New Job Description: PT Idea Development Facilitator

My apologies for the volume of blog / rant that I have been spewing lately - have had lots of plane time - ideas tend to form in my head at high-altitude / low-air-pressure (maybe that's a bad thing?)

Some additional thoughts on the innovation opportunities that are staring social app companies like Linkedin squarely in the face (but they don't seem to be doing anything about it)...

I strongly believe these companies could facilitate / spur new idea generation. They could start by launching themed innovation forums which focus on solving "big problems" - these forums could be seeded with existing idea owners that are identified with a sweep of their current users.

Professional facilitators could be brought onboard to hunt for concepts to pursue, monitor the think-tank sessions, and police the "who owns / who contributed what" dynamic. These facilitators could be PT, moonlighting staff - essentially creating a new after-hours / virtual-garage-startup online community. Finding the facilitators could be as easy as targeting the big problem, focus industries within their own existing user community. Measuring their effectiveness would also be simple, think about them like "hedge-fund managers" that chase ideas, find "idea stars" within the community, etc. - metrics related to their idea portfolio and ROI on ideas could be established.

The social net app / company could realize business value by charging idea owners a small fee to launch their concept into the incubator environment; in addition to, claiming a percentage ownership stake in the idea + broker the fleshed out concepts to the VC community.

We better start texting, and skyping, and heytelling.....our kids

Some more thoughts on the "transition generation" thread ... we're going to have to come up with a concept "bigger" than "multitasking" for the next generation. Much bigger.

My daughter checked in at the homefront during spring break. While she was here, she routinely sat at her laptop, simultaneously accessing her mifi device, watching tv, skyping with a college buddy, monitoring her iPhone for text, email and heytell messages ... all while playing SIMS with a network of friends ... and sort of having side conversations with me. Wow. Made my head hurt. But her and her friends appeared to be functioning at a fairly high level.

As my career has progressed I have learned and heeded the time-honored "focus on one thing, and do it well" personal time management approach. I am not a good multi-tasker. But the younger generations seem to multi-task with ease. They were raised surrounded by "interactive technology" ... and so they just might be able to get more from the use of these devices than the generations before them.

Should we expect the next generation to bring a new core capability of being able to effectively focus on more than one thing at a time? How can we best leverage this new capability? What existing organizational management processes will need to change? Maybe we should send all of us "old MBAs" back to school for a refresher on what these "kids" are going to be capable of...

Innovation Life Cycle / ROI Approach

Wondering 'out loud' why more orgnizations fail to realize real value out of their R&D investments. I developed the following life cycle graphic to illustrate a simple approach to innovation ROI planning. I believe that it is possible to bring some ROI thinking to R&D initiatives and not kill innovation with the process. Could org's use this process to ask questions during the innovation process that prompt thought regarding OH allocation and priorities? Perhaps develop a portfolio of solutions and corresponding business maturity schedules for each? Ultimately of course, the goal would be to achieve a better understanding of opportunities to enhance share value...















The "Y" / Time axis will depend on several factors:

How long will it take to develop the innovation? (Idea/Innovation)
How long will it take to deploy the innovation? (Idea/Innovation)
What is the capture maturity schedule for the projects/initiatives where you intend to use the innovation? (Idea/Innovation + Usage Growth)
How long will it take for competitors or interested external org's to copy you? Above factors 1-3 will determine. (Usage Maturity + Need Decline)

How do you determine Innovation Differentiation Value (DV)?

What are the total costs to develop the innovation?
What are the total costs to deploy the innovation?
What is the size of the "market" that you are chasing?
If supporting an already defined initiative, what increase value will the innovationg bring?
As the solution matures, what are your total costs to maintain the environment?
What is the probability that competitors will develop a similar innovation?
What is the probability that an external org will develop a similar innovation?
At what point in your ILC will a competitor or external org introduce their innovation; and how could this impact your DV?

As usual, please contact me if you decide to use ... I would be curious to hear examples / ideas (shaag)