Innovation [2008-09-17]

Everyone seems to be talking about innovation these days. As business becomes increasingly competitive we jump at any new idea that might provide us with the toe hold needed to climb past our competitors. Methodologies have be developed and books written with the hope of industrializing innovation. However, innovation is a numbers game and we need to wade through hundreds of good ideas to find that one that might work. Access to (and acceptance of) good ideas might even be more important than a formal innovation business process or methodology within an organization.

So where do we find these ideas? One good source is the strange and mysterious place that is the Internet. Hidden in the Internet’s nooks and crannies we can find all sorts of new and interesting things, any of which might be the next big idea in our respective industry.

An informal network has been sharing interesting and unusual ideas from around the globe. Rather than keep these good ideas to ourselves, we thought that we would share them with our broader ecosystem. Our plan is to create a list of four to six interesting innovation things that are worth a look and which might get the creative juices flowing, and publish them every other Monday. The content will range from articles about innovation, case studies on how some companies innovate through examples of interesting (and hopefully innovative) stuff. Expect to see some old stuff refreshed if it’s still relevant. Also, if you see something interesting in your travels then send us a reference and we’ll include it in a future issue.

As always, thoughts and/or comments are greatly appreciated.