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Hybridization - Innovation Should Be Integrated
Innovation competencies should not be practiced as stand-alone methodologies. Just as incremental learning needs to be integrated with a prior knowledge base, innovation competencies need to be integrated with other competencies in an organization. Read the full article. May 5, 2008
Resolving Contradictions with 40 Inventive Principles
Innovation practitioners can all benefit from one of the basic concepts of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) - at the heart of many problems is a contradiction, and much of innovation involves solving the contradiction. Read the full article. April 28, 2008
Three Phases of a Comprehensive Innovation Strategy
A verbal commitment to creating innovative products is often senior leadership’s response to a company’s poor financial performance. A commitment to the intentional creation of new products needs to be comprehensive by a company and its management. Read the full article. April 21, 2008
Innovation Evaluation Framework: Use Completeness
Many innovations are technical capabilities looking for a problem to solve, rather than a complete solution. This problem is true whether the innovations are products, services or business models. Read the full article. April 14, 2008
Local Problems Lead to Ideal System Solutions
Problem solving at the sub-system, local level can be inefficient. By defining a problem and attempting to solve it without regard for the entire system, there exists the risk of local optimization, with global non-optimization. Read the full article. April 7, 2008
What Not To Do: Six Ways to Ruin a Brainstorming Session
The brainstorm is the most popular group creativity exercise in business. A well-run brainstorm is fun and energetic; it will generate plenty of good ideas. A poor brainstorm can be frustrating and de-motivational. Read the full article. March 31, 2008
Begin a Systematic Innovation Practice - Step Four
Successful businesses grow through in-house innovations; the challenge is deciding what to innovate. Companies must learn to identify opportunities for dramatic growth through disruptive innovations. Read the full article. March 24, 2008
Developing Forced Analogies Creates New Solutions
People solve problems using analogies based on associations formed over time. This set of association standards is the source of an individual’s psychological bias. The focal analogy method drives ideation by creating a non-standard association set. Read the full article. March 17, 2008
Innovation Evaluation Framework: Use Community
Evaluating an innovation by community can reduce switching barriers for consumers in at least two regards: 1) a community demonstrates that other people have made the change successfully and 2) a community becomes an advocate for the innovation. Read the full article. March 10, 2008
Using Ideality to Improve Solar Panel Release in Space
A problem solver’s objective is to increase the useful functions (numerator) at a rate greater than any consequential increase in the harmful functions (denominator) – this forces a system’s evolution that also increases a system’s ideality. Read the full article. March 3, 2008
Ideality Drives Innovation for Kraft's Lunchables
Ideality is a means of identifying the path to perfection. As compromises in a system are resolved, the implemented solutions should eliminate the contradictions that have been targeted. Also, the solutions should evolve the system toward idealness. Read the full article. February 25, 2008
Dow: Designing the Next-generation Railcar With TRIZ
The interaction of process improvement and innovation tools can be seen in one of Dow’s projects – to design the next generation of rail tank cars for transporting the most hazardous chemicals. Read the full article. February 18, 2008
Innovation Evaluation Framework: Use Convenience
For an innovation to succeed, it must offer more convenience than the existing solution. Whether the target consumer or customer is a homemaker or an executive, innovations that improve convenience over existing solutions will attract attention. Read the full article. February 11, 2008
Bad Attitudes Can Lead to Good Innovation - Hire Rebels
How can you build a team that is innovative, dynamic and capable of finding breakthroughs for tough problems? One way is to make sure that among your solid citizens you have a good sprinkling of rebels. Read the full article. February 4, 2008
Begin a Systematic Innovation Practice: Step Three
With an understanding of the types of, and strategic planning aspects of, innovation, the next step for a company’s leadership is committing to innovation for its value proposition. Read the full article. January 28, 2008
Systematic Innovation's Successes in Healthcare
Systematic innovation is being applied to many industries with great results. Two healthcare case studies address the wide fields of applicability for strategic and systematic innovation Read the full article. January 21, 2008
Innovation Evaluation Framework: Use Choice and Control
Innovations that offer more choice and control create an atmosphere of trust and lead to the adoption of new solutions. Increased choice and control offer immediate, tangible benefits to a consumer. Read the full article. January 14, 2008
Dow Pairs Six Sigma With Innovation
When innovation is the lifeblood of a company, it cannot solely on the fickleness of inspiration. This basic premise underlies research and development at The Dow Chemical Co. Read the full article. January 7, 2008
