GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

On June 15th of this year, Nik Wallenda became the first person ever to walk across the roaring Niagra Falls on a 2-inch wire. After battling wind swells, and thick mist, Wallenda completed his walk crossing from the United States into Canada. He was greeted by a Canadian customs agent who asked, “What is the purpose of your trip sir?” Wallenda’s response: “To inspire people around the world to follow their dreams and never give up”. There are many possible roads to innovation. Successful innovation means defining your own road. Much like Nik Wallenda’s walk across Niagra Falls, some of the best innovations come from stepping outside your own comfort zone and balancing the many different facets of innovation. The formula for success in innovation is about finding the middle ground, walking the tightrope between risk and innovation; between ideation and value creation. The Innovation Balancing Act. Successfully managing the process of innovation ensures the outcome results in a superior return on investment (ROI). Risk/Innovation It’s safe to say that companies are not naturally inclined to try new approaches without clear evidence that those approaches are likely to work. Like many innovators, you may find yourself struggling to innovate in advance of an anticipated economic recovery, while still working to keep costs down in a decidedly uncertain business arena. To increase initiative and innovation, you have to encourage and even embrace failure. You must have a willingness to invest without ROI assurance (see Innovation is Creativity X Risk Taking). Keep in mind:

• Milton Hershey started three unsuccessful companies before Hershey’s Chocolate.
• Michael Jordan was told he was too short to play on his high school varsity basketball team.
• The Beatles were originally rejected by Decca Recording studios, who said “we don’t like their sound” and “they have no future in show business”.
• At age 30, Apple’s Board of Directors decided to take the business in a different direction, and Steve Jobs was fired from the company he created. Not only did Jobs go back to his former company, but he changed the market in an astounding way. Jobs claims that his career success and his strong relationship with his family are both results of his termination from Apple.

Are you creating the next Hershey’s or Apple? Ideation/Value Creation The key to optimizing sustainable Innovation programs is value creation. While the creation of the idea is important, the creation of value for the customer is equally paramount. Adding perceived value to a new product or service will drive ROI. The value proposition is the key to successful innovation. Customer value can be created through the actual value-added of the new product, once you find that delicate balance between cost, price and return. Balance is found, in part, by seeking stakeholder input and customer feedback during development of any innovation process (see Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

When it comes to Research and Development (R&D), a majority of the new product development process involves the “D” from concept to launch. However, the “R” is where most breakthroughs come from – and it is in jeopardy due to recessionary cuts and the short-term pressure for monthly and quarterly results. When companies are laser focused on delivering monthly bottomline goals, research can be left on the back burner.

What are you doing to support research? Are you investing enough time, resources and money? What is your organization’s percentage of R&D spending? Although a high percentage of spending is no guarantee for success, a company needs to dedicate enough energy towards Research. It is, after all, the seed to long-term sustained Innovation.

In some companies, independent research has given way to Open Innovation. We have seen a pattern of organizations that become overly reliant on Open Innovation (see and ).  Although companies are gaining ideas from outside organizations, breakthrough innovations still have to come from within the company through hard work and consistent efforts. The result of over reliance on Open Innovation is smaller, incremental innovations versus market-changing breakthroughs. Efforts become more closely tied to immediate profit concerns when R&D departments are decentralized.

Research ensures companies are making strides towards achieving breakthrough innovations in the long run. Without this kind of “R” attitude there would be no light bulb. Through research, Thomas Edison learned 5,999 times how NOT to do it! There would be no Dyson ball vacuum cleaner, nor would we have made it to the moon or made any other truly game changing Innovation. Supporting the “R” in R&D means investing in your company’s long term goals.

Examine your organization’s:

• R&D spending as a percentage of sales
• Total R&D headcount
• Total patents filed/pending/awarded/rejected
• Number of new products released
• Current-year percentage sales due to new products

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GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

For creating a company culture and mindset focused on , it starts with proper training and coaching from the high ups of an organization. Team members need to be trained and coached to constantly improve their skill set, and this attitude should be continuously reinforced. It’s important for the entire company to be innovative, and not just a designated “Department of Innovation.”

Successful, sustainable innovation depends on a natural curiosity and open-mindedness from all members of an organization. To gauge your company’s training and coaching program, ask yourself:

Do you coach champions and project leaders?

Do you have standardized project management in place?

Do you constantly look for new ways to improve your products and processes – even the successful ones?

Do you share best practices among teams?

Setting these frameworks into place can help motivate your organization as part of an ongoing training program. Here are some tips for developing an effective training and coaching system.

• Pick the right coaches. Not everyone has the psychological makeup to be the coach. Knowledge is key, obviously, but the coach needs to be able to motivate, create camaraderie, and evoke sense of selflessness.
• The one-on-one touch. Individual coaching provides the privacy and attention that breeds success. I’ve found that discussions regarding areas of improvement are received and acted upon much better in a private session, away from peers listening in. This can be especially critical for new employees and/or team members.
• The coach’s creed. The ideal coach has to have self-discipline, superior skill sets, a wide and deep understanding of the innovation program’s goals, and first tier communication skills, in order to address both group and one-on-one situations. A coach with these skills can quickly develop acolytes that, in time, become coaches themselves. And that is the dream scenario: the coach/leader who ultimately cultivates future leaders.

This should all be part of an ongoing process, and don’t forget to train any newcomers to the organization. For more tips on training and coaching, see “Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

Innovation is impossible to achieve without taking a necessary amount of risk. In a world where the success rate of new product entries in the grocery business is 1 in 100, it is inevitable that every success sees failures along the way. An effective innovation leader should encourage creativity and risk taking, while also practicing a tolerance for failure.

In order to foster initiative and innovation, ask yourself these questions.

• Do you allow free research and development (R&D) time?
• Do you invest in innovation: money, people, resources?
• Do you celebrate failure and risk taking?

In a tough economy the willingness to take risks can wither, so it’s critical to let team members know that failure will not result in punitive measures. A strong leader practices failure management by setting and agreeing on the risk taking bandwidth or budget. It is ok to fail but that failure should be seen and recognized as a learning experience.

Fear of failure is an innovation killer, so here are some simple steps to develop a failure management plan that will lead to a culture of sustainable innovation.

1. Clearly communicate the risk profile you are asking your people to adopt and state why it is important to the organization’s success. This limits your potential loss, while opening up the floor for creativity and risk taking.
2. Never allow an unsuccessful risk to hamper a team member’s opportunities and advancement. A culture of innovation depends on trust.
3. Create and communicate the results of an award program created with a high intraorganizational profile. It should, ideally, reward risks that pay off and “gee, nice try’s” that don’t.
4. Establish a formalized, non-accusatory process for harvesting key learnings from unsuccessful risks. Distribute these lessons learned. The key here is that all risks, whether successful or not, contribute towards the end goal.
5. Give your people the situational risk assessment tools they need to help them improve their risk-taking decisions. This can include risk scoring systems to identify different levels of risk, and ways to deal with adverse situations as part of a preventive strategy.

For more tips on achieving innovation through risk taking and failure management, see “Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

When Innovation comes to mind, the first thing people may think of is creativity, spontaneity, or a momentary stroke of genius. But can innovation occur out of a structured, repeatable process? The answer, in short, is yes. In fact, in order to build a long-term culture of sustained innovation, a structured process must be put into place especially in idea generation or ideation. Although it sounds counter intuitive to say “structure” and “ideation” in the same sentence, organizations need to conduct at least two ideation sessions each year in order to foster continued growth. A good innovation leader has the foresight to schedule regular ideation sessions year after year, and not just when sales are dwindling.

Ideation, or idea management, is part of a long term innovation effort that, if facilitated intelligently, leads to successful new products or services. Even if a small percentage of concepts make it through the process, the payoff could be significant for the company. So schedule those bi-annual ideation sessions and invite members from various departments in your organization to participate. You’ll find value in fresh perspectives from customer service, engineering, production, marketing, and your salespeople. Here are some tips for hosting ideation sessions that will lead to the best possible outcomes.

• Break up teams into people who know each other but are not “that friendly” with each other in order to minimize group think.
• Vary the format as well as locations and times of ideation sessions. Predictability can kill ideation. Mix it up to get people out of their comfort zones.
• Accept ALL ideas and get them written down on the board. You never know when a concept can be recycled for future use.
• Build a database of ideas from which new combinations and solutions can be derived.

By holding regular ideation sessions, your organization is adopting a proactive strategy in the new product development process. To get results in Innovation, a structured, repeatable process is essential, look to all imperatives of Robert’s Rules of Innovation:

1. Inspire
2. No Risk, No Innovation
3. New Product Development Process
4. Ownership
5. Value Creation
6. Accountability
7. Training and Coaching
8. Idea Management
9. Observe and Measure
10. New Result Net Reward

These rules of order are meant to be applied regularly as part of a sustainable growth strategy. All these parameters should be continually utilized – and not just when sales or ideas are low – to achieve successful, lasting innovation.

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GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

In the research and development industry where innovations build on top of other innovations, obtaining patents to protect intellectual property is of the utmost importance. It is critical to ensure that patents being are utilized, especially within big corporations like IBM or organizations like the Unites States Navy. Not only do patents protect newly developed products or processes, they contribute to unrealized value creation, or assets that can be explored and sold.

The latest development, besides one-on-one deals and patent auctions, is IPXI, the newly formed IP exchange created after the successful Carbon IP Exchange model. IPXI, the Intellectual Property Exchange International Inc., is the world’s first financial exchange focused solely on intellectual property rights. Some major companies like Philips, Ford and Sony have already signed up as corporate founding members and will begin trading in the near future. Since its formation in December 2011, twenty-seven organizations have joined the IP exchange, representing innovative companies with substantial IP assets in various technology markets, three Department of Energy national laboratories, top university research institutions, and a community of leading IP law firms. IPXI revolutionizes the way patents are licensed and traded by allowing companies to buy and sell patent rights as units. These “unit license rights” can be bought and sold like shares. For example, one unit license right grants an organization a one-time right to use that particular technology on a single product. If a car manufacturing company wishes to use that technology in 50,000 cars, they purchase 50,000 unit license rights at market price. Organizations can now bypass costly litigation and use the IP exchange to harness patents as assets, monetize it fairly, and use it to spur greater innovation. “The Exchange creates a new approach to technology licensing that overcomes the inefficiency of traditional bilateral technology license negotiations. For the first time, companies and other entities will be able to buy and sell units of technology usage, providing improved economics, enhanced access to technology, and greater flexibility should technology needs change,” says Gerard J. Pannekoek, President and CEO of IPXI. The concept especially benefits smaller companies with modest budgets by creating a simpler, faster, and cheaper method to obtain IP rights.

And that is good news for innovators indeed.

For more tips, see “Patently Obvious” and other Chapters in “Sign up here to get Human-Centered Change & Innovation Weekly delivered to your inbox every week.

GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

Innovation is all around us, and if you see it, observe and learn from it so that you can use the idea elsewhere. A classic example of serendipity or success after failure is the story of 3M Post-it notes. In 1974, Stephen Silver at 3M research laboratories was trying to develop a strong adhesive and instead created a new adhesive that was not too strong, could stick on all surfaces and be removed easily without causing damage or leaving residue. Not knowing what to make of this, it was four years later that his colleague Art Fry came up with the idea to use this “low tack” adhesive to attach a bookmark to his hymnal. He further developed the concept, and 3M launched what became known as Post-it notes nationwide.

Another example of a serendipitous innovation is the case of Mr. Goodyear when he accidently burned his experiment and created galvanized rubber used in tires. This discovery is often cited as one of history’s most celebrated “accidents”, although it took the inventor’s clever inference and steadfast perseverance to develop the product.

Look at failures or “Learning Experiences”, and look around you to see what innovative use or application can be used for your own competitive advantage and differentiation. On a recent trip I observed the following innovations – they are all around us. See what you can do with these creative new experiences to use or apply elsewhere:

• Instant welcome banner printers at the airport retailing for just $4.99

• DHL canal boats in Amsterdam used for picking up and delivering packages. At first glance, I thought it was a great method of advertising, but the boats are actually a more time efficient delivery vehicle through the Amsterdam canals than any delivery truck.

• Using the iPad and FaceTime to have your partner join you for dinner while traveling

• eTickets for trains (used to be paper only)

• A mobile version of the successful London Eye Ferris wheel as a temporary attraction

• Highway speeds set for 130km/hour normally and 110km/hour when wet

• Laptop LoJack for tracking missing or stolen laptops

The list of these types of crafty innovations goes on and on. More importantly, look around you and see how you should apply the ten types of innovation to your own ideas: Process, Delivery, Branding and Product.

When it comes to innovation, don’t get left behind and always remember – if you don’t do it, somebody else will.

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GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

There are plenty of reasons to innovate. Especially now more than ever before, sustained Innovation is the means to developing marketplace showstoppers that lead to profitable growth. Innovation is not a luxury that can be placed on the back burner, even for today’s successful companies. So before beginning your next innovation effort, here are some key questions to consider for mapping out an effective innovation plan.

1. What type of innovation does your organization need?
The key to implementing innovation is first defining the type your organization needs. The hardest kind of innovation to manage is Breakthrough – which creates an entirely new way to deliver value. Few and far between, these game changers hold the greatest potential for business success. Most innovations are incremental, which can mean a tweak on an existing product, process, or service. Examining how your innovation effort fits into the current organization’s needs is critical at this go/no go checkpoint. (There is nothing wrong to focus and start with Incremental Innovation or Line Extensions, get some early wins, get the organization engaged and excited and create a structured repeatable process)

2. Does your innovation satisfy customer needs?
Customer demand affects the successful outcome of your innovation. Beyond asking your customers what features they would like to see, ask them what their biggest concerns are and that will help shed light on the products and functionalities they require for a more successful innovation.

3. Who are your innovation champions?
The innovator-in-chief needs to truly champion this culture and drive it throughout the organization to make it happen. In order to defeat the devil’s advocates and become an agent for change, the leader must democratize the innovation process and select a group of people from different business groups, different backgrounds, and different skill sets joined together for a common purpose. He or She must engage, walk the talk and cannot just delegate the spiritual leadership. The companies with inspirational innovation leaders stand out with their results i.e Apple, Kohler, etc.

4. How will you measure success?
Innovation is ultimately about Return on Investment. It’s critical to use leading and lagging Key Performance Indicators, observe and measure time spent on each segment of the new product development (NPD) process to see how it’s progressing. Leading Metrics used in the industry can include ideas generated, ideation sessions held, number of patents filed, and for lagging new products released, and percentage of sales due to new products.

5. How will success be rewarded?
With successful innovation comes profitable growth and a win-win situation for shareholders, employees, and customers alike. Incentives are needed for all participants on your NPD staff, and often times the key motivator is less financial than it is about recognition for a job well done. Motivation does not have to be about money – but it is necessary, so reward your people. They are your best innovation resource.

By focusing effort in the right places, companies can avoid oversight and increase their chance of innovation success. For more tips, see “Robert’s Rules of Innovation.”

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GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

Innovation and Creativity are words that are at times used interchangeably in the research and development process, but they have two distinct meanings. While creativity is about coming up with the big idea, innovation is about executing the idea and making it a business success. Do not confuse the two. An organization can certainly have creativity without the right steps to implement innovation.

Innovation implementation calls for a robust, disciplined strategy. It can not be a one-time process, but must occur over and over again to form a steady flow of innovation that sustains long-term profitability. The only way to achieve that is by bringing focus, a road map, screening criteria, and checkpoints to the new product development (NPD) process.

Many innovation leaders are concerned that adding structure will dampen creativity, but in my experience, structure can actually free the creative spirit. By applying structure that adapts to the needs, size, and culture of an organization, a leader can draw both creativity and innovation out of its team members. Here are some tips for attaining that winning combination.

• Hold ideation sessions with a diverse and highly charged creative people in your organization – and be sure to keep any restraints off. Do not ignore or override any input from the team. Practical, real world filters can always be added later on, but you want to capitalize on all ideas early in the process.

• Keep track of meeting decisions and next steps. Delegate responsibility and encourage ownership.

• Use your motivational skills by creating clear and unwavering deadline pressure, while reinforcing and praising their incremental progress. Apply “Trust with verification”

• Give team members some incentive for their contributions and achievements. This does not necessarily have to be money – often recognition is a key driver for creative players in your organization; make them the initiative Champion, offer recognition among peers.

• Create an environment where mistakes are tolerated and free of punitive measures. Remember, the creative process is a ratio, so more attempts at success naturally equates to more failures along the way. Managing failure as a learning experience lets your creatives feel safe and empowered to do their best work.

• Provide regular feedback and keep the lines of communication open throughout the NPD process.

Last but not least consider some defined “Free Time” with unlimited creativity but accountability to report the outcome aligned with the company Vision, Mission and Strategy.

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GUEST POST by Robert F. Brands

As an innovation leader, you know how important a culture of sustained innovation is to the survival of your organization. However, there are many factors that can challenge the innovation process. These issues may come from team members, executives, or the general culture of the organization. Here some common challenges that companies deal with, and solutions for overcoming them.

1. The culture of the company is to keep doing things the way they’ve been done in the past – there is a lack of curiosity and eagerness to change.

If this sounds like your organization, you know that lack of inspiration can be a frustrating situation. Determining a vision for the future of the company is the first step to tackling this problem. Set quantitative goals, such as bringing one new product per year to market, and decide the people, facilities, and resources you will need to achieve those goals. The new product development (NPD) process consists of a clear action plan, with regular meetings to instill accountability. Making NPD meetings mandatory, and monitoring progress, is the only way to ensure productivity and that the plan will stay on track.

2. Innovation attempts in the past have failed, causing team members to be hesitant about taking risks.

This is certainly a common problem in organizations, as the success ratio for new products is actually very low. A study on the grocery business (allbusiness.com) pegged the success rate for new product entries at just 1%. Without risk, there can be no innovation, so it is important for the innovation leader to invite all ideas from all sectors of the organization. Encourage risk-taking and manage failure as a learning experience and as it is an inevitable part of the innovation process. Communicate with team members to establish trust that failures will not result in punitive measures.

3. Ideation sessions lack creativity, as team members have their “day jobs” to attend to.

With the routine responsibilities in the daily workplace, innovation can easily be put on the backburner. Choosing a diverse group for ideation sessions can provide just the right amount of social tension needed for a quality outcome. Break up teams and select people who do not often work together in order to minimize group think. Vary the format of meetings to avoid predictable times and places – perhaps hold a meeting at a customer’s office to take people out of their comfort zone. Creating new environments for a diverse group will garner fresh perspective.

These scenarios and solutions were based on the ten imperatives by Robert Brands to create and sustain “New” in business.

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