GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Scott Amron is an inventor with a knack for using the Task Unification pattern, one of five in Systematic Inventive Thinking. His most recent is a sticker that turns into a soap under running water. It is called Fruitwash. Once dissolved, the Fruitwash removes wax, pesticides, and dirt from fruit and vegetables. The sticker has been “assigned an additional task” as it performs its primary task. Classic Task Unification.

Scott claims it has these features:

• No stickers to peel off and throw away
• No expensive produce wash (fruit wash) to buy
• Displays Price Look-Up codes for fast & accurate check-out
• Label can also be removed normally by peeling off
• Water resistant
• Washing / rubbing with water triggers the turn
• Helps remove water-resistant wax, pesticides and fungicides

This isn’t the first time Scott has used Task Unification to create new products. Checkout his Brush & Rinse toothbrush. It is a new way to get water into our mouths for rinsing out toothpaste. The brush is pierced on top in a way that allows you to direct a nice, neat fountain of water directly into your mouth so you don’t have to reach under the faucet.

To use Task Unification:

1. List all of the components, both internal and external, that are part of the Closed World of the product, service, or process.

2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task. Consider ways to use each of the three Task Unification methods:

• Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product already accomplishes.
• Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
• Choose an internal component and make it do the function of an external component (effectively “stealing” the external component’s function)

3. If you decide that an idea is valuable, you move on to the next question: Is it feasible? Can you actually create this new product? Perform this new service? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable?

Check out Scott’s complete inventory of inventions and see how many you can identify that use some form of Task Unification. I counted twenty seven!

imagecredit: amronexperimental

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Measuring innovation can lead to unintended consequences.  Here are eight ways to avoid the traps.

1. Measure innovation alternatives, not just the current program. When assessing the impact of an initiative, always ask, “compared to what?”  Don’t fall into the trap of measuring only what the company is doing today.  Rather, measure it against the next best alternative.  For example, if you are using a ideation methodology like S.I.T., be sure to measure the effectiveness of using S.I.T. versus another ideation method.  Understand why you are using one method over another by forecasting results from the alternative.  This re-frames the question from “does this method work?” to “does this method work better than this alternative?”

2. Measure inputs, not just outputs. Companies are quick to judge innovation initiatives based on the yield of ideas.  A better approach is to be mindful of what the company puts into innovation.  Measure activity such as number of training sessions conducted, number of employees skilled at a methodology, and man hours used in innovation workshops.  Benchmark these against competitors and other relevant companies to gauge whether you are investing enough.

3. Measure quality, not just quantity:  People focus too much on quantitative measures because they’re easier to collect than qualitative ones.  Quantitative data seems more objective.  Simple measurements like “number of ideas generated” may seem valuable on the surface, but these can lead to the trap of “idea churning” just to hit big numbers.  One way to avoid this trap is to assign a panel of independent reviewers to do a qualitative valuation of all ideas generated.  Develop a standard rubric or use existing methods to evaluate the creativity of ideas on a qualitative basis.

4. Measure to improve, not to judge.  Hold people accountable for what they do to improve innovation activities.  It is tempting to judge employee performance and reward them for innovation output.  This can lead to the unwanted rivalry between employees.  Avoid this trap by looking at how managers set up “cockpit indicators” and use those indicators to make changes.  Have they created a closed loop feedback process to continuously improve innovation?

5. Measure novelty, not impact.  Senior leaders want to know the “bottom line” impact of innovation.  When they see ideation results, they respond with, “Yes, but how many of these actually made it into the marketplace, and what revenues were generated?”  This is a trap because so much of the impact is dependent internal and external factors.  Holding employees accountable for impact will cause them to avoid the truly novel and game-changing ideas.  They fear being punished for pushing great ideas that fall outside their category.  To manage this dilemma, managers need to think more in terms of finding the “innovation sweet spot,” that place somewhere between disruptive and incremental.  The right balance between risk and reward is more likely to occur here.

6. Measure future potential, not just past results.  Managers must be forward-looking so they can spot which innovation initiatives will make the firm more competitive.  Looking backward at past results is like looking through the rear-view mirror to drive a car  Avoid this trap by analyzing where to invest in product, process, and service innovation.  Quantify the value of innovating in key areas.  This will help you find your leverage points quicker, ahead of the competition.

7. Measure execution, not just ideation.  Executing and launching new products takes financial and human resources.  When poor execution delays a product launch, companies are hit with a cost that is often unnoticed.  Poor execution delays the revenue stream that a new innovation will earn.  Given the time value of money, that financial loss can be staggering.  Avoid this trap by forecasting the net present value of delayed product launches.  Then, hold teams accountable for that cost when delays occur.

8. Measure the immeasurable.  Some aspects of innovation are immeasurable.  But they should still be contemplated by the management team.  For example, ideation sessions can cause employees to reconsider and move away from their long-held “pet” ideas.   This sets employees free to move in new directions.  Though immeasurable, its enormously valuable when employees give up mediocre ideas and focus their energies on more promising ones.

imagecredit: smallbiztrends & amalfi

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

An innovative corporate culture is one that supports the creation of new ideas and the implementation of those ideas. Leaders need to help employees see innovation in the right light. The most innovative companies do the following:

1.  See innovation as a competency:  Innovation is a skill, not a gift.  It can be learned by anyone and applied systematic.  Innovative companies treat it as just another core skill by:

• Creating a well-defined set of innovation competencies and embedding them into every employee’s competency model along with other required behaviors such as ethics and leadership.
• Conducting regular training courses in creativity methods and innovation management.
• Staffing internal innovation experts and coaches who work with teams to help guide their innovation efforts and facilitate their success.
• Not rewarding employees for innovation, but rather expecting it as part of the value system

2.  See innovation as a competitive weapon: Innovative companies use innovation to differentiate themselves by:

• Conducting regular idea generation workshops within business units
• Deploying innovation methods within planning and strategy initiatives
• Innovating from the core competencies of the firm as the starting point
• Using innovation methods as part of mergers and acquisitions to explore and analyze growth potential of the target

3.  See innovation as a process:  Innovative companies don’t treat innovation as special, unique activity. They see it instead as an ongoing “stream of effort” along with quality, leadership, productivity, and other imperatives.  They do this by:

• Developing an idea management and tracking capability
• Conducting “clearinghouse” workshops to leverage innovation across business units
• Sourcing innovation consultants that are well matched to the specific task (eg: ideation).
• Linking innovation to other key processes including financial, commercial, and technical.

4.  See innovation as both systematic and opportunistic:  The most innovative companies flex between different styles of creating opportunity by:

• Sponsoring internal innovation “subversives” who work around the system to champion new ideas and drive them through execution
• Being “open” to ideas from outside sources to make non-obvious connections to internal projects.
• Experimenting with new concepts – “making a little, selling a little, and learning a lot” – like P&G.
• Collaborating with like-minded companies in non-competing industries to source new ideas and trends.

To read more about both sides of this issue, I recommend two articles just released. Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer write about “How leaders kill meaning at work.”  You can find this in McKinsey Quarterly, January 2012.  Ken Kahn and his colleagues write about “An Examination of New Product Development Best Practices,” in the March 2012 edition of Journal of Product Innovation Management.

imagecredit:psychface & papermaster

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

I’m looking forward to teaching “Innovation Tools,” the graduate marketing course at the University of Cincinnati. The course teaches how to use Systematic Inventive Thinking, a method based on three ideas. First, most successful innovations over time followed one of five patterns, and these patterns are like the DNA of products that can be re-applied to innovate any product or service. Second, innovation happens when we start with a configuration (the “solution”) and work backwards to the “problem” that it solves. It turns out that humans are better at this than the traditional “problem-to-solution” approach to innovating. Finally, better innovation happens when we start within the world of the problem (the Closed World). Innovations that use elements of the problem or surrounding environment are more novel and surprising. We innovate “inside the box,” not outside.

Students learn not only how to innovate, but they also learn how to link it to marketing strategy. We teach the Big Picture marketing framework so that students know how to tie innovation and strategy and create an innovation roadmap.

We have 50 graduate students, mostly from our master of science of marketing program plus candidates from other colleges. Student teams are working on the following projects:

1. Retail Shelf Display: Two teams are working for a consumer packaged goods company to innovate new ways to display products in retail stores like Walmart and Target. Companies develop detailed “planograms” that try to optimize the amount of product and information packed into the assigned shelf space. These teams will create new-to-the-world ways to improve business results at the point-of-sale.

2. Pharmaceutical Sales: This team is innovating the selling process for a large pharmaceutical company. Companies deploy thousands of sales representatives worldwide to “detail” products at doctor’s offices. The goal of this project is to find innovative ways to use this massive resource differently.

3. Publishing: Two teams team are trying to innovate how books are written, published and ultimately consumed by the end user. The publishing industry is going through dramatic change as digital publishing continues to grow. Ideas from this team will be reviewed by one of the largest publishing companies in the world.

4. Online Experience: This team is tackling how to innovate the online customer experience – what happens when people visit a website. Websites continue to evolve with familiar patterns and standards embedded in them, especially with activities such as search and navigation. Ideas from this team will attempt to break that mold and bring new value for the end user.

5. Logistics Packaging: This team has the challenging assignment of applying SIT to traditional logistics packaging systems – boxes, tape, packing material and so on. Most would consider this a commodity industry, so it is ripe for new, innovative products and services.

6. Industrial Tubing: This team is working for a client in the energy sector to create new products and services for high quality steel tubing. This industry (like most) has a lot of “fixedness,” and I am expecting the team to develop completely new innovations in this space.

The output from each team is a “Dream Catalog,” a hypothetical portrayal of the best of the ideas in graphic form. This is a technique we teach so that students know how to bring innovations to life and align an organization to gain support.

As in past courses, the final exam is a complete and comprehensive demonstration of “innovating on demand.” Students are given a product that they do not know ahead of time. They have three hours to use each of the five SIT patterns correctly to create completely new-to-the-world innovations in that category. You can see the output of these final exams and the dream catalogs at our innovation wiki.

imagecredit:natcom

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Pick up a camera and see how many innovations you can find in it.  That shouldn’t be hard.  There are lots of them.  The camera, like all inventions, started with a core idea.  From there, it continued to evolve and improve though time.  It might surprise you that a single innovation pattern, Multiplication, formed the premise of all photography.  The cameras you use today evolved from multiplication.  The entire photography industry continues to benefit thanks to this powerful pattern.

Multiplication is one of five simple patterns innovators have used for thousands of years.  These patterns are the basis of Systematic Inventive Thinking, a method that channels your thinking and regulates the ideation process.  The method works by taking a product, service, or process and applying a pattern to it.  This changes the starting point.  It morphs the product into something weird, perhaps unrecognizable.  With this altered configuration (we call the Virtual Product), you work backwards to link it to a problem that it addresses or new benefit it delivers.  The process is called Function Follows Form.

Photography, in essence, is multiplying the subject onto a piece of paper.  Something unique happens when light from an object passes through a pinhole. A small image of that object will be projected on any surface on the other side of the pinhole – only upside down. This “pinhole effect” was discovered thousands of years ago. Aristotle noted in 4 BC that “sunlight travelling through small openings between the leaves of a tree, the holes of a sieve, the openings wickerwork, and even interlaced fingers will create circular patches of light on the ground.”  From that humble beginning, we have photography.  Hardly a day goes without looking at an image of something: a framed family photo, a magazine cover, an outdoor billboard.  Images are all around us.

Let’s get back to cameras.  Were you able to find these innovations?

• Red Eye Reduction: In 1993, the Vivitar Corporation patented a novel way to beat red eye. The solution: a camera with a dual flash.  The first flash constricts the subjects’ pupils. Then the camera shoots off a second, “multiplied,” flash that provides sufficient light for the actual photograph. Since the subjects’ pupils are slightly closed from the initial flash, no red eye appears in the final image.
• View Finders: Modern cameras have not only the traditional viewfinder to line up a shot, but also an LCD  version.  This allows you to compose your image while seeing more of what’s going on around you
• Aperture: Pull out your smart phone and you will see one camera aperture on the back and another on the front of the phone facing you.  Why?  It’s seems obvious in hindsight.  The second aperture allows you to photograph your favorite subject…you!
• Stereoscopy:  Oliver Wendell Holmes invented the stereoscope viewer in 1861. It creates the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the viewer’s left and right eyes.  Think about that next time you see a 3D movie.
• Panorama: Thomas Sutton patented the first panoramic camera in 1859. By taking multiple photos of the same scene, he was able to merge them together to create a wide screen, panoramic view.
• Film Negatives: Developing paper film creates a negative of the image – the colors are reversed.  When the negative film is developed again using the same process, images come out as “positives.”  The two-step process allow photographers to create multiple copies of the positive film.
• Color Film: Taking three photos of an image but each with a different colored filter –  red,  green, and blue – allows them to be combined to yield a color image.
• Lenses: Photographers use a variety of lenses depending on the particular effect they want to achieve: close up, far away, wide angle, and so on.
• Movies:  In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge used 24 cameras to photograph a galloping horse.  Each camera captured the horse in a different state of motion. When he combined the images, the horse appeared to be galloping. Muybridge created the first “moving picture.” Multiplication launched not one, but two global industries.

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Here is an example from the long-running Progressive campaign featuring the lovable character, Flo.  It uses the metaphor tool.  The Metaphor is the most commonly used tool in marketing communications because it is a great way to attach meaning to a newly-launched product or brand. The Metaphor Tool takes a well-recognized and accepted cultural symbol and manipulates it to connect to the product, brand, or message.

The tool is one of eight patterns embedded in most innovative commercials.  Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues describe these simple, well-defined design structures in their book, “Cracking the Ad Code,” and provide a step-by-step approach to using them.

The tools are:

1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort

The trick is to do it in a non-obvious, clever way.  The process is called fusion, and there are three versions:  Metaphor fused to Product/Brand, Metaphor fused to Message, and Metaphor fused to both the Product/Brand and Message.  Here is an example metaphor fused to the message:

If you are not sure what happened here, you probably need to know that “Liar Liar Pants On Fire” is a playground taunt that kids use whenever they think the other is lying. Fibbing is naughty, and “pants on fire” is a euphemism for spanking. This commercial does a nice job of highlighting Progressive’s value proposition of “helpfulness and transparency” while dissing the competition. “No mas pantalones.”

Flo, herself, is a metaphor of the helpful retail sales person on the floor of an imaginary “insurance department store.” Flo, played by actress Stephanie Courtney, is the brand personified, and Huffington Post describes why we love her:

“Flo steals your heart as easily as Cupid shoots an arrow on Valentine’s Day, whether she’s talking about her tricked-out name tag, or ardently pointing out ways Progressive can insure anything you own, tailored to your specifics. And she can fist bump a customer with her pricing gun as easily as John Wayne drew his Colt 45. Fans follow her on Twitter, FaceBook and MySpace; not a shy lot, they often leave love notes which can be read by anyone, even Stephanie Courtney.”

In the clutter of so many insurance commercials, the metaphor, Flo, stands above the rest.

image credit: progressive

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

New research suggests that you are likely to be more creative when you imagine the problem is someone else’s instead of your own. Evan Polman and Kyle Emich describe their studies in their April 2011 article that support this conclusion.

In one study, 262 participants were instructed to draw an alien for a story that they would write, or alternatively for a story that someone else would write. When drawing an alien for someone else’s story, they produced a more creative alien. In another study, 137 students were instructed to picture either themselves or a stranger stuck in a tower and to think of a way to escape using only a rope that did not reach the ground. Of the students who imagined a stranger in the tower, 66 percent found the solution—divide the rope lengthwise and tie the pieces together—compared with 48 percent of those who pictured themselves in the tower.

For innovation practitioners, teachers, and consultants, this research suggests a new technique to improve innovation output. When using an innovation method or problem solving technique, participants should try to image the problem is not theirs. Instead, they want to mentally simulate the problem belongs to someone else. One way to do this is to have participants imagine they are innovating for a similar issue but in a different industry. As an exercise, have participants apply a technique in this scenario first as a way to activate and expand their creative output. Only then, have them apply the same mental structure to their actual problem.

Here is an example. Imagine you are facilitating a team that makes diagnostic equipment for automobiles. They want to innovate new ways to use the data that is collected by their equipment. You are about to apply the S.I.T. Subtraction Technique (remove an essential component). Normally, you would have the team apply Subtraction by eliminating the vehicle data entirely – a great way to break functional fixedness.

Now, in light of this new research, here is what you might do instead. Tell the team they are in a different industry – medical diagnostics – but that they are not allowed to use any traditional diagnostic tests on their patients (like blood tests, x-rays, vitals, etc). Ask them, “What would you do now to get useful data about your patients?” After a round of ideation, have them re-do the exercise back on their own problem. Mentally imagining the problem to be someone else’s first will boost creative output on their own problem.

Polman, E., & Emich, K. J. (2011). Decisions for Others Are More Creative Than Decisions for the Self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(4), 492-501.

Photo by permission: www.cartoonstock.com

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Private equity firms can boost the value of their investment portfolio by applying a systematic innovation method along the entire investment value chain – before, during, and even after the investment.

Private equity firms are collections of investors and funds that put money into privately-held companies. Private equity investments provide working capital to a target company to nurture expansion, new product development, or restructuring of the company’s operations, management, or ownership. Private equity firms are betting on their ability to take control of the target, clean it up, make it more competitive, and then sell it for a higher price. It is like “flipping” a home in the real estate market.

Here is how a private equity firm could apply systematic innovation in their portfolios:

Before Investing:

Take the target company’s main product or service and apply S.I.T. to it during the evaluation process. There are three things that could happen, all of which are positive outcomes.

1. The innovation effort is a success. You conceptualize exciting new innovations for the target firm that could increase its value. By identifying these new sources of value before the deal, you widen your negotiating envelope.
2. The innovation effort fails – no new opportunities are identified within the target company. Given that, the full valuation of the deal should be based on the current products only. This helps you avoid being overly optimistic about the target’s prospects for growth. Any increases in value will come from cost cutting and efficiency gains.
3. The innovation effort is a success, but you decide to walk away from the deal for other reasons. You still have innovative concepts that you can extract value from. You could sell the intellectual property to the target firm, or to one of its competitors, or to another private equity investor considering that target.

During the Investment:

By installing innovation processes in the target firm, private equity firms can influence success of the company and its stake in the company, This would include: idea generation processes, voice of the customer processes, idea evaluation processes, prototyping, testing, validation, and launching.

After the Investment (the equity firm has sold its position):

How would a private equity firm use innovation after exiting? On itself, of course. Taking the lessons learned from the last investment, and carrying those lessons into a systematic innovation process will yield new insights and opportunities. Applying S.I.T. on deal flow, target selection processes, due diligence, and other key processes would bring value to the firm where it might be appreciated the most – right at home.

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Companies get better results from innovation by targeting initiatives at the right places. Given limited time, money, and human resources, here are six areas to focus on:

1. Your Value Drivers

What activities across your business model create the most value? Is it operational or commercial? Who is involved and what departments make it happen? Use a corporate innovation method like S.I.T. to reinvent the value driver as well as the resources that deliver it.

Procter & Gamble innovated an intelligent screening system that scanned coffee beans imported from any part of the world and selected the right proportions of each to create the desired taste. This created a huge operational advantage in producing a distinctive product within a commoditized industry.

2. Your Core Competency: What skill sets create strategic assets? Strategic assets are those that deliver a sustainable competitive advantage. By re-inventing these skills and how they are sourced and maintained, companies sustain their advantage.

AkzoNobel, a maker of specialty paint, has a unique ability to color match to near perfection thanks to their skills in chemistry and spectroscopy. Applying innovation methods to the color matching process would uncover new skills or complementary skills to fortify its strategic advantage.

3. Your Potential Acquisitions

Growth through acquisition is expensive and risky. Acquisition stifles innovation and distracts management as it focuses on integration. The answer is to use innovation methods ahead of the deal-making to clarify and enhance valuation.

IBM’s acquisition of Netezza for $1.7 billion seems excessive given the commoditization of data warehousing. By applying a corporate innovation method to the target’s core products before the offer would uncover new or hidden sources of deal value. Pre-deal innovation either makes the deal more valuable or creates intellectual property to leverage against other suitors if the deal falls through.

4. Your Customer’s Processes

How does your customer use your product or service? Observe and map out the detailed steps of what customers do when they use it. Use innovation methods to re-invent the way consumers seek and derive value. This will lead to new product concepts that address these new customer behaviors.

Johnson & Johnson’s medical device unit creates detailed heat maps of how surgeons perform complicated procedures. The maps reveal the amount of time for each step, the product used, the degree of difficulty, and risk to the successful outcome. Innovation is targeted at the high difficulty/high risk aspects of the procedure where the most value will be created from breakthrough ideas.

5. Your Brand Reputation

What are you most known for in the industry and in the minds of your customer? Is it superior products, great service to your distributors, fabulous advertising, top people? Use innovation methods on how consumers perceive your brand to strengthen and reinforce brand loyalty.

L’Oreal’s professional products division leads its industry through servicing salons with product support, training, merchandising, and market insights. The use of structured innovation methods of how salons operate and service their customers would create new insights and product development opportunities. Innovating where L’Oreal is regarded as the best in the industry would reinforce its leadership status.

6. Your Strategic Capabilities

How does your company win in the marketplace? What is its “source of authority?” By innovating the way a company competes, it surprises and outmaneuvers the competition.

Barry Jaruzelski and Kevin Dehoff from Booz & Company describe three strategic orientations: Need Seekers, Market Readers, and Technology Drivers. “The most successful companies are those that focus on a particular, narrow set of common and distinct capabilities that enable them to better execute their chosen strategy.” These strategic capabilities can be innovated using systematic methods of ideation.

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GUEST POST from Drew Boyd

Companies that struggle with innovation often make up for it by adding features to existing products. They succumb to “feature creep” – the gradual and continuous addition of features and functions though nothing is truly new. While it may look improved, the added features make your product more complex, difficult to use, and more costly to produce. Over time, your core customers abandon you.

Here is an example – the Numi toilet by Kohler. At $6400, it is promoted as the top-of-the-line toilet with lots of high-tech bells and whistles:

• Custom bidet – User can control pressure, temperature and angle.
• Tankless design; dual flush
• Motion Sensor Lid – After 90 seconds of no movement, the toilet will close.
• Seat warmer
• Foot warmer – A vent beneath the bowl blows hot air to warm your feet and the cold tile beneath them.
• Automatic seat – For male users, a motion sensor is activated by foot and causes the seat to rise and then lower when you’re away.
• LED lit back panel – Frosted glass is lit in an energy-efficient way.
• MP3 hook-up – So you never have to be without your music.
• Remote control – This touch-screen pad lets the user control all of these features from a wireless control.
• A flat white surface designed for easy cleaning.

Instead of adding features, companies can become more innovative by subtracting features. Here is an example of the Subtraction template of the S.I.T. innovation method. Kimberly-Clark Corporation, a global producer of paper-based products, launched their new Scott Natural Tube-Free toilet paper. Just as the name asserts, the rolls come without the cardboard tubes while still being able to fit on the average toilet paper holder.

From Foxnews.com:

“The idea has been around for quite some time,” said Doug Daniels, brand manger for Scott brand. “The tube doesn’t really serve any consumer purpose. But we’ve had a breakthrough in our technology that’s finally allowed us to do this.” For now, the process of taking out the tube remains a mystery, as Kimberly-Clarke won’t reveal its ground-breaking technology. Daniels says they’re keeping tight-lipped, since they might use the process for future products. But more importantly, he maintains that no cardboard tube means every single piece of toilet paper will be usable, without those last few sheets getting stuck to the roll.

Kimberly-Clarke estimates that the U.S. alone disposes of 17 billion cardboard tubes from bathroom tissue, equating to 160 million pounds of waste. To put that into perspective, that’s roughly the weight of 250 Boeing 747s and enough tubes to circle the earth’s equator 40 times. Daniels says that this marriage of consumer and ecological advantages will pave the way for the success of the tubeless initiative.”

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