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Exploring CES to Stimulus Mine for Disruptive Ideas

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Doug is traveling this week to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to stimulus mine for disruptive “idea starters”.  

What he will not be looking for is WHAT companies are offering.  Rather, he will be focused on the WHY & HOW of exhibitor thinking as he walks the 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space, across 12 official venues with over 140,000 attendees.   

The WHAT that is being offered is limiting.  It’s a product, software, service, etc.. What’s more valuable to me is to look for ideas and insights that go beyond the WHAT of the specific offering.  Doug will be looking to understand WHY they are creating the offering.   He will also seek to understand HOW they are thinking about delivering to and supporting customers.  Understanding the WHY and HOW has been a key to my ability to create meaningfully unique ideas for my companies and our clients.

To get to the WHY and HOW, Doug will do three things: 

  1. Look at each offering as a “system” of interconnected parts – software, hardware, databases, etc.  With the development of all innovations there are tradeoffs that have to be made.  A system focus opens my mind to new ways of thinking. 

  2. Dig for “enabling parts” that make the overall system especially effective.  For example, using Raspberry Pi processor in a product we are building adds a little to our cost but enables benefits that 10X the value of our product. 

  3. Talk to the founder, creator or tech geek at the booth.  The people that actually designed the offering have a depth of understanding that is invaluable when seeking to understand WHY and HOW.

To maximize the value of the idea starters he gathers they will be summarized in a library of Spark Deck Slides.  Spark Decks are a Eureka! Ranch tool for helping increase the effectiveness of Create Sessions with clients.  Each slide contains images, words, audio and or video that are both DISRUPTIVE and DIVERGENT.   Basically, Spark Deck slides are thought experiments that ignite the lateral thinking of Dr. Edward de Bono.  

In our classes and when leading projects we call this overall approach “Borrowing Brilliance”  It’s a process that opens you to applying the thinking of others to solve your problems or challenges.

We will share some examples of Spark Deck slides from his CES adventure in future posts.

Front & Back End Innovation

True Front End & Back End – Drives Innovation Success

by with No Comment Innovation News

Yesterday I did a webinar for the P&G Alumni Association. It featured three P&G Alumni doing amazing things to help with COVID-19.   John Milander – Respirator Invention – Andi Grudgeon – Face Shield Production  – and myself for our work with producing and donating 2 million ounces of Hand Sanitize.

The best part of doing the webinar was two days before it – the three of us got to connect via video sharing the good, bad and ugly or our experiences.   

Interestingly we found UNIVERSAL AGREEMENT that the hardest part of what we are doing is not the “making of the product” – rather it’s the FRONT and BACK END. 

FRONT END – is Supply Chain, Regulatory Certification & Label Approvals

BACK END – is route to market to those with the greatest need. 

The stories of supply chain failures, crooked vendors putting prices up 10X.  

When I started in innovation (40 years ago – UGH ) – my youthful focus was solely on the “big idea”.   The consequence was that as projects moved from idea to reality they slowly but surely died – or worse yet were compromised and introduced anyways.  The driving forces to these compromises were Supply Chain availability/costs, regulatory issues, and Route to Market challenges.   

Today our Eureka! Ranch approach is to look at innovation as system from the True Front End to the True Back End.   Our Eureka! Ranch Inventing Projects AND our Jump Start Your Brain  LMS Training teaches people to THINK OF INNOVATION AS A TOTAL SUCCESS.   The result is increased speed and a doubling of success rates.  

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2020  VS.  1986

by with No Comment Innovation News

2020 has me thinking on how things have changed in the 34 years since I founded the Eureka! Ranch.
In 1986 Consumer Products were the thought leaders of innovation and the focus was on creating line extensions, category segmentations and gurus.
In 2020 the thought leaders are more varied with industrial, medical, CBD/THC, services, internet, artificial intelligence, and banking all focused on innovation.
TODAY there is a focus on BIGGER, BOLDER, PATENTABLE WOW Innovations.
Leaders are looking for meaningfully unique innovations that enable them to change the profitability of their industry and or their business model.    It’s the time of Capital “I” Inventing instead of small “i” incremental changes.  
TODAY there is an urgency for Systems for ACCELERATING Ideas to Market
Having focused on the “front end” of innovation – executives are frustrated with how long it takes to get ideas to market.
TODAY there is a NEW TREND TOWARDS ENABLING EMPLOYEE Innovation.
Leaders are tired of renting an “Innovation Guru.” They are asking for coaching, education and tools to enable their people to think faster, smarter and more innovatively.   To support this we’ve rebuilt our curriculum and tools to work for all levels of employees through independent Apps or the companies existing LMS Platform. 

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“911   Emergency”   Innovation   Speed

by with No Comment Innovation News

Real life event last Thursday.   It started with an early morning call with a client in Europe.   She had an emergency need for ideas and Market Research Data Today. 
 
Completed inventing session with another client at 1:00 pm. 
During the drive to the Airport organized experts and testing resources.

2- 4:pm:  Wrote Six Concepts with ideas and advice from Experts

4pm: Designed questionnaire using advanced Innovation Engineering Rapid Test System

4:15pm: Uploaded concepts for Testing

4:30pm: Test in the field and headed to gate to get on plane back to Cincinnati

7:30pm: Plane landed. Test is complete. Opened computer in car (someone else was driving) and reviewed test results from 400 base equivalent test.   Outstanding scores.  Started draft of report

8:15pm: Home.  Hugged wife and enjoyed a Cocktail with her – mine was an Embassy made with our Old Dexter Whiskey 🙂

9:15pm: Finished final report

9:45pm: Emailed final report to client in Europe to review when she wakes up

6:00 am email from client – “WOW this is so helpful.”   Client does meeting to present findings

All good

This my friends in what we mean when we say increased innovation speed and decreased risk

If you have an innovation, marketing, product concept and or testing emergency give us a call.  24/7 we can get it resolved.
 
IMPORTANTLY – this is not a random event – YOU CAN AQUIRE the SKILLS AND TOOLS to work at this speed all the time. 

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A Millenial in Athens Greece Opened my eyes this week

by with No Comment Innovation News

The past few days I’ve had the honor of speaking at the Singularity University event in Greece.  Greece’s role in the creation of democracy is well known.  It gave power to the people. 
 
After one of my talks a young lady came up to me and said “I’m seeing a difference in your approach versus others. Most business people believe that company success comes when the workers engage. Your approach is to enable the workers to be successful with innovation and because the workers are successful the company is successful. The end purpose is the same but your method is the reverse.”
 
Her words were simple but so insightful.    I suddenly made the connection to what Dr. Deming taught my father back in 1979  “94% of the problem is the system – 6% is the worker”.  

Dr. Deming knew that the foundation of success lay in enabling the works. Today the Innovation Engineering movement enables workers with the training, tools and methods they need to think smarter, faster and more innovatively.
 
Dr. Deming and Innovation Engineering are about Democratizing thinking.   Countries don’t invent.  Companies don’t invent.  Only the people can invent the kinds of smarter work systems, products and services that are needed to transform the success trajectory of companies.   
 
This was especially top of mind for me as we are about to announce a transformational change in how we teach and enable employees to think smarter, faster and more innovatively.  To learn more sign up for our 7th annual Global Innovation Engineering conference by clicking here