Innovation CHEF

Here it is – a sneak peak into the Innovation Labs at InnovationChef.

There has been a lot of work behind the scenes with a crack group of co-conspirators with the aim of bringing a lot of new ideas and features your way.

There will be webinars, live training and some really special content.

This is really great stuff and I’ve enjoyed putting it together.

I would say watch this space…

…and you can…

…but if you have some cool ideas or want to get on board NOW is the time to act.

In the Lab:

• There is going to be a monthly Webinar on Innovation and Creativity. I’ve got some excellent folks lined up to share their knowledge on core (and tangential) topics.
• I’ve been helping out a Irish Startup company who have some amazing ideas around innovation put their training packages together.
• Exclusive content from one of the latest and hottest Irish authors on Innovation.

Never been a better time to subscribe.

I’m always keen to hear what is really needed.

email me or catch me on twitter.

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Heads up for all those interested in Open Innovation in Ireland. Henry Chesbrough is in Belfast next month giving a lecture called “Open Innovation – a New paradigm for R&D” 

The guys at the Research & Regional Services group have kindly agreed to share the invitation with readers of InnovationChef.com

Here are the details:

You are invited to an

 INNOVATION LECTURE

as part of the InterTradeIreland All-Island Innovation Programme

Open Innovation

- a New Paradigm for R&D

presented by

Professor Henry Chesbrough

Director of the Centre for Open Innovation

University of California, Berkeley

Tuesday 10 November 2009 (6.00pm)

The Great Hall, Queen’s University Belfast

The concept of Open Innovation advocates that companies can no longer keep their own innovations secret. The key to success is creating an open platform around your innovations so your customers, your employees and even your competitors can build upon them. Only then will you create an ongoing, evolving community of users, doers and creators.

 

Today, in many industries, the logic that supports an internal and centralised approach to R&D has become obsolete. This change creates a new logic of open innovation that embraces external ideas and knowledge in conjunction with internal R&D. However, companies must still perform the difficult and arduous work necessary to convert promising research results into products and services that satisfy customers’ needs. Innovators must integrate their ideas, expertise and skills with those of others outside the organisation to deliver the result to the marketplace, using the most effective means possible. In short, firms that can harness outside ideas to advance their own businesses, while leveraging their internal ideas outside their current operations, are likely to thrive in this new era of open innovation.

 

Henry Chesbrough is Executive Director of the Centre for Open Innovation at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.  He has a unique background as both a practitioner and researcher having spent 10 years in senior product planning and strategic marketing positions in Silicon Valley. His research interests include a focus on innovation; managing R&D; technology-based spin-offs; corporate venture capital; and evolution in high-technology industries in the US, Europe and Japan.  His book, Open Innovation, articulates a new paradigm for organising and managing R&D.  This book was named a “Best Business Book” by Strategy & Business magazine.

CoContact:

regional@qub.ac.uk. to get more details and for your invite.

TESCO, the mighty UK retailer, had a one day, invitation only, event recently. 70 customers spend the day creating new ideas on ways the supermarket could improve their online shopping experience and could further use the power of the internet. This kind of customer involvement has become much more common recently with companies such as LEGO & proctor & Gamble using customer insights and especially power users to build new products and services.

800 ideas were generated and then voted on. The “winning” idea was the T-Scanner – this device hangs on a keyring and enables a customer to collect barcodes of grocery products that the liked as they go around their business in daily life.

I wonder how much it would take to incorporate this function into a smart mobile phone. Take photos that are recognised as barcodes and are collected as such. Can then be uploaded automatically to your online shopping account through the web or even text. Is there some iphone developer out there already on the case?

TESCO also previewed the supermarkets new API. Includes an ‘ideas inbox’ —  this is a multimedia
storage area that can hold text, images, audio and
video. Customers don’t have to immediately translate
ideas into products on a shopping list but can instead store a photo
of the label on a bottle of wine they are enjoying in a restaurant, or
a spoken phrase, as reminders to be brought up when they compile their
shopping list.

The supermarket also revealed more about its affiliate
scheme, which allows developers to earn awards based on attracting new
customers and the contribution their application makes to a customer’s
grocery order.

Henry Chesbrough of Open Innovation fame gives a very detailed presentation of his material in this 2004 video presentation to the Xerox PARC community. He puts forward the idea that innovators need to become conversant with the principles of IP management in order to be able to access external technology and maximize the return of investment of their own labs.

Check it out here.

Of course this is preaching to the choir here.

A complete innovation delivery has to include some consideration of what happens when you are successful! Basic knowledge around Patent Law isn’t hard to understand. A business that depends on technology requires an IP strategy to protect and grow THE BUSINESS.

If you are in the Business of Innovation I would fully recommend “The Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Licensing” course organised and delivered by the Licensing Excecutives Society Internal (LESI)

I would not for a minute diminish the important role your attorney or patent agent will play. Some things are clearly too important to do in a DIY fashion. Innovators who understand IP and businesses that understand IP and have developed strategies will use their legal resources more effectively and get much better value.

I have probably spent as much time involved in the management of IP as I have in Innovation practice and see the benefits that having both bring.

Interested in Feedback of course…

Innovating is often a result of really wanting to do something and having a different approach from everyone that has tried it before. I heard a few keen go-getters with diverse stories this evening on the radio.

I very much enjoyed the Global Village show on Newstalk this evening. It is a bit of a recent find for me but one I enjoy a lot.The program is a warm hearted embrace of those that have come from other places to make Ireland their home.  The website claims 188 nationalities have made their home in Ireland, my own family can claim three of those, so I have an interest.

The presenter Dil Wickremasinghe is enthusiastic and lively and engages with her guests in a warm and relaxed way. The mix of backgrounds and personal histories is always fascinating.

This week is the first in a series of chats with local election candidates who have immigrated to Ireland over that last number of years. Listening to their ideas, excitement and eagerness to get things done for their communities has been the only thing that has snagged my attention in this campaign so far. The issues they are facing are the same ones that have always been present: homelessness, injustice and the sustainable growth of a community.

Fresh Thnking and perspectives get my vote.

Check out the Global Village, Saturday nights at 9. Dil is also managing director of  Diversity & Equality Works which is worth a look too!

Crowdsourcing meets ethnographic studies in the true emerging markets of the world. Nokia asks the question: what would you design for an 18 year girl in India? A young man in a refugee camp in Ghana? A family in Rio? 

In this incredible video from the LIFT08 conference Younghee Jung talks about how Nokia explored the different usages of their mobile phones by customers to gain valuable insight on future products design. In a project called Nokia Open Studio the company recruited local teams to run a design competition in the Shanty towns of Rio, Mumbai and Accra.

The products that people design reflect the lives they lead in floods, limited electricity, gunfire and police confrontations. The designs are original, honest and often heartbreaking.