10 Signs that you've got an innovation dysfunction

It should be pretty easy to walk into an organization and do an innovation audit -- that is, assess the likelihood that an organization can do remarkably new and innovative things. Here's what I would look for:

• People laugh at new ideas
• Someone who identifies a problem is shunned
• Innovation is the privileged practice of a special group
• The phrase, "you can't do that because we've always done it this way" is used for every new idea
• No one can remember the last time anyone did anything really cool
• People think innovation is about R&D
• People have convinced themselves that competing on price is normal
• The organization is focused more on process than success
• There are lots of baby boomers about, and few people younger than 25
• After any type of surprise -- product, market, industry or organizational change -- everyone sits back and asks, "wow, where did that come from?"

Innovative companies act differently. In these organizations

• Ideas flow freely throughout the organization
• subversion is a virtue
• success and failure are championed
• there are many, many leaders who encourage innovative thinking, rather than managers who run a bureacracy
• there are creative champions throughout the organization -- people who thrive on thinking about how to do things differently
• ideas get approval and endorsement
• rather than stating "it can't be done," people ask, "how could we do this?"
• people know that in addition to R&D, innovation is also about ideas about to "run the business better, grow the business and transform the business"
• the word "innovation" is found in most job descriptions as a primary area of responsibility, and a percentage of annual renumeration is based upon achievement of explicitly defined innovation goals

The fact is, every organization should be able to develop innovation as a core virtue -- if they aren't, they certainly won't survive the rapid rate of change that envelopes us today.

First class @$1.86

"In the last few months, the little airport at Watertown, New York, has seen more than its average share of air traffic .... USAirways had made a mistake in loading a round of new price updates into its online reservation system, such that it was now possible to book a first class ticket ... for a rather ridiculously low fee."

My latest CAMagazine column explores the unique problems occurring with what I've come to call "site-bugs" -- check it out here

Jim Carroll - author, poet, rocker...

Please note -- I am not Jim Carroll, author, poet, rocker singer -- the fellow best known as author of The Basketball Diaries .

That's him on the right...... and if you are looking for him, try his Web site here .

I do own many of his albums, have seen the movie, and have read many of his books -- and yes, I'm a fan.

Jim does a lot of spoken word on campuses today. He tells a powerful story concerning his upbringing, drugs, and the challenges of addiction. He's a good person, and has a huge number of worldwide fans. I hope to meet him one day.

Creativity, trends and innovation in retail, packaging and consumer goods ….

According to the Washington Post, some 33,679 new products were introduced into the consumer products sector in 2004, up 53% from 10 years earlier. Since the typical store has only 40,000 SKU’s, it can be pretty difficult for a consumer products company to succeed today!
Clearly the world of retail has become extremely challenging – and I’ve been doing a number of keynotes helping consumer products, packaging and other companies and industry associations think about how innovation and creativity can spark success.

Creativity and innovation with retail, packaging and consumer products companies involves understanding the reality of the challenge that exists, and the key strategies that you can use to take your organization team and forward into the world of hyper-change that now surrounds us.
Think about the depth of the challenges that exist:

• Compelling customers….customers expectations and needs are changing rapidly, and yet they are more demanding than ever before
• Loyalty disappears....at the same time they expect creative perfection from you, they are more fickle, and far less loyal …. I’m not even sure the concept of loyalty exists any more for many brands!
• The China price....if that’s not enough, the impact of the “China Price” is such that consumers are coming to view all products as commodities. Without successful value positioning, many brands are quickly losing their distinctive brand image
• Costs increase....all this is happening in a world in which producers and retailers are faced with a rapid increase in uncontrollable costs…. energy, plastics, you name it! Margins are being squeezed and pressured as a result.

How do you thrive in a period of such rapid change? I offer my clients the following advice:

• Focus on collaborative relationships The key to innovation in retail today can be found in collaborative relationships and partnerships between packaging companies, consumer products and brands, and retailers. ! Noted Paul Moss, British Bakeries Divisional Marketing Director, “We have more to talk about than price.” No one wants to fight in a brand sector that is involved in a race to the bottom, but that’s what happens when everyone focuses on price. Shift the equation with your partners, and you’ll find a way out.
• Remember -- the package is the brand. Heinz, StarKist and other industry leaders have learned that packaging innovation, driven by new methodologies, ideas and technologies, has become the secret to brand image in many sectors, because it permits a shift of value and customer perception in ways that haven’t previously been seen. Think upside-down-Ketchup. If you aren’t innovating with packaging, you aren’t in the game
• Hyper-innovation is key. Throughout the consumer products world, we are witnessing faster time to market in every single sector. The concept of a product lifecycle is disappearing as products come to market and thrive for but short micro-bursts of time. Make sure you’ve got the agility on your team you need to cope with this reality, and you might survive
• Get used to contentious consumers. Desires, needs and demands will continue change at an ever more furious pace, often in ways that won’t make sense. Don’t despair from it: learn from it. Take low-carb: sure, it was a disaster, a fad, and you should have known better! Yet don’t focus on the morning after quarterbacking – focus instead on your agility instead. Did you respond quickly enough? What organizations sclerosis blocked your ability for quick change? And what should you do to fix it?
• Capture the insight of creatively new competitors – constantly. Admit this: there are likely going to be a lot of folks out there who are a lot more creative than you are. They’ll beat the pants off you all the time with quick short bursts of tactical success, while you are still busy marshalling your forces. Rather than losing sleep over their success, study them! Learn from them! And then capitalize by doing what they do – and do it better. Rapid creativity in a time of constant change is the name of the game, and you’d do best to work to obtain the same skills and insight that your best competitors have developed.
• Ride the wave of continuous business model innovation. In retail, we are seeing constant experimentation with store formats, brand partnering, in-store displays, logistics and tracking studies, and countless other new ways of doing things. Get on board the tornado of change in retail and ride it for all it is worth. You should develop a team that has a finely-tuned radar for unique trends, experiments, success stories and innovations. They’re swirling around you continuously, they are constantly reinventing the world of retail on a minute by minute basis – and you’ve got to understand them and capitalize upon them.

I’ve given presentations in the last year to Nestle, PrintPack, TetraPack, an association of chain drug retailers, and lots more. Want to think about creativity, innovation and trends in the world of retail, packaging and consumer products? Contact me….

Business agility in a time of rapid change

I'm doing a session for SAP in Huntington Beach, California this AM, on the key theme of "organizational agility." That's the culture, insight and capabilities that leading-edge organizations possess that help them to thirve in a period of rapid change.

A quote that I use is from Stephen Hochman, Vice President Sales, New Balance North America -- who are dealing with rapid change throughout the retail sector: “…..success is a function of an organization’s capacity to absorb change as its own.”

"The concept of going to school for knowledge is kind of quaint..."

I'm quoted in the Toronto Star today with my observations on the future of knowledge, careers and work. Kind of provocative, but I really believe it to be true....

------------------------

Forget what you think you know
Toronto Star, Oct 25/05

You know a diploma is worth less and less. Soon it's going to be worth nothing at all.

If you've just completed an undergraduate degree you might not want to hear what Mississauga-based futurist Jim Carroll has to say.

"For young people I think one of the things they will need to understand is the skill of `just-in-time' knowledge," says Carroll, who advises companies across North America.

He explains that "just-in-time" knowledge is the skill of learning information during quickly advancing periods of change. The information learned is entirely — and possibly only — relevant at a specific time. Learning it will require people to immediately dump previous information that is no longer relevant at the same time.

"The concept of going to school for knowledge is kind of quaint," says Carroll, who foresees a future when longer degree programs will become almost obsolete. "What is the relevance of a three or four or five-year degree program when half of what kids learn in their first year will be obsolete by the time they graduate?"

Carroll says the majority of knowledge needed in the workplace of the future will be gained from collaborative social networks, online sources and independent learning.

As far as formal education goes, he doesn't think many degree programs will be longer than about nine months.

"A survey I saw a couple weeks ago said young people now think self-employment is more secure than a corporate job.

"As young people continue to completely reject the concept of the traditional workplace they will also move to educational models that suit their relationship with a changing work world."

Health care trends

It was a week for health care.

Yesterday I opened the annual American Society for Health Risk Management conference in San Antonio, taking a look at . As the session description noted, "as a futurist, trends and innovation expert, Carroll is an energetic guide who will show how to anticipate trends, develop key leadership skills for the future and view change as an opportunity to pursue … not as not as a threat to be feared."

I like that description, because when watching the body language during my presentations, its obvious that many people only hear the downside of future trends. That's why I work hard to spin the message that "you've got to turn change and challenge into opportunity." No where is this more true than in the health care sector -- there is going to be a huge supply/demand imbalance, and it is going to take some increasingly creative thinking to deal with the challenges and come up with innovative solutions.

A good portion of my talk was built upon the 10 big trends for health care that I've been focussing on.

Earlier in the week, I opened the annual leadership meeting for VHA Georgia, providing insight into health care leadership skills built around the same future trends.

Business trends for the future

There's been a lot of searching on my site for the list of the "10 big business trends for the future," so I thought I'd replay it here in a blog post.

• Low-cost domination:  Every industry is now involved in a "race to the bottom", as low cost producers come to dominate markets
• Commoditization:  Every product and service is being commoditized as empowered consumers become increasingly driven by the "Wal-Mart effect," expecting consistently lower prices
• Value-enhancement as a strategy: Margins suffer as a result, and going "premium" might be the only means to survival
• Hyperinnovation:  At the same time, hyper-innovation will come to challenge your ability to keep up with changing expectations
• The end of product lifecycles:  Expect nano-lifecycles to become the norm for most products and services -- and that you will be measuring product lifecycles in months rather than years
• Specialization:  Increasing specialization will come to challenge your ability to compete - which might mean that you'll increasingly have to "go narrow"
• Skills shortage:  Expect that a skills shortage might make this an even bigger challenge -- how will you source the talent in a world in which specialized talent is becoming ever more scarce?
• Hollow companies: Organizations are hollowing out -- and you might not be ready for the impact that comes from these smaller, faster, more nimble competitors
• Forward oriented innovation:  Short term decisiveness has become critical -- yet you are likely still suffering from aggressive indecision. At the same time, long term insight is one of the most important corporate cultures to re-establish
  
  Permanent link to this item ...posted at 06:54 AM...October 21, 2005
  
  

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  

Blog back ... a bit

I wiped out my blog a week ago, and now have it back ... sort of. It might take a few days to clear it up.

The entire video section has been redone and reworked, with some new videos. Take a look here.

New video

I've put up a new general promo video here.

From the stage to Weepul spotting!

That's me on the right.

It's been a busy month, with presentations to thousands of people in the fields of engineering, consumer goods, health care, and lots of other industries.

In the midst of all this, yesterday I visited my sons school, where I was a Weepul Spotter!

They have an annual fundraising drive involving magazine sales; if they sell a magazine they get a Weepul. And the Weepul spotter goes from class to class, and gives a small prize to those who have a Weepul.

Creative, fun and innovative! But geesh, I look like some freaked out sixties-hippie-dude-with-a-bad-hair-day!

What's your skills capital?

Today I provide the opening keynote for the annual Monster Government Solutions Human Capital Management conference for government HR folks in Washington, DC. I'll be focussing on a look at "human resource issues of 2010", and how we need more flexibility as we battle the depth of the looming skills crisis. I've framed my talk around these themes:

1. Rapidity, not rigidity: we need to prepare for rapid skills evolution
2. Science, not technology: the root of HR change is found in the rapid rate of scientific change, and it is causing rapid, rapid change with ever trade, career and profession
3. Complexity, not simplicity: a key result is that for everyone, "what you need to know to do your job is increasing at an exponential pace
4. Volatility, not normalcy: we also need to ensure we are ready for a future in which the unexpected and unknown can have a dramatic new impact on skills issues
5. Transformation, not training: we need to adjust our HR thinking for the "just in time knowledge skills"
6. Continuity from flexibility: the depth of the boomer skills exodus if of such a degree that we'll need a lot of flexible work policies in order to retain them
7. Attraction, not retention: at the same time, we have to play into the unique career attitudes (i.e. there are no careers, only stepping stones) within Gen-Y
8. Variability, not structure: Hollow companies will form the basis for all future corporate success due to the skills crisis
9. Lifestyle, not loyalty; statistics show that most everyone in a full time job is stunning unhappy. We can do better
10. Imagination, not administration: solving the emerging HR crisis requires new ways of thinking and a willingness to do things differently

HR professionals today must prepare for a skills future that is going to be far more challenging thing we've ever seen, and need to think dramatically differently -- that'st he focus of my human resource trends keynote today.