Latest Imaginatik Research Study Finds Idea Central Yields Significant ROI on Innovation Initiatives Imaginatik Research's latest study is now available. Entitled "The Long Term Financial Benefits of Idea Management" the report, takes a close look at the return on investment (ROI) of 17 companies that have used Imaginatik's Idea Central idea management software for a period of at least two years. This study is the first accurate study to looked at the actual realised benefits accrued by companies using Idea Management software.

The study found that the average ROI in the first year of an Idea Central initiative was 251% with an average net return of $19,851 per 100 employees. The benefits and savings were magnified after year two to an average ROI of 927% and average net return of $104,983 per 100 employees.

TomorrowToday.biz : Failing your way to Innovation Success - March 2005 Raymond de Villiers picks up on the recent trend towards embracing failure in order to achieve innovation leadership. He argues that the perception that failure is always a costly exercise is holding companies back. He goes on to suggest that "There are a few things in your world that your competitors can never copy, and your failures fall into this category. Your failures are uniquely yours, so why not benefit from them?"

So what does he suggest?
1) See failure as an investment
2) Analyze failure and learn from it
3) Create a safe space to share failures
4) Focus on increasing the quantity of ideas generated, not just their quality
5) Distinguish between excusable and inexcusable failure

Online Extra: Commentary: Apple's Blueprint for Genius An interesting high-level look at Apple's Innovation program and what makes it different from its competitors. The answer? It's insistence on keeping key functions that give it competitive advantage, like design, internal rather than going to Asian outsourced design manufacturers - and Steve jobs - interesting stuff.

HBS Working Knowledge: Globalization: The Rise of Innovation in Asia Yet another article in the rising tide of news pieces looking at Asia, Outsourcing, and Innovation. This one looks at key findings from a recent conference on innovation at Harvard Business School. Some of these include:

- A survey of 200 companies found an "irreversible process" of traditional white-collar jobs being sent to Asia.

- Respondents said they are likely to send work to the following countries: India (69 percent); China (8 percent); the Philippines (5 percent); Latin America (5 percent); Eastern Europe (4 percent); and the Caribbean/Mexico (2 percent).

- More and more, the work being outsourced goes beyond call centers and similar services to include research, HR functions, and engineering services. Researchers expect organizations to create Web-based organizational structures that will help them compete globally.

Technology is again seeming to be the great enabler for asian companies - could the US economy be dying as a result of all the outsourcing? Japan used to rule the Innovation game in the 80's, the US in the 90's, could we now be in a Chinese dominated 00's?

SINA.com - 17 Feb 2005 For those of you who have been following the latest innovation discussion on the Corporate Innovation group site (and you should really check it out if you've missed it so far!) - here's yet another article that suggests China's growing potential in the global innovation arms race.

Senior Chinese ministers are talking about the building of a national innovation mechanism to spur more scientific and technological breakthroughs. Very much unlike the current US government's attitude, the Chinese are instead considering adopting new incentives to help nurse innovative ideas and human forces for scientific innovation.

What's most impressed me is the stress on not borrowing/buying the technologies needed from the developed countries - thus ensuring they have the intellectual capability to innovate beyond the current technologies... the debate continues..

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Where do you wear your thinking cap? - Jan 27 2005 The Guardian's Jamile Milne reports on new research that shows that 81% of people have their best ideas outside of the office - usually while in bed or in the car. The survey looked predominantly at men and woem n working in so called "progressive" areas such as IT and biotech.

Here are some of the highlights:

Where did you have your last implemented good idea?
- 25% whilst socialising
- 18% in bed
- 6% in the bathroom/restroom/lavatory

- 65% of people felt creative at their desks
- 80% thought meetings helped creativity
- Off site meetings were seen to be more creative by a majority, although fewer saw the need for outside influences or triggers for more creative ideas.

Interesting, if not amusing, results - the rest of the article looks at what to do with those ideas - although it's flawed by the typical British Government viewpoint that Innovation and Invention are one and the same - and as such, starts talking about getting marketing plans and the like ready for your idea...oh well.