At BMGI, we’re often asked about innovation and design. The most frequent question is also the most basic: What is innovation? And what’s the difference between innovation and design?

While there are many definitions out there, we like to keep it simple. We believe innovation is all about “connecting the dots” in new ways that separate you from your competitors. Innovations don’t need to be big, but they should be bold. Design on the other hand is about adding form to function. It’s about how an innovative idea is actually put into practice: how it looks, how it feels and how it works.

BMGI has formidable experience in guiding companies through the innovation and design process—including Fortune 100 companies as they develop their next generation of products. Our proprietary methodology—D4 (Define, Discover, Develop, Demonstrate)—was developed by our team of innovation experts, led by Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Phil Samuel. The methodology is featured in the best-selling book, The Innovator’s Toolkit: 50+ Tools for Sustainable Organic Growth.

Using this structured yet flexible framework, our experts have worked with organizations and teams to build an organizational infrastructure to support their process, an environment that encourages and nurtures the process, and a leadership that puts innovation on the right path to results.

To achieve that goal, we work with customers on multiple levels, from Innovation and Design capability assessments, to training, coaching and kaizen-like rapid innovation events.

Innovation Capability & Portfolio Assessments

Through an Innovation Capability Assessment, our experts provide a clear view of your organization’s current strengths and gaps, along with a multi-year plan for improving your innovation capabilities. In an Innovation Portfolio Assessment, we’ll look at your products, processes and business through the lens of customer jobs to be done—the purpose for which customers buy products and services—to help you ensure a well-balanced portfolio across different types of innovations.

Training

At BMGI, we’re well known for our highly regarded training on Lean Six Sigma. Our offerings on innovation and design are no different. We provide more than 10 training options on topics ranging from rapid innovation to Design for Lean Six Sigma to TRIZ (The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) and much more.

Rapid Innovation Events

Clients often hire us to help them run rapid innovation events because they want the best possible results in the shortest possible time. In these hands-on, facilitator-guided events, innovation experts work with your team, using the D4 model and tools from The Innovator’s Toolkit, to create new products, processes and business models. We’ll help you uncover and properly define the real problem at the heart of your innovation challenge. Then we’ll help you scope the problem, refine it and design it—in only six to 10 weeks.