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.

Fri, Jul 15th 2011

Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur doesn’t look like your average business book. It’s published in landscape format, it’s packed with drawings and has lots of pictures, colour and white space. Yes, ‘the designers’ have got to it. But does it stand up as more than just a ‘beautiful thing’?

Sun, May 15th 2011

News that the trend forecasting industry has grown to an estimated $36 billion dollars, suggests that trend forecasting information is becoming increasingly important to innovators and designers.


And, with the industry having achieved such scale, perhaps we should question who is really driving the trends we see on the catwalk and the high street these days – designers or trend forecasters?

Sun, May 15th 2011

What are the important personal qualities and character traits that an innovation manager should have?


The list is potentially a long one - future orientation, interest in novelty, leadership, resilience and so on. However, if I were pushed to determine the single most important quality, I would say open-mindedness.

Sun, May 15th 2011

The authors of Gamestorming promise that by “imagining, creating and exploring possible worlds, you will open the door to breakthrough thinking and real innovation”. What’s more, the ‘games’ they describe in their book can help us do this. So how well does it deliver?

Fri, Mar 18th 2011

Are you using social media to help with innovation?

Facebook and Twitter are now an established part of many people’s lives. As such, any business looking to communicate with customers and potential customers must at least consider using social media.

Fri, Mar 18th 2011

Many markets appear saturated these days. Analysis may reveal that established players dominate and that the required marketing spend to compete presents a high barrier to entry. It’s enough to put off many potential entrants.

But look again and you may be able to see such markets with ‘fresh eyes’. You might be able to spot the traditional business model, predictable marketing strategy and well worn distribution strategy...and find scope to innovate.

Fri, Mar 18th 2011

Struggling to differentiate your crowdsourcing from your customer co-creation? Grappling with protecting versus managing intellectual property(IP)?


Don’t worry, help is at hand in the form of a new book.


Comprehensive and practical help! That’s our overall verdict on Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing, edited by Paul Sloane.

Mon, Jan 17th 2011

With a New Year ahead of us, research companies and forecasters of trends in various fields are loudly proclaiming their wares, namely the new trend forecasts they have produced. It’s a reminder of the importance of us drawing on trend information to inform our innovation initiatives.


So, how can we use this data effectively? Here's 3 ways you may want to experiment with.

Mon, Jan 17th 2011

With its prediction of four decades of declining GDP for Europe and North America relative to Asia, a recent report by PWC could make depressing reading.

Maybe publishing such demoralising predictions is intended to galvanise board members of large corporations into giving the consultancy a call.

Bad news sells newspapers, but pessimism and fear are distinctly unhelpful when it comes to innovation. 

So let’s remove a little of the emotion...

Mon, Jan 17th 2011

As innovators, we all know that identifying hidden needs is fundamental to new proposition development. With the phrase frequently bandied about in R&D facilities, marketing departments and boardrooms around the world, it’s strange perhaps that only now do we have a book on the topic.

So, how well does this title equip us to identify hidden needs in our chosen sector? A competence, we are told by the authors, that is critical to innovation success.