When research-based companies hire new scientists to join their research teams, they are looking for two benefits. The first benefit involves output: what the new scientist can produce. This direct, individual benefit is accompanied by more indirect, organizational benefits — for example, the new scientist might boost the productivity of other colleagues through new knowledge, […]
Read More… from Learning by Hiring: The Challenge of Teaching Entrenched Incumbents
Customers make a decision about which product to buy in two ways. The first method is to search for information about the product. For example, a customer might read online reviews of restaurants or hotels. The second method is to infer information they don’t have from information they do have. Litter in a parking lot […]
The hunt for innovative ideas is best achieved, according to the ‘variance hypothesis’ by leaving your office and meeting a broad range of new people in new domains. The greater variety in your network of external contacts — what is known as ‘external breadth’ — the more successful the search for ideas. Variety refers to […]
Read More… from Hunt for Innovative Ideas Externally or Internally-Just Not Both
The idea of a new invention may seem to suddenly appear in the imagination of the inventor. In truth, the inventor has carefully constructed the idea by combining different ‘elements of knowledge’. These elements include natural phenomena and knowledge from previous scientists and inventors (not to mention the contributions of practitioners of the liberal arts […]
Read More… from Uncovering the Elements of Knowledge at the Heart of Innovation
To foster innovation, the first step is to recognize the difference between business thinking and innovative thinking. Business thinking is logical, builds on past precedents and pursues certainty. Innovation thinking is intuitive, revels in ambiguity, and favours slow reflection over quick decisions. Leaders in innovative companies are adept at both business thinking and innovative thinking. […]
Read More… from Three Building Blocks of Innovation Leadership
Whether developing new products or services, refining internal processes, or creating disruptive business models, innovation is the key to sustained competitive advantage. Many companies, however, are unable to meet their innovation goals. In a recent Center for Creative Leadership white paper, authors David Magellan Horth and Jonathan Vehar cite a survey of 500 leaders in […]
Read More… from Innovation Leaders Turn Creative Ideas Into Action
Megaprojects are large, technically complex, multi-year, billion-dollar (or more) engineering and financial ventures that somehow overcome challenges, turbulence, risk and resistance to eventually meet the needs for which they are built. To better understand the success factors of megaprojects, it is more useful to think of them as games of innovation, rather than the linear, […]
Read More… from How Successful Megaprojects Are Games of Innovation
Transforming academic research from pure knowledge into real-world business or organizational practices is challenging for a wide variety of reasons. Time is an issue. Business unit or organizational leaders have little time to leaf through academic journals or article databases looking for research they can apply to their companies. Even if they did, the parameters […]
The word ‘scenarios’ has many different meanings in a variety of fields and disciplines. In strategic planning, scenarios refer to a small set of carefully structured and tailored narratives about the future context a company or an industry might inhabit. These narratives are developed through interviews and workshops with a broad range of stakeholders related to the focal […]
Read More… from The Power of Scenarios to Open New Perspectives
Intuitively, respectful relationships and creativity are assets of a successful company. Respectful relationships lead to more effective collaboration, while creativity leads to new, competitive ideas. Business leaders might not realize, however, the link between these two attributes. Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business have shown, through a […]
Read More… from How Creativity Starts With Respectful Engagement
