You Always Have to Sell Innovation!

by Stefan Lindegaard

As an innovation leader or intrapreneur, you always have something to sell. In the end it is a product or a service, but during the development of a revenue-generator, you have to sell a vision to internal and external stakeholders.

You communicate that vision by:
•   Developing a value proposition that can be adapted for various stakeholders, and then
•   Capturing the very essence of the value proposition in a short and brief elevator pitch that focuses on the recipients of the message.

In Geoffrey Moore’s classic book, Crossing the Chasm, he provides the term “value proposition” as a way to choose from among what is presented to us for consideration. Options include choosing nothing at all, if there are no choices that...

5 Companies that Inspire, Impress on Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

Here comes a list of my current favorite companies that inspire and impress me on innovation.

The list is by no means based on in-depth research. It is based on actions, initiatives or shared insights of these companies over the last month or so – and thus what I believe could inspire other companies.

1. GE – for continuously developing the Ecomagination challenge

The challenge is highly successful and now they are even launching a specific challenge for China. GE has created a very interesting innovation vehicle – which also doubles as a good PR tool – and they are right in to continuously push it forward to create more value for themselves and their partners.

2. LEGO – for showing...

Culture, Speed and Process – Key Elements for Innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

I stumbled over some notes from a recent panel session I did with John Johnson, Spigit (formerly PepsiCo) and Navin Kunde from Clorox.

John and Navin are great innovators, our session went well and I think the insights are worth sharing. The session was on how we can better learn from failure and we focused on three elements. Here you get the notes:

Culture/environment: Smart failing equals success! Innovation by chance or serendipity is rare and rather the organization needs to foster a culture and environment that encourages failure as a success. Tolerance will evolve with success.

Organizations need more Type 2 people who are fearful of missing out on opportunities – check this article on Type 1 and Type 2 people:...

FREE SESSION: Open Innovation Meets Social Media

by Stefan Lindegaard

Interaction and involvement are key elements for open innovation as well as social media and companies need to build strong capabilities on this intersection if they want to out-innovate their competitors.

I help companies develop strategies and initiatives on this intersection and I write about my learnings on 15inno.com. I am also working on a book and as a part of my research, I can offer your company a free 3-hour session in which I give a presentation and we discuss your issues.

You can get an idea of issues to discuss in this link:  A Learning Experience on Open Innovation and Social Media

The session is FREE OF CHARGE as I believe the value from learning from each other is worth the...

5 Key Elements for Making Communities Work

by Stefan Lindegaard

When I give talks on the intersection of open innovation and social media, I often get into discussions on what it takes to make a community work.

This also happened when I met with the participants of the HYPE User Community, which is a group of corporate innovation people using HYPE innovation products and services. By the way, HYPE seems to be doing a great job : – )

I have some experience on making communities work as I have witnessed several initiatives and by running my own groups and networks in both the virtual and physical world. I would argue that the below 5 elements are key to success.

1. “Need”. Many community owners or initiators take it for given...

Good Reads on Innovation, Social Media and Careers – May 27 Update

by Stefan Lindegaard

Here comes a list of blog posts and articles on innovation that I have enjoyed recently. You can follow me on Twitter: @lindegaard

But first, I would like to mention a couple of upcoming conferences worth looking into:

3^rd Annual Open Innovation Summit, Chicago, August 10-12 – A GREAT CONFERENCE!

Social Business Forum, Milan, June 8^th

The Conference on Social Product Development and Co-Creation, Phoenix, June 27-28

World Innovation Convention, Cannes, Sep 28-30

UPDATED MAY 27:

The Busyness Trap by DeLong http://bit.ly/iYoYh4 – good inspiration for freeing up time, energy

Robust to Resilient for Innovation Thinking by @paul4innovating http://bit.ly/m8CXpe

The Thought Leader Interview: Henry Chesbrough on Service Innovation http://bit.ly/kN0pkM...

Is Your Business Social and Open?

by Stefan Lindegaard

I will be speaking at the Social Business Forum in Milan on June 8^th. It is an interesting conference that uses this quote to explain what it is about:

“An organization that has put in place the strategies, technologies and processes to systematically engage all the individuals of its ecosystem (employees, customers, partners, suppliers) to maximize the co-created value”

You can check out the conference here: Social Business Forum

I will talk about open innovation at the conference and I was asked the below questions as “warm-up” for this.

What’s your personal definition of “Open Innovation”? Sometimes this term is used as synonym of another terms such as Social Innovation, Crowdsourcing or Co-creation: what’s the correct definition?

There is no correct...

How Should We Measure Innovation?

by Stefan Lindegaard

A company in my Danish network group recently created a global innovation management department whose task it is to strengthen and systematize innovation and innovation processes in their Global Research unit as well as across the organization.

The ultimate goal is to enhance and make visible the value creation that happens through targeted research and discovery activities in the enterprise as a whole.

How can you set goals, which can monitor and quantify this value creation and thus boost innovation? This is a big challenge and it would be great to have a discussion that can help share insights and inspirations among the innovation community.

The company asked some questions that I think work well as discussion starters:

How do you assess the quality of...

What Makes CEO’s Good for Innovation?

by Stefan Lindegaard

I pondered on this question and decided to reach out to some of my friends at Psion, a leader on rugged mobile computing solutions.

Their CEO is John Conoley. He joined Psion in 2008 and he decided early on that open innovation was the way forward for Psion. He does a great job of sharing insights seen from the executive perspective on their efforts and one of his tools is to write frequently on his own blog.

I am impressed by his approach and I have enjoyed my interactions with him so I looked forward to the responses from my Psion friends on the above question. This is how they replied:

• Ability to balance the “here and now”...

Only 44% of Companies Innovate!

by Stefan Lindegaard

I have often wondered to which extent companies innovate.

I got some insights when I stumbled over some interesting facts in research reports by the Danish Chamber of Commerce and Statistics Denmark, the official statistical institution in Denmark.

They concluded that in the years of 2007 – 2010, only 44 % of Danish companies engaged with innovation activities on products, services and processes.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce also shared that:

• Only 21,3 % of the Danish companies have launched a new product or service in the last 3 years

• The share of innovative Danish companies has not increased in many years

• The share of companies that have launched a new product or services varies significantly between big and small...