Dr. Phil Kotler and local CEO's discuss "Winning At Innovation." Weds, Feb 20, 2013
New College of Florida invites Harvard alumni to "Winning At Innovation", an informative lively panel discussion with global marketing strategist Dr. Phil Kotler and local CEO's, who have used innovation to achieve success. $35 Continental Breakfast 8 am
While this is not a Harvard Club of Sarasota Event,
it is one in which we thought our alumni would have interest.
CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS thru New College Website
ABOUT "WINNING AT INNOVATION"
Some companies are well-organized for innovation. Consider Apple, 3M, P&G, Sony, Samsung, Starbucks and many others. Consider that 3M manages 38 core technologies and has placed 50,000 products and 2,000 brands on the market.
So the question becomes: How can an organization become more innovative? How can it search more systematically for new ideas? How can it convert new ideas into more successful launches?
Most companies carry out innovation using a stage-gate method: idea screening, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, market testing and commercialization. Often control of the project moves from one group to another such that the end result rarely matches the initial idea.
Winning at Innovation takes a much more collaborative view of the innovation process. We think more about teams and roles rather than stages. Our view is that, in reality, the stages or phases of an innovation process must be the result of the interaction of those involved in the innovation processes. Certainly, each innovation, depending on the goals and nature of the project, will require its own ad hoc process and sequence. The stages to follow to upgrade a motor are completely different from the stages to follow to improve the quality of a fabric, for instance.
Innovation requires a lot of “coming and going,” returning to the same idea, dismissing it, taking it up again, revising it, looking for more information, designing, realizing that that design is not optimal and that we need to go back to the drawing board. Innovation is not a linear process, rather it is a process that advances, but with much backtracking and detouring.
The A-to-F model introduced here is not an innovation process, but a list of key roles that exist in companies that have shown the best innovation practices in recent years. If a company wants to innovate, it must define and assign these roles to specific individuals who establish goals, resources and deadlines, and then interact freely to create their own process.