In this article Dr. Michael Ohler, Damir Babic and Christine Heine talk about tools that help in the study of discontinuous processes and discuss their application in process improvement. Basic theory assumes the processes associated with standard Lean tools to be continuous. Through observation this is known to not always be the case in a transaction evironment.
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by in on November 22, 2011
In this article Gennady Retseptor discusses the 40 Inventive Principles and provides examples of each principle being applied with respect to different marketing, sales and advertising applications. The 40 Inventive Principles were developed to allow practitioners to create solutions to problems through the use of TRIZ methodologies. Through these examples practitioners can observe the 40 Inventive Principles at work and learn to apply these methods to their own marketing, sales and advertising problems.
by in BBC on September 20, 2011
In this video Kate McGeown shows an innovative solution to the lighting problems in the Philippines. Lighting is a large concern in the slums of the Philippines due to high electricity costs. Using a liter water bottle, some metal roofing and some bleach, about 50-60 watts of light can be created in order to illuminate these homes.
by in Harvard Business Review on July 01, 2005
In this article Richard Florida and James Goodnight discuss the culture at SAS Institute and the ability SAS has for harboring creativity. SAS puts a lot of value in employee and customer happiness. By challenging employees and using benefits supported through cost analysis SAS is able to keep employees happy, motivated and focused allowing productivity to be maximized. Customers are treated better then employees through no bug software and accelerated customer service. Because SAS allows creativity to thrive they have become a very successful business with both happy employees and customers.
by in Harvard Business Review on September 01, 1999
In this article Eric von Hippel, Stefan Thomke and Mary Sonnack talk about lead user innovation and a process that gives developers steps to breakthrough innovations. Companies for a long time have been stuck creating and innovating incremental improvements to increase sales on existing products that allow them to stay in business today. But when dealing with their long term initiatives the company hands the responsibility over to the R&D department and most of the time the results are hit or miss. With the lead user process, companies follow steps to breakthrough innovations instead of putting more money into their R&D department and hoping for the next big thing.
by in Harvard Business Review on November 10, 2008
In this article C.K. Prahalad and Kenneth Lieberthal talk about multinational corporations going into emerging markets such as China and India. Multinational corporations, with an imperialistic view, came into emerging markets attempting to sell their old products, and in doing so attracting only the top tear of the emerging markets. To attract the more lucrative second and third tiers they need to take in consideration brand management, the cost of market building, new product design, packaging, capital efficiency, and distribution system. If a multinational corporation succeeds their entire business will change both effecting and being effected by the emerging market.
by in Harvard Business Review on May 01, 2008
In this article Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick discuss using job maps as an effective innovation tool. Job maps allow businesses to break down their customers jobs by observing and determining at each step what the customer is trying to achieve instead of what they are currently happening at each step. Knowing that every job possess a universal structure, a job map creation system involving six steps can be applied to clearly determine what goes on during the job. Using this information, innovation initiatives can be launched targeted at each step in the job process increasing innovation effectiveness instead of relying on the R&D department to come up with something useful.
by in Harvard Business Review on December 01, 2008
In this article Mark W. Johnsons, Clayton M. Christensen, and Menning Kagermann discuss the idea of reinventing your business model when aspects of your business aren’t performing as well as warranted. The main crux of the article includes identifying jobs to be done according to the customer and developing your new business model to fulfill that job to be done. Observing three businesses going through the reinventing stages provides validity to the proposed plans, which allows a business to successfully configure its business model to fulfill the customer’s wants and needs.
by in Harvard Business Review on December 01, 2005
In this article Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook and Taddy Hall talk about brand names and what they do for a company. Many companies believe creating a brand name is a lot of work because advertising is how to build a brand name. Advertising is expensive, not a way to build a brand name. The main theme of this article involves building a brand name through a job to be done. Instead of making a product, producing a brand name and trying to build that brand name through advertising one should make a product that fulfills a job to be done and build the brand accordingly.
by in Harvard Business Review on January 01, 2002
In this article Anthony W. Ulwick talks about communicating with customers so that innovation becomes consistently successful. Many companies try fulfilling their customer’s wants and needs by providing the exact products and services they ask for. Instead, companies should listen to the requests and determine what their customers want their products and services to do for them. Using a five step plan based on outcome-based customer interviews allows a company to take the guess work out of innovation and give the customer, not what they ask for, but what they really need.
