Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire

Essential strategies to transform your organization and boost your profits Want to recapture your organization's original innovative spirit? Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire helps you remove the obstacles that have crippled the innovation superpowers that made your organization successful in the first place. Helps you identify the blockages hindering innovation within your organization Reveals the fundamental changes that will help your business rebuild its hidden or lost innovation capabilities Explores leading innovation theories you can apply right away-without expensive consultants Get the strategies you need to remove innovation barriers, increase profits-and change the way you do business.

Foreword xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction 1 About the Companion Web Site 5 Part I Setting the Stage 7 Chapter 1 Blinded by the Light: Vision Blockages 9 Overview 9 Innovation Vision Example (Alcatel-Lucent) 11 Innovation Vision Example (Kuwait Petroleum Corporation) 12 There Is No Single Innovation Vision 13 Innovation Vision Case Study—Ford Motor Company 14 Innovation Vision Case Study—Hewlett-Packard 16 Innovation Vision Case Study—Apple Computer 16 Innovation Vision Case Study—Nintendo 18 Innovation Vision Case Study—Walmart versus Amazon 18 Innovation Vision Case Study—Intel versus AMD, Qualcomm, and NVIDIA 19 Bringing It All Together 20 Chapter 2 Peering in the Dark: Strategy Blockages 23 Overview 23 Strategy Must Be Based in Reality 24 Two Sources of Innovation, One Innovation Strategy 25 Time as a Component of Innovation Strategy 25 Innovation Strategy Case Study—The Whirlpool Example 26 Innovation Case Study—Open Innovation at Procter & Gamble 28 Not Just for Corporations 28 Innovation Maturity 30 Incremental versus Disruptive Innovation 32 Innovation Portfolios 33 Open Innovation 34 Bringing It All Together 35 Chapter 3 Setting a Course Blindfolded: Goal Blockages 37 Overview 37 The Purpose of Innovation Goals 38 The Influence of Customer Permissions and Visual Frameworks on Your Innovation Strategy and Goals 39 Setting Your Innovation Goals 39 Bringing It All Together 40 Part II The Innovation Engine 43 Chapter 4 What Are They Really Thinking?: Insight Blockages 45 Overview 45 Four Lenses of Innovation 46 Broadcasting the Voice of the Customer 46 Trend Spotting, Behaviors, and Needs 48 Insights and Execution 50 Insights Case Study—Apple iPhone 51 Insights Case Study—Apple iPad 52 Are You Innovating for the Past or the Future? 56 Bringing It All Together 58 Chapter 5 Shining a Light on the Customer Problem: Idea Generation Blockages 59 Overview 59 Generating Ideas 60 Idea Quantity 61 Idea Quality 62 Better Brainstorming 62 The Idea Generation S-Curve 63 The Nine Innovation Roles 64 Bringing It All Together 66 Chapter 6 Picking a Winner Without Looking: Idea Evaluation Blockages 67 Overview 68 You Get What You Measure 68 Separate But Equal 69 Idea Evaluation Checklist 69 Idea Challenges 71 Parallel Idea Evaluation in a Serial World 71 Saying No in the Right Way 72 The Importance of “Not Now” 73 Bringing It All Together 74 Chapter 7 Going to Market Blind: Idea Commercialization Blockages 77 Overview 77 Useful or Valuable 78 Slow Innovation 79 Slow Innovation Case Study—The iPod 79 Slow Innovation Case Study—The VCR 83 Slow Innovation Case Study—The Internet 83 Slow Innovation Case Study—Southwest Airlines 84 Slow Innovation—Conclusion 84 Idea Commercialization Stories—Apple Designs a “No!” 85 Lessons Learned 86 Bringing It All Together 87 Part III The Organization 89 Chapter 8 Have You Had an Innovation Lobotomy?: Organizational Psychology Blockages 91 Overview 91 What Are You Afraid Of? 92 The Impact of Culture 92 Organizational Hierarchy of Needs 93 Breaking Out of the Mold 95 Choose Your Own Hours—A Case Study in Flexibility 96 Bringing It All Together 97 Chapter 9 Do Your Policies and Processes Keep People in the Dark?: Information and Structural Blockages 99 Overview 100 Some Secrets of Continuous Innovation Are Nothing New 101 Should They Call Them Silos or Bunkers? 103 Get Your Hands Off My Bonus 104 A Case Study in Breaking Down Information and Structural Barriers Cisco 104 Another Case Study—GE and Reverse Innovation 106 Bringing It All Together 108 Chapter 10 Keeping the Lights On: Sustainability Blockages 109 Overview 109 Who Innovates? 110 Innovating in a Crisis 111 Innovation Is Not a Project 111 If You Want Systemic Innovation, You Need Systems to Manage It 112 Innovation versus Flexibility 114 Managing Innovation Is About Managing Change—A Case Study 115 Purpose and Passion 119 Blogging Innovation as a Case Study in Passion 119 Passion versus Obsession 120 Innovation Is Social 121 Bringing It All Together 123 Epilogue 125 Appendix A Customer Exploration 131 Appendix B Visual Frameworks for Guiding Your Innovation Efforts 139 Appendix C The Innovation Baker’s Dozen 161 Bibliography 175 About the Author 179 Index 181