Innovation, Open Innovation, Collaboration and Globalisation

- Reverse Innovation: Emerging markets are the next frontier
  Posted on May 31, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Globalization with no comments
  The story of Gatorade can be traced back to the ‘60s, the University of Florida and its football squad: the Gators. The state’s heat and humidity forced the team’s coach to approach the university’s science department and see if there was something more effective than water to replenish players quickly. The labs whipped up a formula of water, glucose, sodium, potassium, and flavour. In 1967, the university’s team defeated Georgia Tech, which prompted their coach to state, “We didn’t have...
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- 7 tips for successful open innovation in China
  Posted on May 30, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Culture of innovation, Globalization, Innovation, Open Innovation with no comments
  An increasing number of Multinational Companies are turning to China as a template for successfully orchestrating open innovation within their organizations. Supportive government programs, more and more foreign-educated expats returning to Chinese shores and a thriving venture capital culture are all some reasons why open innovation lives in China. Not to mention the fact that China is becoming a rapidly growing market for international corporations as consumers become more demanding of goods that meet their unique tastes and habits. Also,...
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- Corporate antibodies: How to win over innovation’s enemies
  Posted on May 30, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Culture of innovation with no comments
  In a blog for the Harvard Business Review, US Innovation Leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Mitra Best, wrote about an innovation competition within her organization, the resistance she encountered within the business, and the steps she took to help tackle these. Labelled ‘corporate antibodies’, those that resist change are not merely naysayers: they are important to the function of an organization to protect it from risk. Senior executives need to work with these antibodies to identify ideas that will actually help the business...
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- Open Innovation: Public-private partnership tackles antibiotic threat
  Posted on May 28, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Open Innovation with no comments
  This is a great example of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry working alongside public research bodies. Not driven by profit, this collaboration has the greater good as its main goal. GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are teaming with public research bodies in Europe to tackle the threat of antibiotic resistance and stimulate further research. In an effort to improve the current understanding of antibiotic resistance, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will carry out clinical trials and design and develop new drugs to combat this...
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- China’s online spend will triple to $360 billion by 2015
  Posted on May 28, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Globalization with no comments
  The amount of money China’s Internet users will spend on online retail is set to triple to a staggering $360 billion in just three years. This huge number will be fuelled by the growing number of people with Internet access in China combined with greater consumer confidence in buying products online, according to The Boston Consulting Group. Marketwatch cites the study conducted by the Boston think-tank, which reports that China will become the biggest online retail market in the...
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- Smart companies keep enemies closer
  Posted on May 28, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Collaboration with no comments
  Think about some of the world’s biggest companies that have successfully diversified into areas unrelated to their original field of expertise. Apple, Virgin, Google and Sony are just some of the brands that successfully made the leap into completely different categories. It is interesting to note all the different fields Virgin has an interest in, particularly in the UK: Communications (including being a service provider for cable TV, the Internet and mobile phones), personal finance and even transport (Virgin Trains)...
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- The Connected World Driving Innovation (VIDEO)
  Posted on May 28, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Globalization, Social Media with no comments
  The writing is on the wall. The Internet is all around us, giving every consumer a voice and this is something governments and corporations cannot ignore. The Internet economy will total $4.2 trillion by 2016 and businesses must take this opportunity with both hands if they want to thrive. We touched on the BCG’s report, The Connected World, back in March and remarked on how the Internet was impacting on the lives of workers and citizens in the biggest economic...
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- Innovation partnerships are a “win/win”, says Royal Dutch Shell CEO (VIDEO)
  Posted on May 26, 2012 by Jeffrey Tobias in Culture of innovation, Globalization, Innovation with one comment
  We briefly discussed IBM’s insightful and comprehensive CEO study yesterday. There were 1,700 Chief Executives interviewed one-on-one as part of the research, with voices coming from 64 countries and across 18 industries. Of particular interest was seeing how social media will change the way CEOs communicate with their employees, partners and customers. As part of a drive for greater openness and transparency, there will be 57 per cent of Chief Executives making use of social media to interact with these...
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Other Recent Posts
- IBM CEO study finds social media key to collaboration
  IBM has just commissioned a CEO study including more than 1,700 Chief Executive Officers from 64 countries and 18 industries that is a glimpse of how they are changing the face of work from the top down. The study found that CEOs are introducing elements of openness and transparency, and are also empowering their staff with initiatives that see a radical...
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- How Will You Measure Your Life? (VIDEO)
  Clayton M. Christensen is something of a guru in the innovation sphere. The Harvard Business School professor has just published his latest work titled How Will You Measure Your Life? The official published date was barely one week ago but there is already a huge buzz surrounding the work. Christensen’s earlier tome, The Innovator’s Dilemma, published September 2011, rapidly became a...
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- Collaboration Powered by Social Media – leading to Innovation
  There is little doubt that the smart companies are rapidly adopting the view that innovation is powered by connectedness and collaboration. But what is real collaboration? And indeed, how do we put it into effect? The Gen C worker understands this - Facebook and social media delivers effective outcome for them, and this is their world. But what about in...
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- Should we all model ourselves on Steve Jobs?
  Do we all want to be like Steve Jobs? Well, yes I do. Steve was a visionary, a driver, a huge intellect, a successful entrepreneur and implementor. And he built an empire that not only innovated, but delivered. When the Apple product is scheduled for release on a particular day in a particular country, it is in store. Always. Why would...
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- How to Build a Culture of Innovation – Fire those who are not!
  Very interesting view proposed recently by Maddock and Viton in Businessweek. At first I was dismissive - fire people? Fire people who are not innovative? Innovation can happen everywhere...... so why should we discriminate? But look at what Maddock and Viton are saying: The Victims “Can you believe what they want us to do now? And of course we have no time...
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- Why Ideas Get Stuck, Languish and Die
  Most smart organisations today realize that they need to source ideas from employees, partners and customers. As Henry Chesbrough often puts it “That’s now the table stakes”. Corporations are getting better at filtering ideas, using some form of ideation platform to capture and push the ideas out to the “crowd”, weeding out those that are incremental, returning a set of...
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- Innovation, Aneesh Chopra and Open Government
  I found it interesting and extremely exhilarating to read the interview in The Atlantic with the outgoing CTO of the USA. I had to remind myself that this was a CTO talking, not a CIO (Chief Innovation Officer). Let me give you some quotes from the interview: What is the elevator pitch on what you've been doing...
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