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I recently discovered a white paper on innovation that is among the best I’ve seen. Entitled “What Innovation Is: How Companies Develop Operating Systems for Innovation,” it explores the challenges facing innovators today, outlines the leading schools of thought for developing an end-to-end process for innovation, and explains in detail why idea management and TRIZ are two of the most promising tools to achieve this challenging goal.
Written by Howard Smith, CTO of Computer Science Corporation’s European operations, this remarkable white paper provides a highly readable and well-organized overview of innovation methodologies and their pros and cons. In addition, Smith writes extensively about the changing nature of innovation, and shares these fascinating insights:
“In the past, innovation was defined largely by creativity and the development of new ideas. Today the term encompasses coordinated projects directed toward honing these ideas and converting them into developments that boost the bottom line.”
“Often, a complex cocktail of problems limits a company’s ability to innovate… At every stage, from conception of a new idea, through development and commercialization and eventually to marketing and business coming in – hundreds of problems must be resolved. The innovation process is littered with hurdles, both high and low, from new science to creative means of delivery to detailed product architecture, to service concept, to business model. These problems are what innovation is, and it is up to the individual and the teams they work within to solve them.”
Smith is very bullish on idea management software, which can help organizations bring order and process to innovation, as well as provide them with a tool to tap into the ideas of their employees:
“A form of coordinated innovation, idea management solutions supply a starter pack of processes that act as the tipping point for a sustainable innovation program. The approach can generate a long-term corporate memory bank, a central and accessible location to organize, categorize and harvest the constant influx of ideas… Idea management processes close the loop between employees with ideas and senior managers who have the authority, budgets and motivation to make them happen.”
“The intelligent users of idea management are doing far more than idea-fishing; they are focusing the talent of employees by challenging them to solve hard problems, in engineering, in development, in operations and in marketing. Here’s where the real value of idea management lies, not only in the trawl for ideas at the outskirts of the organization, but also in the continued and sustained involvement of all employees throughout the commercialization process.”
Another major theme of this white paper is TRIZ, the inventive problem-solving system that is enjoying a steady increase in popularity among corporate engineers and R&D people, who must constantly grapple in trade-offs – between customer needs and manufacturability, between functionality and cost, and numerous other product development hurdles that involve compromise.
“Surprising as it may sound, TRIZ pulls rabbits from hats, finds needles in haystacks and generates intellectual property. Its systematic approach to innovation is the antithesis of unreliable, hit and miss, trial and error, psychological means of lateral thinking. Its scientific, repeatable, procedural and algorithmic processes surprise all who first encounter them…”
“TRIZ represents… the most complete approach we have for studying the evolution of technical systems and solving problems limiting their development… Whatever TRIZ is, it is impressive. Examination of its databases reveals deep the insight of those who developed them.”
The white paper cites numerous TRIZ success stories, but also outlines several of its potential shortcomings (fragmentation among several competing TRIZ disciplines, the importance of “hands-on” training, for example).
In summary, this white paper is a must-read for innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders everywhere. You won’t find a better synopsis of the “state of innovation” today! |
