Monthly Archives: March 2009

Trickle-Up Innovation

Trickle-Up Innovation is a topic you will hear more and more about.

Innovations currently tend to be commercialized in the developed countries and then distributed in the developing world. Trickle-Up Innovation turns that model on its head by commercializing products or services in developing countries and then adapting them for the developed world.

Trickle-Up Innovation does not displace the traditional dissemination patern, but instead provides another option for innovators to consider when looking at commercializing their ideas.

One reason that Trickle-Up Innovation will find increasing adoption is the fact that innovative products and services tend to initially be adopted by those with the greatest pain.

Another reason that companies will expand their innovation strategies to include Trickle-Up Innovation is the fact that often the breakthroughs that drive innovation come from working with extreme users.

Extreme users and those with the greatest need for an innovation are equally likely to be found in the developing world as in the developed world – opening the door for Trickle-Up Innovation.

Where will you find innovation?

@innovate

For more information, see Fast Company’s article or BusinessWeek’s article on Trickle-Up Innovation.

Creative Cultures – Making Innovation Work

I found an interesting video of Professor Paddy Miller talking IESE’s program Creative Cultures: Making Innovation Work. The video talks about the importance of innovation in our current global economy and the challenges in making innovation permeate the organization.

“Much of the innovation industry talks recycled platitudes: the real secret is that innovation is more about business culture than it is about brainstorming ideas. A culture of innovation is driven by the individual. It’s instilled in an organization by small teams working together day to day.”

– Paddy Miller, IESE Professor

What do you think?

@innovate