Innovation Management - The online learning center for Managing Innovation.

In his book No Straight Lines: making sense of our non-linear world, author Alan Moore argues that humanity shifts gear when it demands fundamental change to its real world circumstances and that this moment stands as a turning point in the collective approach to the organisation of the economy and society as a whole. This deeply thought provoking work is relevant for innovation management professionals in all industries, as it: challenges how we think innovation gets done, and then offers up new viable alternatives; argues that innovation can be accelerated and costs reduced; demonstrates that we need a new vocabulary to describe non-linear innovation and finally, explains how innovation can also help build a more regenerative world.

The business world is very rational. Operational excellence, financial mastery and technology savviness have become pre-requisite not to stand out as a winner but to be allowed to compete. While a hard-nosed business mind is essential to cope with the increased pressure of globalized competition, it is creativity, in the form of innovation and the ability to implement it rapidly that is fast becoming the most treasured competitive asset. Companies need to innovate in a fast yet relevant manner in order to remain competitive today and develop the game changers that will allow them to remain competitive in the future.

Many firms tend to mix the terms and concepts of creativity and innovation. There is a view that catering for creativity automatically makes innovation happen. In this post Susanna Bill compares the works from three different authors about the factors influencing a creative and innovative climate. What can be learned?

Blueprints help people envision the future in a clear, practical way. What will the finished work look like? How will we create it? What possibilities does the new creation hold? In this article innovation architect Doug Collins introduces a blueprint for the practice of collaborative innovation. The blueprint helps people envision their organization as they transform it through the practice.

“Innovate or die” becomes the order of the day. People in response seek ways to innovate. Of late, many have embraced the practice of collaborative innovation, with its application of social media to sourcing crowds and ideas, and design thinking, with its structured approach to vetting hypotheses about new business opportunities. Having arrived in the organization by different routes, they exist as potential complements. In this article innovation architect Doug Collins explores ways to combine the practices to their mutual benefit.

Design empowered innovation combines the best of right and left brain thinking. It has the capacity to deliver better ideas, with more relevance, realized earlier. By focusing on individuals, moments and journeys in ethnography, insights become deeper. By embracing chaos and play in brainstorms, creative teams can explore further. By iterating and early prototyping, ideas become real and develop more rapidly.

In the June issue of Harvard Business review, Intuit, the American software company, was labeled “a design-driven innovation machine.” InnovationManagement talked to Roy Rosin who was Intuit’s first innovation leader, building the company’s innovation programs and working with teams on creating new products and services.

In Chapter 11 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko interprets design thinking. He talks about the rise of “Design Thinking” philosophy, specifically using design methods to solve strategic business and organizational problems. He notes its shortcomings, specifically how design “doing” must complement design “thinking”.

Design thinking should be a way of life for senior managers. Melba Kurman spoke to Sara Beckman, design and innovation expert at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, about how to apply design thinking to the innovation process.

What can design really teach business leaders about how to run their organizations? And where does it fit into the ever-evolving lexicon around innovation? Nicole Chen sketches out the top four values that business leaders should adopt from design thinking.

Even companies that do not invest in design thinking do invest in designing their brand. In a new book, Brand Driven Innovation, Erik Roscam Abbing looks at how brand should be redesigned and how that helps the innovation process.

Inspiration. Creativity. Meaning. Purpose. Human-centeredness. These terms are at the forefront of the very lively discussion around what design can bring to business and innovation — and they are extremely powerful. Nicole Chen asks if design thinkers have thought enough about their new role.

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes and even strategy, according to Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO. But what is design thinking? This topic was explored by 70 people in a workshop hosted by PIEp, a Swedish academia-based nationwide initiative to increase innovation capability in organizations.

In this classic video a design team at IDEO, one of the words most innovative product design firms, takes on the challenge of redesigning a shopping cart in only five days. The film shows you how to innovate by applying design processes. As one of the members expresses it: ”We are experts on the process of how you design stuff”. Watch and learn how the chaos can be creative and the ‘fail often in order to succeed sooner’ concept works.