If there are any remaining questions about the importance of innovation in today’s business world, all you have to do is look to the recent closing of the giant Toys “R” Us as a stark reminder of what happens when companies fail to innovate. ...
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Innovation is a requirement in today’s business world and credit unions are no exception....
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Today we are excited to announce the 2018 FEI Boston Speakers Conference Lineup. The conference date is April 23 – 26, 2018 and will be held in Boston, MA. The FEI Boston speakers lineup includes:...
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Announcing Innovation & Growth Leadership Summit Speakers Lineup [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Today we are excited to announce the Innovation and Growth Leadership Summit Speakers. The conference date is February 27-28, 2018 and will be held in Phoenix, Arizona. The speaker lineup includes:[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="15px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height="15px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/2"][vc_column_text]Quinault Childs, Research Manage, Food Futures Lab Quinault is a research manager in IFTF's Food Futures Lab. He comes from a background in food and agriculture entrepreneurship, which most recently includes co-founding a company that uses insects to upcycle food waste into animal feed. He is fascinated by applying systems thinking to explore the interconnected nature of food and society, using storytelling as education, and encouraging everyone to become more adventurous eaters. Quinault holds a B.S. in Human Factors Engineering and an M.S. in Agriculture, Food, and Environment—both from Tufts University in Boston, MA.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="40px"][vc_column_text]Karen Stanton, Global Marketing & Branding Director at International Flavors & Fragrances A dynamic and energetic leader and change...
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As companies increasingly recognize the importance of innovation and disruptive solutions to remain competitive, the big question remains: where does innovation come from and how a culture of innovation be cultivated? While it might certainly seem like a big question with a complicated answer, for most companies the solution within reach more than they could have ever imagined. Contrary to popular belief, existing employees account for the vast majority of innovative ideas and the right software can help unlock innovation while also shifting the entire company culture. Companies who feel static, often look to outside sources for new ideas, but studies show that internal employees actually represent the best source of innovative ideas. The real challenge is creating a culture of innovation where employees feel free to share ideas and question the status quo. Here we have put together some of our most important findings regarding these issues in the article,...
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What are the most commonly used innovation software stage-gate process stages? When deciding upon your stages of innovation, it’s important to understand what those stages should be and how to best manage an idea at each stage. To clarify the process, we want to break down the most common stages within an innovation software stage-gate process. Innovation Software Stage-Gate Process Stages Identified Innovation Software Stage-Gate Process #1: New Naturally, all ideas will start at the New stage. This is your innovation idea inbox and where most of your sorting will take place. Innovation Software Stage-Gate Process #2: Request for Information After an idea has been deemed interesting as a possible solution, the organization will typically require more information to dive deeper into the idea, what’s involved and the requirements or limitation of the proposed solution. Reaching out to the submitter will enable you to better understand the submitters background as an expert and how they will...
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We’ve written about the innovation software process before, but understanding how ideas flow through innovation software is very important from a couple of perspectives, depending on which style of innovation you move forward with; internal or external. Ideas Flow Through Innovation Software Innovation - The Unstructured Idea Capture Format The first style of an innovation process we should talk about is the unstructured style. With open innovation software, you open yourself up to collaboration among users, to better develop, collaborate and iterate on ideas, don’t put much in terms of limits on those ideas (allowing for more creativity and disrupting ideas) and ultimately create an environment to innovate safely with your innovation resources. This format is used when users have signed off on the necessary terms and conditions and non-disclosure agreements. Many customers use this internally, where all ideation and innovation is safe from IP risks. How a submitter submits their idea with an...
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Innovation software should move swiftly, but often it’s quite a sluggish process for most. It’s so important to have an innovative system in place to ensure your process is working not only smoothly, but effortlessly, to accelerate innovation. Your time-to-innovate should be a key metric to measure. It tells you exactly how efficient your process currently is. How long does it take for an idea to go from brand new submission to the last stage of your process or drop off? A Proper Acceleration Innovation Software A proper innovative solution would include features of automation and streamlining. Automation lends itself to a hands-off approach which frees more time to focus on the high priority submissions you’ll be getting from your submitters. The key feature you’ll want to be autonomous are mainly communications between the system and your submitters, reviewers and collaborators. This pushes engagement through the roof consistently. Next, we would want a...
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Simply striving for innovation isn’t quite enough. Choosing innovation software features or a platform and seem to make things a bit more complicated while getting started. What should you look for in features? What’s important and what isn’t? All questions that we can easily assist you in answering and help you move forward quicker with your innovation strategy. The right innovation software features are key to the success of your strategy. With the right software, your innovation efforts should feel streamlined, effortless and, ultimately, effective. There seems to be 10 features of interest that you’ll want to look for while choosing your software. A Branded Microsite A branded microsite helps maintain your brands image while launching your innovation challenges, whether internal or external. Although, this is more important for external challenges. This ensures you maintain control over your branding always and further pushes that image when it comes to innovation so that your...
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Generating and evaluating innovative ideas using innovation software can sometime be quite difficult as there are multiple phases an idea must go through before fully being accepted and pushed forward to reality. A more organized method for capturing, managing and advancing innovative ideas is required, but is very simple to implement. External or Internal Innovation Software? There are two ways for capturing ideas: internal and external. Internal idea capturing/generation is down within the organization and is held privately whereas an external method will rely more on the public or your customers for ideas. Each method has its own pros and cons, but it’s important to be fully aware of each. Innovative ideas can come from a countless number of places. From internal sources you’ll mostly see ideas coming from Human Resources, your supply chain, manufacturing, engineering and Research and Development. And from External, business partners, customers, consultants, academia, experts, patent holders and industry...
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