Based on his analysis of companies commonly cited in the mainstream business media as being paragons of innovation goodness, Daniel Montaño of the User Experience + Innovation blog has just released an e-Book on Innovation Strategies. The book, which is currently available only as a 156-page PDF document, examines the innovation strategies at companies like Apple, IBM, GE, Target and Toyota:

“Rather than debate if those are really the most innovative companies in the world I decided to take a look at how each of these companies is innovating. The result is this book, where we find out some methods and strategies they are using, the kind of design awards they are winning, the type of criteria they’re focusing on, where they’re headed next, etc. The goal is to learn from those companies that spend thousands of dollars learning how to innovate, so others who don’t have the budget can save some money and still innovate on the same tracks. Innovation is no longer just what happens in R&D, nor in the design shops, innovation is happening at every level of the organization. Every staff member can contribute to the innovation efforts.”

Tags: innovation strategy tactics

Of late, the Wall Street Journal has been beating up on Viacom and its various media holdings. It’s not hard to do, especially with the ongoing, highly-publicized spat between Sumner Redstone and Tom Cruise, the firing of CEO Tom Freston earlier this week and the growing realization that MTV Networks, the flagship cable network for the company, has lost its way. Today in the Wall Street Journal, there’s a story called “Does MTV Still Rock?” that traces the slow, sad decline of MTV into a has-been network that doesn’t even register on the radar of the MySpace/YouTube generation. Whereas once MTV was a poster child for the 18-to-34 demographic, it has apparently lost its creative mojo:

“MTV grew into a cultural juggernaut not just because it took risks on innovative content, but because its own culture was innovative, even subversive, say former MTV Network officials. Executives came to work late because they had been out partying with rock stars until the early hours - and that was fine because it fostered an atmosphere of creativity.

Many visitors to Viacom’s 54-story Times Square headquarters are startled by the near total absence of corporate decorum. MTV Networks has no dress code and lacks many of the other regimens of corporate life. Mr. Freston (the departed CEO) believed that a relaxed atmosphere fostered creativity in his staff. As long as MTV was successful, the approach was embraced, even celebrated. But as the company grew older and larger, some former executives say it has become allergic to criticism. Management’s decentralized approach has, at times, allowed problems to fester. The cadre of executives who founded the network have been reluctant to open their ranks to outsiders, institutionalized thought has crept in and management fiefdoms and silos have been created, former executives say.”

Tags: MTV Viacom

[image: The day before the MTV Video Music Awards]

Just days after CEO Bill Ford acknowledged that Ford Motor Company was desperately searching for a new business model, the company may have found an innovation savior. After the markets closed yesterday, Bill Ford announced that he was stepping aside to make room for new CEO Alan Mulally, a longtime senior executive at Boeing who is largely credited with turning around the company’s ailing commercial aircraft division. What’s good for Boeing is apparently good for Ford. By bringing in an outsider with recent experience turning around a major company, Ford Motor hopes to dig its way out of a very deep ditch.

Investors were mixed, though, on the appointment of Mulally as the new CEO of Ford: “Some analysts predicted that Mr Mulally would bring more discipline to Ford, but they expressed concerns about his lack of experience in the automotive industry, and about his precise role at the carmarker.” On one hand, Mulally has the credibility, product design chops and cost-cutting skills to turn around the company. On the other hand, it will be awfully hard to ramp up his knowledge of the automobile industry in a limited amount of time. With Ford posting more than $1.3 billion in losses over the first six months of 2006, there’s concern that Mr. Mulally’s learning curve might just not be steep enough:

“Himanshu Patel, analyst at JP Morgan, said on Wednesday that Mr. Mulally – the first outsider to serve as chief executive in Ford’s 103-year history – might have difficulty making his presence felt in the near-term. Noting that details of the latest recovery plan have probably already been finalised, Mr Patel said that “longer-term changes in product cycle decisions by the new CEO could clearly take some time to yield results.”

Tags: Ford Boeing Mulally

[image: Alan Mulally becomes CEO of Ford Motor Company]

According to Alan Wood, CEO of Siemens UK, investing in innovation is the way to win for British manufacturers:

“Recent evidence has given grounds for optimism that British manufacturers are adjusting to low-cost competition and global structural change, viewing it as an opportunity rather than a threat. Output is rising and many firms have their most positive prospects for some time as the world economy expands. The investment outlook - a traditional weak spot - is the most positive for almost 10 years. EEF research shows a large majority of firms have increased spending on skills, innovation and design since 2003, and more than half plan to boost spending further in the next three years. Those companies that are upping their game on innovation are delivering improved profits…”

In addition to boosting R&D spending on innovation and design, British manufacturers are also collaborating with universities, investing in skills training for their employees and developing innovative solutions for both social and environmental problems.

Tags: Siemens manufacturing British innovation

[image: BBC News]

With only two weeks to go until Ford Motor Company unveils the new details of its restructuring program (i.e. The Way Forward), it looks like the company is willing to consider just about any alternative under the sun. In the weeks leading up to the Labor Day weekend, rumors circulated constantly about all kinds of M&A deals involving Ford - including the possibility that Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn might take over some part of the company or that the Ford family might take the company private. Now, a Bill Ford memo leaked to the press admits that the automaker is badly in need of a radically new business model:

“Ford needs a new business model in order to turn the automaker around, according to a memo addressed to staff by its Chairman and CEO Bill Ford and seen by Reuters. On Thursday, Ford said it wanted to sell its Aston Martin luxury unit to free up funds to invest in its other brands amid a sharp downturn in sales. In the memo, dated Friday, September 1 and published by the Detroit News on Saturday, Bill Ford outlined the problems facing the company and his aims to turn it around. “The business model that sustained us for decades is no longer sufficient to sustain profitability,” the memo, shown to Reuters by a representative for the company, said. “We must change to a new business model that requires greater bottom-line contributions from cars and crossovers, continued leadership in pickups in North America, healthier profits from all other business units, growth in Asia, greater integration of our global operations and an evaluation of strategic alliances.”

What do you think? Do you have any innovative ideas for overhauling Ford’s business model and moving the dial on the company’s stock price?

Tags: Ford innovation Way Forward

[image: Bill Ford via Reuters]

In a world where the vast majority of books and articles about business innovation focus primarily on product innovation, Virginia-based consulting firm Peer Insight has released a breakthrough new report on the emerging area of services innovation. According to Peer Insight, the post-Six Sigma era calls for new thinking about services innovation, customer experience innovation and design-led innovation. Chuck Frey of the Innovation Weblog highlights several of the findings from the report:

(1) Services follow a less well-defined development path than products;

(2) Because of this lack of a development path for services, successful innovations tend to rely on a strong guiding hand from senior management;

(3) Prototyping, which is a well-accepted way to pilot test new product ideas, has not made the transition to modeling potential new services and business models;

(4) Successful service innovations tend to be firmly rooted in customer experience design - incorporating techniques such as empathic research methods and service artifacts;

(5) Companies that use a single innovation model to deliver both incremental and high-impact innovations tend to get only incremental innovations.

Tags: services innovation

[Image: The Post Six Sigma Era]