Finally! – a company that stays committed to innovation even in tough times

by Stefan Lindegaard

What should a company do with their innovation initiatives in tough times like this?

Unfortunately, most companies respond to tough economic times by cutting deep –often too deep – on their organizational innovation capabilities, and this time around has been no different. It has been somewhat depressing witnessing this over the last 6-9 months.

The answer to what companies should do was given in an article in the leading Danish business daily, Borsen, and I was delighted that the advice was not given by a consultant or an academic. No, it was given by Niels B. Christiansen, the CEO of Danfoss, a global leader in development and production of mechanical and electronic products and controls. This company with 23,000 employees has definitely been hit hard...

How to create and communicate your personal brand

by Stefan Lindegaard

Last week, I wrote a blog post on why your personal brand is important for your success. This is a follow-up post that offers some practical advice on how to build your personal brand based on two key steps: create and communicate.

On creating a brand, here are the parts you will need to explore:

1. The future. Define your strategic goals.
2. You about you. Become clear on your values and traits.
3. Others about you. Understand how other people see your values and traits.
4. Check your digital footprints. Google yourself.
5. Identify your unique contributions and define your personal brand statement.
6. Know your environment. Focus on competitors and influencers.

The future: Your strategic goals.

The most important part of creating your brand is...

Innovation consultants and facilitators – how do they add value?

by Stefan Lindegaard

Business is tough for innovation consultants and facilitators. As innovation projects are shut down and budgets are trimmed, there is less of a need for such people. I know because I feel this myself.

But leaving the current crisis aside, how do innovation consultants and facilitators best add value to companies? Two incidents in the last couple of years helped me shape my perspective on this.

The first incident takes me to Silicon Valley, where I met with a best-selling author and the kind of consultant who charge on the absolute highest level for his services. I wondered how one person could be worth so much.

Obviously, he had heard this question before and his response was that although he costs a small fortune a day...

A new innovation manifesto – because things have to change

by Stefan Lindegaard

Innovation leaders have lost their jobs, and those who are still with their companies have at least temporarily lost much of the passion that is such an important driver for their work.

The reason is that our current model of innovation is broken. And you – the corporate innovation leaders – have failed. I have to plead guilty as well. I consider myself a member of the innovation community although I do not work in the trenches like many of you. But I – and the many other innovation facilitators, consultants and thought leaders – have also failed.

We have failed to convince the top executives who hold the fate of innovation within an organization in their hands that innovation is important. Just look at...

Innovation + LinkedIn: Where is the value?

by Stefan Lindegaard

Almost everyone I meet in the international innovation community has a profile on LinkedIn. Of course, some are more active than others, but I am overall a bit puzzled on how little value people in the innovation community actually seem to be extracting out of LinkedIn.

I wonder about this because I really like LinkedIn and use it for several reasons. They include:

• build and maintain an overview of my professional relationships

• reach out for input to my own ideas on innovation

• get inspiration on new trends and ideas within the global innovation community

• create exposure for my blog

• develop a following of like-minded people within the innovation community through my network groups on LinkedIn.

My groups include the

Open innovation: Why mindset matters most

by Stefan Lindegaard

Many of you have brought up the subject of trust in our interactions on open innovation. I agree that trust is an essential component on open innovation. It also comes at many levels – internally as well as externally.

I have just been in New York where I attended the World Innovation Forum. It was a great opportunity to listen to some of the best innovation thought leaders in the world, and it was encouraging to hear how they also believe in co-creation and open innovation.

C.K. Prahalad also talked about the value of turning customer transactions into customer relationships and – in the spirit of open innovation – I would argue this focus should be given to the entire eco-system of customers, partners, suppliers...

Innovation conferences: Are they worth attending?

by Stefan Lindegaard

It is no secret that I have mixed feelings about innovation conferences. I have attended many but have grown tired of them in recent years for reasons that I will try to explain below. I definitely believe in the value of sharing knowledge so I ask you to see this as a discussion starter on how to maximize the value of innovation conferences and even better – how to improve them.

1. Organizers focus more on the ego of the speakers and the exposure of their sponsors rather than the outcome of the participants. Look at the many bright people you have in the room. Why do the organizers not make a better effort in getting them involved during the conference? It is ok that thought leaders who...

Where is the people focus?

by Stefan Lindegaard

I am travelling in the US having attended Henry Chesbrough’s Open Innovation Speaker series at UC Berkeley. The speaker was Rich Friedrich, who is Director of Open Innovation at HP Labs. It was encouraging to learn that HP Labs – their main research group – really believes in open innovation although it was with a strong focus on university relationships. Rich gave a pretty good presentation, but I missed one thing: the people focus.

Today, I attended the World Innovation Forum in New York. I listened to two of the best innovation thought leaders out there, C.K. Prahalad and VJ Govindarajan. They both gave great presentations and again it was encouraging to learn that gurus on this level also embrace open innovation. However, with the...

Executives are failing; innovation is bleeding – what can be done?

by Stefan Lindegaard

In this current economic crisis, many innovation projects are being cut and good innovation leaders are losing their jobs. This is to a large extent understandable as all business functions and units must contribute in times like this.

Unfortunately, the situation is changing from understandable to dangerous. Executives have begun to cut so deep that entire innovation units are being slashed. One of the latest examples I have experienced is Arla Foods, which is one of the largest dairy companies in Europe.

Arla Foods is a Danish company so I have had the pleasure of following Arla Foods quite closely for several years. They have done great things on their journey to create an innovative culture, including a much-publicized partnership with NASA that brought dairy...

Open innovation: What are the big issues?

by Stefan Lindegaard

The open innovation movement is growing fast and I really enjoy my many interactions with innovation leaders on this topic. Recently, I have begun thinking much on what the big issues really are and here I give you my take on this. Hopefully, we can work together to compile a list of key issues and later provide some answers to these issues.

Just to set the scene, I am becoming more and more convinced that open innovation is much more about mindset than processes. Of course, you need processes, but if you – as I do – apply the very broad definition of open innovation  being  the opposite of doing everything yourself, then you understand that almost every company already applies some kind of open...