Bewildered Innovators – The Innovation Matrix

Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Bewildered Organisations that are Thinking About Innovation have two directions they can take. Ideally, they will improve their Innovation Competence, which […]

Starting Out on the Innovation Journey – The Innovation Matrix

Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Thinking About Innovation If you are starting out with no innovation capability, what is the first step that you should take […]

Accidental Innovators – The Innovation Matrix

Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Accidental Innovators This is a very interesting category. It includes firms that have little Innovation Commitment but who nevertheless actually have […]

Three Hidden Factors that Make Innovation Diffusion Hard

Andrew Gelman wrote a post today that includes a great graph that shows how the innovation diffusion curve has played out for a number of major inventions over the past century. His post includes a discussion of how the graphic developed, an interesting story in itself. Here it is (click here to see it full-size): […]

Firms That Are Terrible at Innovation – The Innovation Matrix

Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Not Innovating Very Much Firms that have no Innovation Commitment and no Innovation Competence unsurprisingly have limited innovation capability. Characteristics Firms […]

The Innovation Matrix Explained: Innovation Competence

Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Innovation Competence Innovation Competence is the second axis of The Innovation Matrix. One of the key insights from The Innovation Matrix […]

The Innovation Matrix Explained: Innovation Commitment

Note: This is part of a series of posts explaining the individual parts of The Innovation Matrix. See this post for a description of the full model and what can be done with it. Innovation Commitment Innovation Commitment is one of the axes of the innovation matrix. One of the key insights from The Innovation […]

Why Thinking About Averages Can Be Disastrous

One of the key features of most parts of the economy is that outliers matter, a lot. This is often hard for us to get our heads around. We are used to thinking about averages, but a lot of important things are distributed in a manner where thinking about averages can be disastrous. I thought […]

The Innovation Matrix Reloaded, Again

I’ve continued to test out the ideas behind The Innovation Matrix with senior managers, and it seems to be working its way towards becoming a useful tool. As I do this, it continues to evolve. Today, I am going to revisit The Innovation Matrix as a broad concept, then over the next couple of weeks […]

There’s No Point Curing Mice

My wife Nancy gave a presentation at UQ’s research commercialisation workshop yesterday, recounting her experience with the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory. That’s what kicked off the thinking that led to yesterday’s post on creativity and commerce. Right after I finished that post, we went to the workshop dinner, where Ian Frazer gave the keynote address, discussing […]

Three Quotes on Creativity and Commerce

I ran across a great quote today from Ernest A. Jones about creativity and commercialism. As usual with these sorts of things, it’s nearly impossible to track down the original source, but here is the quote: Only for the phony is commercialism-the bending of creativity to common utility-a naughty word. To the truly creative, it […]

Innovation is Hard Work

There are no innovation shortcuts. I was reminded of this when I ran across the Crispin Porter + Bogusky Employee Handbook. Here is what the 2004 version looked like: Crispin Porter + Bogusky employee handbook View more presentations from whatidiscover The firm has been reasonably successful, and the Handbook makes it sound like a pretty […]