Innovation and HR

We are really excited to be partnering with Roffey Park to run a one day conference on how HR can drive Innovation. Check it out:

http://www.roffeypark.com/whatweoffer/events/Pages/InnovationandHR.aspx

Looking for innovation in all the right places

A great piece from today's FT which argues that to really innovate organizations shoukd look outside of marketing to other functions such as Customer Services to really understand consumer needs. Nice bit on Apple's use of external partners too

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9720d444-98dd-11df-9418-00144feab49a.html

Some thoughts on making innovation live and breath

Pick up any Management magazine today, or look at the events on the conference circuit and you will see a plethora of articles about “Innovation”. It is the latest mantra and, in this tough economic climate, Management Teams are looking to it as the way to differentiate their product or service. They read about Apple, Google and Tesco and look to these organisations for inspiration and whilst lessons can be learnt from successful organisations, it would be a mistake to simply lift what works at Apple and put it into a bank.

The Innovation Beehive works on the principle of stimulus – look at successful organisations, unpick the principles of why they are successful and then apply those principles to your business.

There isn’t the space here to write about all the building blocks that go into creating an Innovative organisation, but I want to share a couple of key learnings. And if you want to know more, then give us a buzz.

All the organisations we have visited have one thing in common – as well as making lots of money (!), they have clearly defined and communicated a “Higher Purpose”. We call this freedom in a gilded cage” – an articulation of their reason for existing that is more that about profit and a clear communication to staff of what is and isn’t on brand.

One company that constantly innovates is Ikea.. They exist:

“To Create a Better Everyday Life for the Many People”

This is far more inspiring than, “we exist to sell inexpensive furniture”. It’s a real duvet chuck statement – a reason to get out of bed and go to work on a Monday morning. If we unpick it further, it creates a unique organisational lexicon – “the many people” is uniquely Ikea – it sounds just sounds like Ikea. Additionally, this Higher Purpose can be translated into an employee, customer and product proposition – whilst building the gilded cage, they have created a Vision that works for all parts of their business.

Ask yourself – do I have a Vision that inspires my people? Is it about more than money? Are we doing well and doing good?

Following on from the Higher Purpose, Innovative organisations are clear on where their Innovation is going to come from.

The Ritz Carlton believes that the best innovation happens at a local level; when it responds directly to guest’s needs. They empower their staff with $3000 to make things right for the customer, without the need for management approval. Staff are constantly looking for ways to improve the guest’s experience, whether it is fixing something that has gone wrong, or delighting them with unexpected surprises. We heard about a chambermaid who noticed that the guest was putting the nightly pillow chocolate in the bin, along with several Snicker wrappers. She realized that the guest loved chocolate – just not the one supplied by the hotel. So the chambermaid went out to the local Seven Eleven and bought a mini pack of Snickers and, every night, placed one on the guest’s pillow. A tiny service Innovation, but a great wow for the guest.

Proctor and Gamble have developed a whole innovation system – they call it Connect + Develop. In 2000 they set themselves the goal to source 50% of innovations externally. They had 9000 in-house R&D experts, but believed this strategy would give them access to over 2 million scientists worldwide. Today, this ‘open source’ innovation programme has resulted in some of their most successful products including Swiffer Wetjet and Crest White Strips. They publish their big opportunity areas annually and anyone can submit an idea though the Connect + Develop website. Alongside this they have worldwide ‘scouts’ that search out the latest thinking in service, technology and product devices from university labs, small businesses and venture capitalists.

Ask yourself – do I have a structure in place to drive Innovation? Does all my Innovation come from the centre? What ideas lie outside my organisation or with my employees?

All the innovative companies we have visited have a real buzz about them – a real energy. In part their physical environment drives this. Environment can either drain you or provide you with energy. And energy is the key to innovation (and employee engagement). The best examples of organisations that drive Innovation is where they provide places for creative activity, places that stimulate, spaces for reflection, spaces for collaboration and spaces to play. All these spaces live and breath the Brand – whether it is Innocent’s grass filled offices, P&G’s dedicated off-site Innovation Centre called The Clay Street Project or Virgin’s Headquarters, where bold graphics communicate the company philosophy (“Screw it, Let’s Do it”) and an informal meeting room called “The Love Room” create a sense of play, brand values and creative spirit.

Ask yourself – what does our physical environment say to our staff? How is it influencing behaviours? Does it drive the behaviours we need to win in business?

Innovation is a system. I have described three elements of that system above. To really live and breath innovation you will need to look at many other components – Leadership, Communication, Recruitment, Reward and Recognition, Skills and Customer Closeness.

But if you start with the three above, you will begin a journey that is exciting, financially rewarding and will give you a real duvet check on Monday morning

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For more on this check out “I wish I worked there! - A look inside the most creative spaces in business” by Kursty Groves

Lessons from Number 10

So the love in has well and truly started at Number 10, and the whole of the UK waits to see what the 'partnership' between Dave and Nick will bring.

We started to kick around some thoughts about what we can learn from these, once sworn enemies, who used to describe each other as "a favourite joke".

In August last year, in thinking about how businesses might cope with the recession, we advocated getting into bed with the competition, with no idea it would happen in the UK Parliament; so here, in slightly light hearted spirits, here are our key thoughts:

1) Listen to your customer - the UK voter sent a message to the politicians. We don't really trust one of you individually to govern on your own. The Lib Dems rejected the entreaties of Labour's unelected Mandelson and Campbell to join them and went with the party that the 'consumer' had given the most votes to
2)Embrace change - we heard so much about time for change through out the campaign. The test came with a hung parliament and, judging by the smiles from the Prime Minister and his Deputy in the Rose Garden, they are grabbing it with both hands
3)Have pace and energy - it was pretty tortuous watching the negotiating parties go back and forth across College Green last week and the already fed up electorate were becoming increasing frustrated. We had hoped for a Govt to be formed in three days - it took nearly a week
4)Give ground - there is a significant amount of each party in Senior roles and the announcements this week around income and inheritance tax imply that they are actively listening to what is important to the other party
5)Don't speak too soon - Nick Clegg's promise to introduce the most significant parliamentary reform for 200 years may sound sexy now, but let's see how it is judged in five years time

New Address

Change of address going out soon, but from 27th May, we will be at:

Unit One
The Ink Building
Notthing Hill
W10 5DR

Central St Martins Innovation Event

We are really proud to be on the panel for Central St Martins first Innovation conference

Speeches are us

Had a great time this morning at the Freshtracks event in Borough where I gave a speech on idea generation and conferences. Thanks to those were there for your feedback