Recent Posts

Open Innovation

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height="22px"][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text] Innovative Ideas to Reclaim Our Natural Environment [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_column_text]You alone can not save the world.  Neither will our governments. How about industry?  Will they have the Earth’s best interests in mind when they create their next product for market? We ask, who are the real trail blazers along this confusing and winding path of necessary environmental change? It is not until the powerful, the inventive, and the noisiest change makers collaborate across industries, governments, universities and environmental NGOs with new green technology research, design, and significant strategies that will we see the greatest environmental challenges solved.  [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_column_text] New Green Technology for Recycling [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="22px"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width="2/3"][vc_column_text]Where does all the trash go and how can we dramatically reduce what’s headed to the landfills? Recycling is a not a new effort, but it is losing efficacy and studies show even the most mindful consumers recycle incorrectly. Luckily efforts are underway to bring new technology to an inconsistent,...

Read More

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] When velocity is constant - acceleration equals zero [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="10"][vc_column_text]Acceleration is one of those terms that is often taken for granted in today’s business environment. As a gentle reminder, the definition of acceleration is a change in velocity over time. A major disconnect in corporate external innovation groups (that is, groups responsible for identifying innovations to solve their unmet needs that lie outside their corporate walls) is that they typically - and mistakenly - expect to accelerate innovation while maintaining constant internal organizational velocity in the form of resources, infrastructure, organizational support, budget, etc. Groups seeking to rapidly change their external innovation velocities can do so through honest self-assessment of their internal capabilities, and subsequent selection of the proper resources, information management tools and collaboration models to build the sustainable external innovation organization that works best for them.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] External innovation groups seldom receive adequate internal resourcing to effectively drive enough innovation initiatives...

Read More

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The concept of an innovation portfolio is still new to some organizations; however, it's been a topic of conversation among innovation professionals for years.  In 2014 Harvard Business Review (HBR) published the article, Managing Your Innovation Portfolio. They found on average high-performing organizations focus 70% of their innovation resources on core or incremental offerings, 20% on adjacent offerings, and 10% on transformational initiatives.  Even though the average was a 70:20:10 spread, they still reference other successful models depending on your industry and your level of ambition and allocations.  The biggest take-away from the HBR report and subsequent reports is that for an innovation program to be successful, the focus should be a mix of incremental (core), adjacent and transformational initiatives.  This mix will enable a program to deliver results both in the near term and long term.  In addition to finding the right balance, organizations need to have the right resources to deliver. ...

Read More

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A critical aspect of any innovation management program is thoroughly understanding your own technology portfolio and how it fits within the technology ecosystem of both known competitors and potential collaborators alike. Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum – groups need to continually rationalize their internal technologies versus external technologies in their business verticals. Regular internal technical SWOT analysis (identifying where companies are strong / weak technically, where the technical opportunities and threats exist both long-term and near-term) better enable companies to define and own their particular technical space; as well as recognize the potential to expand their technical space over time. Technology Scouting and Technology Landscaping are powerful tools in the innovation management toolkit to achieve better technology portfolio understanding; but while these terms are often used interchangeably, these are not equivalent activities and often require different skill sets for mastery. Here’s how we at Ezassi think about these innovation management tools.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space...

Read More

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It's times of stress that really test the strength or weakness of an organization. During stressful times, leaders learn what the people in their organizations are made of – but also whether the systems, functions, and processes they have put in place are resilient to withstand the crises that inevitably come up. Industry shifts, market downturns, unexpected competitors: when stress comes, it shouldn't make an organization or process fall to pieces. Instead, stressful times should be when positive discourse, growth, and resiliency thrive.[1] "What do you do when you face a surprise?" David Woods, Faculty Emeritus of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University, asked at the 2014 Velocity NY conference; referring to unexpected situations like when chunks of foam fell off the Space Shuttle Columbia's fuel tank in an unexpected way. "Do you gracefully extend performance, stretch your capabilities, and add adaptive capacity in order to continue to perform...

Read More
search bar

[vc_row content_width="grid"][vc_column][vc_column_text]Dr. Robert Blizek, a former senior technologist with NAVAIR, shares the lessons learned that drove his decision to use Ezassi’s Knowledge Scouting application.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30px"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_width="grid" content_aligment="center"][vc_column][qodef_elements_holder][qodef_elements_holder_item horizontal_aligment="left" vertical_alignment="middle" hover_animation="default"][vc_column_text] The Challenge [/vc_column_text][qodef_separator position="center" color="#6b6b6b" border_style="solid" width="70%" thickness="20px"][vc_empty_space height="30px"][vc_column_text] Growth of World Population and the History of Technology [/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="11326" img_size="full" alignment="center"][vc_empty_space height="10px"][vc_column_text] Figure 1.  Globalization and the Internet have dramatically accelerated technology development. [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height="30px"][/qodef_elements_holder_item][/qodef_elements_holder][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]There are three challenges to address if one is to keep abreast of technology development for investments, optimal partnership selection, or roadmap planning.  First, critical technological advances can come from anywhere. A recent study by the government accounting office (GAO) noted that, only two decades ago, 70% of science and technology development for the DoD was developed exclusively within DoD- industry partnerships.   Today, that 70/30 split is reversed with the private sector eclipsing the DoD’s pace of breakthrough technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum engineering, and cyber security. The second...

Read More

Welcome to our “Technology Scouting Must Haves” mini blog post series. For years, businesses have had to perform Technology Scouting the same old way, with a long drawn-out, and very manual, process. Year-over-year, we talk to hundreds of R&D and Innovation experts across multiple industries and we want to share with you what we hear, time-and-time again. During this mini blog post series we’ll introduce common pain points experts talk about often. We’ll identify the technology scouting must haves and the new solutions that exist today....

Read More