News

Fri, Apr 15th 2016
customer insights for innovation form in the brain.

Qualitative, quantitative, big data... With so many customer data sources to draw on for your innovation programme, things can start to feel overwhelming.

You want to review the data and make use of it, but your don’t want to get ‘analysis paralysis’ or slow your innovation process down unnecesarily. Above all you crave ‘insight’ – not data.

With this in mind we’ve put together 5 tips to speed you on your way.

Thu, Apr 14th 2016

When you’re tasked to innovate faster and smarter, and to deliver a greater return on innovation investment, you can feel under pressure.

Then when you try to up your team’s innovation game by developing their innovation skills, you can quickly become bogged down in the learning and development options for innovation; course type, course length, how it’s delivered, who it’s targeted at, how the learning will or will not integrate into your organisation’s established processes...

Mon, Oct 5th 2015

If your company’s performance has been stagnating and even despite your best efforts you’ve been unable to unlock growth then strategic innovation may be just what you need.

Sat, Oct 3rd 2015

Part 1 of this topic discussed how research* has shown that 85-90% of innovation portfolios are made up of low risk projects. As there's a strong correlation between risk and reward, it is likely therefore that most companies are not maximising the return on their innovation investment.

This may be because the leadership team and the organisational culture are risk-averse.

In part 2, we explain more about the nature of  risk in innovation and suggest more ways to manage it.  When teams are confident at managing risk in innovation, they can get greater rewards on their innovation efforts by including some riskier projects in their portfolio.

Fri, Jun 12th 2015

In most things there is a correlation between the level of risk you take and the level of reward you make.

If you and your team can manage risk in innovation better, then you’re going to be able to take on more ambitious projects and get those bigger rewards. Bigger rewards of innovation mean bigger revenues and greater returns on your innovation investment.

Fri, Jun 12th 2015

If you’re not achieving everything you could be achieving in innovation how would you know?

Perhaps you audit your innovation performance. But how are your competitors or other organisations doing? Would you know if they were out-performing you at innovation? Or would you be surprised if they unleashed a rapid fire series of new launches into your market, wowing your customers and luring them away?

Before this happens, we’ll show you how top performers in innovation keep upping their game.

Sun, Apr 12th 2015

Innovation is risky. Sometimes this knowledge can hold organisations and teams back, keeping their focus on small, lower risk projects or even stopping them completely from innovating.

When that happens organisations miss out on the potentially large rewards of more ambitious projects.

However, there are simple steps you can take to make innovation less risky.

Fri, Apr 3rd 2015

Do you find that your well-researched and painstakingly developed innovations are rapidly becoming commodities due to your competitors fighting back intensely and from all around your market position?

Perhaps a new competitor has disrupted your market, undercutting prices to levels that barely cover your overheads? Or, perhaps you feel locked into an ‘arms race’ with your competitors, where you are all offering more and more features and relevant benefits, but unit prices are staying the same or even falling?

 If so, you’re suffering from hyper-competition. And if you read on we’ll tell you what you can do about it.

Wed, Nov 12th 2014

So you’ve managed to get a budget to develop further the skills of your innovation team. Well done!

Now, how  do you ensure that you purchase the type of innovation training that’s going to produce an excellent return on your organisation’s investment?

Tue, Nov 4th 2014

If you consider the role of customer insight in innovation as solely that of a ‘front-end’ activity in preparation for the more visible and tangible invention phase, think again.

Re-appraising insight might be the key to driving even bigger and better innovation success for you and your team.

Wed, Aug 6th 2014

If you think that innovation training is only about learning how to develop new products and services then think again.

Innovation training is much more. In fact, it’s so important that it can literally save jobs and organisations.

Not convinced? Then read on.