total R&D investment among the world's top spenders on innovation surged upward in 2010 from its recession-induced decline in 2009, according to the 2011 Global Innovation 1000, the seventh annual study of corporate innovation spending, released today by global management consulting firm Booz & Company. The study revealed that the 1,000 public companies that spent...
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Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends 2011 Report Released
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capitalist group, regularly releases reports identifying the companies that are best-placed to exploit changing technologies and consumer habits, as well as providing some very useful data on Internet usage. They have just released their 2011 report - well worth reading. The list...
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Open Innovation and Aneesh Chopra
Open Innovation is now almost mainstream - and indeed, you know it is when the Chief Technology Officer of the US refers to the positive outcomes it has brought NASA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3oZVzLMumNg
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DHL Launches Open Innovation Contest
DHL, the world's leading international express shipping provider, today became the first in its industry to launch an "Open Innovation" competition focusing on "City Logistics" -- the process whereby private companies optimize logistics and transport activities in urban areas while considering the traffic environment, the traffic congestion and energy consumption within the framework of a market economy. The contest, introduced by...
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Innovation in Government – success outside the corporation
Innovation in government comes in two forms (at least): innovation that governments can spearhead for the constituents, and innovation that can happen within governments around process. McKinsey recently reported on innovation by two developing countries to show how a willingness to take bold risks can make government services better and cheaper. McKinsey’s public-sector practice, under the...
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Innovation – In the Core – or a Separate Business?
One of the challenges I continually hear from executives is: "How do I reconcile the conflict between wanting to fund innovation as a separate entity, and the drive for performance out of the core? Do I build innovation in the core, or build a separate "Innovation" unit? So it was with interest that I read the recent
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Open Innovation and The Pharma Industry
Interesting article in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News on Open Innovation. Seems that the the cost of developing a new drug has escalated to an all-time high of $1.3 billion, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development said in January. So Pharma companies are looking at ways they can reduce costs and...
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Airlines and Crowdsourcing
According to IdeaConnection, Crowdsourcing with customers is not only smart PR, but it can also save a company large sums of money as it doesn’t have to engage employees in endless rounds of meetings to come up with ideas and initiatives; the crowd can do it for them and it can also select the best...
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The Passing of Steve Jobs
Hard to believe Steve Jobs has died. In a business such as The Strategy Group, focussed on Innovation, Steve stands out as a legend, a true leader in the space, and we will be so much poorer without him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4HEOVQ4RRs&feature=player_embedded
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Open Innovation by GE in China
General Electric, the conglomerate, is using open innovation as a way to source ideas capable of boosting sales and solving major energy problems in China, according to a report in Warc. GE has announced a competition in the world's most populous nation, promising $100m in resources to back third party firms and individuals providing solutions to changing energy needs. Its latest initiative...
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The Kindle Fire – Innovation? Or price discounting?
Will be very interesting to see the uptake of the newly announced Kindle Fire. Today, Amazon introduced an all-new Kindle family: three all-new Kindle e-readers that are smaller, lighter, and more affordable than ever before, and Kindle Fire - a new class of Kindle that brings the same ease-of-use and deep integration of content that helped Kindle re-invent reading - to movies, TV shows, music,...
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The Berkeley Innovation Forum
Just attended two excellent days in Berkeley at Henry Chesbrough's Berkeley Innovation Forum. This is a small group who get together twice a year to share leading edge thinking around innovation - especially Open Innovation. Some key take aways for me from the forum are: - the challenges across organisations driving innovation within their organisations are similar. Each organisation is struggling with...
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