Outside Innovation

5 Steps to Success in Customer Innovation Programs

I believe that customer-led innovation should constitute 50% of your innovation portfolio. But, I have yet to find many mature and well thought out customer-led innovation programs that aren't one-offs. Most organizations that engage customers in co-designing and evolving their products do so in a fragmented fashion. What's sorely needed is a customer innovation framework that will work in medium and large organizations—those with multiple divisions and product lines. It would enable each innovation team to benefit from the mistakes and learnings of the others, but it would also allow the entire organization to become more conscious of customers' current and top-of-mind issues.

There's a growing set of best practices in how to develop and sustain a core competency in innovation, including such elements as:

• Executive sponsorship and formal innovation charters—that give teams milestones, resources, and air cover
• Incubation/innovation labs to keep the emerging ideas from being killed off
• Cross-disciplinary teams
• Making innovation a part of peoples' approved and valued activities
• Engaging in open innovation to get the best and brightest minds working on tough problems
• Putting in place organizational learning tools and practices to foster continuous improvement and to boost your organization's collective IQ

Now we need to add to that body of knowledge a tested framework for engaging with customers at every step of the way for those solutions we want to drive from customers' unfilled needs and/or to commercialize customer-led solutions:

Continuing the Conversation around the iPhone/Verizon Launch

When Verizon Wireless announced that it would finally offer the iPhone, everyone cheered. But there was also a flurry of commentary—including ours—raising questions about the quality of the customer experience that US iPhone customers will now have. Will it be better with Verizon Wireless? This is a customer issue that I have long felt that Apple should own. (What Can Damage Apple's Amazing Customer Experience and Brand?) Delivering a great Apple-branded customer experience includes my total iPhone experience. And, if I can't make phone calls or get reasonably speedy Web access, that reflects badly on the iPhone, not just on the carriers.

Tom Hagan, one of the smartest guys on the planet, (my husband), and a newly minted cynic when it comes to oligarchies (corporations+politicians+regulators) offered his "whack on the side of the head" analysis of why Verizon Wireless would risk clogging its network with consumer video downloads by offering an "all you can eat" data plan for the iPhone. Tom's post, which I titled iPhone Politics: Why U.S. Wireless Carriers May WANT to Encourage Network Congestion, engendered some commentary. The most interesting rebuttal comes from an anonymous contributor who appears to be equally cynical about Verizon Wireless' motivations for encouraging its customers to abuse the scarce bandwidth we all share. Here is the rebuttal/alternate theory:

The iPhone and LTE4G: The Perfect Storm for Verizon?
By Anonymous

Those who think that major corporations have a grand plan in place and follow it to success are usually wrong. However, what if Verizon Wireless just happened to stumble onto a plan that will help grow the number of users on both their 3G and 4G networks?

Turning Ideation into Innovation

A question that's top of mind among our clientele is this: Getting innovative ideas is relatively easy. But how do you build a core competency in converting ideas into innovative products and services?

We've spent some time recently at GE's Global Research Center in Albany, NY. GE Global Research is the world’s largest corporate applied research institution. What I like about its approach is that it is focused on turning problems into solutions that can be successfully produced and deployed as commercial products. It does this by taking advantage of cross-fertilization among subject matter experts in multiple disciplines. Life scientists, materials scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and many different disciplines are represented. So are all the industries that GE serves—healthcare, financial services, energy, aviation, automotive, appliances—and so on. Business units bring thorny issues to the research center, and a team is put together to come up with prototypes and pilots that can be tested and moved into production or discarded. Customers are often intimately involved in presenting hard problems, specifying real world requirements in context, and testing prototypes. Outside innovation is also fostered by involving outside experts, as well as by co-locating research facilities on university campuses and near large innovative customers. GE Global Research (which now has campuses distributed around the world) is one example of how to structure and evolve core competencies in turning ideas into practical reality. You can learn more about it on their Web site GEGlobalresearch.com or follow them on Twitter @edisonsdesk.

We enjoyed sifting through our notes from our latest Visionaries' meeting, which took place in Cambridge, MA in December, hosted by Nature Education. We discovered some interesting patterns among the broad-ranging discussions and show and tell sessions on the topic of "how do I turn ideas into innovative products/services?" Ronni Marshak pulled these "lessons learned" into 7 simple steps for moving from ideation to innovation.

Turning Innovation into Reality
From Ideation to Implementation—Lessons Learned from Our Visionaries
By Ronni T. Marshak, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, January 20, 2011

Apple sans Steve Jobs?

Apple Will Continue to Thrive

It's too bad that Steve Jobs continues to have health challenges. Like the rest of you, I was worried when Apple announced that Steve is taking another medical leave. I was more worried about Apple's stock price than I was about the future of the company. As I hoped, the rapid drop in share price turned out to be a good opportunity to buy, rather than the beginning of a rout. I believe that Steve Jobs has thoroughly inculcated his customer-centric and highly profitable brand experience into the entire Apple ecosystem—not just the employees, but customers, partners, software developers, etc. So the Apple ethos will live on—way beyond Steve's tenure as CEO.

Thanks to Horace Dediu at Asymco for capturing Apple's acting CEO Tim Cook's reassuring Cook Doctrine:

• "We believe that we're on the face of the Earth to make great products, and that's not changing.

• We're constantly focusing on innovating.

• We believe in the simple, not the complex.

• We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

• We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

• We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

• And frankly, we don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change.

• And I think, regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.

~ Tim Cook, Acting Apple CEO, January 2009 FQ1 2009 Earnings Call"

Amen.

iPhone Politics: Why U.S. Wireless Carriers May WANT to Encourage Network Congestion

Contributed by Thomas G. Hagan

Data Hogs? What Data Hogs?

Whenever confusion runs rampant, and an otherwise smart company (in this case, Verizon Wireless) does things that seem contrary to its own interests, it's time to step back and look to see who benefits from the confusion, and just where the interest of that smart company actually lies.

Such is the case these days with "Net Neutrality" and the question of "all you can eat" pricing for cell phone subscriptions. And “data hogs” using up all available bandwidth.

It was Ivan Seidenberg himself, then and now CEO of Verizon Communications, who said years ago that one consequence of working in a highly regulated industry is that the normal rules of the free market don't apply. Instead of trying for market share by appealing to customers or decreasing costs, management talent is diverted to extracting the best possible deal from the regulators. He pointed out that this distorts the behavior of such companies, including those in his industry. Meaning that they are led to do things contrary to what one would normally expect — they sometimes behave in ways that seem against the interests of either themselves or their customers.

With that in mind, let's look at what's happening. Right now the phone and cable companies are engaged in a struggle to handle surging demand for bandwidth, particularly downloading of videos from the Web, both for wireless and wired connections. A recent statistic said that Netflix downloads alone now account for 20% of all Web traffic. Accommodating this demand will entail more capital expense for both wired and wireless connections to the Web, substantial for both, but much much larger for wireless. And, of course, that Capex must ultimately come out of carrier revenues, and they must meanwhile earn a reasonable return on any funds they use.

At the same time, companies such as Google, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook and others have arisen and taken a big share of the customers' wallet for the Web content they sell, directly and indirectly, all of which is delivered by the carriers.

The Consumerization of Enterprise Computing

Last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES '11) in Las Vegas was a tipping point in IT history.

• Although consumer electronics’ giant Apple never exhibits at CES, Apple's presence was felt as over 100 tablets all vied for the coveted position of "also ran" to the iPad.
  
  
• Corporate IT execs roamed the aisles in search of secure wireless tablets for their executives.
  
  
• Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer did not impress anybody with his keynote speech; Microsoft is rapidly losing ground in consumer mindshare and developer appeal (apart from the Xbox).
  
  
• Mobile, wireless devices have taken over the boardroom and the automobile as well as the living room.
  
  
• Online App Stores linked to devices have become the preferred way to consume and distribute applications and content.
  
  
• The mobile Web is the world we all live in. Corporate IT execs and security execs are scrambling to accommodate to this new reality.

As one CIO put it, "The world has changed. Microsoft is toast in the enterprise." The consumerization of the enterprise comes as no real surprise to most of you. Many of you have been predicting this for at least a decade. What may be surprising to many is how quickly corporate users—and, in particular, high level executives—are demanding to consume their corporate information and applications the same way they interact with their consumer information and applications—always available, in the cloud, easy to consume on their mobile devices, highly personalized, and intermingled with their consumer life, applications, and communications. It's all well and good to distribute iPhones, iPads, Blackberries, and Androids to your mobile executives with the appropriate levels of encryption and security (or at least the ability to remotely wipe the data off a lost phone). But you can't prohibit those executives from texting with their kids, listening to Pandora, or watching a ball game on the same device.

Mobile consumer devices, behaviors, and expectations are taking over enterprise computing.

iPhone-Friendly Networks: Not Verizon vs. AT&T; Customers Need QoS Guarantees!

By Patricia Seybold (with help from Andrew Seybold)

Will iPhone Connectivity Get Better with Verizon?

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced iPhone 4 availability, ending AT&T’s exclusivity. In the U.S., iPhone users’ customer experience has been marred by connectivity issues. Customers in major metropolitan areas have been complaining that their calls have been dropped, that they can’t always get access, and that streaming video freezes up on the overwhelmed AT&T network.

Comic John Stewart and his sidekick John Oliver did a hilarious segment on the Daily Show to illustrate how bad the AT&T iPhone experience can be.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Verizon iPhone Announcement
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

The implication: life will be better with Verizon. But will it, really?

Mobile Web and Video Clog the Internet; Tablet Glut

A Few 2011 Predictions
By Andrew M. Seybold

THE EASY PREDICTIONS FIRST:

Net Neutrality:

Ends up in the courts and the FCC's recent action on Net Neutrality is overturned.

The new Congress threatens to withhold funds from the FCC if they try to put Net Neutrality back on the agenda.

Tablets:

2011 sees the introduction of over 50 new tablets, including 2 new iPads. There will be 35 shown at CES alone. But, by the end of the year, the field of competitors is cut in half because of lackluster sales of many of these tablets.

New tablets start the process of technology creep. Several start offering hard drives, cutting the battery life, and more features are added by others to try and out do their competitors. The definition of a tablet gets blurred.

The end of year winners are: Apple, RIM (Playbook), Samsung, and Motorola.

The Windows-based tablets are not well received and flounder early on.

2011 in Cloud Computing: The Empire Strikes Back!

Patty’s Pioneers’ Predictions for 2011
By Pat Kerpan, One of Patty’s Pioneers

MY PREDICTIONS FOR THIS YEAR

Looking back on my 2010 predictions, I say I went 5 for 10, my colleagues insist it is 7 for 10. You be the judge (http://vmblog.com/archive/2009/12/30/2010-in-cloud-computing-game-on.aspx). Where I missed was actually believing that cloud-washing would start winding down (instead of ramping up) and that the basic and simple structures of the cloud market would become evident (unfortunately opacity has increased as some vendors and analysts pursue a “scare the enterprise users” approach to their business ambitions).

As a note, I am liberal in my cloud definition, so when I say “cloud” I mean public, private, partner, hybrid, etc., and am talking about Infrastructure as a Service. All standard disclaimers apply. While my views are obviously informed by my work at CohesiveFT, the predictions and commentary below are mine and do not reflect corporate statements from my employer.

The “Hardware Support for Software Encryption” Conversation Will NOT Begin

This is an about face from last year's predictions. No matter to what degree, enterprises CANNOT have their data in motion in “plain text” on a third-party network over which they have no insight, visibility or control. The hardware side of the technology market will expend resources on security approaches that have the potential for providing customer lock-in, rather than solutions which would leverage existing customer skills, understanding, and IT assets.

WikiLeaks Will Catalyze a Huge Data Security Backlash

Patty’s Pioneers’ Predictions for 2011
By Peter Horne, One of Patty’s Pioneers, Sydney, Australia, January 6, 2011

It is reasonable to assume that the lapse in security that allowed U.S. government documents to be released by WikiLeaks has resulted in a review of government security systems unlike any seen before. The ensuing demand for change will be immense and implemented with the highest priority.

But that is just the beginning. To date the U.S. government has been the focus of WikiLeaks activities; the anticipated release of banking emails and other commercial information will create an equally great focus on corporate security. There will be many responses to this information should it be released; some Banks are already reviewing their risks. These reviews will be managed at the highest levels of corporate governance with the same effect as within government; a demand for change implemented with the highest priority.

GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATE DEMAND FOR BETTER SECURITY SOLUTIONS

The result will be demands for greater security from the IT supplier value chain. This will result in the supply side of the IT industry moving to innovate at a rapid pace to take advantage of it.

This will create its own demand. The IT supply side is nimble and knows what to do. New practices in tech firms and consulting firms will spring up to specialize to meet the demand for reviews, new projects, and change management processes, and, as it reaches scale, it will perpetuate change.