Second cycle of Training of Trainers Idea Management

Second cycle of Training of Trainers “Idea Management: Creativity & Innovation” Davide Branco, MSc Tashkent, Uzbekistan 5 th November 2014 This project is financed by the European Union 1 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

ICE-BREAKING: Thinking outside the Box The "nine dots" puzzle; the goal of the puzzle is to link all 9 dots using four straight lines or fewer, without lifting the pen and without tracing the same line more than once. This project is financed by the European Union 2 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea – creativity – innovation This project is financed by the European Union 3 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Ideas: science or casualism? • Renaissance: The Golden Age of Creativity • The Clustering Approach • DIESEL & STEFANEL • BENETTON • Facebook • Microsoft. . None have been a results of scientific approach or academic researches or by academics. . . WHY? ? ? This project is financed by the European Union 4 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

A legend? ? ……Mr. Merlin, Asparetto, Italy…. . A furniture cluster. . Once upon a time. . This project is financed by the European Union 5 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

What is an idea? Searching the word “idea” in a dictionary, one quickly becomes aware of how fundamental it is in our society. It has an assortment of meanings: purpose, opinion, thought, perception, concept and plan, to name a few. At the same time, an idea is worth nothing – it’s not something you can put a price on until it’s been tested in the real world. This project is financed by the European Union 6 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

What is creativity? Research into creativity has approached the subject from every conceivable angle (psychological, organizational, biological, social-scientific) and although researchers are convinced that creativity could well be the foremost ability in humans, very few can present firm scientific evidence to support their conviction. . !! This project is financed by the European Union 7 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Creativity Few words have such an individual meaning and popular use as creativity. The word originates from the Latin word “creos”, which means to conceive or to bring into existence, and it is this wider meaning that does it most justice. Dictionaries frequently define creativity in two ways – partly as an ability (something that can be learned) and partly as a quality (something that is inherited). . . people are either creative or they’re not, in other words that we are either born to create or that we were born unlucky and lack the creative ability. Nothing could be further from the truth!!!! This project is financed by the European Union 8 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

What is innovation? Innovation is the profitable implementation of strategic creativity. This is clearly what companies and organizations are striving to accomplish – an organized, strategic and creative process whose end will be realized and which will achieve measurable results with measurable expected profit by putting this process in action. When one disassembles the definition, one discovers that innovation is: This project is financed by the European Union 9 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

ü creativity – conceiving a new idea. ü strategy – analyzing the idea’s originality and usability. ü implementation – setting the unique, usable idea into motion and testing it in the real world. ü profitability – maximizing the unique, usable idea’s added value This project is financed by the European Union 10 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Ideas … where from? This project is financed by the European Union 11 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Ideas… Where from? • • Scientific personnel Management Employees Clients Suppliers Consumers Outsourcing consultants Other companies This project is financed by the European Union 12 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Sub group work Please if you don’t mind, create 3 subgroups getting together the way you prefer. In sub groups you may discuss for 5 minutes strong and weak points in involving such persons we identified before. In order to help the previous transparency comes again. Then we can discuss all together each group’s ideas. This project is financed by the European Union 13 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Grouping in 3 levels • • Scientific personnel Management Inside company Employees Clients Connected Suppliers Consumers Outsourcing consultants Outside Other companies This project is financed by the European Union 14 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Innovation – Open innovation. Inside company Innovation Connected Outside This project is financed by the European Union Open Innovation 15 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

A definition in idea management This project is financed by the European Union 16 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Definition Idea management is a structured process for capturing ideas from across the enterprise’s environment, enabling employees and sometimes others to collaboratively develop ideas and evaluating ideas in order to identify those which have the greatest potential to become profitable innovations or add value to the enterprise. So idea management directly influence INNOVATION. This project is financed by the European Union 17 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

• Idea management is more than just having great ideas. One mistake that people make is to equate innovation with having a great idea. Innovation is not invention. Very few are so “revolutionary” ideas to create by their own a new future for the company. The majority are small steps forward. • There is a quote: Without Creativity there is no Innovation, but without the right management of ideas, creative ideas die… This project is financed by the European Union 18 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Group discussion Now we will discuss 5 min about the definition in order to clarify the above. This project is financed by the European Union 19 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea management is the first part of the process of innovation This project is financed by the European Union 20 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

There are three key components to innovate through idea management: idea generation, idea selection & implementation and idea diffusion. They are not really sequential but rather they feed each other. The management team of the company need to do all three well to innovate successfully. Central to all of it are people and processes. In particular, one process that we must have is integrating innovation into the organisation’s strategy. As usual, it sounds very simple to explain it this way, but executing it is a bit harder. In the following transparency is a schematic presentation of the above mentioned. This project is financed by the European Union 21 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea management & innovation Generate ideas . People & process Select & implement This project is financed by the European Union Spread ideas 22 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Thinking about the three steps {idea generation, idea selection & implementation, and idea spread or diffusion} makes it easier to see innovation as a process. This consequently makes it easier to manage. It’s impossible to manage something very indefinite like … “having a great idea”. . . It’s easier (but still challenging) to manage idea generation, idea selection and idea diffusion. Fortunately, there are tools and processes that help with all of these steps. Thinking about innovation in this way is the first step to learning how to manage it. This project is financed by the European Union 23 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Innovation is not only commercialisation…. Commercialisation point of view = Product’s great idea + IP? ? Market Idea management view = Great or smaller ideas + IP? ? Market IP: Intellectual Property This project is financed by the European Union 24 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Seeing innovation as idea management is much more effective than seeing it as just commercialisation. . In the commercialisation point of view, the only way to win is to have a great idea, protect the Intellectual Property from competitors and others and bring this idea to the market In the idea management view, you win by identifying and executing great and smaller ideas. They don’t have to be new products, the ideas can be for new ways of doing things, or for new business models. Those are all ideas. The innovation process needs to manage ideas – not just create new products This project is financed by the European Union 25 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Innovation is an essential part of economic (and not only) progress. We can’t make things better, we can not expect a social and economical (even more ie environmental etc) grow without having new ideas. Ideas + development market If we are going to successfully innovate, we need to think of innovation as a process. It might be a fuzzy process, but it is still something that we can manage. This project is financed by the European Union 26 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

And having these new ideas, is not enough; we also have to be able to execute them, and get them to spread, put them in the market. . . !! This project is financed by the European Union 27 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea generation . Innovation strategy Select + implement Idea management Diffusion Project management phase (further research, development, designing, prototyping … launch in the market) This project is financed by the European Union 28 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

. Idea management Go - decision Project management phase This project is financed by the European Union 29 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Models for capturing and processing ideas This project is financed by the European Union 30 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Models Either supported by paper work (rarely) or by computers (specific S/W or e-mail) These are the major Idea Models Open model Idea campaigns Suggestion schemes This project is financed by the European Union 31 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Suggestion Schemes It’s a kind of a modern suggestion box. In this case management looks for any kind of ideas mainly through employees. It is usually carried out by an autonomous sub-department under innovation department. This department with the support by a specific software tool or through e-mails, encourage anyone in the organization to submit ideas into a central repository. Ideas in the repository are reviewed by this team who decide which ideas to forward for further investigation and which to reject. This project is financed by the European Union 32 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea campaigns An idea campaign is a focused event designed to solicit ideas that solve specific business needs. It can be carried out either by a company’s department or by another company (consultants). An ideas campaign is a five step process 1. An ideas campaign begins with an innovation challenge based on a business problem or issue. 2. Promotion: employees (and /or in open innovation outsiders) are motivated to participate and solve the challenge. This project is financed by the European Union 33 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea campaigns 3. Participants develop ideas in a collaborative environment over a set period of time. 4. The most promising ideas are selected and sent to teams of experts for evaluation. 5. The winning ideas are implemented. Idea management by ideas campaign is the process of running multiple unique ideas campaigns based around different innovation challenges. This project is financed by the European Union 34 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Open model It can be either close to Suggestion Schemes looking over any kind of ideas or can be focus on a specific one. The difference is “the way of hunting ideas”. This project is financed by the European Union 35 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Work in sub-group Please lets create by your own 3 sub groups. In each group you will search (10 minutes) for strong and weak points in the above presented models. … Sub group work … Open discussion … This project is financed by the European Union 36 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Suggestion Schemes Strong points: • Variety of ideas • Unexpected ideas Weak points: • Difficulties in categorization • Suggestion overflow • Duplication of ideas / irrelevant ideas • Starts with enthusiasm that usually decreases This project is financed by the European Union 37 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea campaigns Strong points: • Ideas are focused in a need • Can be as open as company wants Weak points: • Looses in variety of ideas • Need to be a quick action • Is mainly rewards motivated This project is financed by the European Union 38 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Open model Strong points: • Can drive to excel • Is innovative by itself Weak points: • Need a special idea • Not feasible in all organizations • Not always based in information technology (so is difficult to be managed) This project is financed by the European Union 39 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Ideas campaigns This project is financed by the European Union 40 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

An ideas campaign is essentially a massive, extended brainstorming session that typically lasts from two to six weeks and can involve hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of participants. Like a brainstorming session, an ideas campaign has a central issue or problem which participants respond to, with their ideas. That issue can be about improving a product, increasing operational efficiency, streamlining logistics or any aspect of business that could be improved through innovation. This project is financed by the European Union 41 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Also, like a brainstorming session, an ideas campaign allows participants to read and build on each others' ideas. Thus good ideas can be built up into great ideas and outrageous ideas can inspire brilliantly creative ideas. Indeed, complete open collaboration between all participants is critical to an effective ideas campaign. At the end of the ideas campaign, or sometimes during the campaign, the best ideas are selected for evaluation. This project is financed by the European Union 42 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Involvement An ideas campaign typically involves a specific population of people, such as: • The employees of a company, group of companies or institution • The customers of a company • Employees and external experts • The public generally • A group of consultants This project is financed by the European Union 43 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

How an Ideas Campaign Works 1. Preparation 2. Challenge 3. Promotion 4. Collaborative Idea Sharing 5. Evaluation 6. Implementation It can be paper supported or usually by a software. It is rare to be e-mail supported. This project is financed by the European Union 44 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

1. Preparation The aim of an ideas campaign is to generate several innovative solutions to a given problem or opportunity or need of the company. Thus, the first step is to identify the actual problem, opportunity or need. But the problem should be well defined. What at first may seem to be the problem could in actuality prove to be a mere part of a larger, overriding problem. This project is financed by the European Union 45 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

2. Challenges are normally the result of rephrasing problems - or business needs or issues- into short, terse questions which inspire creative thinking. A challenge should meet these criteria: • It should be a short, terse question focused on a single issue. • It should not be ambiguous. This project is financed by the European Union 46 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

• It should not include background information. This is a common problem in ideas campaigns and tends to confuse participants. • It should not include criteria. Criteria are essential for evaluating ideas. But during the idea generation phase, you want to encourage open thinking. Criteria slow people down. • It should not include solutions! This project is financed by the European Union 47 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

3. Promotion In order ideas campaign to be success, you need to motivate people to submit ideas, otherwise they will not participate. That means promoting your campaign. But who participants will be? This is a critical question and the answer is up to the management. Only employees? Customers? Experts? Open promotion? (there are specialists and companies doing this job). Usually this promotion phase include rewards. Rewards can be money (especially in open invitations) or other types if only employees participate. This project is financed by the European Union 48 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

4. Collaborative Idea Sharing Once the ideas campaigns is launched, participants submit ideas and collaborate on each others' ideas in an open, transparent environment. During the collaborative idea development phase, feedback should be positive and participants should be encouraged to push their ideas further. Criticism must be prohibited. Such a positive environment is essential to the incubation of creative ideas - and it is creative ideas that turn into the most significant innovations. Negative feedback is discouraging not only to the recipient of the feedback, but also to other participants. And as soon as people fear their ideas will be criticised, they quickly stop being creative. This project is financed by the European Union 49 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

5. Evaluation Now it is the time to evaluate these ideas in order to determine which offer the most potential to the company. The evaluation of ideas can be done by a team of experts, or inside the company. An evaluation matrix is an ideal initial evaluation tool. It includes a set of criteria against which each promising idea can be measured. The better the idea meets each criterion, the higher its score is. Following the evaluation matrix, a more detailed SWOT analysis can be prepared (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) as this will provide a more detailed picture of each idea's market potential. This project is financed by the European Union 50 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

6. Implementation Ideas which pass these initial evaluation 'gates' can then move on to more formal idea implementation processes towards company’s strategy. This implementation can involve various departments in the company before the final decision by top management of moving in further steps such as project initiation, prototype development and similar This project is financed by the European Union 51 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Methods and tools in “idea generation” This project is financed by the European Union 52 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

There are various methods and tools in idea generation. Some are well known will some maybe are not that much. We present here the main of them. Ø Brainstorming Ø Absence thinking Ø The KJ method (created by Japanese Jiro Kawakita) There are much more tools and methods as: the six thinking hats, the parallel thinking methodand much more. You can find in: http: //creatingminds. org/tools_ideation. htm This project is financed by the European Union 53 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Brainstorming – Absence thinking Brainstorming is a well known method. It can be executed as personal (more ideas) or a group brainstorming (better quality of ideas). Absence thinking is thinking (or sensing) about what is not existing, about something is not there. Watch people and notice what they do not do. Think what you want and you do not have. In other words, deliberately and carefully think about what is absent. This project is financed by the European Union 54 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

The KJ method One of the most amazing things about the KJ-Method is how well it objectively gets groups to the top priorities. Different groups can analyze the same data and will often come to the same results. The KJ-Method focuses the group on the task and is excellent at eliminating unnecessary discussion and distractions from the goal. Here’s how we do it: We use two colours of removable sticky notes. We need a room with a lot of wall space. We also need a facilitator. This is a person who will move the group from one step to the next. This project is financed by the European Union 55 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Step 1: Determine a Focus Question We can only work on one focus question at a time, so we pick the most important one first. Step 2: Organize the Group Get people together for an hour. We want people from different parts of the organization, to get their different perspectives. Step 3: Put Opinions (or Data) onto Sticky Notes Putting one data on each sticky note, we ask each group participant think as many items as they can think of. Step 4: Put Sticky Notes on the Wall In random order, each participant puts their sticky notes up on the wall. Then, they read other people’s contributions. If, at any time, they think of something else that should go on the wall, they can add it to the collection. This project is financed by the European Union 56 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Step 5: Group Similar Items Once everyone has had a chance to add their contributions to the wall, the facilitator instructs the group to start grouping like ideas in another part of the room. Anyone has the write to change grouping. We’ve not allowed the group any discussion about the contents yet. In later steps in the process, we have time to discuss the important items. Therefore, by preventing conversation now, we save time for the important conversations later. This step is complete when all the items are moved from the original wall into groups. This project is financed by the European Union 57 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Step 6: Naming Each Group Using the second colour of sticky notes, we ask each participant to assign a name to each group. Again, we’re not allowing the group to discuss the name. This step has a hidden agenda: the final review. By insisting that everyone read every group, it forces the participants to review everything on the wall and consider it. This project is financed by the European Union 58 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Idea management pitfalls This project is financed by the European Union 59 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Many idea management implementations fail after 6 -15 months for similar reasons: • Lack of Top management’s support • Lack of management buy-in • Poorly support system (either software tool, or email based) • Not custom made support system that fulfill company’s strategy • Failure to manage the evaluation of ideas • Poor promotion • Poor participation This project is financed by the European Union 60 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Pitfalls Group discussion in pitfall reasons… This project is financed by the European Union 61 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium

Thank you for your attention This project is financed by the European Union 62 62 The project is implemented by a European Profiles S. A. led consortium