innovation-living

------moving to new blog!!!!!------

2010-02-23T10:45:00.002+01:00

This blog is transferred to new location:

7innovation.wordpress.com

innovations & creativity reading list

2010-02-02T13:41:00.006+01:00

Here is my selection of books from topic: innovations&creativity. During winter time there is more time for reading so maybe this list could help someone in selecting right books. Together with this books I must mention one "blook": Pulp Innovation by Jeffrey Phillips.

Making Innovation Work,
The Ten Faces of Innovation,
The Art of Innovation,
The Medici Effect,
CATS The Nine Lives of Innovation,
The Innovative Leader,
The Innovation Killer,
Exploiting Chaos

book reviews

2009-11-19T10:39:00.003+01:00

exploiting chaos by jeremy gutsche

Interesting and easy-to-read book which gives you examples of innovation success stories and the guideline for creativity. Useful for everyone not just for the persons involved in work with ideas. Culture of revolution ad trend hunting is the topics that you won't see in other books ;)

It looks trendy & "sexy" and it's the book that everyone that have it on the bookshelf, will go back over and over.

idea book by fredrik hären

Book about creativity with blank pages for reader's notes and ideas. It's a sort of creativity handbook for anyone interested in improving his idea generation by itself.

keeping chickens or rabbits with style

2009-10-05T14:21:00.003+02:00

I never planned to have chickens or rabbits in my backyard, but when I saw this products, maybe I will have few inhabitants in such rabbit house.
What to say, except that this looks cool!
More...

culture of collaboration - thoughts on int.article

2009-09-11T10:54:00.003+02:00

Again, very interesting article in Business Week:

How 3M Forged a Culture of Collaboration

Some excerpts from: "What can executives learn from 3M's approach to collaboration?"

"Support networks. Build Web-based social networks that help employees with a problem find those with an answer. Support grassroots networking initiatives such as 3M's TechForum—an employee-run group that organizes speaker events to stimulate thinking and also serves as a kind of mixer, where scientists from different labs or divisions can connect in person.

Encourage curiosity. 3M allows employees to spend 15% of their time on projects of their choosing, giving them permission to develop ideas or technologies that may be outside of their regular work focus. Such policies increase the odds of collaboration, as the path of curiosity often leads employees beyond their knowledge base, to a place where they need the advice and insight of others.

Create innovation funds. Group or department managers focused on core-related projects often don't want to spend money exploring or developing innovative ideas. To overcome this common roadblock, companies should create an alternative source—3M calls these Genesis Grants—that employees can go to for funding of innovation projects that don't fit neatly into existing departments.

Don't underestimate the value of physical proximity. When 3M's Post-it Note team wanted to accelerate product development, it had the team's marketing, financial, and other nonmembers move into the same building with the tech folks. If different functions have to be housed in different buildings, pay for a shuttle service that makes it easy for employees in different departments to visit each other. "

Support networks sounds familiar - with Web 2.0 tools it's now easy to establish support networks, next this is to build the culture which will make it efficient.

Encouraging creativity will surely give the benefits, to the oragnizations that can afford it.

Innovation funds gives innovations new chance, and make innovation process more simple(as much as it can be simple). This point can be essential in creating new - innovative products as it's not always the right way to follow only customer wishes.

Visiting different departments - just to say that it's very useful in big companies.

faster innovation

2009-08-26T14:57:00.004+02:00

I've just read Wall Street Journal article: "The New, Faster Face of Innovation"
and there are two very interesting quotes:

"Five years ago, for instance, a leadership team might have reviewed two or three "big" innovation proposals from consulting gurus; executive teams today might compare the outcomes of 50 or 60 real-world experiments to decide which ones to act upon."

- the innovation process becomes faster.

"And there's a subtle shift in how people view innovation. People don't talk about running experiments months into the future—they're into immediacy, because they see that they can test ideas right away, and the company culture starts to actively encourage speed."

- innovation don't need months to be transfered to market, this process is also becoming more faster. What are the concequences?

1. We need even more ideas from ideation process :)

2. Innovation becomes cheaper - more innovations can be prototyped.

3. Research&development as we know it will be changed in future.

innovation process article

2009-08-04T15:00:00.004+02:00

I've just read interesting article on Business Week:

about Whirpool's innovation process that evaluates and screen thousands of ideas.

Whirlpool's three-pronged definition of innovation:

"It must meet a consumer need in a fresh way;

it must have the breadth to become a platform for related products; and

it must lift earnings."

The final section of the article:

"What can executives learn from Whirlpool's approach to screening ideas?

• Define Innovation A brief, concrete definition of innovation will help employees evaluate new concepts at the front end, screening out those that just don't fit. As a concept progresses, keep returning to the definition to make sure that the idea still clears the bar.

• Never Kill Good Ideas A concept that might not be worth pursuing today—because of limited resources, for instance, or the lack of a partner—might be next year's innovation. Don't kill projects. Shelve them, and annually review all concepts for possible resurrection.

• Adjust Your Criteria Early in the process Whirlpool concepts are required to meet the basic definition of innovation. As projects progress, the evaluation criteria become more rigorous. Begin with easier requirements to avoid killing off concepts before they can be developed.

• Link Idea Screening with Strategy A concept might be innovative but still not smart for a company to develop because it would take the company too far afield. Make sure that the people evaluating ideas do so in the context of the company's strategic goals."

They give few months to add-on innovations and 3-5 years to new-to-the world innovations.

I can't often find this kind of story such as this article, where the innovation process is described in detail. So, this is one of the most useful articles I've read in this year.

innovation providers

2009-07-07T11:37:00.010+02:00

Here is the list of firms that are providing help in innovation or creativity.
They have innovation management trainings or they offer tools for running innovation process.

Pumacy (Germany) - http://www.pumacy.de/en.html - knowledge mngmt, proces mngmt & innovation mngmt.
Brigthidea (USA) - http://www.brightidea.com/ - innovation & idea mngmt + webstorm tool
OVO innovation (USA) - http://www.ovoinnovation.com/ - innovation & idea mngmt
CREAX (Belgium) - http://www.creax.com/ - creativity&innovation + great inspiration site: http://www.moreinspiration.com
IdeaManagement (Germany) - http://www.ideamanagement.com/ - creativity
Fleishman-Hilard Innovation (USA) - http://innovation.fleishmanhillard.com/ - innovation & creativity
I-Nova (France) - http://www.i-novasoftware.com/ - idea management
Nosco (Denmark) - http://www.nosco.dk/index.html - idea suggestion box
Brainbank (USA) - http://www.brainbankinc.com - solutions for Innovation Mngmt
Invention Machine (USA) - http://www.invention-machine.com - innovation software & services
Launchforce (USA) - http://www.launchforce.com - innovation & research

Please feel free to add more firms to the list by adding comment.

groupthink

2009-06-24T10:22:00.005+02:00

Cynthia Baron Rabe in her book "Innovation Killer" is speaking about Groupthink as:

" a well documented and often detrimental human tendency to go along with decisions that the majority of a group will accept."

Sometimes is enough to keep your mouth shut during the group conversation and it will mean that your think like others in the group, which can lead to problems later.

Groupthink must, for sure, be avoided in brainstorming sessions, as it can destroy it. Shortly, groupthink is the opposite to innovation & innovation culture.

communities and open innovation

2009-05-28T15:25:00.002+02:00

A week ago, I made T-shirts with logo of my web-site(on picture) and offer it for free to my columnists and forum visitors (my football club web-site). Soon they wanted to go to drink with me, and I took the t-shirts there. We had nice discussion as we had common interest - our football club.
When you build that kind of community, ideas are jumping out of every corner, and except to that we had many remarks on how club is organized, and that it has poor results in last years, we have great ideas how to make it better and more successful(like that anyone ask us?).

My point is that online communites can build groups with common interest, that can generate many ideas and certain individuals can make it useful, but of course - first he needs to ask for it! In our case, if someone from club want to hear us, or just visit our forum, he can get many ideas for the club's future - and all that for free!

When you copy this to enterprises, first thing that come to my mind is open innovation. It must be recognized as a powerful weapon in search for new ideas or even new customers. It is recognized in USA or W.Europe but in my part of Europe I don't know for any example yet.

10 tips for successful brainstorming session

2009-05-05T23:17:00.004+02:00

When you have a group of people and you need to take their ideas from selected topic I can give you few tips:

1. start with mentioning expected results

2. use existing examples of realized ideas to avake inspiration

3. smile and mention funny ideas from past

4. write down every idea

5. try to include every participant

6. never focus to much only on one/two participants who have most ideas

7. after session send titles of all ideas to participants

8. send your notes to idea creator and ask for details

9. be boring when it comes to get more infos about ideas from creators

10. don't forget to send news about status of ideas to idea creators

Brainstorming is still the best way for idea-generation, so try to do it whenever you can!

100 posts

2009-04-09T22:35:00.002+02:00

I just figured out that I reached 100 post two days ago! I'm still enjoying in writing short posts every once in a while. I hope that someone find it interesting at least a bit as far as I'm enjoying in writing ;)
First I was blogging more about interesting innovations and in last months I'm more oriented to innovation management.
I can't promise how this blog will look in next 100 posts as I simply don't know!
Cheers!

10 ways to achive innovative climate in your organization

2009-04-06T15:40:00.004+02:00

Second post from Top10 series:

1. Try to have fun, that’s the right way for creativity.

2. It’s ok to make mistakes, without mistakes, there will be no new ideas as there is a need for lot of ideas to have successful innovation.

3. Fear is your first enemy! Push away the fear from your workplace and innovation can replace it!

4. Promote successful ideas and their creators with brochures, intranet...

5. Try to keep process of idea-evaluation as simple as posible and as fast as posible.

6. Use piece of software for idea generation and evaluation

7. Customers are great source for new incremental ideas, try to use it!

8. Use new employees as the source of new ideas, they are looking to your organization with ‘fresh’ eyes and can generate improvements to your processes

9. Put innovation into a head of every person in the company, everyone should think and talk about it!

10. Try to push your colleagues with idea-contest if needed

yugo - what a bad idea

2009-04-01T15:46:00.003+02:00

I've just read Business Week article where car from Kragujevac was mentioned:

"Also, low-priced offerings for lower-income regions often carry a stigma. Even a quarter of a century after the Yugo was introduced as the cheapest car in the U.S., the brand name remains synonymous with shoddy materials and workmanship, and is a reminder that quality is as important as price in industrialized nations."

I remember the times when 'Yugo goes to America' was a big story in former Yugoslavia, but soon other stories came back and there were no much time gone, when we watched how Americans make fun of this car in the movies. So, Yugo is the type of idea that everyone should avoid - it was the bad idea to go to biggest auto-market with cheap product which hasn't have no minimum expected quality. And this product was so ridiculed, that it tombs down all other attempts in the future to put new(better)product on the market.

I can still see some remains of this production on the streets of my town, as small number of Yugo's are still roaring.

big potential for establishing innovation climate

2009-03-18T16:14:00.005+01:00

Have you heard your friend, father or uncle how he make fun of his bosses or to management in his factory because they are doing something „stupid“, and when you ask him „why won't you propose a solution?“, the answer is: „they wouldn't listen to me, they don't care for my thoughts“ or „let them do whatever they want!“.

This barrier between employee and the firm, or call it 'learned helplessness' is the spirit when the employee don't need to think and it's the example which kind of culture should be completely changed. This kind of examples can be heard in many places and you can imagine how many space is left for improvement,

Inovative climate could be incorporated to many organizations which are not aware of their current state.

There are many negative sentences which can be heard:

X This already exist!

X We are doing it on the same way for years, why we should change it now?

X This is not the problem!

X This will not work in real world.

X Who will buy this?

X This kind of idea is not posible to realise, maybe in a ten years from now...

X We don't have time for that.

X This is not in our area of work.

ideas campaign started in ireland

2009-03-13T16:35:00.004+01:00

Open Innovation in Ireland, just read following:
"The Ideas Campaign is calling on you, the people of Ireland, to propose solutions that will help rebuild the economy. It’s a grassroots, independent campaign for citizens, by citizens."
Nice way to get new ideas to boost economy (if only my country would do te same)!
Many ideas are already out there and I will enjoy whole month to read(campain will finish at end of March).
Its great that this concept of open innovation campaign can be spread to entire nation. Well done Ireland!
link

singapore no.1 on inno-report

2009-03-12T15:53:00.005+01:00

Newest innovation climate study done by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and The Manufacturing Institute (MI), listed 110 countries according to their Innovation Inputs and Innovation Performance score. This Internation Innovation Index is buid from 6 categories: Fiscal & Other policies, Innovation environment, R&D results, Business performance and Public impact of innovation. Link to study
Singapore is ranked 1st, U.S.A. 8th, Japan 9th, while European leadinng innovation states: Sweden, U.K., Austria & Germany are 10th,15th,17th and 19th.
Central Europe countries are near each other on the list: Hungary, Czech Rep. and Slovenia are on places 31-33 and Slovakia is on 36th place, while Croatia is 48th as the first country with negative score.
Link

great definition of innovation

2009-03-03T00:09:00.004+01:00

I've just read the interview with Guy Kawasaki. Inside, there is a great definition of innovation:
"Innovation is creating something before people know they need it. The process involves building upon the work of others-a.k.a., "copying," grinding it out, and deleting what doesn't work to jump to the next curve.

Innovation isn't a lightning bolt of inspiration in the middle of a muse. More often than not, it's a process of grinding, cogitating, and doubting. There truly is no shortcut to innovation. Over the course of a career, you come up with dozens, if not hundreds of ideas, and reject most, try some, and you are lucky if handful succeed."

And another great quote:
"...one assumption that companies should not make is that money equals innovation. That is, two guys/gals in the lab might create the great innovation. It doesn't have to be the $10 million budget line item for R and D. I could make the case that money can't buy innovation-if it did, then large companies would get larger and startups would never innovate."

link

wipo patent filings 2008

2009-01-31T14:03:00.004+01:00

For the first tiime on chinese company(Huawei) is on top of the list of patent applicants, while Panasonic & Philips are others on top 3.
Other companies in top 10 are: Toyota, Robert Bosch, Siemens, Nokia, LG, Ericsson and Fujitsu.

Looking among countries USA, Japan & Germany are followed by Korea, France and China.
Countries from Central Europe have following number of patent applications: Slovenia 108, Czech Republic 155, Poland 129, Slovakia 40, Hungary 173 and Croatia 56.
Croatia is sadly, only country where number of patent applications is decsreased (from 79 to 56).

link

ford's process & product innovation

2009-01-30T10:54:00.005+01:00

When I was a school-boy I watched TV-series about Henry Ford with my father. He was really enjoying it, specially when they show how he made the new manufacturing system or process - the same one on which my mum was working for many years. Brilliant process innovation in the beginning of 20th century.

But the thing which was most impresing to us in this days - it was mid of 80's/last century - was that he made the car that many can buy. I'm not sure how to classify this innovation - it fits the best to product innovation.

However, Ford model "T" was cheap, easy to drive and easy & cheap to repair --> what an innovation!

eu inno scoreboard 2008

2009-01-29T09:55:00.003+01:00

Innovation Scoreboard for 2008 is published. As stated in this publication, Innovation leaders are: Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark and UK. Above EU average are Austria and France and below are Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and all "new" members.
Fast growers in catching-ip countries are Bulgaria & Romania. Croatia and Lithuania are ranked as slow growers :(
It is noted that EU is decreasing it's innovation gap with US and Japan, have a look: link

local idea hero in organization

2009-01-19T11:43:00.003+01:00

Main roles for the person selected as innovation-driver in organization:

1. well-known in organization as innovation-driver and open for any kind of questions

2. running innovation system and improving it

3. be sure that everyone knows about idea process(how to submit idea)

4. taking care for ideas that waits for any decision for long time

5. knows about each submitted idea and keep an eye on innovation metrics, such as no. of submitted ideas, no. of realized ideas and other metrics + creating new inno.metrics if needed

Other roles such as connecting intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs with innovators, can be the part of innovation system and be managed by other persons.

creativity moment

2009-01-14T13:41:00.004+01:00

I saw interesting article in newspapers about time for creativity.

The creativity peak is on 10pm and the least creative time is on 4:30pm. The most creativity place in house of course, is bathroom.

So, the best thing to do for creativity is to take a shower :)

More then half people will forgot their ideas if they don't write them down immediately.

10 things you shouldn't forget

2009-01-09T22:07:00.004+01:00

1. write-down your ideas!

Every idea has to be written, because it will wipe out from your head :)

Later you can give to the written facts new features.

2. don't be afraid to submit your idea

If your company has innovation system, the idea should be submitted through norm innovation process. In a case that you company doesn't have inno-system, you should inform yourself how your idea can be proposed to someone who can help you to realize it.

3. read

Inform yourself everyday with the news from your interests, but also from the topics you never thought about

4. talk with creative people

Talk about your ideas frequently. Talk with creative people can be very inspiring.

5. don't let that failure dispirits you

In the world of innovations failures often happens.

6. inovation attitude is important!

You must be assured in your idea and push it.

7. do you have the customer for your idea?

Does the possible customer for your idea exist? The answer on this question is very important for future of your idea.

8. is your idea new?

Does similar product exist on the market as the one you want to develop?

9. is your idea technically feasible solution?

Can the prototype be made? Can it be done inside your organization? Will the prototype be very expensive or it can be easily done for small costs?

10. make good marketing for your idea

It is very important to well present your idea, innovator must sometimes act as a presenter.

dog power! ;)

2008-12-30T12:51:00.005+01:00

Nice idea for including your dog to a ride in park. On this link you can find out more... As I saw on that link, this is invented and produced by same person. Good story for startup job --> this is going all the way from invention to successful innovation.

ibm's next 5 in 5

2008-12-04T21:28:00.002+01:00

IBM has released the video with predictions of 5 innovtions that will come in next 5 years. This includes:
- solar technology,
- health crystal ball,
- web talk,
- digital shopping assistance and
- smart appliances for help to remember things.

mousehunt

2008-11-27T21:16:00.006+01:00

I'm addicted to the facebook application = game Mousehunt. This is one of the best applications on facebook and it's very popular.
The firm who launch it is canadian Hitgrab. It's interesting to see following sentence on their web-site:
"I woke up from a dream-like state and had the image of a mousetrap-type game for facebook", says co-founder of HitGrab Inc, Bryan Freeman.
--> It looks like a classical innovation story!

moleskine owner

2008-11-18T11:43:00.004+01:00

Legendary 'moleskine' notebook is finally in my pocket. There are already some ideas inside, and I'll try to fill it quickly.

This concept of 'notebook in pocket' is well-known tool for generating ideas and thoughts. This was widely used by many great inventors and innovators.

I was using some word documents for description of ideas, but this was always extended with every paper I can get when I have idea in bed or when I'm on vacation. This notebook will solve that problem :)

Limits to software & business methods patents in USA?

2008-11-03T13:31:00.002+01:00

I must share a link. It's the text about changes in patentibility of software and business methods in USA.
Link

melancholy of eastern Croatia

2008-10-25T16:00:00.005+02:00

I was very disappointed with the number of attendees at this week's seminar about patents in my hometown. Let's say first some facts, the town has 120.000 inhabitants and the region has population of 800.000.
If I say that there was only 5 people at the seminar which was free and very informative, that's enough to see what is the state of economy in eastern Croatia.
The lectures and the speakers was excellent and I must say that this was the best seminar that I attend in my life.
I would be very happy if I can kick in the head the state of things in my town, but it's not possible.

first flushable diaper

2008-09-23T11:56:00.008+02:00

The statistics says that disposable diapers make up 4% of solid waste and they are 3rd largest consumers item in landfills.

The solution for this problem is using gDiapers --> ok you'll need maybe a minute more, to change a diaper and sometimes a little bit of time to wash inner or outer parts of diaper, but when you see how the inner flushable insert dissolves in water it will turn your eco-switch on.
I'm talking only after reading one article, so please take a look:

link

I'm ready to try it (but, I'm not sure has my wife the same feeling)...

"made for iPod" fridge freezer prototype

2008-09-09T14:57:00.005+02:00

My favourite fridge manufacturer - slovenian firm "Gorenje" has developed i-Phone fridge.
"The fridge freezer with built-in speakers and a docking station for charging an iPod enables listening to music or playing back video contents ranging from music videos to video recipes."
link

Importance of Innovation Metrics

2008-08-07T14:31:00.003+02:00

Innovation Metrics are crucial for Innovation Managers to stay on the right track. This metrics should include all submitted ideas and decisions regarding these ideas.
So, you can see the numbers and make nice charts :), but also see what's happening with innovation climate in your organisation and see are you on the same way like half a year ago or not. As, I'm speaking from the role of inno-manager I must admit that metrics are the most important data which alarms me if there is no enough activities in some part of organisation.
I spend sometimes hours and hours over statistics, just to make sure that there are no forgotten ideas or that every idea has a decision. There are no room for leaving idea 'open' if there is no real argument for that.
Back to topic - it's important to have Innovation Metrics with clear picture what happened in the last period(quarter of half of year) and to have it on time.

mobile broadcasting

2008-07-28T15:29:00.002+02:00

I had this idea a year ago, to use mobile phone like an online camera for live broadcasting. My idea had no success, but now, it's available, where else, then in Sweden!

It would be great that you can record some events and broadcast it live. I was yesterday on away game of my favourite football team NK Osijek and I have to report to my father every 20 minutes about the game. If I can broadcast it live to him and everyone else who are interested.

Check out this link.

music video created without camera

2008-07-22T21:02:00.003+02:00

Well, Radiohead don't stop to impress me. Their video "House of Cards" from album "In rainbows" was filmed without camera or light. They used just 3d scanner (if I figure out it right).
Here is the making of clip:

You can see the video here

modular bicycle

2008-07-10T23:15:00.002+02:00

This modular bicycle looks great and it have the possiblity to carry a kid in the front in the suitable carrier. It can be easily removed, so that you have ordinary(well, not so ordinary) bicycle back. Take a look at more pictures at: link

ip regime (link to text)

2008-07-08T14:27:00.003+02:00

In the text "Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates Say" published on ip-watch : there is the strong message about current patent law.

There is certainly room for improvements and there are few good proposals for that in mentioned text.

ideation in big company

2008-07-01T21:15:00.003+02:00

I had a small brainstorming session today, and I have to defend innovation process.

The problem is that some ideas were rejected in the past, but then they can be seen as successful products from other companies today. This situation in not great for morale of innovator who got rejection mail.

But after few minutes of explaining I got this innovator on the track again and I'm expecting new ideas from him.

I've noticed one thing today which can led to more thought or blog posts in future: it's hard for a big company to be competitive in small market with firms of just 2-5 employees. The problem is of course money, smaller firms can be cheaper(sometimes), but the strong possibility for big company to win in example, public funded project is the opportunity to use the knowledge from variety of projects in the past and to offer some features which can't be produced in small firm.

This is also essential when we think 'which idea can be successful in my country's market + my company can do it and be competitive with other 'players'.

media harbour in duesseldorf

2008-06-23T09:57:00.010+02:00

I'm back from trip to Duesseldorf and I want to share with you some of my photos of city's Medienhafen. It is rebuilded old Rhine harbour into new media center with many wonderful buildings and bridges. Here is the link with description of future development:
http://www.duesseldorf.de/eng/medienhafen/index.shtml
Duesseldorf is ranked 5th worldwide among cities with with best life quality and number 1 in Germany.

radiohead 'nude' played by old computer parts

2008-06-14T22:02:00.004+02:00

Radiohead held the contest for remixing their song 'nude' from last album 'In Rainbows'. This is the work of Jim Houston - the play done with old computer parts (guitar is played by ZX Spectrum) http://www.vimeo.com/1109226?pg=embed&sec=1109226 Great work!

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

article about creativity

2008-06-13T11:48:00.006+02:00

Great article about creativity that everyone should read! http://freelancefolder.com/im-a-light-bulb-flashing-epiphanator-to-the-extreme-and-my-business-shows-it/

cnbc - the business of innovation

2008-06-03T08:59:00.004+02:00

New series was started yesterday on CNBC, so if you can, try to catch it! Last year this show had 5 episodes with great examples & thoughts about innovation and I really enjoy to watch it.
More information & TV schedule: link

i have the idea, and what now? (1)

2008-05-31T13:05:00.007+02:00

So, here's the first chapter of my what-will-be book "I have the idea, and what now?"

I have to note, that english is not my native language, so there are certainly some errors in text. ;)

what is innovation?

The term innovation can be heard in recent times from every direction. TV, newspapers, adds – everywhere we can see the word 'innovation' connected with wide range of products, from commercials for cosmetic products, to banking services. Politicians, professors, businessman or journalists – everyone have something to say about innovations. The term is used so much that there is the danger for it, to lose it's real meaning, and to make people take their look away from it.

Looking to origin, the word innovation is coming from latin in+novare with the meaning 'make something new'.

There are lots of definitions of innovation, I will start with the simplest one:

innovation is new idea the brings the profit.

In other words, that is the conversion of knowledge to money.

Innovations can also be defined with inventions which were converted to market products.

„Innovation distinguish leaders from followers.“

Steve Jobs

Innovation can be defined with only creating something new, but it we want complete definition, market factor must not be avoided.

We can define innovation also with something what isn't innovation: innovation isn't an invention. Many innovations don't use new technologies. In example, McDonalds hasn't spread their fast food concept with using latest technologies, but with managing restaurants in a new way.

It's not correct to think that innovation is something what people in „white suits“ are making in their laboratories.

Difference between innovation and invention can be defined in following way: Invention is first emergence of idea, but innovation is the first attempt to make it. Innovation then can be the usage of existing invention.

Innovation is not only the production of new products, but also the way of doing certain things and how to make it better.

In the case when invention improves some product, or service, or process, we can say that invention is transferred to innovation.

Innovation can be small or big, simple or complex. We can talk about innovation with disruptive idea, but also when just small changes are done on existing product, which must at least be measurable.

Biggest obstacles to innovations in the shape of some organizations are companies culture and management. Company must cultivate the culture that accepts new ideas from employees.

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it.”

Steve Jobs

The role of today's „knowledge economy“ is more important, so rich countries can't compete with low-cost products and services if they don't innovate faster and better.

Innovation is application of knowledge on the problem which occurs, and putting ideas to market. There is different situation with invention or discovery, where customer is not in inventors thoughts. Focus is clearly on invention. During innovation process, customer is the key factor, because innovation must have a market.

The way to submit idea becomes more easy and global as it will shown on the example of open innovations. This opening of innovative potentiality which is not reserved only to technological giants, opens new possibilities for solving current (and future) problems in the world.

IBM's research from 2006. based on answers from 765 interviews with leaders of organizations had the interesting answer on the question, which are the most significant origins of innovative ideas? Over 40% place employees as the most significant origin, only few percent less were business partners and customers.

This answer gives the significance to ideas which comes from employees, which are equally important, maybe even more important then ideas coming from customers.

At innovation, new product brings up new value to customer, with reducing of costs, gives improvement in relation with competitors, or contribute to end-customer satisfaction, or allows the increasing of sales with using new technologies or processes.

Finally, it most important, when customer says that it's an innovation.

Looking through the source of ideas, inventions comes from inventors effort and it can turn up in experiments, sometimes even with luck. On the other hand, innovation must come from introducing the idea on the place when it can be developed, and where it can attract enough attention for realization.

Joseph Schumpeter, well-know economist from 20th century described entrepreneurship as the from of „creative destruction“. He also had interesting though that innovation, at the end in not the creation of mind, but of will.

green projects in eastern europe

2008-05-22T14:26:00.004+02:00

Green projects in Germany, England, Sweden? This looks promising. But what with eastern part of Europe, specially with smaller countries.
If some of the projects would be offered to mayor of big or medium size city in those country, what will be the answer? Maybe, they'll respond: our whole country doesn't produce as much CO2 emission as on city in western Europe. Or: we don't care about CO2 emission, it's not a problem in our region, let's talk about savings.
This saving are crucial in this situation, and it's known that with Green Innovations, energy savings can be achieved. So, it's shouldn't be the same in every country/city, but it must be started ;)

what is green IT?

2008-05-22T14:09:00.006+02:00

In recent times everything that sits around the corner is 'green'. Concerning IT we could see many headlines about Green IT. The main point is that Green IT is not just the savings in Data Centers. The topic of Data Center savings is well covered and it's widely known that this 'works'.
But, what is with other aspects of using IT innovations to generate savings & reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption?
First, the public transportation is used enough in some countries (certainly in Croatia) - with innovations in that sector this could be changed, specially after the rise of oil prices in last months.
Second, the savings in the energy consumption can be achieved in government offices and other public sector buildings. Also private houses and flats can be managed smartly with watching on external temperature or other factors which could be the ground for new innovations or inventions.

big and small companies & innovation

2008-05-13T15:19:00.003+02:00

As I work in the big company with it's own innovation process and climate I often think how this process and specially climate, can be established in small enterprises.
First, the contact person for innovations has to be known by everyone - Innovation Manager or simply one 'special' person who will know how to handle each proposal. If the firm is close to technology changes, this person must be sent to special patent(intellectual property) training.
Next thing is establishing of innovation metrics, which must be transparent so that employees will know what they can expect, if their idea will be accepted.

It is important to establish a process for talk about successful innovations in the company. This can be half an hour in the meeting, or a news in the company intranet site or wiki-pages. If the company is technology leader, news about recent technologies and newest inventions also has to be present.

In the small enterprise all mentioned topics, can be the job of only one person - so it's important to select the right person and to give him/her all the needed support.

50 most innovative companies in the world

2008-04-29T23:13:00.003+02:00

New list with the world's 50 most innovative companies done by businessWeek and BCG, link

Only surprises in top10, are 6th and 7th placed TATA Group & Nintendo. Apple is holding number 1, Amazon.com and IBM are out of top 10. 3M is only 22nd and Siemens only 38th.

Looking through regional perspective doesn't give too many changes

link

buying Green is/will be 'in'

2008-04-28T10:15:00.005+02:00

In last edition of WIPO magazine, there is an article about Green Branding. link
It seems that we'll have hundreds of eco-labels which will point us to many 'green' products. Web site with eco-labels: ecolabelling.org So, whole new economy will rise (or this has already happen?), but then there would be potential threat in new term: Greenwashing - "the term used to describe companies trumping up their green credentials without any real basis".
I can imagine people shopping in supermarkets trying to find what some eco-label means, with thought on Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth". There is a plenty room for innovative companies but also for fraud.

4 types of innovators

2008-04-21T22:44:00.004+02:00

I differentiate 4 types of innovators:

1. Radical innovator - creates or adds new technologies or systems. Often in chance for invention.

2. Value-add innovator - brings new additions on market with connection to customer. Possible inventor, too.

3. Adapter - adapts the product to customer wishes - incremental ideas - no clear chance for invention.

4. Special adapter - adds solutions to markets on which he spots a niche - focused on end-customer.

the architect's birdfeeder

2008-04-15T21:49:00.005+02:00

It's not often when you can at first look at some product, say that is innovative. Well, that's the fact with the Architect's Birdfeeder. It's cheap, it looks nice, it easy to piece together.
Take a look - link

how to publish a book?

2008-04-11T13:52:00.008+02:00

That's a question that I've been asking myself last four months. I've contacted the most probably interested publishers in Croatia, but they are not interested to publish my book about innovation management.
The country is small, so even if I find a publisher, the edition will be over 1000 copies. Maybe there will be more chances if I translate the book on english and try to publish it in UK or US. But the problem is the lach of time to do that.
I'm really dissapointed because I wrote it to help small and medium-sized firms to start with innovation climate. This problem really exist in this part of Europe, so I thought that I have found a niche for new product --> book. It seems now, that I was wrong. I know that it's always not easy to publish first book, so maybe I will put it for free on web or maybe just some chapters of it.
To have a sense what is inside my book, here is the list of chapters:

1. what is innovation?
2. brainstorming
3. innovations on demand
4. innovative climate
5. the innovator
6. rewarding ideas
7. evaluating ideas
8. innovation process
9. gently turning-down ideas
10. criterias for success of innovations
11. which innovations are needed in our company?
12. prototyping
13. storytelling
14. measuring innovations
15. how to become innovative
16. savings and improvements
17. how to come to the idea?
18. idea campaigns
19. types of innovations
20. how to catch the idea
21. patents
22. starting of innovation climate in croatian companies

If anyone have similar problem or have an idea, please write a comment.

solution for icy roads

2008-04-08T15:38:00.003+02:00

Nice innovation for roads. Transparent varnish developed by French scientists in company Eurovia, which turns to pink when temperatures drop below 1°C.
When it is warm(2°C or more) it is clear again.
With this drivers could take extra-care on icy roads.

link

percentage for own projects

2008-04-07T16:25:00.004+02:00

Interesting article in Harvard Business Review about Google. The part about innovation in job description. Google budgets 20% of employee time for their bottom-up projects.

The part from article:

Technical employees are required to spend 80% of their time on the core search and advertising businesses, and 20% on technical projects of their own choosing. As one new Google engineer put it in a blog: “This isn’t a matter of doing something in your spare time, but more of actively making time for it. Heck, I don’t have a good 20% project yet and I need one. If I don’t come up with something I’m sure it could negatively impact my review.”

So, this have a second effect besides that it gives an employee the efforts for new ideas. It will put the feeling of needfulness for ideas and new projects to each employee. Of course, this could only be applied in companies where employees are satisfied and motivated.

link

creax

2008-03-28T20:30:00.008+01:00

I found the web-site of Belgium company Creax-Creativity for innovation. It's a great collection of innovation links on one place. I simply adore this web-site! So many useful link (hope that my blog will one day find a place there!)
It's also worthly to check their newsletter.

link

innovation brainstorming workshops

2008-03-27T09:09:00.003+01:00

Last month, I had four innovation workshops with brainstorming sessions, and what I learned is that in each group I can expect allways different situation. I had groups with 7-17 participants, they were from the same technical field and have the same techical knowledge. What was common in all 4 workshops is that the boss is always the leader with most ideas(that's good), other innovative people from past are followers, but some of participants haven't contribute at all. I reach some of them, with showing the benefits of ideas to indivudual(incentives+glory). Important is to notify about successful ideas from their department from near past.
The most successful group was the one that wanted to reach the big number of ideas, with no time-limit to their workshop. And they really did it! First the target was to have at least 14 ideas(from 7 participants) what was pushed from their boss, but they didn't stop until they reach 24 ideas. And they had the high quality of their ideas!
Concusion is that the commitment of the management + successful examples from the past + showing incentives, can lead to generation of big number of ideas. It's also essential to be active in such workshops and don't let the group to be silent. Innovation process should be explained before brainstorming, so that participants know in which program they can submit their idea.
Most important is to not let them forget about their ideas after workshop with at least sending reminder mails.

the myths of innovation

2008-03-17T20:15:00.006+01:00

I saw an interesting article on IdeaConnection. An Interview with Scott Berkun, author of the book: The Myths of Innovation.
Here is the set of Myths:
1.The myth of epiphany -- there is no eureka moment, ideas never stand alone
2. We understand the history of innovation -- we have simplified legends
3. There is a method for innovation -- there are infinite paths to innovation
4. People love new ideas -- most people fear change
5. The lone inventor -- all innovation is bound to what came before
6. Good ideas are hard to find -- humans are built for creative thinking
7. Your boss knows more about innovation than you -- just because the boss has power doesn’t mean he knows everything
8. The best ideas win -- not always
9. Problems and solutions -- problem finding and framing are more important
10. Innovation is always good -- all innovations combine good and bad effectsResilience. Talent is great, but a genius who gives up on a good idea isn’t as valuable as a less talented person who sticks it out."

Great set of thoughts which can be added as the quick guide to innovation, or "Quick way to learn about ideas":)
Read the interview

google office in zuerich

2008-03-17T20:05:00.006+01:00

It's really important to have innovative climate inside the company. This can be ensured with the long management routines, but one of the ways is also to have innovative atmosphere like in this office. After seeing this pictures, everyone wants to work in that office.

link

super tower in london

2008-03-14T15:13:00.006+01:00

In recent times I se more and new architectual wonders that will be build in next years. Both these big buildings are always part of the projects in South-East Asia, or Dubai. This time the location is Europe - London. A big tower that will change the landscape of English metropolis. This buidling will provide space for 100.000 people. That's almost the population of my home town :) Innovation that lies in-here is the idea who to provide the space for town expansion without touching it's historical parts.
Link

the future in dubai

2008-03-06T20:49:00.003+01:00

I share a link to a great web-site which features the newest project in Dubai, which is becoming the architectual capital of the world. Dubai is said to be home to 15% to 25% of the world's 125,000 construction cranes, and the this is now the end. The newest "wonder" is the resort city elevated 300 metres above Dubai - 'The Cloud'. My favorite is 'da vinci rotating tower' the 250 meter tower which can rotate freely each floor allowing the building to shift its shape. Wind turbines situated between each floor, will allow the building to produce energy.

Check the site

european innovation scoreboard 2008 - 2 part

2008-03-06T20:39:00.004+01:00

Once more I will look back to european innovation scoreboard, in the picture you can see the groups of countries depending of their innovation index and the percentage of change in relation to last 4 years.

one laptop per child

2008-03-04T13:55:00.002+01:00

I was on technology summit last week, where the main speaker was a well-known futurist Nicholas Negroponte. He presented his non-profit project "One laptop per child". It's a good way to see how technology is becoming cheaper, which allows this kind of projects. Hopefully, this year their laptop could be selled for 100$. This could give (better)education to millions of school children around the world.
This is really good example how technology could impact society. I saw the laptop :) It is small and pretty - just like the one that children would like. As far as I've seen, the sofware (operating system) looks simple and easy-to-use.

what's the problem with innovations in big company?

2008-02-26T21:12:00.003+01:00

Well of course, it's a big company - people are coming in such companies to be safe and in a mass. They are not keen to make something disrupting.

Of course, some employees would be happy to achieve a success with their innovation, but it's not easy at all - because it's a big company...

Big companies have rules and the hierachy (birocracy), so it's not easy that the right idea would be heard from right people.

Right way is surely building of innovation climate in every department and assuring the continues presence of innovation news to employees.

Next issue is, that's not easy to spot an innovator in large firms - because they would be in a mass where most of people aren't innovative.

Essential thing is that in big companies, not everyone will be closely connected with the customer. Thatswhy this part of manpower will have less opportunity for ideas, or to even know for which kind of ideas are his/her company looking for? Here the solution is to link customer-connected employees with at least innovation manager, who can propagate the customer wishes to innovative power of every company - it's employees.

cultural map of the world

2008-02-25T20:02:00.006+01:00

Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World marks the nations by 2 main factors. First is importance of religion (traditional/secular-rational values), and second factor is transition from industrial to post-industrial society (Survival/self -expression values).

Countries are positioned in a way you can see the difference between certain parts of world, but what more interesting - also beetwen certain parts of Europe. Ex-communist Europe is still glued together, with Chech Rep. and Slovenia (maybe also Croatia) looking good.

This Map shows that most innovative countries in the world (also in EIS - European Innovation Scoreboard) are at the top right corner: Japan & Sweden).

link&map

world's most innovative companies

2008-02-24T13:27:00.005+01:00

It's always fun to see the list of the world's most innovative companies. It's exciting and very inspiring to see which companies made to the top 50. My personal favorites are #1 Google, #3 Facebook & #5 IDEO.

link

slide show

energy islands

2008-02-16T13:32:00.002+01:00

Hexagonal artificial energy islands which could produce energy is a ney concept which will bid for Virgin Earth Prize (searching for idea which will dramatically impact global warming). Each island is on flating platform with a plant at the center which converts the heat from the sea into electricity or drinking water. Below the deck, marine turbined will use the energy of underwater currents. Each island complex could produce 250MW. More info: link

european inno-scoreboard 2007

2008-02-14T21:02:00.002+01:00

The 2007 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) was published today. Inno-leaders are Sweden, Finland, Germany, UK, USA... Inno-followers include Austria, France, Ireland... Moderate innovators are Czech republic, Italy, Slovenia... And finally catching-up countries Bulgaria, Croatia (!), Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia...
What's most interesting is to see how it's determined, so here'sthe list of Innovation indicators:
1.1 S&E graduates
1.2 Population w ith tertiary education
1.3 Broadband penetration rate
1.4 Participation in life-long learning
1.5 Youth education attainment level
2.1 Public R&D expenditures
2.2 Business R&D expenditures
2.3 Share of medium-high/high-tech R&D
2.4 Enterprises receiving public funding for innovation
3.1 SMEs innovating in-house
3.2 Innovative SMEs co-operating w ith others
3.3 Innovation expenditures
3.4 Early-stage venture capital
3.5 ICT expenditures
3.6 SMEs using organizational innovation
4.1 Employment in high-tech services
4.2 Exports of high technology products
4.3 Sales of new -to-market products
4.4 Sales of new -to-firm products
4.5 Employment in medium-high/high-tech manufacturing
5.1 EPO patents per million population
5.2 USPTO patents per million population
5.3 Triad patents per million population
5.4 Community trademarks per million population
5.5 Community industrial designs per million population

posters for sticking chewing gums

2008-02-13T22:48:00.005+01:00

Artistic way to solve a problem which have all cities in the world - chewing gums on the streets. In this way everyone can stick their chewing gum to poster on wallboard on streets which has coluor palette identified with numbers like in children books. This is idea from Sydney and it's really more creative then Singapore's way to solve problem of chewing gums on the streets - by banning chewing gums.
(spotted in trendhunter)

the art of creative thinking

2008-02-13T22:29:00.005+01:00

Useful book from John Adair, for everyone who wants to start its creative engine. What makes this book really fun to read are many examples of ideas/inventions, and the big number of inspirational quotes. The chapters are sorted as useful advices, so it can be viewed as an user manual for creativity :)

open the roadside toilet with sms

2008-02-12T17:45:00.000+01:00

New idea for security of roadside toilets in Finland. The system will open the door of the toilet only in case, when SMS is sent to specific number which is displayed at the door. So, opening will cost just like a normal SMS and all you have to do is to send text "OPEN". The call is directed to modem which will sound a buzzer and open the door.
This should prevent vandalism, because people will be identified with their mobile phone number. Link

squash tournament in railway station

2008-02-08T19:57:00.000+01:00

What a nice way to stage a sports tournament. The Bear Sterns Tournament of Champions, the largest professional squash event in North America was placed in one of halls of Grand Central (New York). Duration of tournament was a week with 64 players.
Glass-enclosed court looks fantastic adn I can only imagine how many passengers take a look on the game while waiting on their train.

instant make-up applicators

2008-02-01T22:11:00.000+01:00

I spotted one idea through 'spingwise.com'. It's an idea for which everyone could say "how could anyone ever before haven't invented this!". This is very interesting for women, it's ColorOn Professional - Instant Makeup Applicators. This product was patented in 1992. from Irina Iolosilevich, who was wondering how to cut the time of make-up and how to allow to every woman, to have the same quality of make-up like when the visit professional make-up artist. With the help of her husband and brother, she came up with this product after a decade long experiments in her kitchen. So, this is a single use applicator for eye make-up. For more info visit: http://www.coloronpro.com
(my wife, just sad: "nice!")

innovative leader

2008-01-30T15:36:00.001+01:00

I've yesterday run in to a book 'Innovative Leader' from Paul Sloane. I've read it in a three hour trip on the train from Zagreb to Osijek. This describes how fluently it is written, and how interesting it was. Ok, I knew a bunch of techniques and examples shown in this book, but some things were really new to me. This is really a welcoming book to every new innovation manager or leader.
More about Paul Sloane on his website: http://www.destination-innovation.com

skysails

2008-01-25T15:32:00.000+01:00

Take a look at this 'green' innovation which will save much money&fuel.

A newly built cargo vessel was towed by the innovative wind propulsion of the Hamburg-based company SkySails on the North Sea near Bremerhaven, Germany for the first time. The 160m2 SkySails supported the main engine of the 132m long Multi Purpose Heavy Lift Carrier MS “Beluga SkySails” of the Bremen-based Beluga Shipping with approx. five tons tractive force at low wind.

The shipping company and the manufacturer calculate that by using the towing kite system, a ship’s average annual fuel costs can be reduced by 10 to 35%, depending on the prevailing wind conditions. Under optimal wind conditions, SkySails estimates that fuel consumption can temporarily be cut by up to 50%. The first results are to be expected in the next few months.

link

radiohead makes everything different

2008-01-23T21:53:00.000+01:00

Radiohead announced a small gig at Sunday morning in east London, and it was posted only on their web-site:

So, we’ve got a small gig tonight.

It’s in London at the Rough Trade East shop on Brick Lane, and we’re planning to play a short set of in rainbows material. It’s very limited free entry, first come first served. Also, as it might be a little uncomfortable for anyone queuing early, they’re planning a numbering system so people at the front of any queue can get snacks and toilet breaks in the store. Good bagels round there. But dress warm…doors won’t open until 7, and we’ll play at about 8.

For those who can’t get in - and it’s pretty small in there - we’ll have some screens and speakers outside, if we’re allowed. I think we are. And we’ll also webcast it. I’ll put the link up here, as well as any other info, later today.

Hope you can make it - should be….interesting. Us being us, we’re taking far too many instruments…..

But, this causes massive interest, so the concert has to relocated to bigger club, and at the end 1500 fans was enjoying the music (they assumed only 200). Because of that, the whole album was played at the end, not only a few songs as planned.

Just to mention that they are my favourite bend! They innovation in selling of their last album is astonishing, and they will maybe kick the music industry from it's place. They was givving their album for free (the fans was able to decide how much they'll paye for album). Album was generating 9,6 mil $ with 1,2 mil downloads.

unleashing eco-patents

2008-01-17T15:48:00.000+01:00

First-of-its-kind effort to help the environment, unleashing dozens of innovative, environmentally responsible patents to the public domain. - Energy conservation or improved energy or fuel efficiency
- Pollution prevention (source reduction, waste reduction)
- Use of environmentally preferable materials or substances
- Water or materials use reduction
- Increased recycling opportunity
Link

roller buggy

2008-01-14T21:17:00.000+01:00

Baby carriage that can be transformed into scooter with special attention on security. So, it has a belt for a child and the hydraulic brake system with two disks for parent.
This is specially designed for fathers. I surely want one.
This product is idea of Valentin Vodev from Pixstudio - Vienna-Sofia creative team.
link

the future of europe lies in knowledge

2008-01-10T22:44:00.000+01:00

Janez Potočnik, member of the European Commission for Science and Research said The Future of Europe Lies in Knowledge at the National Forum on Europe, in Dublin:
"We want to improve our quality of life and remain globally competitive. If we think about how best to achieve that, we can consider cutting costs or improving our productivity. Looking at the costs, then there are limited possibilities. I've not met many people who really want to drive down wages or drastically cut back on our social security standards. And even after we've made improvements in the flexibility and mobility of our labour markets, and we've engaged in reforms to cope with the ageing of our population, we will not have done enough to keep up with our international competitors. So we don't have much of a choice; we must increase our productivity. That means we have to create and apply new knowledge. And if we want to do that, there are three things that we have to improve: education, research and innovation." Link

ibm's top 5 ideas for next 5 years

2008-01-09T10:58:00.000+01:00

IBM revealed a list with 5 top innovation that have biggest potential in next 5 years.
1. It will be easy for you to be green and save money doing it
2. The way you drive will be completely different
3. You are what you eat, so you will know what you eat
4. Your cell phone will be your wallet, your ticket broker, your concierge, your bank, your shopping buddy, and more
5. Doctors will get enhanced “super-senses” to better diagnose and treat you
link

portable fishtank

2008-01-08T08:47:00.000+01:00

A classy way to carry fishes from pet-shop to home. The other solution is to carry fishes on little walk :) Only dog owners, can be proud on their pets on the street, now it's time for aquarist!

The idea behind this product is to allow children with divorced parents to take their fishes with them.

the one million linden dollars idea

2008-01-06T21:43:00.000+01:00

Osram started innovation contest in December and tomorrow is last day for submission of ideas.
The information about this contest is available on Second Life on OSRAM island.
Everybody can submit up to 3 ideas, and after first filter, best 250 ideas will go to real contest. Next will include work on ideas and awards for the best.
This puts new light on Second Life as the platform for collaboration&work on new ideas.
I will prepare two ideas for this contest and submit it tomorrow :)

solar trees

2008-01-02T22:40:00.000+01:00

10 solar panels at the top of every artifical tree, which gathers solar energy at day, and power LEDs for illumination at light.
- less pollution
- no underground intallation
- no power used from cities power system
link

tchibo

2008-01-01T22:48:00.000+01:00

Stand-up café with every-week new products! They have the formula "every week new experience", and I was surprised to see how classy and cheap are those products.
Innovative retail solution is accomplished with completely new line of products every week, with impressive sales through Europe. In a week when they was selling telescopes, they have sold more telescopes in 7 days then all other shops in Germany in whole year. It's a good reason for me to check their web site, every time before going to Vienna.

vidi e-novation

2007-12-24T14:24:00.000+01:00

Innovative contest of croatian ICT magazine VIDI is the best thing that happened in last years in Croatia, in the field of innovations.
Brochure is available on croatian&english under:link

3 categories of companies

2007-12-20T21:44:00.000+01:00

According to annual study from Booz Allen Hamilton, Global Innovation 1000 (link) in which are included the data from 1000 companies all around the world, which are leaders in R&D funding. Companies can be sorted to 3 categories according to corporate strategy and customer undestanding:

1. Need Seekers - invent new-to-market product with breakthrough innovation. Gathering information about customers and analysing they wishes in shaping new products. Already know technology is used in new ways and their are no new inventions.
2. Market Readers - react to what customers buy by carefully watching market - cautiosly entering with incremential changes
3. Technology Drivers - moving to internal research with technological capacities with help of breakthrough innovations and incremential changes. Spotting and analiysing of future technology trends is essential.

Each of these 3 categories can be successful on market, but there are no ovareall innovation strategy. If we are focused only on one company, then it could be said that there is the best inno-strategy for one company - the one which has as most important part syncronisation with corporate strategy and surroundings. It should be conected with company strategy and customers. Research and development must be connected with informations about customer wishes, and all phases of innovation process - from generation of ideas to realisation and marketing, must give attention to customer wishes.

event went fine

2007-12-19T22:12:00.000+01:00

I held an inno-event two days ago. It went just fine, I think that participants were satisfied, because the final event of innovation award program, should be as it was - not long, informative and dinamic. Best 4 participants presented thier ideas and I had a presentation about the inno-statistics this year.
The greatest success is to have new ideas coming in after event, and I heard about some new ideas, really :)
The brochure which I made, was read through event as I saw, and it seems like it was good idea to make it(I haven't waste time to make it). It contains all ideas which was succesful in last year as a stimulant for genereating new ideas.

tower energy - utopia or the 'big' solution

2007-12-18T21:41:00.000+01:00

This invention is really big! If this proves to be truth, this could be the solution to world energy demand, and then many 'big' things will be solved - one of them is 'global warming', second is oil demand.
I hope that this is it! We need this!
Link

innovation in horror?

2007-12-14T21:13:00.001+01:00

Where is the connection between innovation and horrors?
I watched today new horror movie "30 days of night", and scenario is really innovative :) What can be better for a band of vampires, then to have no sun-light for 30 days. That's the story behind this movie. Small Alaskan town is 30 days every year without sunlight, and at the first day there came the vampires!
It's realy not easy to find something new in this genre, so this deserves good note (currently 7.0 on imdb.com)

how to organize an innovation event?

2007-12-12T13:52:00.000+01:00

First of all, I got great receipt from managers, almost all of them will come, but not so good from employees, because they are at business trips or they have private reasons. But I expect that 50% will come surely, so the event will survive...

What's the main reason fo this event?
First, I want to reward best innovators in last year, and to 'make them important'. Second, to present the best ideas for all colleagues, but also for the managers on event, but also through the special brochure and intranet site to everybody in the company. This ideas should inspire future innovators, to see that the guy who sits in next room had a great idea, so why can't he have one too?
It took a lot of time for preparation, specially to make 35-page brochure with all participants and their ideas, but I think it's worth, because each year, more and more ideas are submitted.
Also, everyone is aking me about the event, and when will be this year's. It's also a good oportunity to introduce the new posters and awards for new season of innovation program.

nils bohlin

2007-12-10T20:07:00.000+01:00

Nils Bohlin - the inventor of three-point-seatbelt - standard in every car today, has invented it in late 50's of last. it was patented in 1958. and by 1963. every new Volvo (Bohlin's company) has seatbelts. This breakthrough saved lots of lives, specially thanks to Bohlin and Volvo, who gave their invention for free to every car manufacturer. Now, to give them a thank, we can at leat say that we all have something from 'Volvo' in our vehicles.

MyCuppaTea/Cofee

2007-12-06T08:48:00.000+01:00

If you can better visualise your taste for coffee, then this is the product you've waited. This mugs will help you to make your coffee or tea by matching the colour guide inside. I would love to have it!
Link to MyCuppa website

inno-campaign

2007-12-03T22:05:00.000+01:00

Today I faced a dilemma concerning innovation campaigns posters. For a third year in a row, we run an inno-campaign in our firm. First year we had an image of parachuter on poster. Last year we had a picture of american football pitch with two amateur teams preparing for the game.
This year we have to choose from three 'finalist' which was filtered from 6-10 pictures which was looking 'innovative'. We choose the one that looks most connected with our company and which also was the prettiest. It's the picture of offshore windmills and beneath them a little boat. The poster has a message: "Let's sail away in the sea of ideas. Be creative!" (I hope for a good campaign this year)

cat poo cleaner

2007-12-03T21:32:00.001+01:00

There are so much of useless inventions, and this seems like a favourite for top positions. But, as there are many cat-lovers on the planet, this may seem as a great idea to get rid of the cat poo :)
So, get your cats into robot (what if robot goes crazy and start to roll the cat! ;)
On this web-site there is the demonstration of this litter-robot:
Litter robot web site

hoverboard scooter

2007-12-03T21:17:00.000+01:00

This is what I thought about in last post, when I was talking about future. I would like to drive this vehicle!

top-down vs. bottom-up innovations

2007-12-01T20:19:00.000+01:00

Top-down innovations, from one side - innovations promoted by senior managers and bottom-up innovations - ideas given from employees through the organization is two processes, which may sound opposite, but both must be enabled. Why? For good (or great!) innovation process it's essential to have high-level commitment, but also to be oriented to each employee. Only Top-down innovation principle will close the door to every improvement idea which could come from employees including process improvement or for example, introduction of new toll.

the future is here

2007-11-27T20:35:00.000+01:00

When I was a child (20-25 years ago), I was thinking about the 21st Century, as a time of living like in SF movies. Me and my friends expected flying cars, robots in every house...

Ok, these products was to futuristic, but let's see what we have in last 10 years: microvawe ovens everywhere, flat-screen TV's, internet, iPods, mobile phones, GPS, online games... We're already living the future :)

promote shadow IT

2007-11-26T09:31:00.000+01:00

Excerpt from book: Mashup Corporations: The End of Business as Usual: "Understand that you have capabilities outside your IT department, and use them! Shadow IT is not new and exists in every company. It’s been there, lurking just out of sight of your support teams, not necessarily hidden, but implemented by workers who need new tools, procedures, and workarounds that are not yet acknowledged by IT policies. They use their innovations every day to get their jobs and personal tasks done. With every class of graduating students, a more tech-literate labor force emerges. This labor force is creatively innovating both on and off the offi cial clock. They bring with them new methodologies and models for working that line up directly with service orientation.... Failure to embrace and support Shadow IT in the long run means wasted resources, an inability to maximize the value of your company’s collective candlepower, and lost opportunities."

amazon link

gutter cleaning robot

2007-11-24T23:13:00.000+01:00

Looj by iRobot . Little "robot" that cleans the gutters is really nice product. I showed the web-site to my friends, and they loved it too. If it priced like it's mentioned ($99), everybody will love to have it.
youtube video

bijelo-plavi.com

2007-11-18T21:41:00.000+01:00

I created a website seven years ago with content about my favorite football club: NK Osijek. Few months ago it was transfered to new domain www.bijelo-plavi.com and new guestbook, forum and gallery was added with re-design of web-site. I hope, that it's an example how small contribution can make a difference. My half an hour or hour per week is generating a content which is viewed from a large number of club's fans.
Forum has already 100 members, and the daily number of visitors is constantly increasing.
The official web-site of NK Osijek is not well accepted by the fans, so my site has the reputation of the best NK Osijek web-site. Fans web-site is strictly related to fans, so my themes related to club's games, form, players and history are unique.

19.20.21

2007-11-17T10:20:00.000+01:00

Web-site with presentation of today and future's supercities.
Very interesting is to see the biggest cities in history (1000,1500). I'm astonished that Vienna had the same population in 1900., like it has today. Also world population clock looks marvelous.
http://www.192021.org/

innovation incubator

2007-11-16T18:10:00.000+01:00

Yahoo created an offsite incubator called Brickhouse infuse itself with startup energy,(BusinessWeek, Feb. 26). Its job is to shorten the time it takes to bring new ideas to market. "The goal is to take the idea, develop it, and make sure it's seen by senior management quickly. They need to iterate, see customer reactions, and launch fast.

How does the Brickhouse model work? Any of Yahoo's 13,000 employees can submit proposals for possible new products. Up to 200 ideas are submitted each month. A council of five top company executives, votes for only the best five to 10. Before Brickhouse began, there were far fewer suggestions and they tended to be brief one-liners. Now, employees post screenshots, create mock-ups, present cases, and describe potential hurdles.