Organizations rely on innovations to sustain competitiveness. Managers often talk about innovations. Some use it as an ornament. Perhaps innovation is the mostly abused word by organizations and practicing managers. There are dozens of definitions for the word innovation.
‘No man is an island, entire of itself’ runs the saying and it should probably go on to say that no concept should be introduced in isolation either. In the VUCA world, we’re all challenged with constantly trying to do something new, to create lasting change, transformation and disruption. That challenge means it helps to have others on your side, adding their enthusiasm, energy, perspective and creativity to the mix. Why… because if there’s one truth about innovation, it’s that it’s definitely not a solo sport!
If you’re like a lot of people, your company is trying to drive innovation internally, with a workforce that wasn't really hired for that. It's a tough nut to crack, and the very reason we started Swarm Vision.
This article provides a personal perspective to the ongoing evolution of corporate innovation efforts, along with an overview of how some past mistakes are being repeated.
When we talk about innovation, we sometimes forget that not everyone is on board with the new and revolutionary. Some people would rather stick to their same schedule and do the same thing, day after day: a predictable and comforting routine. For champions of innovation, this mindset is difficult to understand. However, you’re likely to meet many people over the course of your career who are simply uncomfortable with innovation, and you will have to learn to work with them. The first step to compromise is understanding, so let’s take a look at some of the reasons people are sometimes uncomfortable with innovation.
Running after perfection can hinder your project’s success, despite your best intentions and efforts. Generally speaking, your project scope must align with its time and budget - a rule that doesn’t play well with the pursuit of perfection from start to finish. In this article, we’ll look at why perfection shouldn’t be your ultimate goal - but how to still satisfy your inner perfectionist as a project manager.
In this episode we are joined by Tamara Kleinberg, serial innovator, keynote speaker, creator the Innovation Quotient Edge (IQE) Assessment and founder of LaunchStreet, a leading platform for individuals and organisations seeking to innovate. A few topics covered include lessons Tamara has learnt throughout her 20-year career advising companies such as Disney, General Mills, RICOH, P&G, J&J on how to create innovative cultures; why she so firmly believes that everyone has the possibility to be an innovator and the implications of this for leadership in large, established organisations; and walking through Tamara’s IQE Assessment the only tool designed to decipher a person’s natural innovative strengths and create the right environment for them to thrive.
Bottom-up innovation is fueled by many ideas initiated by employees, as opposed to top-down innovation, which is fueled by a strong vision - often by the company’s founder. Bottom-up innovation leaders are entrepreneurial, supported by management’s emphasis on creativity and a can-do culture, and often share these eight attributes.
Embracing an intrapreneurial mindset, which intentionally disrupts things from the inside out and often from the bottom up, is a radical concept for companies that thrive on stability and predictability. However, if an enterprise is committed to developing its innovation capability through intrapreneurship, three groups of people must be mobilized to make it happen: leadership, stakeholders, and innovation support.
Numerous leaders and community organizers have been talking about public service lately, especially in the US - mostly encouraging the public to take place in ongoing dialogues and to volunteer in their communities in order to create positive change at local and national levels.
Many executives talk a lot about innovation, but they don't really know how to make it happen. A corporate innovation team asks themselves: How do we "educate" our executives on innovation management and develop stronger corporate innovation capabilities together?
We can all see that global commerce has evolved, innovative excellence has advanced and entrepreneurialism has accelerated. Just to make things more interesting, all of this change happened extremely rapidly. But how about our own intelligence? Are we really smart enough for 2017 and beyond? Ambition encourages us to reach for success, so let’s test our own entrepreneurial intelligence to see if we’re up to the challenges of 2017.
This time of year is full of meetings with leadership and teams in order to help them prepare for the year ahead. People discuss financial goals, sustainability goals, profitability targets, customer success metrics, and more, but there are also numerous research & development teams out there who are coordinating their annual innovation strategy who struggle in their process to create a cohesive innovation strategy.
The keyword “Industry 4.0” is no longer an empty cliché or a black box; it is currently probably the most important topic within the German economy. Not only will existing processes be revolutionized – but also new businesses and business models will arise. More and more companies have already started to tap into its potential.
When it comes to transformation programs, internal alignment forms the foundation for strategic success. Naturally, aligning an organisation to its strategic priorities requires serious upfront investment in terms of time. But without this time, it’s a case of ‘fail to prepare – prepare to fail’.
