Collaborative Idea Management

* Primer *

Creativity versus Innovation

Creativity: the Phenomena whereby a person becomes

aware of an idea or concept for something new (a product, a solution or a work of art) that potentially has some kind of value Innovation: the process of acting upon or putting to use a new concept or combination of concepts that creates new value and or captures values in new ways
Creativity Innovation

Spending Money to Generate Ideas Spending Ideas to Generate Money

Invention
Creativity is seeing what

Innovation
Innovation is introducing these

ideas to the end-user everyone sees and thinking Innovation is channelling what no one else has creativity so as to produce thought before; Invention is ideas/products that people transforming these new can and wish to use (marketable) thoughts into tangible ideas For an invention, the focus Innovation on the other hand does not have to be new is on novelty and this is a except in a specific situation. key criterion for patenting. Thus, as long as a firm (for In other words, it must be instance) is having something for the first time, it is innovative new to its field all over the in their context irrespective of world

whether it is new to their industry, country or the world

Gandhis Dandi Salt March, 1930

In January 1930, Gandhi felt the country was ripe for a mass movement. He suggested the inauguration of the movement with the breach of Salt Laws. The salt tax, though relatively light in incidence, hit the poorest in the land. But salt did not quite seem to fit into the plan of a national struggle for liberation. And when Gandhi announced that he would walk the 241 miles from his ashram in Ahmedabad to Dandi on the Arabian Sea, the first impulse of the Government, was to ridicule the "kindergarten stage of political revolution", and to laugh away the idea that the King-Emperor could be unseated by boiling sea-water in a kettle. Events were to show that those who had scoffed at Salt Satyagraha and failed to see any connection between salt and swaraj (independence) had underrated Gandhis knack for organizing the Indian masses for corporate action The Salt March gave the world the idea of mass nonviolence in politics

IM versus QM
Quality Management seeks Best

Practices Innovation Management seeks Next Practices

IM versus R&D
Whereas breakthrough innovations, Research

and Development or related activities will continue to play a key role in defining new products and services this gets limited to select few people or group in an organisation. But if the corporate leadership begins to utilize the talents of all employees rather than a select few, the organisation moves into an integrated or bottom up innovation and can achieve its goals much better and faster.

Innovation Management Concepts

Definition of Innovation Management:

1. The discipline of managing the process of Innovation 2. Innovation Management is focused on the systemic processes that organizations use to develop new and improved products, services and business processes. It involves harnessing creative ideas from any source and utilizing them to bring a steady pipeline of profitable new innovations to the marketplace, quickly and efficiently
1. Wikipedia 2. innovationtools.com

IM is a Business Discipline
Innovation is NOT a one-time event Innovation is an integral management discipline on

par with other organizational business functions such as Marketing, Sales, Finance, HR and IT Innovation Management leverages processes, tools, techniques and approaches to bring reliability, repeatability and consistency to the creation of innovative new products and /or services Collaborative Idea Management is the key to harnessing the Wisdom of the Crowds leading to Innovation

Wisdom of the Crowd

Popular Television Game shows: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? UK Kaun Banega Crorepati ( ) popularly known as KBC India Adopted in so many countries worldwide with different names All the formats of game shows used a

popular Lifeline called Ask the audience or Audience Poll Statistics prove that the results of the Audience polls were more than 95 % correct in all the Game shows.

Mind to Market Stories

It is a long and tedious process but now we have a proven model of bottoms - up approach. We scout for innovations in informal sector, from common people, farmers, tribals, students and so on and then take them all the way up to the market
Anil Gupta Founder National Innovation Fund, Ahmedabad
-

Source: Mail Today, New Delhi 15th March 2012

Traditional IM process

Discover

Define

Develop

Deliver

Modern IM Process Map

Idea Stage
Design & Development Stage Implementation Stage Evaluation Stage
Problem Definition / Idea Pitch Brainstorming Analysis Phase / Business Planning Research Needs Identification Discovery Phase Alternative Idea Exploration
Design and preparation Blue Print Feasibility Studies Idea Enhancement Concept Development Prototype Applied R & D, Market Research Action Planning Project Management Implementation Contingency Planning Testing Pilot Production Full Production Evaluation Testing Metrics / Validation Adjustment / Warranty Period Post Implementation Review Post Market Research Continuous Improvement

Reproduced from American Institute of Innovation Management

Key Success factors for IM

Committed and Engaged executive Leadership Effective and Efficient Processes and Tools Appropriate amount of Resources Human Financial Time Infrastructure Disciplined Approach Business / Management Attention Execution

Challenges faced by the Industry

Whereas the enterprises realize the need of Idea

management and the value it can create to their businesses, however face the following challenges:
Lack of organizational processes to manage

innovation efforts Lack of continuous source of ideas and or /empty innovation pipeline Lack of resources dedicated to Innovation Management Lack of tools, techniques and approaches for making innovation management successful

Final Thoughts
Innovation Management is a distinct business

discipline designed to have a direct influence on growth Innovation Management is NOT easy Innovation Management is primarily process driven Innovation Management needs four key factors to ensure success: committed leadership; effective / efficient processes; sufficient resources; disciplined approach Innovation Management is a repetitive cycle of divergent and convergent thinking and action Collaborative Idea Management can lead to better Innovations

Salil Sud

E.Mail

SalSud68@yahoo.co.in