From the category archives:

Creativity & Innovation

One author’s journey to write a book

by Lynn Dessert

I met him several years ago when he was a client of mine. When he left the corporate world to start his own business, he called me up and asked for some advice and support. Today, Mike Dalton is a successful consultant who just wrote his first book – and he contributes to Elephants at [...]

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26 Mind Mapping Tools to Get More Productive

by Lynn Dessert

Last year, I attended a mind mapping seminar. If you do not know what a mind map is, go here for a quick summary or scroll down to the bottom of the post for a video.
Mind mapping is a powerful tool, which appeals to both right and left-brain thinkers. It is allows you to become [...]

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When selling your new idea is your constraint

by Michael Dalton

In a recent Fast Company article and video on Open Forum, Dan & Chip Heath, co-authors of Made to Stick, look at how to explain new ideas – what your innovation is and what it does. If ideas aren’t readily accepted, they can die quickly, and there’s often a lot riding on getting it right – [...]

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Want More out of Your New Product Launches: Avoid these three mistakes

by Michael Dalton

It’s amazing really. The average company spends 3.6% of net sales (which can exceed 40% or more of their EBIT) on R&D, but only 50% are satisfied with what they get in return.
For many industrial or B2B companies, the new product bottleneck occurs at market launch. When this happens, they spend significantly on new [...]

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Keeping Your Eye on the Future

by Lynn Dessert
InseparableMissions

Last Friday, I attended the third annual Eyes on the Future Summit in Rochester, NY discussing our regional economic efforts.
There were over 1400 people in attendance; made up of small businesses, large businesses, educators, government and students.
The keynote speaker was Richard A. Bendis, president and CEO of Innovation America. His topic was “Growing the Greater [...]

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When no one wants to change: 6 questions that lower the defenses to improving innovation

by Michael Dalton
Theorry of Constaints

Why is change so hard? Most people will tell you that it’s because people naturally resist change. I really like Eli Goldratt’s response to this argument:  If a very wealthy person that you knew and trusted offered you a huge sum of money, say $50 million, with no strings attached, would you accept it?
Before you [...]

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Innovate Like a Three Year Old – One Little Question that Can Increase the Number of New Product Opportunities You Uncover.

by Michael Dalton

Innovate Like a Three Year Old – One Little Question that Can Increase the Number of New Product Opportunities You Uncover.
In a previous post, I wrote about some of the innovation lessons we learned while we were in kindergarten. That included focusing on one task at a time and eliminating multi-tasking by assigning each team [...]

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Time Keeps on Ticking – What’s a Day of New Product Delay Costing You?

by Michael Dalton

Companies that try to improve return on new product investment by managing project expenses are pulling the wrong lever. I’m not saying cost isn’t important. But once staffed, project cost is largely driven by the length of time the project team takes to finish. Managing project completion dates is a much stronger lever for controlling [...]

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Are You Ready for Open Innovation?

by Michael Dalton
Open Business Models

Open innovation, or partnerships for outside sources of new technology and market access, has become one of the most talked about movements in innovation. There are over half a million Google citations for open innovation, and Amazon lists no fewer than 4,500 books referencing the subject.
One such quote comes from author Henry Chesbrough – [...]

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Are Too Many Ideas Killing Your Innovation?

by Michael Dalton

Are too many ideas killing your innovation? How can having too many ideas be bad for your new product success; sounds counterintuitive doesn’t it? Well, the problem isn’t actually the number of ideas generated. The problem is allowing too many of them into the product development process at the same time. Previously, I’ve written about [...]

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Want a Better Environment for Innovation?

by Michael Dalton

Want to create a better environment for innovation: Get out of yours and into theirs
I had an interesting discussion recently with a company vice-president about the role of facilities design in innovation. He asked me what he could do in terms of layout and aesthetics to make the work environment more conducive to innovation. [...]

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Innovation Lessons from Childhood

by Michael Dalton

Did you learn all you really need to know about innovation in kindergarten? Funny thing, but as we grow-up and get “smarter”, we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be, and innovation is no exception. Innovation is complex enough to begin with; so let’s look at a lesson we learned as [...]

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Creativity – Declining as We Age?

by Lynn Dessert
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Creatively Selling in Today’s Marketplace….it can be your cup of Tea is the topic of a meeting I attended today facilitated by Karen A. Galvin, Founder and President of Vision Enterprises. This is not the first time I have seen the ‘director’ in action. The approach Karen’s organization takes with training is unique – using [...]

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