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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Ideas Campaign 1.0

New site launched this week to much Fanfare.TheIdeasCampaign.ie. Submit your ideas during the month of March on how to save the Irish Economy and the best will be presented as an action plan to the goverment in April. Front page of the Irish Times and comments from Brian Cowen no less. Cue up a little controversy around PR firms and other people hi-jacking the Ad-Words and you have the perfect little blizzard to attraction some attention. But will it also attract some good ideas?

As usual, InnovationChef is totally on board for getting some new ideas out there and encouraging new thought. If this works as a provocation for you to have some new ideas and the team of experts can synthesise an action plan through combination and development of those ideas then get on board and add your idea.

This is an idea campaign: maximise involvement, set duration of time, fixed deliverables.
= Best Practice.

Not recommended for your business as a source of future success.

The suggestion box concept is an old one and its effectiveness as a tool is largely based on the environment in which it is used. As a simple means for feedback or anonymous gatherer of questions it is a mainstay of restaurants and workplace canteens. As a source of new ideas it has proven to be highly dependent on other factors. The biggest factor is of course whether on not the community of potential idea submitters/idea benefiters actually see any value being generated. Usually – following a big splash – the first couple of ideas are implemented and unless it gets bedded down quickly as part of the culture with top level support it fades and fades fast.

Suggestion boxes often collect ideas about what other people should be doing. The Government should be doing this, Marketing should be doing that. The most effective idea promotion strategies encourage people to improve what they are doing themselves, what they can effect.

The companies that excel at this are Toyota with its LEAN concepts. Management in Toyota is there to encourage their reports to implement new ideas, not just suggest them. The best ideas are the ones that make the line run faster, the product better and the workplace safer. In Stena, the shipping and ferry company everyone is expected to deliver new ideas and they are measured on not only how many ideas are suggested but the impact of those ideas.

The Idea Campaign may be about ideas that could be done by government. The Real Idea Challenge is about what we can do, within our own sphere of influence to make things better.