Defeating the corporate antibodies

by Stefan Lindegaard

Change is frightening to many elements inside the typical organization. Change threatens people’s power, their status, their egos, and, in some situations, even their jobs. Change can make someone’s expertise obsolete and thereby make them obsolete as well. Because people are afraid of change, innovation efforts often cause the eruption of corporate antibodies that fight to kill innovation and maintain the status quo.

The factors that cause angst within a closed system of innovation may prove to be even more threatening when a company shifts toward open innovation. Executives and managers may feel they can control the degree of change and shape it to their own needs as long as everything is happening within the organization. But start to bring outside forces in and it’s...

P&G: How open innovation is done

by Stefan Lindegaard

The world’s largest consumer packaged goods giant, Procter & Gamble, operated one of the most widely admired and successful research and development operation in corporate history. But their closed innovation model was not up to the task of driving the corporate growth needed to sustain an enterprise of P&G’s size. So in 2000, under the leadership of then newly-appointed CEO A. G. Lafley, they began looking for a better global innovation model. Lafley’s stated objective was the radical idea that half of the company’s new products would be acquired from outside the company.

What set them off toward an open innovation model was the discovery that there were 200 researchers and scientists just as good or even better outside P&G for each of their own...

Why short term innovation can be a good thing

by Stefan Lindegaard

As the crisis continues, innovation leaders are forced to focus on “short term innovation”. This is counter-intuitive to many. How do we get the best out of this situation? I did some research and asked around to find out why short term innovation can be a good thing. This is what I learned:

•  companies clean up the portfolio and get rid of “living-dead” projects that only survived in times with plenty of resources.

•  companies are forced to develop better processes and set sharper deadlines, which can make innovation more efficient in the long run.

•  companies pay more attention to external partners as a way to get extra funds for innovation. This speeds up the move towards open innovation, which I believe will become...

Six ways to make top executives understand innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

In my previous post, I argued that most top executives do not understand innovation. Check this link: Why top executives do not get innovation

It is a major challenge for an innovation leader to operate in an environment where the top executives don’t get innovation or – perhaps even worse – do understand it but are unwilling to fully embrace it because it means going against the board of director’s focus on short-term financial goals.

What can you do to thrive in such an environment? Based on my experiences, here are some methods to apply:

•  Challenge and stretch the mindset of the top executives. Innovation is a holistic activity that needs to be understood and embraced by everyone from the top to the...

Why top executives do not get innovation

by Stefan Lindegaard

Many innovation leaders struggle to get the support they need from executives higher up in the organization. Top executives can be skilled at talking the talk about innovation, especially in public venues, but frequently fail to walk the talk when it comes to making key choices that determine whether an innovation project will happen or die on the vine.

This may seem paradoxical because everyone knows that innovation is what drives business success in the 21st century, right? Well, sort of. While corporate leaders may intellectually accept the need for innovation and tout their commitment to innovation at every opportunity, they often fail to really “get” innovation and as a result, they become a major roadblock in your path to succeed as innovation leader.

In...

Do you job swap?

by Stefan Lindegaard

I just read an interesting article on how P&G and Google really 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.

Check out this short article to learn more about how and why these innovation leaders made their employees swap jobs: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hc2R2XPvVoPxwYrItOdbFWjE6o0AD94I91V81

Why not start something similar with the partners of your company?