Innovation CHEF

So we are back with another season of RTE’s Dragon’s Den. We had lots of fun last year and I am very glad to have it back again. It might not be the greatest show on earth but it is encouraging and thought provoking at times.

(I actually don’t watch TV  so there may be brilliant stuff on all the time and I wouldn’t know. I heard this was on by hearing a piece on George Hook’s radio show this afternoon. I had been at the American Chamber of Commerce Presidents Lunch which is a different story)

New Season, Same Dragons,  Same laboured puns in the voiceover, ah well. Sarah is writing a book but is she going to be investing?

First up : Jennylynd Jones and her Caribbean food company. In the style of Levi Roots she was looking for cash to further her Caribbean Sauces, cook books and general enterprise. Sounds like a good idea and she was putting some good numbers of sales in front of the panel. Secret recipes are the oldest form of IP and can be the most durable, just ask Coca-Cola. The Dragons seemed fairly impressed and it was a confident pitch. Although having 10 years experience as a food scientist working in R&D and Quality Assurance some of the Dragons seemed most impressed by her frock. She ended up giving away 50% equity in return for 40K. Probably a good deal as this kind of product needs (supermarket) doors opened for it to succeed.

Pitch two was form Daniel,

His product was the Marilyn. This was an air circulation system that you put your clothes horse on top of. Consuming the same power as a 40Watt bulb it could dry a shirt in a couple of hours. I actually was intrigued to see whether this actually had solved any technical constraints and whether there was any innovation here other than just being a couple of floor mounted vertical fans. Alas the program didn’t focus there but more on Daniel’s,hesitant delivery (pure nerves I suspect), the uninspired design and some dodgy assumptions on the go-to-market front. It did seem a little underdeveloped both as a product and as a business. A slimmer, lighter, quieter version could find a niche I suspect. This wasn’t Daniel’s time and he walked away empty handed.

Next up were Mark and Andrew. http://www.greenflame.ie/

The product was a Carbon Neutral Briquette: an artificial log for the fire. As I was watching this I kept thinking “why not buy real logs?” but that wasn’t the point this is a log made from a fast growing low input crop called Misacanthus. These logs are lower ash and a Cleaner and Greener Alternative to a peat briquette.  Sound enough idea. More sustainable biomass fuels, brilliant.

Where the pitch ultimately fell down was in the structure of the business. The business is owned currently by the 35 growers of the crop. A new investor, and the lads were looking for €200K, would be the only one exposed to increases in the cost of crops that would be good for the growers but less good for the profits of the business. This seemed to be too rich and too risky for the Dragons. There didn’t seem to be anything amiss in the business,it just seemed the wrong deal was on the table.

Three Quickies:

• Gerard wanted 30K to set up a “dating” agency between those wanting BER certs for their homes and BER certifiers. Nope
• Cathal wanted 50K for an easy install blind. Nope
• Two blokes wanted 100K for a gift website (of which there are plenty). Nope

Last Up was Herbie.

Herbie was a Barvarian, by way of Donegal. His product was the dead simple solution to the unsightly interface where the soil pipe from your toilet goes into the wall or floor. It is a little plastic circlet that clips on and covers everything up. Pretty and Simple. Much inquiry was made into Herbie’s 26 years in Ireland, pike fishing in Cavan, flights from Munich; and why not, he seems like a good guy. Product wise it seemed strong if easy to copy. I would be confident that the unit cost of the moulded part could be made way way cheaper. Niall the Dragon was right in his assessment that everyone probably could use at least one.  It probably would have a  decent run if it got the right branding and promotion but it feels almost like something you might get for free with your bathroom suite.

Absolutely fair play to Herbie for spotting the gap and getting a product out there and to Gavin who gave him 25K for 40% equity.

I suggest we all go buy one

Previous reviews are here:

Dragons Den week 2
Dragons Den week 3
Dragons den week 4
Dragons den week 5
Dragons den week 6

Excellent Speech by the New President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland.

Lionel Alexander urged politicians and business leaders to ensure that opportunities are taken. He encouraged whole Ireland thinking and not regional sub division, after all Ireland is a small place and duplication has a cost. Lionel spoke about the creation of an “Enterprise Foundry” and of having universities “lift the bar”

“…I have great confidence in the future of Ireland and its people. With the strong base of foreign direct investment we have a significant competitive advantage and we have a large pool of very talented people with the grit and determination to lead Ireland back to prosperity.

“If we stop looking over our shoulders at the Celtic Tiger but focus firmly on how our present advantages and current opportunities can deliver a better future we cannot but succeed.”

Nice little video here. I popped it on the Innovation Video page too. While we look mostly at Innovation in Ireland and in Europe this is an interesting view from Australia that prompted a few thoughts.

The four key barriers to Innovation stated here are:

• Unsupportive Organisational Culture
• Employees lack capability
• funds aren’t allocated to innovation
• Management uncertain about outcomes

I have dealt with all four barriers and pretty much have found them in most countries and organisations. While a lot of companies recognise the second barrier and invest in training of some type or another it is the internal organisational supports that innovation needs most. What this reminds us is that the approach for an organisation must be a whole organisational approach.

The innovating organisation must have some desire for the new and the ability to handle the consequences. A business needs to be excited but recognise the consquences of the opportunity and plan accordingly. I’m a TRIZnik so I’d draw nine windows, think about the consquences and put in some preventative and some corrective actions. Might look something like this:

Once the company chooses an objective then we look at the consequences of that choice.

• What is the level of investment needed to make it successful?
• What is the level of risk?
• What changes does this choice make in the company?
• Does the organisation structure need to change?
• Does the companies motivation/reward/recognition/review methods need to adapt?
• How is the excitement going to be communicated?
• How is this choice and the consequences going to be communicated?

A business needs to face up to risks & changes if it is going to succeed. A business that does not have internal support structures for innovation hits the barriers mentioned above time and time again. A solid buy-in, well and publically communicated. Accommodation of the changes within the way the business is run at a metric and system level is also important.  The complexity of this varies of course. In a startup it’s a mindset change within a couple of people. In a bigger organisation it’s a mindset change among a lot more people and also systems and demonstrated behaviours and procesess.

Interested to hear any examples on this

Just posted over at the Business in Ireland and Irish Business Forums.

Love to get your feedback on what do you need? what do we all need? and whats stopping us?

check it out there or reply here.

Thanks

innovationchef.com is an Irish based blog looking at innovation news, practice & events from a local and global perspective.

Innovation is an incredibly overused and poorly understood term. We have Innovation Policy & the Innovation Taskforce and mantras. Innovate or die! Right?

You may have been turned off or disappointed. You personally might be interested but think you don’t have the time or can’t take the risk. You might have been influenced along the way to feel that innovation is too complicated, distracting or weird for you.

You might want it to be different, now.

In fact:

• The tools to double or triple the numbers of valuable ideas for your business or customers are pretty easy to understand and are straightforward to implement.
• There common limiting beliefs are and mistakes that companies make that sabotage their innovation efforts
• The processes can be engaging and positive.

Love to hear what you need, how you feel about innovation, what is stopping you and whether we could help.

More good Video from TED. In this one Caleb Chung talks about his approach to toy design. This is the guy who invented Furby. I had always seen Furby as some annoying money grabbing TV merchandising thingy but I was wrong. In this presentation Furby is a work of innovation by one individual and his family.

Caleb shows innovation at work. Well actually Innovation at play.

In his innovation personal model he balances Art and Science and wraps the whole lot in business. There is a lot of great stuff that would be familar to designers. He has design and sketch books. He describes the prototype parts as things he basically “gnawed out of plastic” The passion and attention to detail comes across very clearly.  Although his enthusiasm might put him close to the dreaded “nutty professor” image of an inventor this guy is intelligent, disciplined and a family man.

The new(ish) toy Pleo is designed to be a “children’s best friend” and something to love. This is a guy who obviously loves what he does and cares about what he creates.

Enjoy

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, in response to what he calls “the worst global recession of our lifetime” has announced an Innovation Task force to  ensure Ireland is well positioned for ” the global upturn when it comes.”

The idea is that this top team of advisors will create options for the government to ensure an increase in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and have Ireland positioned as an international Innovation Hub with the fabled Smart, Green Economy.

“The Ireland of the future will be a smart, high-value, export-led economy. It will have some of the world’s leading research-intensive multinationals, a number of which will be Irish-owned. It will have thousands of innovative small and medium enterprises,” the Taoiseach said.

Innovation taskforce: membership

• Dermot McCarthy , secretary general, Department of the Taoiseach (chairman)
• Lionel Alexander , vice-president general manager of Hewlett Packard (Manufacturing) Ltd and chairman of the Government’s Enterprise Feedback Group
• Prof Don Barry , president, University of Limerick
• Dr Hugh Brady , president, University College Dublin
• Damien Callaghan , investment director, Intel Capital
• Michael Carmody , president, Institute of Technology Tralee
• Dr Steven Collins , co-founder chief technical officer, Kore Virtual Machines
• Ned Costello , chief executive, Irish Universities Association
• Joe Harford , chairman of the Government’s High Level Action Group on Green Enterprise
• Dr John Hegarty , provost, Trinity College Dublin
• Dr Chris Horn , co-founder of Iona Technologies
• Dr Brian Kelly , founder chief executive, Celtic Catalysts
• Dr Burton Lee , director, European entrepreneurship programme, Stanford University; managing partner, Innovarium Ventures
• John Lynch , chief executive, Merrion Pharmaceuticals
• Tara MacMahon , IP lawyer
• Dan MacSweeney , chief executive, Carbery Group
• Bryan Mohally , vice-president of supply chain operations Europe, Johnson and Johnson
• Mark O’Donovan , director, Raglan Capital
• Barry O’Sullivan , senior vice-president, Cisco Systems
• Dr Paul Roben , president, Celtic Consulting
• Anna Scally , partner, KPMG