Posts by Yann Cramer
Sustaining the Case for Innovation
A few weeks ago I attended a meeting of Innovation Directors from many different industries, where we shared our experience of making the case for innovation and sustaining the investment with or without having to re-make the case every year. From those discussions, I took away a very simple model – a virtuous circle indeed – to sustain the case for investment in innovation.
Read MoreSuccess Factors for the Innovation Team
If we accept that the innovation race will be won by a team rather than a lone individual, the next question is: how does that team need to operate?
Read MoreInnovation – For Tourists or Travelers?
“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.†G. K. Chesterton The traveler strikes the right balance between the wanderer’s open-minded absence of direction, and the tourist single-minded destination focus. Like the tourist, the traveler knows the value of setting a direction and charting a course. Like the…
Read MoreForcing People to Innovate
Taking Away Degrees of Freedom to Rekindle the Innovative Spirit “Necessity is the mother of invention.†– Plato My son came back from a trip during which he broke a guitar string that he could not replace. He was actually delighted with the experience, having had to invent a different way of playing the instrument,…
Read MoreInnovation is Driven by Vision and Willpower
It doesn’t really matter whether it is bottom-up or top-down, vision and willpower drive innovation. For all the talk about creating an innovation culture and the elusive search for the fertile ground where innovation will magically pop up, the juxtaposition of two articles in the Sunday economic press reminded me that innovation can happen in…
Read MoreMastering Time Elasticity
In the much commented Art of War, Sun Tzu said: “The general who is skilled in defense hides under the ninth earth; he who is skilled in attack flashes forth from the ninth height of heaven.†Biding his time in some circumstances, acting in the shortest time with all his might in other circumstances. As…
Read More14 Ways to Describe 3 Levels of Innovation
From continuous improvement, through the development of next generation, to the creation of a new family, there are typically three different levels of innovation, that can be described in many ways depending on what aspect of innovation you want to emphasize. Here are 14 ways. Please add to the list! Description Level 1 Level 2…
Read MorePolitical Innovation of the Decade
Belgium and its Caretaker Government by Yann Cramer A year ago, thanks to its inability to form a government, Belgium became the laughing stock of political commentators. Today, nobody is laughing, not only because the media circus has moved on, but also, more interestingly, because what started as a political accident, may well turn out…
Read MoreTesting Your Innovation Instincts
Look at the picture of the chairless chair (right) or if you want to see more pictures click here. Now, examine your feelings: what is your first reaction? Honestly. And the second? Find in the list below what statements are the closest to your first and second reactions. No way Won’t work Clever way to…
Read MoreSuccess, Failure and the Courage to Continue
A friend’s recent quoting of Winston Churchill stroke me as a good summary of the innovator’s mindset. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” “Success is not final” makes the case for innovation: no enterprise, however successful it may have been, can continue to compete and…
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