Framing innovation challenges is of critical importance when leadership decides to engage their employees in innovation activities. Crowdsourcing ideas is a popular, energizing way to solve a wide range of business problems. With the availability of many online idea management platforms engaging a greater number of employees has become much easier and effective. The business problem is presented as an innovation challenge to a large audience … [Read more...]
Innovating brand strategy
A lot of people are looking for “brand strategy”. Why? One reason is because brand power and influence are much more difficult to obtain in this era of empowered consumerism. Empowerment comes from increased access to information and through a shift in trust from experts to peers. This shift isn’t simply a change in the way buying decisions are made. Peer-to-peer sharing is a broad and deep cultural shift. Collaboration impacts how learning … [Read more...]
Scope Creep
Taking our own medicine We at Strategos have taken a dose of our own innovation medicine recently as we have built out a major improvement to one of our offerings – management innovation. Over the past 20 years, most of our work with clients has focused on helping them to create and realize innovative strategies and new offering concepts. But what about the entire management infrastructure that an organization uses to deliver value to its … [Read more...]
Mashups Everywhere
I’m looking at the top 5 songs this week and three of them “feature” someone in addition to the main artists. The mashup phenomenon isn’t new but it’s no longer a novelty, it’s now the norm. The audience wants and expects more. But that has always been the case. What has changed? One underlying driver has to be that artists, young artists, are more willing to collaborate. This collaboration trend has implications for the talent … [Read more...]
Creativity, Inc.
Creativity, Inc. is a simple yet thought-provoking title that connects creativity and commercialization in Ed Catmull’s recent book about Pixar. Many, from creatives to pure finance types, still see the combination of art and commerce as contradictory. But you just can’t argue with Pixar’s success. Catmull reveals how creativity can be sustained within a corporate structure by actively removing unseen organizational impediments that obstruct the … [Read more...]
Dialogue – Words Matter
“It’s all about the dialogue” is a key tenet at Strategos. Dialogue is how our clients form and flex ideas for innovation. Dialogue is how clients debate and decide what competitive advantage will drive future growth. Dialogue energizes the entire organization. But is your organization really engaging in productive dialogue? We all talk a lot. Yes. We attend far too many meetings. We read and write thousands of emails. But in many … [Read more...]
Inclusive Leadership
A lot of people are going to think this rambling is about something else. That’s because a lot has already been written about ways for leaders to open up communication, to delegate decision-making authority and to seek out external contributors to stretch the organization’s thinking. But all this presumes that there is a frenzied mob beating on the leader’s door with ideas, with advice and with energy to discuss and debate. What really happens … [Read more...]
Say Yes to Strategy
You have heard this all before – strategy is about making tough choices. Business leaders and managers nod their heads when they hear this. Team members, both leadership and core, say the words to each other and to us. We then spend a lot of time and energy building out those choices about what solutions to offer our customers and how we will win against the competition. The clear implication is that we are going to invest resources of … [Read more...]
Talent needs to see their ideas realized
Talent in all industries and all levels want to see their ideas realized. Innovation is as much about implementation as ideation. To attract, retain and develop talent, your organization needs to encourage ideation but also to commit resources to realize those ideas. Your organization, your talent, doesn’t just want to exercise creativity; they want to make an impact. That’s what turns the enthusiasm into accomplishment – for the individual … [Read more...]