March 21, 2018
What roles do you need on your innovation team? Processes and frameworks alone can only take an innovation team so far. Finding the right people to be part of your innovation teams makes all the difference. Great innovation teams need to have individuals that possess high emotional intelligence and innovative qualities. These people often have Read More
March 6, 2018
Noted for his pithy opinions as a Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes knew a thing or two about influence and innovation. “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up,” he once said regarding collaboration. Holmes may have served long before innovation management was common practice in Read More
November 17, 2017
Innovation teams are in a tough spot. They’re at the nexus point of two very different (and equally complex) worlds. To source external innovation, they’re out building relationships in the fast-moving entrepreneurial world of startups, VCs, universities and accelerators. And to meet the needs of their enterprise stakeholders, they need to navigate an internal system Read More
September 11, 2017
Enterprises understand more than ever that innovation is integral to their success. Which means that innovation budgets are growing and there is increasing pressure to show financial returns from that investment (i.e., Innovation ROI). Unfortunately when it comes to valuing the solutions that innovation teams deliver, things often get a bit fuzzy. The more established Read More
August 28, 2017
Establishing a strategy and process for capturing business needs is the first step to accelerating the delivery of innovation. It seems obvious, but without understanding the demand you’re trying to fulfill, your chances of finding and delivering the right solutions are diminished.
July 12, 2017
If stock prices are a reflection of a company’s ability to produce future profits then it should also be a good indicator of whether investors believe the company is well positioned to navigate innovation-driven markets.
June 12, 2017
Fortune magazine came out with its annual survey of Fortune 500 CEO’s last week. My favorite question is when they ask CEO’s to name their biggest challenges. I pay attention to the responses because what people are worried about has a way of changing their behavior (including what they spend money on).
May 20, 2017
We know that you really do want to be a good partner for startups — and, ultimately, to provide value back to your enterprise in the process — but how easy is it to move from initial conversation to getting a deal done? Be honest. Chances are that your attempts at partnering with startups are falling short. A lack of experience on both sides can often result in missed opportunities.
May 19, 2017
As a long-time VC I could have filled every hour of every day with pitches from entrepreneurs, but the reality was that I only made a few new investments each year. All those meetings would waste both my time and that of the entrepreneur. Now heading up Startgrid as CEO and Founder, I find myself focusing on this issue again. I generally ask every innovation team that we meet with how they measure success.
May 18, 2017
Enterprise Innovation teams are tasked with thinking beyond incremental innovation. They need to consider “What could put us out of business?” and at the same time “What could separate us from the crowd and drive competitive advantage?” These teams are doing the ‘covert’ work while the rest of the organization keeps the lights on with business as usual.