Innovation Roundtable

The Marketing Science Institute has formed a new Innovation Roundtable to explore common issues and challenges in the world of corporate innovation. The roundtable representatives are from Johnson & Johnson, GE, P&G, Diageo, Eastman Kodak, AT&T, Kraft, Merck, Thompson Healthcare, Praxair, Aetna, and General Mills. I had the pleasure of hosting the last meeting held at the Endo-Surgery Institute, J&J’s world class training facility for minimally invasive surgery. The group plans to meet twice a year.

Topics at this last meeting included:

• How and why is innovation an important issue for your company?
• When, how and by whom was this issue identified? Who currently “owns” it (and why)?
• What steps have been taken to address this issue, with what results? What steps are planned?
• What internal or external resources have you used (do you plan to use)?

For part of the agenda, the group practiced using the SIT innovation method on a product category from a member company (Kodak). We decided to make innovation a regular habit at our meetings so we can “walk the talk” not just “talk the talk." Our goal is to try out a new innovation method at each meeting.

We are fortunate to have Professor Don Lehmann from Columbia Business School as our academic advisor. Don is a prolific researcher in the innovation space (and many others).

Next meeting will be held in conjunction with MSI’s conference, “Innovation and Co-Creation,” in Seattle June 16-18, 2008.  Check out MSI’s great collection of working papers and publications on innovation.

Comments

[amnon levav]

hi Drew,

I think this Roundtable - and others like it - is a great opportunity to transcend the blah blah of much of the "innovation conversation" out there. It has become so obvious that managers are in favor of "innovation" that one wonders why there is so much less innovation without the "". I propose this question to your roundtable members as a theme for discussion. Sounds like you have an exciting opportunity to address this issue both from people's corporate experience and from a research perspective. i would love to hear of any thoughts and conclusions.
Amnon