A Pioneering, Breakthrough, Innovation Blog Item ( no really)

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (Microsoft’s PR firm) has studied what it takes to be perceived as an innovator. Not surprisingly, it requires telling people you’re innovative – using keywords such as “creative” or “pioneering.” This emotional appeal can communicate and convince people of your image more powerfully than mere facts, figures or details.

What? You wanted wisdom from a PR firm?

The agency tracked two sets of innovation keywords that were topical (patents, design, labs, innovation etc ) and sentimental ( revolutionary, cutting-edge, genius etc.) against media coverage of 20 IT companies in the top 15 business publications over the period Jan 2005-June 2006.

Coincidentally . . . the time period leading up to Microsoft’s introduction of the Vista operating system. You can read more, it’s only four pages long and not very breakthrough in its details or presentation, which is surprising since the company claims to have invented Innovation Communications(SM).

Imaginatik/Pfizer innovation webinar

You're invited to a webinar spotlighting idea management innovation solutions from Imaginatik and the world's most advanced companies.

Tuesday - June 26 - 10am EDT "Near Shore Innovation" will be presented by Dr. Rob Spencer of Pfizer, recently profiled in BioIT World magazine (and the BBGM blog)

Please e-mailresearch@imaginatik.com for registration. And, yes, spaces are limited so we need an RSVP.

Spencer explains how 'open innovation' provides an advance view of where your market or industry is heading, while minimizing security concerns and creating new partnerships for growth. Pfizer has done all three and expanded idea management to a widely used tool serving thousands of people around the world.

Happy Just To Be Nominated

Thanks to Rafael Navarro of Cranfield University in UK and his Best of Enterprise 2.0 blog for a list of Top 10 companies best positioned for 21st century consulting and business. Imaginatik is one of only two 1990s vintage companies recognized and we're glad to be included.


You'll find a YouTube video for new IBM business simulation Innov8 that illustrates the impact of new processes and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) . The simulator pulls back the curtain on how computing power has moved away onto the network. Contact us for more information -- research@imaginatik.com


Navigating successfully from Knowledge Management to Idea Management and Innovation is a unique position that means we've seen what hasn't worked but more importantly, what DOES work and continues to deliver results. That experience helps us harness the power of innovation programs and technologies that are now mature enough to deliver on Web 1.0 promises.

Excessive Innovation?

This WSJ story outlines the difficulties of being Avery Dennison, which had an over-abundance of "good ideas" that overloaded its innovation program. Sounds like time for an 'idea management' solution. . . . And thanks to the George Group for suggestions on creating a more efficient new product pipeline. These include radical concepts such as building in slack time to help manage for delays or cross-training workers among different functions to solve staff shortages.

Seems Avery Dennison couldn't cope having too many good ideas. With too many activities at the end of the pipeline, it's easy to chase diverse projects that may all seem worthwhile. Each company needs methods for evaluating, reviewing and queueing up ideas for action and implementation -- much like an air traffic control operator -- to ensure smooth flow, appropriate resources and ongoing "management" of the innovation process.

This story echoes a blog/item in CIO magazine about comments from Disney CIO Tony Scott who said "In some respects there's too much innovation, or not enough scale out of the innovation we have."

A mind is a terrible thing to waste . . .

Job Security for Innovators

This brief, bloggy history lesson by Don Dodge of Microsoft provides details on how first movers DON'T always capture the castle by innovating. His advice is that companies need to look farther ahead -- though his ever-accelerating version of "Innovator's Dilemma" means that instead of 10-to-20 years for a challenger to overtake established players, it can be done in only a few years. Even new stars can burn out quickly.

His advice: Keep running hard because you never know who's gaining on you or how the market will change. Maybe he's a student of Satchel Paige. . .

http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2005/10/innovate_or_imi.html

Innovation Is The Rule, Not The Exception

Thanks to the Connected Collective Innovation blog for this article on how "innovation is the new normal" in the news media.

More than a decade or more into the Internet Revolution, some fans of online news, e-mailed headlines and hyperlinked social media are saying its time to retire the moniker "new media" and just call it "media." This may be a shameless ploy by carbon-based news organizations to claim they 'get it' and have joined the 21st century. Media companies took longer than most to learn about transparency, audience participation and other 'interactive approaches' but the article also shows that any one-way-only business model can't last.

How long before the TV network news or the NY Times credits a story to an independent blogger?