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According to Wikipedia, innovation is defined as:
The creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society.

Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology.

and:

The paradigm of closed innovation says that successful innovation requires control. A company should control (the generating of) their own ideas, as well as production, marketing, distribution, servicing, financing and supporting.

Has Social Media “Opened” The Door For Open Innovation?

You bet! Social media have created unprecedented opportunities for businesses to enhance brand image and develop product ideas from customer’s insights.

Dell’s idea storm initiative is another great application of user-centric business innovation.

[Excerpt, click on the link to read the rest of this post.]

(02-07) 12:34 PST SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court declared California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional today, saying a state can’t revoke gay rights solely because a majority of its voters disapprove of homosexuality.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Proposition 8’s limitations on access to marriage took rights away from a vulnerable minority without benefiting parents, children or the marital institution.

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” said Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the majority opinion.

“The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort.”

[Excerpt, click on the link to read more, including the text of the entire ruling.]

I love double entendres! In the same breath, they’re efficient and they can provoke thought. In this instance, Make Ideas Happen represents two significant reasons for having an innovation strategy:

1) Systematically generate useful new ideas, and

2) Systematically taking new ideas through to prototype, concept testing and rollout (continuous innovation process).

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Kodak’s failure isn’t one of a lack of vision or understanding. It is a slow motion disaster based on barriers created by existing business models, management schemes, hierarchies, compensation, culture and a range of other factors. The people, the culture, the organization models and expectations simply could not let go of the past, and no one was able to fully contemplate what the impact of digital would be to Kodak and to its business.

What’s interesting is that there are two other significant industries that are in the midst of this slow motion disaster right now. We have ring side seats to the events, and it will be interesting, and painful for us as consumers to see these slow motion disasters unfold. But the impacts that will (and are) occurring in book publishing and in higher education are too instructive to miss.

[Excerpt, click on the link to read the rest of this post.]

This past week we had a #innochat tweet session (http://www.innochat.com) around Jeffrey Phillip’s book “Relentless Innovation” ( http://amzn.to/xXoHof ). The chat was framed around a set of questions here (http://bit.ly/Awvh5E ) but basically the premise of Jeffrey’s thinking was “can it be possible to shift from business as usual (BAU) to innovation business as usual?”

He suggests that one of the most significant challenges for innovation is the fact that many firms have spent years, if not decades, creating business models and operating processes that are exceptionally efficient and effective but neglect the essential part that innovation plays.

Equally the middle manager is so focused on the delivery of short term results through effective organization and pursuing efficiencies they have little ‘slack’ within the system to learn and build innovation into it.

I would possibly argue the very people that we are expecting to manage the ‘dynamics’ within organizations, the Middle Managers, are seeking the very opposite- doing everything possible to keep it as stable and consistent as it can be.

So how can this change?

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Autodesk’s Innovation Genome Project tried to quantify what worked about the 1,000 greatest innovations of all time. With that data in hand, the company then turned to what needs innovation today: building with sustainable materials.

It is often said that innovation is at the core of sustainability, but turning that abstract idea into action isn’t always easy. How do true innovators actually make the leap from status quo to full-on disruption?

First, a definition. Innovation doesn’t necessarily entail creating something new. It’s not the same as invention. Rather, innovation usually involves a fresh perspective on something that already exists—taking an idea, a technology, or a material (or aggregating several) and then considering how their use can create a positive impact in a new and better way. The process of making this leap is often scary, and requires a certain amount of gumption, as well as copious amounts of leadership, entrepreneurialism, and good design.

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I’m honored to be a contributing author to this book, along with some of my innovation colleagues from #Innochat (a Twitter Innovation chat and web site). I co-wrote the chapter, “Building the Culture for Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing,” with Gwen Ishmael and Boris Pluskowski — more information about all of the co-authors and the contents of this book is available on Google Books.

[Excerpt, click on the link to read the rest of this post, and to see the video clip with Editor Paul Sloane, which was formerly located on this Tumblr log.]

The City of Palo Alto, California is currently considering options for how to manage its organic waste stream. An anaerobic digester is being proposed to replace the current incinerator.

Join us for this program and explore how high-tech compost has become!

What’s up with Silicon Valley Green Innovation? Find out Wednesday, 2/1/12 p.m., about high tech compost and more, at the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute dinner program…

[Click on the link for more information]

In the aftermath of the recession, we have the opportunity to truly change the system. From replacing outsourcing with insourcing to untying well-being from GDP, here is what the economy of the future might look like.

An exciting moment is upon us, where some of the assumptions that have long governed our economy are beginning to unravel. There is the possibility that we could come out of this recession with a new concept of what the economy is, who it serves, and how it works.

Reflecting on history, we know that moments for truly re-thinking the economy are scarce. The replacement of mercantilism with liberal economic theory was such a moment. The Keynesian revolution was another. But where will this current moment of crisis take us? Will we succeed in powering a new economy? What ideas and solutions will enable our transition to a new economic paradigm? And what exactly would a new economy look like?

[Excerpt, click on the link to read the rest of this post.]