Innovation in Practice Blog
March 11, 2013
Where does your marketing department fit when it comes to innovation? In an article1 titled, "Improving Marketing's Contribution to New Product Development," these author's offer a dismal view:
"The prevailing view in most companies is that marketing is not a distinct function, and therefore, everyone can do marketing. As a result, the status of the marketing department is in a steep decline, which is especially observable within the NPD process. This development is surprising because it seems that top innovators strongly involve the marketing department in the NPD process. Hence, strengthening the marketing department's position with respect to NPD should be a priority to improve innovation performance."
I agree. But I believe the authors fall way short of what is needed to do that.
"The prevailing view in most companies is that marketing is not a distinct function, and therefore, everyone can do marketing. As a result, the status of the marketing department is in a steep decline, which is especially observable within the NPD process. This development is surprising because it seems that top innovators strongly involve the marketing department in the NPD process. Hence, strengthening the marketing department's position with respect to NPD should be a priority to improve innovation performance."
I agree. But I believe the authors fall way short of what is needed to do that.
March 4, 2013
Dave Lavinsky is a serial entrepreneur who built his own company from the ground up. His book, Start at the End, was a #1 Bestseller on Amazon just one week after it was released. The goal of the book is to learn how to work fewer hours and be efficient when working at a new job or starting a business.
For innovation practitioners, here are his top 12 tips:
February 25, 2013
Can you innovate too much? After all, new ideas fuel organic growth. One would think an organization would be happy to have as many ideas as possible.
But not always. Here are scenarios where over-innovating might be considered too much of a good thing.
February 18, 2013
Responding to an article on why innovation is difficult, Tim Josling from Leura, Australia, wrote this to the editor of The Economist (January 26, 2013):
Another useful insight is provided by something akin to Amdahl’s law in computer design, which holds that even if some components of a system are improving, the parts that are not improving will eventually dominate the performance of that system.For example, for flights that are under 2000 miles a person will spend more time traveling to and from the airport, checking in at the airport, going through security and waiting for his bags than time spent up in the air. Increases in aircraft speed would have less benefit that shortening the other bits of the journey time.
February 4, 2013
Loyalty is defined as a strong feeling of support or allegiance. Companies fight for it because it correlates well to product sales. The Fabulous Five (Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, and Facebook) are waging a spectacular battle against each other to earn customer loyalty.
A key to winning is to understand the types of loyalty. Professor Christie Nordhielm describes three types as part of her marketing strategy framework, The Big Picture:
January 28, 2013
A tell-tale sign of the Attribute Dependency Technique is the word "smart" in any product description. Apple's new patent for 'smart shoes' is a case in point. As reported by PSFK:
January 14, 2013
SIT's Innovation Suite is a platform for you to network with your peers, while learning how to develop self-sustaining innovation for your organization.
- All
- Academic Focus
- Advertising
- App
- Attribute Dependency
- Become a Professor
- Closed World Principle
- Conferences
- Consultants
- Culture of Innovation
- Design Thinking
- Division
- Innovation
- Innovation Sighting
- Inside the Box
- Inventions
- Marketing Innovation
- Methods
- Multiplication
- Podcast
- Practitioner
- Research
- Science
- Social Media
- Strategy
- Subtraction
- Task Unification
- Technology
- The LAB
- Training
- Uncategorized
- Web/Tech
June 1, 2017
Innovation is the process of taking an idea and putting it into practice. Creativity, on the other hand, is what you do in your head to […]
July 24, 2017
Is it true? Do the most creative people generate ideas straight out of their heads without any outside help? That’s what most people would tell you. […]
July 9, 2018
News of a boys soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand brought back memories of the Chilean miners trapped 2,300 feet underground in August 2010. […]
September 10, 2018
This valuable simulation was recently published by my friend and colleague, Marta Dapena-Baron, of The Big Picture Partners. This multiplayer training simulation brings to life the […]
September 17, 2018
There have been times I sat down with a client and I told them, “your organization is very innovative”, but they don’t believe me. I tell […]
November 5, 2018
I am excited to announce a new book that was just released by my friend and colleague, Dawn Graham. Switchers is the first book written specifically for the career changer, to help them to […]
November 12, 2018
I’m thrilled to let you know my new book, So You Want to Be a Professor: How to Land Your Dream Job in Academia, just launched! […]