Weight of Soft Drinks Shipped > Weight of Cars Shipped
Last week I had a fantastic meeting with the CEO of a mid-sized energy company. We had a number of fascinating conversations ranging from Personality Poker, Open Innovation, and alternative energy. In the meeting, I was drinking my “caffeine in a can” – a diet cola. The CEO pointed at my soft drink and said […]
What Businesses Can Learn About Innovation from Cultural Anthropology
My good friend, Jeff Salz, is a fantastic speaker and a Doctor of Cultural Anthropology. Lately we have had some fascinating conversations about what businesses can learn about innovation through the study of cultural anthropology. To get things rolling, I suggested that there were two areas where the innovation world would benefit from his expertise: […]
Why Edison Was Wrong
Last night I had an enlightening conversation with Alph Bingham, the co-founder of InnoCentive from Eli Lilly. This guy is fascinating! Alph suggested that many people do not like open innovation (external crowd sourcing) because it runs counter to a widely held belief of the R&D community. Researchers often throw around the Edison quote, “I […]
The Open Innovation Formula?
Today we have a guest blogger. In an earlier entry, I held a contest to see who could guess how many ideas were submitted as part of the LG Electronics competition. One of the respondents provided a detailed assumption analysis and complex equations. Although the assumptions proved inaccurate (read the actual answers), I felt that […]
LG Open Innovation Insights
In a previous blog entry, I discussed how LG Electronics used crowdsourcing and open innovation to help design the next generation phone. One of the individuals at LGE associated with the competition was kind enough to answer some questions I had. How many solutions were provided? 835 submissions from 324 individual creatives. What % of […]
Win A Prize! Guess the Open Innovation Numbers
In a previous blog entry, I talked about the LG Electronics open innovation design competition. LGE was kind enough to share some insights with me from that competition, and I will post some of them here on Monday. But before I do, I want to give you a chance to win some prizes (no, sadly […]
It’s Official!
Two weeks ago, I jumped the gun a bit when I announced my new role with InnoCentive. Now it is official. Amongst other things, the press release issued today says… With its new strategic consulting offering, InnoCentive will help organizations benchmark their open innovation readiness, develop custom innovation approaches and advise them on how best […]
Crowdsourcing = Millionaire Lifelines?
During dinner last night, I compared crowdsourcing to the lifelines on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” Imagine you are sitting in the hot seat. The show’s host asks you a question. You are nervous and can’t think straight. You believe you know the answer to the question, but $64,000 is on the line. You […]
The Magic of Innovation
In a previous blog entry, I discussed why watching “Pitchmen” (the Discovery TV show) can give you ideas on how to create more marketable solutions. [Sadly Billy Mays, the show’s co-star, passed away the other day] It is time to admit another guilty pleasure of mine. I also like to watch “Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally […]
Innovation Lessons from Around the House
Last night I was hungry and decided to make some tuna fish. I opened my refrigerator and found an 18 ounce squeeze bottle of mayonnaise. As I started to make my meal, I realized that the mayo had expired 6 months ago. I guess I don’t use it very often because the bottle was still […]