Innovation takes perseverance

Innovation comes from perserverance and if you aren't convinced here's an interesting article from Information age.  Just like Edison's light bulb, these modern innovations took time to catch on (even once they start to work!).

http://www.information-age.com/blog/1249253/brits-that-pursued-bad-ideas-tipped-for-techs-top-accolade.thtml

The truth about innovation

This book provides some really useful reading. The book is organised into a series of 55 two to three page "truths" on the subject of innovation. Each of the entries has additional reading material listed in the back of the book which is really useful.

If you have read other innovation books, you may have encountered some of this material before. However, I suspect that it is exactly these readers that will get the most out of this book. It is packed with great tidbits and really thought provoking material. It almost reads as a set of blog entries. Because of the structure of the book, it is very easy to dip in and out of. If you are new to innovation, you might be better off with another book initially - just to provide a bit of context around the innovation process. Then come back to this book.

It is a well written and well structured book that I suspect that I will come back to time and time again. Recommended.

Mastering the Hype Cycle

Most people working in the IT industry will have come across the Hype cycle in one form or another - if the "trough of disillusionment" rings a bell, then you have come across the Hype cycle.

The book is split into two parts: Part One provides an overview of the Hype cycle. It takes us through each phase of the Hype cycle describing the characteristics of each phase. The (particularly) up to date examples help add life to the narrative. For me, I spent some time trying to work out where I thought many current innovations were in their journey through the Hype cycle - this is not as easy a task as you might think! However, it can be crucial to the success implementation of any innovation.

Part Two describes a process (termed STREET by the authors) for identifying, tracking and then introducing innovations based on the Hype cycle and your organisation's drivers and appetite for risk. This part of the book takes us through the process, step by step.

I think this book will be particularly useful to those people who are working in organisations that are involved in decisions about introducing new innovations. While it is aimed primarily at external innovations, there is no reason why the same process could not be applied to innovations that are generated from WITHIN your organisation.

Well written (which is exactly what you would expect from two Gartner analysts!) and exceptionally useful. Practical and definitely not overly theoretical. It certainly made me stop and think a little more deeply about the innovations that I am involved with and how (and when) they should be pursued. Highly recommended reading.

Sony Zeotrope

Just goes to show that sometimes some of the best ideas are old ideas!

By understanding how a few become great, anyone can become better

This is a well written and accessible book. I found it compelling reading and finished it in a few sittings. The main tenet of the book revolves around the Nature vs Nurture debate and there is no doubt that this book is on the side of Nurture. It debunks very effectively the myth of innate talent and lays out the argument that the route to World class performance is through deliberate practice. I, like most of us, am all too quick to blame my inability to master a musical instrument or an artistic pastime on my lack of talent. This book argues that with deliberate practice, this mastery could be within reach. It wouldn't be easy, but neither is it impossible.

It is critical to understand what is meant by "deliberate practice" as I suspect for many of us this will be a key learning. Deliberate practice is an activity designed to specifically improve performance, often with a teacher's help; it can be repeated a lot; feedback on results is continuously available; it highly demanding mentally; and it isn't much fun. There are great examples of what it is NOT and I can empathize with much of the anecdotal comments from my years of trying to master playing the drums. Understanding how to design deliberate practice is clearly key.

The book covers how this can impact organisations as well as individuals. Chapter 9 covers innovation and how deliberate practice can impact the creative process.

As the previous reviewer has commented, some of the material covered in this book also gets a mention in Malcolm Gladwell's latest book (Outliers), however, I found this book more interesting and definitely more practical. It leads the reader to a conclusion as well as providing practical ideas about how to improve your own and your company’s performance.

But probably best of all, I found it inspiring and upbeat. Great reading. Highly recommended.

Groundswell

There have been a few books written about "social computing", but few that go much further than simply providing observations or commentary. This book is different. If you are trying to make some sense of what you see happening on blogs and social networking sites and are trying to work out what you and your company should do, then this book is for you.

It is written by a couple authors from Forrester, so it will be little surprise that it is really strong on the strategy front. It successfully manages to link what we are seeing happening today on the Internet to strategies for succeeding in this space. The first part of the book provides us with an understanding of how to match solutions to an organisation's specific customer base. Users are categorised according to whether they are: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, or inactives. This categorisation comes from Forrester's Social Technographics tool and you can find more information on the book's website (http://www.forrester.com/groundswell) and even generate your own profile. The blog on the website is very good, by the way.

The authors then match technical solutions to an organisation's objectives: namely, listening, talking energizing, supporting and embracing their customers. Part 2 of the book is dedicated to stepping through each of these objectives providing worked through examples of how organisations have succeeded in each of these domains. As you might imagine, adopting the appropriate technique for your particular audience is absolutely key.

If you are interested in Innovation, chapters 8 and 9 have some useful insights on the role customers can play in the innovation process.

In a area that is frequently over-hyped, this book provides significant insight and examples that reinforce what following a successful strategy can do for you and your company. If you are about to embark on your first venture into this space, I would strongly suggest that you read this book first. Highly recommended.

Ideo innovation videos

I have long since been a fan of IDEO and here is a blog from Larry Fire over at the FireWire that contains links to a number of YouTube videos showing how IDEO works. Originally, from a ABC TV programme shot in the late 1990's (in fact, this programme is referenced in Tom Kelley's book).

Interesting stuff. You will find the blog entry here. Part 1 is below. You will find the other 2 parts on the FireWire blog entry.

Innovation - Breadth vs Depth: Part 2

Well, following on from my previous blog on the role of domain knowledge in innovation, here are some more thoughts (and a bit of an experiment!).

Remember that in-depth domain knowledge can often "blind" inventors to the true value of their innovation. Let's look at an example and they don't come any more famous (or infamous) than the telephone.

The diagram to the left was produced by Elisha Gray, a professional inventor, in February 11 1876. Elisha Gray discussed the idea with his peers and investors, but the conclusion seemed to be that it was “nothing more than a toy”. At the time, Gray was exploring solutions that would enable more than one set of telegraph signals to be sent simultaneously across a single pair of wires. The solution relied on using tuning forks to produce an electric current and led to a technique known as "harmonic telegraphy". In due course, the concept of the telephone was an extension of this idea. However, following the advice of his investors, Gray shelved the idea and concentrated on improvements to the telegraph.

The next diagram was produced by Alexander Graham Bell, a school teacher, it is dated March 9 1876. It would appear to post date Elisha Gray's work.

In a last minute dash to the Patent office, history would have it that Bell got there first. However, there is significant controversy around the details, but most of it is fuelled by the fact that the two diagrams look similar even though they are said to have been developed independently. If you want to find out more, try starting here on Wikipedia.

Whatever the truth, the fact remains - Elisha Gray, a professional inventor, failed to recognise the value of his invention.

The more you read about Elisha Gray and his invention, the more you have to wonder about why he didn't spot the value in what he invented. But this isn't an isolated incident. It happens all to frequently that the "great new idea" ends up being used for something other than it's original purpose - often, completely missed by the original inventor.

So, if you were Elisha Gray, would you have seen the value in the telephone? Would you to miss the obvious?

Try this. Watch this video and see if you change your mind. I bet it will make you think twice!

You will find the video here: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=voAntzB7EwE

The truth about innovation: 3. Breadth vs Depth

Check this out, 70% of inventors believe they got their ideas by exploring areas where they were not experts. Many of these inventors state that such exploration stimulates new ways of thinking and avoids preconceptions that hamper folks who have been working in the subject for many years.

Mark Granovetter, a social psychologist, looked at this phenomenon in terms of social ties. In his terminology, a group of individuals are said to have strong social ties if they share people that they know. This frequently occurs in the scientific community where researchers often know their counterparts and other people working in the same field. These connections can be internal within the same organisation or external involving academia or industry associations (in terms of yellow and green blocks below). This is shown in the diagram below - the domain knowledge is shown in terms of depth, whereas innovation often occurs by bridging these domains.

Domain knowledge tends to build strong social ties. However, as many researchers have already noted, the ties that bind are the ties that blind.

Individuals are said to have weak social ties if they do not share many connections with each other. In these situations, individuals share few mutual connections/acquaintances.

Innovation tends to originate from a balance of strong and weak ties.

The interesting thing here is that Research Labs tend to drive domain knowledge and as such individuals build strong social ties. So the issue becomes how do we maintain the balance between the two. This is what Andrew Hargadon has referred to as technology brokering - the ability for some individuals to be able to bridge these knowledge domains.

In the 1980's when I worked in HP's Research Labs, these "technology brokers" were referred to as "Renaissance Men". If you look up the definition on Wikipeadia, you will find it is the same concept, just different words.

The truth about innovation: 2. Repurposing the past

Many innovations are, in fact, the re-incarnation of ideas that have gone before. Take the light bulb - the very epitomy of innovation. The screw thread fitting was invented around the turn of the last century by one of Edison’s technicians when looking for a mechanism to securely fix a light bulb into it's socket. The fitting is based on the threaded cap from a paraffin can that just happened to be in Edison's laboratory.

The fitting was standardised in 1909 and screw in bulbs in the UK use a standard E27 fitting - the "27" refers to the diameter of the thread in millimeters, the “E” standards for Edison. It is the one shown in the image by the way, just in case you thought the picture was purely for decoration!

Many of these innovations are purely serendipitous and depend largely on the innovator's past experiences. For example, Edison's technicians had been experimenting with charcoal for a completely different purpose before they struck on the idea of using it as a filament in the incandescent light bulb. It is these prior experiences that help innovators make connections that no one else has made before. The wider your set of previous experiences, the more "connectedness" you are likely to stumble across.

I am not the first to comment on this (see Andrew Hargadon's excellent book on technology brokering, "How breakthroughs happen" - more later) and many organisations are using this during their initial idea generating process. It makes sense to make sure that we have looked for inspiration in other industries and sectors, particularly we they are encountering similar problems, as well as looking at how past problems have been solved.

Let's look at another example. Again this is from Thomas A. Edison. In 1912, Edison launched the first home movie projection system called the Kinetoscope. Unfortunately for Edison, the home cinema projector pre-dated the home cinema camera so users were stuck with watching prerecorded 16 minute movies. These were fairly expensive due to the low volumes and even with the most interesting subject matter, you probably wouldn't want to watch it too many times. To combat this, Edison introduced a central clearing house for movies which can be exchanged by post. Ultimately, the idea failed because of a lack of take up, but the idea remains.

In 2004, LOVEFiLM launched its DVDs by post business in the UK. Today, there are over 900,000 members, 65,000 titles and 3M rentals per month in 5 countries.

I know there are lots of other examples out there. I am sure that you will have your own favourites. But the point here is that if you are looking for inspiration a great starting point can be looking to the past to understand how similar problems have been previously solved.

The truth about innovation: 1. Chance favours the prepared mind

One of the first truths that hit me when I started looking at innovation was that so many great innovations seem to have occured by accident. The harder I looked the more examples that I seemed to find. They seemed to be everywhere. There are just too many of them to have been purely accidental.

Have a look at these examples and see if you can guess what I am describing. You will find the answer if you hover over the "answer" link at the end.

Consumers would not return samples after unsuccessful trials.
Originally intended as a treatment for angina.
Stops flowers from wilting when used in dilution.

The inventor’s name is now associated with a prize.
Formed when nitro-glycerine leaked into packing material.


Developed during WWII in an attempt to produce synthetic rubber.
Formed by dropping Boric acid onto silicone.
Became one of the cult toys of the 1960’s.

The killer application was as place markers in hymn books.
The initial commercial launch was a flop until they were given away for free.
Invented by Art Fry when looking for a use for a glue that didn’t set.


Discovered by 3M in 1952 by Patsy Sherman
When a potential glue was accidentally dropped onto a white canvas tennis shoe.
Nothing could remove the glue or produce a stain.

Developed during WWII by Percy Spencer
Breakthrough occurred when a chocolate bar melted in his shirt pocket while building a magnetron
Domestic appliance related to the radar

And the list goes on....tea bags, Teflon, Penicillin, Vaseline, Velcro, Nylon.... But I think you will have got the point by now. If you are interested in reading about more of these, try "They all Laughed" which provides interesting reading.

To view these innovations purely as accidents does not do them justice. Otherwise, it would infer that these are random events that bestow fame on random people. These innovators saw what others had seen, but made NEW connections. And they acted on them.

Making these new connections requires a "prepared" mind.

Many great inventions are the result of a “Plan B” and this is a fact that many Venture Capitalists recognise. When selecting management teams, VCs will often look for a team that has a track record of being observant and changing tack when the circumstances demand. Management teams that carry on with a plan, no matter what the market tells them, are unlikely to succeed.

These events that show that “Chance favours the prepared mind” - a phrase coined by Pasteur (yes, another prepared mind!) and known as "Pasteur's dictum".

The truth about innovation

I have been doing some work recently on innovation - this is a topic that is very dear to my heart and, judging by the amount of interest people show in it, I don't think I am alone!

While there aren't many companies that would say that innovation is not important to their company, however, there aren't many that can define it. And if they can't define it, they are going to have a hard time promoting and nurturing within their organisation.

As I went through the reading material (by the way, you will find my book list on Amazon here), there were a number of riffs (i.e. patterns) that came up time and time again. They might be explained in slightly different words, but the underlying theme is essentially the same. Over the next few days, I will step through the seven riffs one by one. For completeness, there are:

1. Chance favours the prepared mind
2. Repurposing the past
3. The Future is here already, but it isn’t evenly distributed
4. Breadth vs Depth
5. Necessity is the mother of invention
6. Nurturing innovation through networks
7. You are what you innovate

Food for thought

Nice summary and a set of links that provides some interesting food for thought...http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/whats_next_after_web_20.php

The Wizard of Menlo Park

Thomas Edison has become a legend in the field of innovation. Amongst other things, he invented the phonograph and the first practical electric light bulb. During his career he was granted over 1,000 patents across a wide range of subjects. As part of this success came fame – indeed, he is recognised as one of the world’s first celebrities – interestingly, it was a man of science rather than entertainment (in those days, I suspect that there wasn’t much difference!).

This book provides insights into Edison’s life – the roller coaster nature of being an inventor, his dogged determination to perfect the phonograph, the multiple commercial and financial setbacks, and the people behind the scenes who helped (and hindered) him along the way. I found this a compelling book, particularly having read so many dry textbooks recently on innovation. Innovation is a difficult process to describe and yet it is critical to almost all endeavours. Frequently when attempting to understand the innovation process, many authors reduce the process to a set of rather abstract processes that lack the human touch making the processes difficult to relate to. Ultimately, innovation is a by-product of an inquisitive mind in the right sort of social and commercial setting.

In many ways, it is the quintessentially human activity. This book helped to bring real life to a set of abstract processes described elsewhere. I would highly recommend reading this book AFTER reading a number of the innovation textbooks. It helps underline the more abstract issues raised by other authors as well as providing another viewpoint on the innovation process.

This book seems to take a very balanced view of Edison's life - offsetting myth against, what has become, legend. Highly recommended for anyone interested in innovation.

Social networking and innovation

Came across this article today which covers the use of social networking in enterprises. This (together with "How do you successfully advertise on social networking sites?") seems to be a common thread amongst much of the social networking research.

Interestingly, one of the benefits that organisations seem to be getting out of social networking tools relates to innovation (see the references to Starbuck's "My Starbuck's Idea" and Dell's IdeaStorm. Since innovation is largely a social activity I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it is interesting to see these two threads being linked together.

Retail innovation

Here’s a business that it is intriguing. It sells T-shirts. Ok, so what’s so new about that I hear you ask! What makes it unique is that the T-shirts are designed by customers. The T-shirt designs are then voted on by customers and the winning designs are printed up. Customers then buy the T-shirts. They can even photograph themselves wearing the T-shirt and send it into the website for inclusion on their pages.

If you are really interested, you can even browse the designs by designer. The designer page contains a profile of the designer as well as links to his other designs. Thus, promoting browsing across the site and building an added dimension to the interaction. I think this appeals to the “story” aspect of the product.

And when you get your T-shirt, the label is printed onto the shirt itself with it’s title and the name of the designer. Again, promoting a depth to the product that would otherwise be missing. Does this count as user generated content? MMmmm

Here’s another cool idea that I liked. Little Miss Matched sells 3 single mismatched socks in a box. Yep, that’s right, 3 socks in a box. In fact, they have branched out and sell all sorts of mismatched stuff. Nothing for blokes though. They have franchises in the UK and have just won a big deal with Macy’s in the US as well as raising $17M in funding. I thought the mismatched tights were funny – although you could make up your own mismatched socks (just take one from two separate pairs), this was going to be hard to do with tights (unless they were made that way!).

And here’s another example... Nike has launched a service to enable consumers to design their own trainers based on pictures taken using a camera phone. The PhotoiD service encourages consumers to take a picture of any subject using their camera phone, which is then sent via MMS to a short code. A personalised picture of a trainer is sent back which features the predominant colours of the photo. The message comes with a unique code which can be entered into the Nike website to buy a...you guessed it – a pair of trainers.