The modern world is constantly moving forward, and at an ever-increasing pace. The rate of change is highly influenced by the rate of technological development. Whereas in the past it took 75 years for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone to reach 50 million users, it took Facebook only 3.5 years to reach the same number. It can take just 30 days…
McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index (OHI) is an exhaustive assessment of an organization’s effectiveness and its management’s performance based on an organization-wide survey. It’s a tool that numerous public and private sector organizations have leveraged in order to benchmark their company’s health, align around core areas of improvement, and improve overall organizational performance. The survey scores a number of things, including…
In a 2017 Harvard Business Review article, Anna Steinhage, Dan Cable, and Duncan Wardley talk about the impact competition can have in a workplace. They described how hosting an internal challenge can generate creative results and inspire collaboration or it can create unethical behaviors and cutthroat rivalry. The authors go on to articulate the difference between these two potential outcomes:…
In the modern world of business, innovation is both an equalizer and a differentiator. It can give tiny startups an edge over global conglomerates and enable industry leaders to develop competitive advantages. But what exactly is innovation? In short, innovation is the introduction of something new and different to an established product, process, or way of thinking. And in a…
In this article, we’ll explore what supply chain management is, what supply chain management software does, and the advantages and disadvantages of its processes. Supply Chain Management (SCM) explained If your company creates and produces any number of products using parts purchased from various suppliers, and those products are sold to customers, then, in a nutshell, what you have is…
Orchestrator, dominator, complementor, and protector: these are four ecosystem strategies toward digitalization. In this case study, we look at an equipment supplier wanting to participate in digitalization initiatives of its industrial customers, so it must configure an ecosystem strategy to align with multiple partners. Equipment suppliers are increasingly taking more responsibility for improving their industrial customers’ operations using digital technologies…
From recognizing innovators, to empowering your team at every level, to developing innovation outposts, the US Coast Guard are experts in innovation and idea management. Learn more in this podcast interview. The U.S. Coast Guard is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces. As one of the country’s six armed…
Today, putting customers at the heart of innovation is a no-brainer for most business managers. However, should the innovation process involve all customers or only specific segments? In this article we explore the hurdles of these initiatives and propose a method to select the most relevant customers with whom to innovate. Customer-Centricity is Not an Obvious First Choice Few people…
As two intermediaries from Hamburg that foster open and cross innovation processes, Science Scout (an initiative of Hamburg Innovation) and Cross Innovation Hub (Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft) joined forces to start a discussion around the stimulation and measurement of open and cross innovation processes. We argue that new measurement frameworks are needed in order to demonstrate the value of non-technical innovation…
Most marketing professionals understand that insight into the hearts and minds of your customers is central to successful product innovation. But which customers? Who is going to buy my product first? What happens after that? How can I eventually grow my customer base to one billion people? These are the hard questions that successful technology companies are addressing every day.…
