“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” — Thomas Edison Many times we try to measure innovation by how many patents and new products emerge from the work. It is best to rethink this logic and see the difference between just inventing something and building a long-term innovation system. True innovation […]

Just how Innovative is your organization?  Beyond the normal measures of percentage of new products sold and evolutionary products in the pipeline, how change-friendly are you? This understanding is critical to your future and famed writer Peter Ducker agrees stating ” The enterprise that does not innovate inevitably ages and declines. And in a period […]

One of the best ways to incentivize great innovation in our industry is to make it a goal to apply for a national new product award. There are many awards in addition to our traditional awards. One of these is the Edison Awards. The Edison Best New Product Awards is an annual competition honoring excellence […]

The Super Bowl just finished with the most innovative team winning 41-33. The Philadelphia Eagles scored a touchdown that made a big difference in the game, and was very innovative. The offense was fourth and goal at the 1-yard line 30 seconds before halftime in the big game against the New England Patriots. Normal logic […]

The builders are back! The recent International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla., put on each year by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), revealed many things — innovative products, many great ideas and lots of people. My first visits to the show were in the early 1980s, and we spent a full week there […]

Happy New Year! We hope your 2018 will be filled with great and powerful ideas. One of the themes that must be advanced by innovative ideas is how we invest in our future innovators now in our school systems. In past blogs, we have discussed the need for involvement by your teams with your local […]

Let’s face it again: Innovation is hard. Great innovation is harder. We are often at odds with multiple groups in the organization on change, on timelines and on costs. Most times the original idea has to adapt to the barriers you encounter, but it is all worth it with a successful innovation project. One of […]

We have known for a long time that consumers have difficulty providing solutions for your innovative product search. As we discussed in past blogs, and as Henry Ford said: “If I asked customers what they wanted, they would say faster horses.” If we ask our customers what innovative door and window products they want, the […]

We all strive to have importance in our work and to have it last. It is very rewarding for your innovation team to realize their work will have a long life. But how do we accomplish this? It seems best to not just create innovation policy but to create an “innovation culture.” First we need […]

At times it is best to take an “opposites” approach when striving to improve your innovation process. We often recommend and use brainstorming and massive idea collection to be innovative. Another approach is to start from within to create meaning and value that customers will delight in. (Easy to say, but hard to do!) This […]