Good Reads, Videos and Discussions on Innovation #10

by Stefan Lindegaard

Here comes a list of reads, videos and LinkedIn discussions that I have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks. I hope you will enjoy this as well.

You can follow me on Twitter: @lindegaard

GOOD READS

Internet Future Driven by User Reputation Scores by Hutch Carpenter
http://tinyurl.com/ycas42o

The Friction Between Capital and Ideas by Ben Dupont – comps that embrace open innovation get rich
http://bit.ly/caBucm 

Don’t Demolish Your Own Innovation by Paul Williams
http://su.pr/2dHter

Apple’s Hidden Disruptive Innovation by Braden Kelley
http://su.pr/1SnEd4

Lack of innovation clouds Samsung’s future in Financial Times
http://ow.ly/11NjD

Cisco’s I-Prize – the Next Wave of Open Innovation by Hutch Carpenter
http://bit.ly/bu8OzC

Innovation Management Wiki – help define what...

True/False: Companies Should Forget About Radical Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

Welcome to a new format on my blog! Here I will present innovation issues and challenges and ask whether you believe this to be true or false.

The intention is to generate some good discussions that can provide new insights for all of us. I hope you will join these discussions as well as suggest topics for future posts. This first issue is an update from an earlier post.

Most companies should forget about radical innovation because…

• Radical innovation is too difficult for most companies and they should play it safer when it comes to innovation. If companies succeed with radical innovation, luck has a lot to do with it.

• It usually takes 5-7 years before you see results on radical innovation projects. Consider the...

Asia, Europe Miss Out on Open Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

Having spent a few days at the great CoDev conference in Phoenix, U.S. it becomes even more clear to me that American companies are far head on the future of innovation which will be not only global but also open.

One major reason is the American eco-system for open innovation stakeholders such as corporate practitioners, academics, consultants and service providers. This eco-system is very well networked and the stakeholders help each other by sharing insights and lessons that propel the entire open innovation movement forward. Everyone benefits.

I have attended several open innovation conferences in the U.S. in the last couple of months and I find it quite interesting that Asian and European companies are non-present with Korean LG Electronics as a notable exception even...

The Definition of Win-Win Relationships

by Stefan Lindegaard

Sorry, this is not a lengthy, informative post on an important topic, but a tweet from Chuck Frey (#chuckfrey) really caught my attention – and gave me a good laugh. I think you will enjoy this as well.

It went like this:

“Overheard at #codev: “I once worked w/ a company whose idea of a ‘win-win’ supplier relationship meant that you got to kick them twice!”

Funny, but unfortunately this view is not just a joke at many companies…

Open Innovation Insights from CoDev

by Stefan Lindegaard

I am attending the CoDev conference this week and I plan to write a couple of posts with new insights on open innovation.

In this first post, I have attached the presentation from my pre-conference workshop. It was a great session although 45 people were a bit on the high end in order to create open and intimate discussions. I still think we succeeded and I got lots of inspiration myself.

CoDev 2010 Stefan Lindegaard

Chuck Frey from InnovationTools attended the session and afterwards we shot this short video interview in which I shared a few insights on open innovation.

More to follow from Arizona – sunny and chilly, but at least no snow : – )

...

Innovation Metrics: Input From Intel, Sara Lee, Grundfos and J&J

by Stefan Lindegaard

I have often shunned the idea of metrics for innovation as it has been very difficult finding companies being good at this.

However, I believe it is important to work this out in order to raise the innovation productivity and in this post I share some input from a couple of large corporations based on a discussion on LinkedIn last year.

The discussion was started by Jimm Feldborg, who is R&D Manager at Grundfos in China. Jimm pointed out that a good start is to understand whether your indicator is a:

• Lag indicator. The results are lagged with weeks, months or years and cannot be changed. Some examples are rewards and the number of patents.

• Current indicator. The results happen right now giving you some...

Now Hiring! Open Innovation Managers at Hershey and Intuit

by Stefan Lindegaard

I got curious when Hershey announced a newly created role in which this new hire should assist the senior manager, open innovation in establishing and optimizing The Hershey Company’s open innovation Program.

What kind of responsibilities comes with such a job? What are the required qualifications? Those were among the questions prompted by my curiosity and besides the Hershey posting (dated Dec 19), I also looked at a similar job posting from Intuit (dated Dec 23) to get some answers.

Here are some snippets from the two postings:

40% of the Hershey job responsibility is about assisting the facilitation of executive, business and technical leaders in ongoing development of open innovation as an efficient and effective organizational capability.

Another 15% includes specifying and administering the...

Increasing the Innovation Productivity

by Stefan Lindegaard

In a 2006 article, P&G’s New Innovation Model, P&G stated that their open innovation program – along with improvements in other aspects of innovation related to product cost, design, and marketing – made their R&D productivity increase by nearly 60 percent since 2001.

When I listen to P&G talks on innovation today, the innovation productivity has nearly doubled and open innovation is a key reason for this.

Every company would like to increase their innovation productivity significantly so I am looking into how companies can do this. I am still researching and it would be great to have a discussion here on my blog. A few conversation starters:

What does innovation productivity mean?
In this video, P&G gives us some insight on innovation...

Front End of Innovation – Two Great Conferences in Amsterdam and Boston

by Stefan Lindegaard

You should pay attention to the Front End of Innovation conferences taking place in Amsterdam on February 8-10 and in Boston on May 3-5.

They are both packed with great speakers and sessions and they have lots of content on open innovation. Check out the above links for more information.

In Boston, I am doing a session on the critical lessons on open innovation together with Chris Thoen from P&G and Jeff Bellairs from General Mills. They are both acclaimed open innovation leaders so I am sure you can gain lots of insights in this session.

You get a 20% discount if you use the FEI2010STEFAN code.

Do You Job Swap?

by Stefan Lindegaard

A while ago, I read an interesting article on how P&G and Google benefited by swapping employees for a couple of weeks.

This is a great way to learn new things and a good approach to establish long term partnerships.

Furthermore, it helps a company develop a more external-focused culture which is quite useful as we move towards open innovation.

I can’t get access to the original article but I found a copy here: A New Odd Couple: Google, P&G Swap Workers to Spur Innovation.

You should also check out the comments made by Innosight as they wondered how many other companies will team up to do this and if a more formal network and a business model will emerge to facilitate it.

It has...