Learn to innovate from your kids (page 1 of 2)

"Parents are amazed by the ability of their kids to learn at an amazing pace, and believe their children's ability to learn and create is linked with their stage of development in life. Experiences with senior managers of multi-national companies rather suggest that context has often more to do with innovativeness than age,"

said Fabrice Saporito, Principal with Booz & Company based in Dubai.

"Observing kids is actually an excellent way for companies to develop the four critical areas of Intelligent Innovation," he said. "Attentive observation of environment and the ability to learn from others is a fundamental element in innovation. Experimentation, which is the basis for practical learning for a child is essential for creativity, and often results in unexpected results adults would not have thought of. Establishing the right playground for a company to prosper will ensure innovation is fruitful,"

he added.

Saporito identified three different control regimes, which summarized the innovation process in modern businesses. Management control commands innovation with traditional management techniques, in Cost control the innovation process was adapted to focus on a specific performance outcome and in Profit control, innovation was managed as a portfolio of different projects.

"In Robert J. Sternberg's book Successful Intelligence, he cites that successful human intelligence relies on a delicate balance among aptitude for analytical insight, practical insight and creative insight," continued Saporito. "Successful innovation demands an equally deft balance between analytical rigor with creativity, curiosity, cultural sensitivity, leadership, agility and a learning organization, known as 'Intelligent Innovation'," he added.

A summary of the reports findings follows below:

Customer Insights

In the recent Booz & Company survey, 'Mastering the Innovation Challenge', nearly 50% of respondents were dissatisfied with their current approaches to customer understanding.

"Innovators must work hard to understand the changing needs and critical priorities of their customers - and to increase customer participation in the innovation process," said Saporito. The report identified four areas where managers can learn from customers in the innovation process.

1. Understand the customer buying experience. Assess customer touch points to yield ideas for important process enhancements and product or service improvements. Customer interviews and customer observation are equally important.

2. Collaborate with customers. Organizations benefit from customer perspectives and insights including mid-course corrections to ongoing projects, new ideas for products and services and stronger customer relationships.

3. Make employees customers. Understand the advantages and shortcomings of your product by using it yourself, and ensure that product development team members have regular interaction with customers.

4. Understand customer economics. This is a powerful source of innovation and helps evaluate the way a product / service fits into the customer's operating economics, helping to increase profitability for both customer and vendor. Understanding drivers of customer economics can help uncover new ideas well before customers articulate them.

Reach out

An organization must have an effective mechanism or network to share insights with stakeholders, particularly those within R&D.