More old news from the realm of over-innovation: Tesco is blaming it for depressing sales. The giant, but troubled, British supermarket chain is to jettison almost one-third of its immense product line to reduce customer confusion and increase profitability, The Guardian newspaper reports. The retailer takes in one of every seven pounds spent in the…
With firm Medieval traditions and a largely unchanged Victorian delivery system, is it any wonder modern employers demand better of its “output”? The complaints vary by country about university education, but money is always an issue. The added twist in America is the debt load taken on by students. That now stands at €1.2 trillion!…
In a series of recent posts, I looked at how IT can position itself inside an organization to drive innovation. Implicit in those posts was the assumption that innovation is beneficial to the business. But how do you measure that? 4 Steps from Boring Service to IT Innovation IT: A Quick Sanity Check Before Becoming…
Billed as an “innovation smackdown,” this week’s innochat addressed the thorny topic of who innovates more: big companies or startups? “Most people believe startups have an edge, but large companies have done well too,” said Gwen Ishmael (@Gwen_Ishmael) SVP Insights & Innovation at Decision Analyst Inc. in Texas, and this week’s chat moderator. The framing post…
Although often seen as a new tool for Marketing people, social media (SM) is having a much greater impact on traditional organizations than is yet recognized. The issue of social media and the innovation changes it will force on companies was the topic of this week’s #innochat, a Twitter conversation held by innovation experts and…
What role can the Sales organization play in a company? Is its proximity to the customer a benefit? Or do sales incentives stymie a salesman’s motivation to share knowledge? Those were some of the taxing issues tackled at today’s Innochat, a weekly Twitter conversation attended by innovation experts, practitioners and assorted hangers on from around…
This is Part II of the report on Thursday’s innochat where a group of innovation experts and practitioners tackle some of the innovation challenges facing organizations. Part I is here. Turning to her third question, moderator Gwen Ishmael (@Gwen_Ishmael) asked how the different types of innovation being discussed — incremental, breakthrough and transformational — impact…
Companies can face different challenges in their markets and with their customers depending on how they position themselves strategically on the innovation spectrum.
Best known to non-bluegrass fans as the composer of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song, Earl Scruggs pioneered a style of banjo playing that has since become the norm in bluegrass music. To mark his passing the day before, last week’s innochat looked at the influence of Scruggs on banjo playing. (Innochat is a weekly Twitter…
If necessity is the mother of invention, then curiosity is the father. But can it also be a wayward parent when it comes to innovation?