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Earlier this week, I sent out my monthly InnovationTools News and Updates, which included a request for reports from anyone who attended the Front End of Innovation conference earlier this week in Boston. Jack Hipple from Innovation-TRIZ is the first innovator who has sent me his thoughts and impressions of this major innovation event. Here's his report:
"A fantastic group of stimulating speakers who sometimes talked about the FFE (fuzzy front end). It's difficult to invite Jack Welch or any of the other academics pushing book sales, and their research programs and tell them what area you want them to focus on. You can only hope. Some did, some didn't. That doesn't mean it wasn't all interesting - it's just that the PDMA (Product Development & Mgmt. Association, a co-sponsor of the conference) folks need to be careful as this conference grows and their resources grow to pay for famous speakers, that they stick to the focus of the meeting, as opposed to letting it drift into a general innovation or product development meeting, led just by famous speakers. The meeting has also managed to maintain a balance of consultants and industry reps, which will be key to future success.
The presentation by the Director of the Boston Symphony on creativity leadership was absolutely the highlight of the entire conference (far surpassing Jack Welch in my opinion!). He kept the audience mesmerized all evening!
As a TRIZ practitioner, one of the reasons I go these meetings is obviously to meet with potential new clients and renew friendships with past clients. But invariably, what I gain are dozens of additional examples of where people have, unknowingly, applied the problem solving principles of TRIZ both in a technical and organizational sense, which gives me much more material to use in future discussions, newsletters, and training workshops. It was also interesting to hear a few presentations from industry innovation 'leaders' who had been asked to rejuvenate or start an innovation program within their companies and these presentations demonstrated some significant learnings from the last wave of these efforts in the 80's and early 90's. Many of the organizational mechanics of these programs have been greatly improved, but no one talked about the people aspects of this that have been highlighted in the past (using social and problem solving style differences to improve the effectiveness of these programs)."
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Jack! |
