BusinessWeek Special Report: Complete List of Articles

Get Creative!
How to build Innovative Companies.
"Listen closely. There's a new conversation under way across America that may well change your future. If you work for Procter & Gamble Co. or General Electric Co., you already know what's going on. If you don't, you might want to stop what you're doing and consider this..."

Old Needs, New Ideas
"Paradigm shifts have not just replaced products, they've revamped the markets the items sell in. Take a look at some of these transformations..."

Bringing Innovation to the Home of Six Sigma
Says GE CEO Jeff Immelt: "We want to make it O.K. to take risks".
"Jeff Immelt is creating a stir at General Electric Co. (GE ) Through the years, GE has produced a string of superlative results using precision management tools such as Six Sigma and by giving execs rich incentives for efficiency. Now Immelt wants to turn GE's buttoned-down ranks into a legion of innovators with a flair for creative thinking. He spoke with BusinessWeek's Diane Brady about his experiences and his expectations."

Section on Innovation and Design on the BusinessWeek website. They call it the Innovation Portal. Great news for us!

A Creative Corporation ToolBox
BusinessWeek Special Report on Doblin

What this means for me, as an innovation consultant with Optimus Solutions, USA, is that we are doing it right! BusinessWeek talks of how companies like Optimus are using anthropology and ethnography to help client companies get more innovative - CUSTOMER-CENTRIC INNOVATION is what we call it at Optimus. Our Innovation WorkGroup is headed by David Wittenberg who has been practicing the above since the last 30 years! So it's definitely not "new" but it's a great feeling to know that companies are waking up to this approach instead of the "3-Day Workshop on Creativity" approach.

At our recently initiated Indian office, we are already talking to three of India's leading organizations in various sectors, how Optimus can help them get innovative and have results to show too.

The biggest contribution of this BusinessWeek article is going to be "CLIENT-AWARENESS". For sometime now, we [the innovation consulting fraternity] have been involved in trying to determine how to make a case for innovation at companies who aren't convinced. Don't get me wrong, the typical workshop approach has it's merits - it increases employee awareness about the concepts of innovation and creativity - but doesn't really contribute to the organization directly - meaning bottomline.

Like everyone else, since I too am a user of various products and services, I know that if a company [who's products / services I used] picked my brains, they'd probably get some good ideas on how to improve their offering. The latest example being the online networking portal openBC - as a user / member I had ideas and they were enthusiastic and receptive enough to ask. Result: they're working on functionalities that other online business networking portals might not even be dreaming of.

For more on Optimus: Visit their website.
For more on openBC: Join my network! and visit my Business Networking Blog
For personal attention: E-Mail me!

Technorati: innovation, creativity, consulting, idea, aside

posted by Naina @ Permalink 7/23/2005 05:20:00 PM   0 comments  --- Google It! ---

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