Pushing the Frontiers

Conduct your own technological research

New developments in science have always pushed the frontiers of knowledge and created opportunities for innovation. Use the Internet or "knowledge brokers" to help cast the search net widely. With nearly $1 trillion being spent every year on R&D around the world, the problem is less one of knowledge creation than one of tapping into existing research.

Conduct your own technological research--creating new knowledge--or tap into research being done elsewhere, such as at universities or research institutes. Working with other organizations will help you share the costs and risks.

ACTION POINT: Make research a personal and organizational discipline.

Article 8.1 Customer Satisfaction

We will measure our success in three broad categories. They are customer satisfaction, technological achievement and financial performance.

Customer satisfaction will be judged by factors such as:

• Shipping and fill rates
• Percentage of back orders
• Market share growth
• Customer retention
• Credit and return data

ACTION POINT: Satisfy customers in the above categories and measure their retention.

Looking for Ideas

Innovation can be triggered by many different pressures, and to manage it effectively you must have mechanisms to pick up on these pressures.

The first stage in practical innovation is gathering ideas for new projects. Innovation can be triggered by many different pressures, and to manage it effectively you must have mechanisms to pick up on these pressures. These can come from within your organization or the wider world.

Ideas can be searched for in the following ways:

• Explore existing technology to find opportunity.
• Research the potential market for your product.
• Investigate your competition and learn from them.
• Loot at threats and opportunities for your business.
• Use stakeholder's ideas for new perspectives.

ACTION POINT: Look inside and outside of your organization for new ideas.

Learning From Mistakes

This failure in terms of the original product provided the impetus for what is now a billion dollar product platform for the company.

Sometimes great ideas come from mistake and apparent failures. 3M's Post-it notes began when a polymer chemist mixed an experimental batch of adhesive that turned out to be quite weak. This failure in terms of the original product provided the impetus for what is now a billion dollar product platform for the company.

In the late 1980's, scientists working for Pfizer began testing compound UK-92480 for the treatment of angina. Although it showed little benefit in clinical trails on humans, the team pursued an interesting side effect that led to UK-92480 becoming the drug Viagra.

ACTION POINT: Learn from mistakes.

Reviewing the System

Not every new idea finds a home...

When you have gotten as far as a working model, or a prototype of the new service or process, you need to make sure people will actually adopt it. Not every new idea finds a home, and the challenge at this stage in the process is making sure you can get sufficient uptake to make a difference.

If you are really going to make this an innovation system -- one that delivers a steady stream of new products, processes, and services--you need to make sure you learn from your mistakes and modify the system so you can do it better the next time.

ACTION POINT: Look for the lessons in the mistakes you make in the innovation process.