Innovation in Practice

Innovate to Collaborate

People collaborate to innovate. But what about the other way around?  Could a structured innovation approach be used to bring people closer together?  In other words, collaboration becomes the endpoint and innovation becomes the means to that end?

Collaboration is where two or more people or organizations work together in an intersection of common goals. Collaboration is seen as an essential element of change and group effectiveness.  People collaborate for a variety of reasons, including:

Innovation Sighting: Multiplication at Taylor Guitars

Here is an example of the Multiplication Template, one of five in the corporate innovation method called S.I.T..  It is from the Taylor Guitars, one of the leading companies in the category and one of the most innovative.  The Multiplication Template makes copies of components but changes the copies in some way from the original.  Taylor has multiplied the pickguard of their electric guitar series, but changed the configuration with different styles of magnetic pickups (the part that translates the sound from the strings).  It is a clever idea because guitar owners can re-configure their guitar for different playing situations.  It helps Taylor Guitar extend their product reach into the aftermarket for guitar parts and maintain a more loyal following of customers.

 

Innovation Internships

Business schools and companies need to create more internships dedicated to innovation.  Most MBA internships continue to focus on traditional core functions like marketing, finance, and strategy.  A few schools have innovation internships, but they focus on the technical  and design points-of-view.  The mainstream, non-technical B-School programs are missing an opportunity.

Innovation internships are a great way to infuse an organization with innovation process and techniques. The best internships allow the intern to learn from the company and the company to learn from the intern. The key success factors are:  Selection, Sponsorship, and Structure.

• Selection means picking the right student for the internship as well as picking the right company.  Not all students or companies are suitable for this type of program.  The intern needs to have advanced innovation training.  This should include both innovation method training as well as organizational aspects of innovation.  The sponsoring company needs to have a commitment to innovation and see it as a competency worth developing.

• Sponsorship of the intern is essential.  Without resources, focus, networking, and guidance from an engaged sponsor, the intern will flounder.  Sponsors need to work closely with business school faculty to make sure the program is set up correctly, and that the intern is brought on board smoothly and effectively.  Good sponsors keep projects on track.

• Structuring the internship around the needs of the business as well as the needs of the intern is the final piece of the puzzle.  Interns need to tackle relevant and difficult innovation problems within the business if they are to learn from the experience and create value for the company.

Here is an outstanding example of how to structure an innovation internship and select candidates for the position, from Sears: 

The LAB: Innovating Shredded Wheat with S.I.T. (July 2009)

“We put the ‘NO’ in innovation!”  The good people at Post Cereal have a new twist on innovation…NOT innovating as a statement of the product's ubiquity and staying power.  “Some things just weren’t meant to be innovated."

How could I resist?  It was just too tempting to use systematic innovation on this simple product, especially in light of the perception that it should not be innovated.  Though the ad campaign is a spoof, I wonder just how much the people at Post really believe this.  What if shredded wheat could be innovated to create new growth potential for this 116 year old product? 

Here is a brief history from Wikipedia:

Henry Perky invented shredded wheat cereal in 1893. The wheat is first cooked in water until its moisture content reaches about 50%. It is then tempered, allowing moisture to diffuse evenly into the grain. The grain then passes through a set of rollers with grooves in one side, yielding a web of shredded wheat strands. Many webs are stacked together, and this moist stack of strands is crimped at regular intervals to produce individual pieces of cereal with the strands attached at each end. These then go into an oven, where they are baked until their moisture content is reduced to 5%.

I'll use all five templates of the Systematic Inventive Thinking method to see what new opportunities we can uncover.