Innovation Management Platform and Process win Australian Business Award

The innovation management platform David Abrahams and I designed and built has earned Insurance Australia Group the 2009 Australian Business Award for Innovation.

Not bad for a bespoke system. Why has it pushed aside other more established and well funded innovation management platform providers, like the Salesforce and Deloitte offerings?

Well, here’s why:

• it was custom designed for the corporate environment
• it is truly end-to-end, being that it manages all aspects of innovation from idea initiation to idea management, reporting and as a carrier of the creative culture
• it is easy to use for initiators and for the business – simplicity has always been my key requirement and once any aspect looked like it was going to be too difficult for participants, it was back to the pub with the butchers paper and crayons for a review and revise session over a beer or three with Dave
• it is easy on the eye with simple and descriptive icons
• its in built processes drive accountability in the business, so no idea gets filed away in someones desk never to see the light of day again
• it recognises creative effort through reporting and community tools
• the business owns the data
• the system delivers approx 95% self sufficiency in terms of changing the look and feel and function/structure

So, nice award, now…what are the risks?

…it’s not just a system, it’s a culture

The main risk is that without the right community manager, the initial momentum and excitement will be gradually diluted. The person or team adminstering the tool are also responsible for promoting/marketing the tool, feeding back relevant information to participants and the business in always changing and interesting ways.

That person or team need to be the very visible face of the tool so that the community have a human link to the platform.

…it can be harder to keep employees interested and motivated than your customers

This is very much a self-promotion thing and if your adminsitrators are the modest, shy and retiring types…the system is doomed. Building and driving a culture of creativity across any large organisation requires energetic and motivated individuals who aren’t scared to constantly promote themselves and the system.

Customers catch fleeting glimpses of your marketing strategies, however employees are a captive audience and as such, things get familaiar, tired and staid quickly. Keeping the culture fresh….also applies to the system itself…

…keep it fresh

Another significant risk which I alluded to in the previous post, is that the business does not accept the need to fund the evolution of the system itself. In terms of web technologies, the system I designed for IAG is quite dated today and there are significant opportunities to improve user experience and back-end functions.

This is about keeping the technology aligned to what participants are experiencing in the web space outside of the work environment; with web technologies improving so quickly, it doesn’t take long for participants to make the distinction between old technologies and new. If you fall over here, you will lose your audience very quickly.

Having said all that, congrats to IAG, hope you can win again next year.

 

Capturing, Managing and Sharing Ideas: Revisiting System, Process and Community

It’s been a while since I wrote about idea management platforms; lots has changed and new opportunities to improve have been revealed since then in terms of technologies, processes and web community behaviours.

The first system I designed was a category driven platform that worked like this:

Add an idea (Idea Initiator):

1. select a category for your idea

2. select a sub-category (based on previous selection)…etc as relevant

3. add a title for the idea

4. describe the idea

5. submit the idea

6. receive confirmation email

Managing the ideas (Category Owner):

1. assign a category to a dedicated category owner

2. recieve email notification – (time to action clock starts ticking)

3. reviewes idea and contacts initiator for more detail as required

4. applies appropriate action to idea

5. initiator receives notification of action/comments applied to idea

6. action & comments are posted for community view & comment

>>Opportunities to improve:

In time sensitive environments like call centres, taking time to find the right category for your idea can be time consuming and distracting. I have observed that the most relevant, customer-focussed ideas come from areas where there is direct contact with the customer, but often those flashes of raw brilliance while the customer is on the phone or facing you, can be diluted by the time you dig through the category tree and arrive at the description section.

Looking at the Category Ownership aspect, the opportunity to improve provides for increased flexibility, visibility and accountability around the way ideas are managed and shared within that community.

This improvement can be enabled through the use of tagging.

At a high-level, this is the way tagging can make it quicker and easier for the idea initiator to articulate the opportunity to improve.

Add an idea (Idea Initiator):

1. input the description of your idea

2. submit

Meanwhile, throughout the business, interested parties have ’subscribed’ themselves to certain keywords/phrases that are relevant to their part of the business and for which they would like to receive alerts should an idea come though that contains those keywords or phrases in its description.

Managing the ideas (Category Owner):

1. subscribe to keywords/phrases of interest

2. receive notification of match/es

3. comment and/or take ownership of idea

4. apply relevant action and comments

This way, categories are flexible and actually determined by initiator input, as opposed to being dictated by the system.

Additionally, anyone in the business can ’subscribe’  to any keyword or phrase, giving more people more visibility of ideas that are coming through. Criteria can be set in the system to indicate which subscriber each idea is most relevant to based on their subscriptions and where they sit in the business.

Once someone decides to take ownership of an idea, the rest of the business gets immediate visibility of that fact and can interact directly with the owner in need.

In terms of system design and architecture, this model is a significant improvement. It is true web2.0 in the way content is driven and managed by the entire community, rather than constricing input to architectural design, organisational structure and categorisation.

After obtaining funding and support to develop the initial system, the challenge for the innovation/community manager will be to get the improved system across the line. A forward thinking decsion maker/wallet holder, will have no hesitation approving the new system, and in fact will be open to ongoing system enhancements and improvements as web technologies and communities dictate. I do however feel for those of you who had to struggle to get your initial system approved; this is a change piece that you have to work through and gain support for.

I have developed detailed mock-ups of an improved system that operates as described, if you want to know more about the design and processes, email me: ericimbs@gmail.com

 

Ideas: The New Commodity

My high-level, naive view of commodity markets is ‘Commodity markets are markets where raw or primary products are exchanged’.

Once exchanged, a series of activities takes whereby those commodities change hands once, or a number of times, in raw or processed form in order to reach the end user/consumer.

Every bottle of juice or packet of bacon, started as a raw commodity that was transformed into  consumable product.

Similarly, every product & process began in raw form…an idea.

I don’t want to waffle on about this; you know where I’m headed. I have a head full of ideas on ways ideas can be traded for commercial benefit in a high volume environment, but more on that later.

I think it was Seth Godin (Unleashing the Idea Virus) who said the currency of the future is ideas and I think we need to start thinking about how we can harness what essentially is a raw material with unlimited scope and potential in terms of what it can deliver through the processing phases.

Back to trading ideas as commodities: next step for me is to create a wireframe mock-up of a commodity trading platform under these umbrella requirements:

• it is easy to put forward ideas
• there is a checkin/verification process (uspto integration???)
• a clear and documented trail to establish and maintain ownership
• people submitting ideas are rewarded
• people buying ideas have ample protection
• it is a community tool
• no-one gets preferential treatment in terms of opportunity to present ideas

Now, I can design and develop proof of concept and a high level business requirements document, but I will need ample funding for this one…

 

Idea Generation Evolutionary Path

In previous posts on this blog, I have highlighted the importance of making it easy for people to put forward ideas. As long as a few simple rules are respected by the platform administrator, a self-perpetuating, evolutionary growth-path can be observed in which participant ideas decline in volume and increase in quality. 

Having designed large-scale, bespoke innovation management platforms coupled with the added mandate of promoting the system and driving the culture, has made it easy to observe the way idea initiation behaviours mature and how much more well considered each idea becomes (provided the feedback is constructive and consistent).

We also observe a reduction in duplicated ideas as the community spends more time viewing others’ ideas and commenting or promoting the original idea rather than duplicating.

The graphic below illustrates the typical behavioural path that motivated participants tend to follow:

• I will use this tool to put forward all my great ideas
• I have had some constructive feedback &/or recognition for my creative effort
• I’ll put more ideas forward
• I keep getting feedback/R&R
• Taking time to reflect on quality of previous ideas
• I’ll do some checking before I submit my next idea (perhaps to reduce duplication, assess viability, do a reality check, etc)
• Quality of feedback/R&R improves as the quality of my idea increases, but I am submitting fewer ideas
• I have become better at identifying AND framing opportunities

This evolutionary path can only be successful if supported by robust R&R & Feedback mechanisms.

On a global scale, we can now have a serious conversation about Ideas being the new Safe-Haven commodity…stay tuned for my next post.

 

Time to Shine

We need ideas…and lots of them. 

Economies around the world are dealing with a serious downturn and one of the key defining aspects are the large number of different strategies being thrown at the problem in order to stop the bleeding.

That’s a good thing…kind of; I’ve always said, the more ideas you can get, the better placed you are to convert a winner.

The more random and unconstrained the idea creation proces is, the more likely you are to obtain a solution/s that is/are revolutionary and sets a new, positive course that can then evolve and improve. 

Here’s the ‘however’ to that: What I am seeing is a raft of new ideas and strategies to put economies back on course, but the rigour behind the way those ideas are transperantly processed, assessed and prioritised is being neglected in the haste to implement.  This flows on to the way success (or not) is measured.

This can cause some long term damage to the business improvement creative process as failures due to poor idea assessment and prioritisation actually end up reflecting on the idea creation process. This in turn compromises the efforts of creative advocates and Community Managers as they try to establish a free thinking and open creative culture and framework within the business.

Now is the time to encourage creative activity and get the ideas flowing, but don’t allow the urgency to compromise your assessment, prioritisation, implementation and measurement process/es.

 

Using google ads to get more twitter followers: sad or breakthrough idea??

Before you read this post, please check the LOÏC LE MEUR BLOG blog and read the comments.

 

I received a tweet from Ryan Graves this week about people who are buying Google Ads to acquire Twitter followers. I think for most folks, the initial reaction was: ‘Loser’, ‘Sad’, ‘try-hard’, etc etc.

 

I understand this perspective because it appears to be an attempt to win a popularity contest, which is of course doomed to crash and burn unless there is some substance and benefit to the those who click through the ad and follow…

 

…let’s pop on some spectacles with lenses with a slightly stronger lens power and look beyond twitter’s current application. I’m just thinking out loud and throwing down some scenarios here, but how about Twitter as an emergency storm warning system?

 

State and/or fedral authorities purchase Google Ads to promote the follow, and users can select a location and ‘opt-in’ to follow storm warnings for their region.

 

The next step is to extend this charitable example to a more commercial endeavour…

 

I hope I’ve changed the way you regard this concept and expect to see heaps more people doing the Google Ads thing on Twitter…post-haste!!!!

 

Innovation: More automation, fewer jobs???

I think Janet Rae-Dupree speaks with such eloquence on this topic, that I have simply cut and paste her article from NY Times 3rd Jan 09:

CREATING new jobs is a good way to get America’s economy moving again. That’s not the controversial part of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plans. As usual, the devil is in the details. And innovation advocates fear that if the devil runs amok, a short-sighted emphasis on jobs over long-term productivity may bog down the economic recovery.

The problem, as they see it, is a centuries-old misconception that innovation is synonymous with automation, which in turn leads to the elimination of jobs.

“If you invest in a technology that makes something more efficient, the fear is that people will be put out of work,” says Kevin Efrusy, the venture capitalist whose firm Accel Partners is the lead funder of several important Silicon Valley start-ups, includingFacebook. “But it’s just the opposite. When anything becomes cheaper, we consume a lot more of it. The overall economic effect is, you create and expand entire new industries and employment goes up.”

According to a 1995 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, periods of high productivity — often achieved through automation — were correlated with periods of high job growth throughout the last half of the 20th century. “Innovation leads to job growth directly and clearly,” says Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The data collected since that study was published continue to prove the point, he says, noting that even with the trend toward off-shoring earlier this decade, unemployment rates in the United States remained quite low until the recent economic downturn began.

While creating jobs by upgrading the nation’s physical infrastructure may help in the short term, Mr. Atkinson says, “there’s another category of stimulus you could call innovation or digital stimulus — ‘stimovation,’ as a colleague has referred to it.” Although many economists believe that a stimulus package must be timely, targeted and temporary, Mr. Atkinson’s organization argues that a fourth adjective — transformative — may be the most important. Transformative stimulus investments, he said, lead to economic growth that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

A new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation presents the case for investing $30 billion in the nation’s digital infrastructure, including health information technology, broadband Internet access and the so-called smart grid, an effort to infuse detailed digital intelligence into the electricity distribution grid.

The stimulus money, he says, is “a wonderful opportunity” to integrate innovative technologies at a far faster pace than would otherwise be possible. “You’d have an economy and society within three to four years that would be a lot better than we have today,” Mr. Atkinson says, “and you’d create a lot of jobs.”

Beyond direct stimulus investments, he supports an initiative being circulated in Silicon Valley that seeks an information technology investment tax credit to foster innovation through the downturn.

Citing an Op-Ed essay on Nov. 30 in The New York Times by the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, the Silicon Valley petition calls for a tax credit for companies that spend more than 80 percent of what they had been spending annually on information technology like computers and software.

The petition’s creator is David Thompson, the chief executive of Genius.com. “I think it’s great that they want to build more highways and bridges,” Mr. Thompson says, “but if you really want to invest in long-term job viability you need to invest in the innovation economy.”

Various organizations have previously backed such a tax credit specifically for clean technologies, biotech and broadband development. But TechNet, an advocacy group for the technology industry, is pushing for a tax credit that would underwrite innovation more broadly.

“Innovation is the lifeblood of the American economy,” says Jim Hock, a spokesman for TechNet. “We’re only as good as our next innovation. TechNet believes we shouldn’t be picking and choosing technologies to back with a tax credit. We should be technology-neutral and create an atmosphere of innovation that will let a thousand flowers bloom.”

Mr. Stiglitz, who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1995 to 1997, noted in an interview that there has been a slow divergence between traditional economics and what may be called innovation economics.

“I’ve been a bit astonished that all the discussion around the private-sector stimulus has centered on infrastructure,” he said. “Bailouts, too, are aimed at correcting mistakes of the past, so they are backward-looking. We would be much better off spending our money forward-looking. If we spend $700 billion on new technology and innovation, we’d have a stronger, new, real economy. Up to now, the discussion has focused on the sectors that have been mismanaged rather than the sectors that are creating our future.”

Geoffrey A. Moore, a partner with Mohr Davidow Ventures and author of five best-selling business books, says that whatever form the government stimulus takes, it must focus on the nation’s greatest strength.

“America is probably the best culture in the world at failing,” he said. “We’re willing to navigate in a fog and keep moving forward. Our competitive advantage tends to be at the fuzzy front end of things when you’re still finding your way. Once the way has been found, we’re back at a disadvantage. So, yes, investing in innovation is critical.”

Janet Rae-Dupree writes about science and emerging technology in Silicon Valley.

 

Innovation Management as a component of the CI Cycle

Innovation Management as Part of the CI Cycle Google Pres

No matter what, I could not get the .ppt to load on this page, sorry guys you’ll have to use the link.

It’s come up a little ugly and the links I’ve embedded don’t work, so I’ll make some adjustments and update as appropriate.

 

 

Intro: Social Software for Business

Some of our clients know they have to get their customers and employees more engaged through the use of the super popular social software technologies they see in the public domain. We consult with them to help them better understand the opportunities as they relate to that business and as such, there are some specific things that won’t apply to everyone…and then there are.

This presentation should provide the social web novice with some insight and fuel some thought for how the opportunities might relate to their business.

social_software_for_biz_071

 

Collective Intelligence/Crowdsourcing

Collective intelligence (CI) can also be defined as a form of networking enabled by the rise of communications technology, namely the Internet. Web 2.0 has enabled interactivity and thus, participants are able to generate their own content.

Collective Intelligence draws on this to enhance the social pool of existing knowledge. Henry Jenkins, a key theorist of new media and media convergence draws on the theory that collective intelligence can be attributed to media convergence and participatory culture. Collective intelligence is not merely a quantitative contribution of information from all cultures, it is also qualitative.

Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design and distributed participatory design), refine an algorithm or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).

The term has become popular with business authors and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0technologies to achieve business goals