vidi e-novation

Innovative contest of croatian ICT magazine VIDI is the best thing that happened in last years in Croatia, in the field of innovations.
Brochure is available on croatian&english under:link

3 categories of companies

According to annual study from Booz Allen Hamilton, Global Innovation 1000 (link) in which are included the data from 1000 companies all around the world, which are leaders in R&D funding. Companies can be sorted to 3 categories according to corporate strategy and customer undestanding:

1. Need Seekers - invent new-to-market product with breakthrough innovation. Gathering information about customers and analysing they wishes in shaping new products. Already know technology is used in new ways and their are no new inventions.
2. Market Readers - react to what customers buy by carefully watching market - cautiosly entering with incremential changes
3. Technology Drivers - moving to internal research with technological capacities with help of breakthrough innovations and incremential changes. Spotting and analiysing of future technology trends is essential.

Each of these 3 categories can be successful on market, but there are no ovareall innovation strategy. If we are focused only on one company, then it could be said that there is the best inno-strategy for one company - the one which has as most important part syncronisation with corporate strategy and surroundings. It should be conected with company strategy and customers. Research and development must be connected with informations about customer wishes, and all phases of innovation process - from generation of ideas to realisation and marketing, must give attention to customer wishes.

event went fine

I held an inno-event two days ago. It went just fine, I think that participants were satisfied, because the final event of innovation award program, should be as it was - not long, informative and dinamic. Best 4 participants presented thier ideas and I had a presentation about the inno-statistics this year.
The greatest success is to have new ideas coming in after event, and I heard about some new ideas, really :)
The brochure which I made, was read through event as I saw, and it seems like it was good idea to make it(I haven't waste time to make it). It contains all ideas which was succesful in last year as a stimulant for genereating new ideas.

tower energy - utopia or the 'big' solution

This invention is really big! If this proves to be truth, this could be the solution to world energy demand, and then many 'big' things will be solved - one of them is 'global warming', second is oil demand.
I hope that this is it! We need this!
Link

innovation in horror?

Where is the connection between innovation and horrors?
I watched today new horror movie "30 days of night", and scenario is really innovative :) What can be better for a band of vampires, then to have no sun-light for 30 days. That's the story behind this movie. Small Alaskan town is 30 days every year without sunlight, and at the first day there came the vampires!
It's realy not easy to find something new in this genre, so this deserves good note (currently 7.0 on imdb.com)

how to organize an innovation event?

First of all, I got great receipt from managers, almost all of them will come, but not so good from employees, because they are at business trips or they have private reasons. But I expect that 50% will come surely, so the event will survive...

What's the main reason fo this event?
First, I want to reward best innovators in last year, and to 'make them important'. Second, to present the best ideas for all colleagues, but also for the managers on event, but also through the special brochure and intranet site to everybody in the company. This ideas should inspire future innovators, to see that the guy who sits in next room had a great idea, so why can't he have one too?
It took a lot of time for preparation, specially to make 35-page brochure with all participants and their ideas, but I think it's worth, because each year, more and more ideas are submitted.
Also, everyone is aking me about the event, and when will be this year's. It's also a good oportunity to introduce the new posters and awards for new season of innovation program.

nils bohlin

Nils Bohlin - the inventor of three-point-seatbelt - standard in every car today, has invented it in late 50's of last. it was patented in 1958. and by 1963. every new Volvo (Bohlin's company) has seatbelts. This breakthrough saved lots of lives, specially thanks to Bohlin and Volvo, who gave their invention for free to every car manufacturer. Now, to give them a thank, we can at leat say that we all have something from 'Volvo' in our vehicles.

MyCuppaTea/Cofee

If you can better visualise your taste for coffee, then this is the product you've waited. This mugs will help you to make your coffee or tea by matching the colour guide inside. I would love to have it!
Link to MyCuppa website

inno-campaign

Today I faced a dilemma concerning innovation campaigns posters. For a third year in a row, we run an inno-campaign in our firm. First year we had an image of parachuter on poster. Last year we had a picture of american football pitch with two amateur teams preparing for the game.
This year we have to choose from three 'finalist' which was filtered from 6-10 pictures which was looking 'innovative'. We choose the one that looks most connected with our company and which also was the prettiest. It's the picture of offshore windmills and beneath them a little boat. The poster has a message: "Let's sail away in the sea of ideas. Be creative!" (I hope for a good campaign this year)

cat poo cleaner

There are so much of useless inventions, and this seems like a favourite for top positions. But, as there are many cat-lovers on the planet, this may seem as a great idea to get rid of the cat poo :)
So, get your cats into robot (what if robot goes crazy and start to roll the cat! ;)
On this web-site there is the demonstration of this litter-robot:
Litter robot web site

hoverboard scooter

This is what I thought about in last post, when I was talking about future. I would like to drive this vehicle!

top-down vs. bottom-up innovations

Top-down innovations, from one side - innovations promoted by senior managers and bottom-up innovations - ideas given from employees through the organization is two processes, which may sound opposite, but both must be enabled. Why? For good (or great!) innovation process it's essential to have high-level commitment, but also to be oriented to each employee. Only Top-down innovation principle will close the door to every improvement idea which could come from employees including process improvement or for example, introduction of new toll.

the future is here

When I was a child (20-25 years ago), I was thinking about the 21st Century, as a time of living like in SF movies. Me and my friends expected flying cars, robots in every house...

Ok, these products was to futuristic, but let's see what we have in last 10 years: microvawe ovens everywhere, flat-screen TV's, internet, iPods, mobile phones, GPS, online games... We're already living the future :)

promote shadow IT

Excerpt from book: Mashup Corporations: The End of Business as Usual: "Understand that you have capabilities outside your IT department, and use them! Shadow IT is not new and exists in every company. It’s been there, lurking just out of sight of your support teams, not necessarily hidden, but implemented by workers who need new tools, procedures, and workarounds that are not yet acknowledged by IT policies. They use their innovations every day to get their jobs and personal tasks done. With every class of graduating students, a more tech-literate labor force emerges. This labor force is creatively innovating both on and off the offi cial clock. They bring with them new methodologies and models for working that line up directly with service orientation.... Failure to embrace and support Shadow IT in the long run means wasted resources, an inability to maximize the value of your company’s collective candlepower, and lost opportunities."

amazon link

gutter cleaning robot

Looj by iRobot . Little "robot" that cleans the gutters is really nice product. I showed the web-site to my friends, and they loved it too. If it priced like it's mentioned ($99), everybody will love to have it.
youtube video

bijelo-plavi.com

I created a website seven years ago with content about my favorite football club: NK Osijek. Few months ago it was transfered to new domain www.bijelo-plavi.com and new guestbook, forum and gallery was added with re-design of web-site. I hope, that it's an example how small contribution can make a difference. My half an hour or hour per week is generating a content which is viewed from a large number of club's fans.
Forum has already 100 members, and the daily number of visitors is constantly increasing.
The official web-site of NK Osijek is not well accepted by the fans, so my site has the reputation of the best NK Osijek web-site. Fans web-site is strictly related to fans, so my themes related to club's games, form, players and history are unique.

19.20.21

Web-site with presentation of today and future's supercities.
Very interesting is to see the biggest cities in history (1000,1500). I'm astonished that Vienna had the same population in 1900., like it has today. Also world population clock looks marvelous.
http://www.192021.org/

innovation incubator

Yahoo created an offsite incubator called Brickhouse infuse itself with startup energy,(BusinessWeek, Feb. 26). Its job is to shorten the time it takes to bring new ideas to market. "The goal is to take the idea, develop it, and make sure it's seen by senior management quickly. They need to iterate, see customer reactions, and launch fast.

How does the Brickhouse model work? Any of Yahoo's 13,000 employees can submit proposals for possible new products. Up to 200 ideas are submitted each month. A council of five top company executives, votes for only the best five to 10. Before Brickhouse began, there were far fewer suggestions and they tended to be brief one-liners. Now, employees post screenshots, create mock-ups, present cases, and describe potential hurdles.

programmer comic

don't fall in love with your idea

This is the topic which is important for all innovators. It's important not to fall in lova with your idea, because you wan't see the improvements which can be made to advance your innovation.
It's also important to sometimes let go your idea. Then you can go to the next idea without 'regrets' to an old one.

web 2.0

In 19th Century people had only books which was printed from small number of publishers. In 20th Century Radio and TV broadcasted content for masses. at the on of the century Web Pages entered into human lifes with it's content and with many web-masters among us.

In this Century Video has gone to Internet where everybody can be the author and the star of the day. Everything is shared and with Web collaboration, we are somehow again in the similar situation like in 19th Century concering the document sharing.

Of course, now the number opportunities are bigger and we can exchange thoughts and new ideas not only on forums or comment sites, but also on Blogs and Wikis. The Web 2.0 is providing every home with technology which is not needed to be bought or self-installed. At last this blog is also one product of it!

personal flag

What a great web site:

http://www.wearemulticolored.com/

you can create your own flag with flags of the country of your origin and the one that affects you or you dream about going to.

water-ads

I like this product! Ads that clean streets

This is the text from: http://www.springwise.com/

The British company's Street Art service uses high-pressure cleaning machines to wash brands, logos and adverts onto dirty pavements. First, clients provide their design, and SAS turns it into a giant stencil. Then, working at night, the SAS team blasts the stencil with water and steam on dirty walls, roads, pavements or even road signs. The result is a sparkling clean image in the shape of the company's logo or message. Nothing but water and steam are used, and it's all perfectly environmentally friendly and legal, SAS stresses.

The idea for the service, which launched last year, came to founder Kristian Jeffrey out of sheer frustration. Jeffrey explains: "I run several small online businesses, and was searching for cost-effective advertising to attract consumers to my sites. My potential customers were walking around me every day, and it was when I was walking through the dirty streets of London that the idea came to me: why not take advertising literally to the street? Having experimented with several different methods, we wanted to apply a technique that was not just eye-catching and effective but also friendly to the environment. What could be more natural than water?"

catnapping

I can do it, but catching an hour or two of sleep sometimes can be very useful thing. It's surely refreshing and Margharet Thatcher, Winston Churchill were masters of catnap, as it's also Richard Branson - I took this from his book(Screw it, let's do it).

process innovation - zara

One example of process innovation is spanish fashion label Zara. They don't spend money on commercials, because they are spreading their 'brand' with verbal communication between customers and with their label on little bags.

Zara has the possibility to quickly respond on market demands, from their factory in La Coruna. They have innovative manufacturing proces, which allows them to be quick in responding to market demand and to send clothes which are selling good to their shops, and they also do some re-designing in that time. Only 15-25% of clothes are produced before the season and 50-60% in the start of the season. All other clothes is produced during the season according to customer wishes.

They are producing 12.000 different model of clothes per year, that's 4-6 more then competitors.

Design which has no good responce is withdrawn, and new design will be in shops in 3 weeks.

baby TV

If we had ask people 20 years ago, do they need cell phone, we will get an answer in most cases "Why would I need it?". If we had ask teenagers 20-30 years ago, do they need a music television, they wouldnt know the answer. The consumer don't know what they need, so MTV has become an icon for teenagers and the success of cellphone is well known.

One occasion, when I was feeling like a consumer is when I subscribed to IPTV only because of one channel which I couldn't receive via satelite dish or via terrestial TV. I think that I'm not the only one, who will say "Long live Baby TV!".

For all new parents, this TV channel is blessing which can keep babies interested in moments when Mum or Dad has something else to do. Every time when I see my son how is he watching Baby TV, I think about how good is this idea!

Simple cartoons with big, colourful images and songs for babies, which are adapted for babies keeps them interested, so you must get them out of watching it, if you want to stop it. There are no commercials and the programm is made in accordance with child phihologists so it stimulate baby for upgrowth and learning.

the business of innovation

The interesting show was broadcasted on CNBC half a year ago - www.innovation.cnbc.com, here is some interesting excerpts:

Companies that are successful innovators and which are able to sustain innovation over time are the ones that create a culture in which innovation can happen at any level at any time. They create a Culture of Innovation.

Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future says managing innovation “…means cultivating an environment where lightning can strike twice.” So how does a company do this?

What these successful companies discover is that they need to embrace the act of attacking their cherished beliefs and traditional ways of doing things in order to take their products, services and customers to the next level. Saffo says, “Failure is the foundation of innovation”.

Roger Schank: (1)Innovators aren't just innovative about products. They're innovative about every aspect of their lives. They don't live their lives the way everyone else does.// And so, they don't honestly fit in very well.

(2)You know why people don't innovate? They're afraid of being told they're stupid. "You know, what a dumb idea that was." People hate that. So, they have to feel like they're in a comfortable environment to have an idea. And typically corporations are not environments for radical, game changing ideas.

inno corner

In every location or building in company, there should be the small innovation corner. It should have a shelf with innovation magazines which are pubilshed inside the company or corresponding outsider magazines. Also, if there is a innovation program inside the company, it should be announced with broshure, poster or/and leaflet on that corner.
This should be the place where somoeone who wants to dring a tea or coffee alone could come and read something interesting and inspiring.
So, only thing needed is a shelf, magazines and a place for that!

idea campaigns

It's always the question, is it better to give a system a try, with just advertizining innovation inside the company or launch an idea campaign?

Idea campaign with good incentives can result with big number of filed ideas, but the quality of these ideas can be doubtful. There's also the issue, can you hadnle big number of ideas the same time, and how it will effect to innovation climate inside company if big number of filed ideas will be refused.

Something is the middle is the anwer: have an idea campaign, but let it go for the whole year, and after it launch the next one. then I would call it: Idea programm. There will be no pressure to file an idea before some deadline, and everybody will have the feeling that they can win one more incentive, except the standard one. Great thing with idea programm is that it can have own name and slogan, so that you can fill the company coridors with posters of your idea campaign.

japan's inno offensive

I saw today an article in Red Herring, where innovation strategy of Japan's goverment is described.

What's interesting is that Japan is planning to reform scholl and university system in order bring their young people more to other countries(continents) and to have more time before deciding about future career.

Other requirements, such as 'increase investment in science and technology' may sound normal.

After so many talks about China and India, it's good to hear something from one of the world's most innovatiing country.