Seven Keys
to Unlock and
Lead Innovation
Strategy
Whether innovation is incremental or moon shot in
significance, it flourishes in organizations that embrace
seven elements in the context of a strategic purpose.
1
Executive Summary
Our Credera research team spent significant time evaluating
organizations with proven track records of innovation. We
set out on an adventure to understand and synthesize those
critical elements that show up repeatedly as foundational
enablers. We carefully examined organizations that rely
on innovation as a cornerstone for competitive advantage,
including NASA’s Apollo space program, Procter & Gamble,
IDEO, Stanford Design School, Apple, Google Ventures, and
early inventors like Edison and the Wright Brothers.
We looked back at history to synthesize patterns in major
innovations in science, mathematics, physics, genetics,
aviation, and business. Specifically, we explored the history of
innovation in the world: the printing press, the steam engine,
the light bulb, penicillin, nuclear power, exploration of space,
ARPAnet, personal computers, mapping the human gene,
Google, Facebook, SpaceX, and artificial intelligence.
We interviewed innovative leaders to understand their
journeys, successes, and failures. Lastly, we examined
scholarly articles, journals, books, and our own client
experiences to further understand the philosophical and,
more importantly, the digestible building blocks to answer
the primary questions:
How can the C-level leader enable systemic innovation
that leads to financial success and happy customers?
We live in a second Renaissance of sorts—a fourth Industrial
Revolution as some have proclaimed. Business, government,
and nonprofit leaders all face pressure to innovate in order
to find some kind of advantage in a competitive landscape.
Standing still is not an option. The organizations that choose
a scatter-shot approach to innovation fail. The organizations
that refuse to innovate fail. Pressure builds to connect
people, devices, ideas, and experiences in meaningful and
new ways. The researchers in the study came across many
executives who shared their concern that innovation would
be yet another fad discussion, taking up resources and then
not yielding any benefit. Certainly, many fads create a flash in
SEVEN KEYS TO UNLOCK AND LEAD INNOVATION STRATEGY
Establish Leadership
& Culture
•
Coordinate enterprise-wide
leadership and governance of
innovation
•
Foster a culture of innovation
Define Innovation
& Approach
Manage, Test
& Measure
•
Develop a shared definition of
innovation
•
Manage the innovation portfolio
like a venture capitalist
•
Commit to design thinking
•
Create radical connection with
customers
•
Build internal and external
partnership networks
the pan without substantial benefit, but research challenges
this skepticism. Even in ultra-mature industries such as oil
& gas, travel & hospitality, energy, law, and medicine, the
opportunities to innovate and expectations of customers
both continue to radically increase over time.
“We choose to go to the moon and do the
other things, not because they are easy…”
– President John F. Kennedy
We don’t all need to all be astronauts—innovation
is essentially human. This paper examines different
magnitudes of innovation: core, adjacent, and
transformational. We all desire to improve, to restore, to
build, to rethink, to imagine. The vision and will to press
forward in the face of monumental challenge is a significant
part of leadership. Leaning into future vision, leaders take
risks—partly because they know that greater risks exist in
sitting still than in creating a new path for the future.
Credera helps C-level leaders see how innovation can lead
their organizations forward.
These enhanced strategies to lead innovation provide
significant opportunities for all organizations—big
and small:
1
Coordinate enterprise-wide leadership and
governance of innovation.
2
Create a shared definition of innovation.
3
Foster a culture of innovation.
4
Manage the innovation portfolio like a
venture capitalist.
5
Commit to design thinking.
6
Create a radical connection with customers.
7
Build strong internal and external networks.
Credera helps C-level leaders see how innovation can lead
their organizations forward.
3
Contents
Introduction
5
What is Innovation?
6
Modern Frameworks Describing Innovation
7
Coordinate Enterprise-Wide Leadership and Governance of Innovation
10
Create a Shared Definition of Innovation
12
Foster a Culture of Innovation
14
Manage the Innovation Portfolio Like a Venture Capitalist
16
Commit to Design Thinking
18
Create a Radical Connection With Customers
20
Build Strong Internal and External Networks
22
Closing
24
Appendix
26
Sources
28
4
Introduction
We live in the epicenter of the most innovative moment in
history. In many ways, we live in a modern Renaissance—a
science- and technology-driven Renaissance. For-profit,
nonprofit, and government organizations all carry a
significant mandate to continue to lead innovation.
Opportunities abound to unlock the human potential—to
imagine and create a new future.
Industrial revolutions represent metainnovation moments in history.
Industrial revolutions represent meta-innovation moments
in history. There is a discussion unfolding proposing that we
are in the early stages of the fourth industrial revolution.
The first revolution began in 1784 with steam power and
mechanical production equipment. The second began in
1870 with electricity, human flight, internal combustion
engines, widespread use of fossil fuels, mass production,
and division of labor. The third began in the 1960s with
the computer, putting a man on the moon, integrated
semiconductors, and the internet.
In this current moment—perhaps a fourth industrial
revolution—machine learning (artificial intelligence) and the
removal of barriers between humans and machines propel
the world in new and innovative ways. In fact, computers
like IBM’s Watson exceed the capacity, speed, and accuracy
of certain human brain functions. Genetic code is translated
and now being specifically understood, synthetic life is
possible as Dr. J. Craig Venter proved a few years ago,
autonomous cars are right around the corner, drones
deliver packages, and personal assistants like Siri and Alexa
talk with us—in many ways like R2D2 of Star Wars. And,
at the time of writing, nearly 1.7 billion humans live in the
digital world called Facebook, sharing all of the emotions
and stories once confined to in-person interactions. The
average lifespan of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies has
decreased from 67 years in the 1920s to 15 years today,
attributed mostly to the increased pace of innovation.
It is no wonder that leaders of organizations big and small
clamor to inspire and cultivate innovation throughout their
empires, teams, and companies as fast as humanly possible.
5
What is Innovation?
In short, innovation is a novel improvement that is
meaningful to people. It is the process of introducing new
ideas, products, or methods.
The Post-It-Note emerged at 3M, when an employee named
Dr. Spencer Silver, accidentally created a low-tack, reusable
adhesive.
Innovations vary in their degree of significance. Some
innovations are incremental; others are radical or “moon
shot” in their epic impact. Consider the Post-It-Note and
Apollo Space program.
Whether incremental or moon shot, innovation
approaches evolved markedly in recent years with the
advent of design thinking. This is a proven technique that
many companies have successfully used to accomplish
innovation—through teamwork, empathy for the customers
through direct observation and interaction, rapid
prototyping, and data-driven testing.
Moon shot innovations represent a category defined by
the 1969 walk on the moon. In retrospect, the time from
1903 to 1969 illustrates the radical innovation in flight. In
Kittyhawk, N.C., the Wright Brothers, two bicycle designers,
made the first successful manned flight. Sixty-three years
later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the
surface of the moon. NASA led the innovation—masterfully
coordinating 20,000 businesses and 400,000 engineers—
without instant messenger, email, or any similar technology
(Apollo: The Race to The Moon by Charles Murray and
Catherine Bly Cox, 1989).
6
With this in mind, let’s examine several different categories
and types of innovations.
Modern Frameworks Describing Innovation
CREATE NEW MARKETS,
TARGET NEW CUSTOMER NEEDS
TRANSFORMATIONAL
Developing breakthroughs
and inventing things for
markets that don’t yet exist
ADJACENT
ENTER ADJACENT MARKETS,
SERVE ADJACENT CUSTOMERS
SERVE EXISTING MARKETS
AND CUSTOMERS
WHE R E TO P L AY
Nagji and Geoff Tuff published a perspective in the Harvard Business Review in 2012
articulating three primary categories of innovations: core, adjacent, and transformational.
These three categories of innovation provide leaders with a common vernacular from which
to discuss innovation.
Expanding from
existing business
into “new to the
company” business
CORE
Optimizing existing
products for existing
customers
USE EXISTING PRODUCTS
AND ASSETS
ADD INCREMENTAL
PRODUCTS AND ASSETS
DEVELOP NEW PRODUCTS
AND ASSETS
H O W TO W IN
7
Core innovations serve existing customers and markets
with optimized, existing products. Nabisco’s 100 Calorie
packet of Oreos is a good example; it enhanced an existing
product (Oreos) and targeted an existing market (calorieconscious consumers).
Adjacent innovations serve adjacent markets and related
adjacent customers. The Swiffer from Proctor & Gamble
leveraged the fact that customers associated long-handled
mops with cleaning the floor and added a new technology to
access a new customer base (those who would not purchase
a traditional long-handled mop).
Apple’s iTunes, which introduced a market
for pay-by-the-song digital music, is a great
example.
Transformational innovations create new markets and
require the organization to provide new technologies and/
or processes. Apple’s iTunes, which introduced a market for
pay-by-the-song digital music, is a great example.
Additionally, Nagji and Tuff also highlight specific allocations
of resources for each type, revealed by correlated share
price performance: 70% for core, 20% for adjacent, and
10% for transformational. The returns from each category
prove to be almost inverted: 10% from core, 20% from
adjacent, and 70% from transformational.
8
Another helpful model was developed by Larry Keeley
(who has a doctorate in innovation from the University of
Chicago School of Design) who articulated 10 different
types of innovation under three distinct categories (Ten
Types of Innovation by Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian
Quinn, Helen Walters, 2013):
1. Configuration
a. Profit Model – Gillette offers a low cost razor with
expensive blades.
b. Network – Target partners with designers for
exclusive products.
c. Structure – Southwest Airlines simplified by using
only one type of airplane.
d. Process – IKEA and Toyota use more efficient
processes.
2. Offering
a. Product Performance – Dyson Vacuums and Intuit
Turbo Tax stand apart because of their dominating
performance through new technologies.
b. Product System – Microsoft introduced a new
licensing approach and bundled the Office Suite,
Scion cars (Toyota) provide abundant “Toyota
warrantied” modification options for the middle
market “tuner” customer base.
3. Experience
a. Service – Offering superior customer service,
with companies such as Zappos (where customers
can buy any shoe 24 hours a day online), Sysco
Foods where all restaurant-supporting items
are delivered around the clock, or 7-Eleven
convenience stores which provide locally-relevant
items on the shelves.
b. Channel – Niketown stores or Amazon Kindle
Whispernet catering to a specific channel.
c. Brand – The well-known brands such as Trader
Joe’s and their private-label food offerings, Intel
Inside branding on computers causing customers
to view computers with these parts as higher
quality, or American Heart Association menu
items helping people see the heart-healthy choices
on menus and thereby raising the value of the
American Heart brand.
d. Customer Engagement – Apple World Wide
Developer Conference is an example of bringing
customers into the process. Apple shows off its
best new hardware and software each year at the
WWDC, where developers pay $2000 for tickets
that sell out in less than two hours.
Both incremental and radical (moon shot)
innovations propel businesses forward.
Our point of view leans intentionally toward the practical
regarding innovation: both incremental and radical
(moon shot) innovations propel organizations forward.
We can debate the finer points of business definitions,
but the fact remains that in any industry where free
market economics prevail, innovation is a requirement for
survival and competitive advantage. Without innovation,
companies (and countries) will eventually decline. This
does not mean that companies must innovate on their own.
In certain industries and in some sectors, imitation and/
or outsourcing for innovation present very real options.
For instance, in biotechnology, companies invest in many
small, highly innovative research laboratories or specific
novel, experimental drugs within those cottage industries—
investing in joint venture partnerships and ultimately
purchasing the high-probability drug companies.
Companies need to embrace innovation as a primary
function, discipline, and organizational capability with
the same rigor applied to more traditional components
of business (i.e., finance, accounting, operations, human
capital, etc.).
Innovation isn’t something that should be taken lightly,
and there is much that can be learned from organizations
that have found success. We have identified seven keys
to unlock and lead innovation within organizations.
9
Coordinate Enterprise-Wide Leadership
and Governance of Innovation
Clear leadership, authority, and accountability
provide guidance to enable measurable results for
an enterprise-wide pursuit of innovation. The role of
an organization’s top-level innovation leader could
be described with various titles: innovation architect,
vice president of innovation, lead innovation catalyst,
or something similar. This role could be a dedicated
position or could be the responsibility of a chief
operating officer, chief executive, or other executive
vice president. Our research and experiences clearly
mandate that a senior leader own the responsibility
and accountability to ensure optimized enterprisewide results for innovation efforts. Additionally,
innovation representatives or catalysts should exist,
embedded across all major functions or capabilities
in the organization. And, as Gary Hamel (author of
“The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company,”
Harvard Business Review, April 2015) emphasizes
in his research, all c-level and board members must
understand and be committed to the innovation
program, as it requires significant resources and
coordination to be successful.
Intuit, the financial software company, illustrates the
role of innovation catalysts. When CEO Scott Cook
recognized that he was not a visionary like Steve Jobs,
he sought a different strategy to drive innovation
throughout the organization.
Similarly, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) “deploys a cadre of
70 senior level employees around the world to help
identify promising adjacencies. These ‘technology
entrepreneurs,’ as the company calls them, are
responsible for researching a variety of sources,
including scientific journals and patent databases,
and for physically observing activities in the specific
markets in order to find new ideas that can build on
P&G’s core businesses.” (“Managing Your Innovation
Portfolio” by Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff, Harvard
Business Review, May 2015)
The role of dedicated research and development (R&D)
laboratories remains critical for innovative physical
product, manufacturing, and biotechnology companies
like 3M. While different in their physical construct and
locations from traditional R&D laboratories, innovation labs
provide a great organizational design solution, especially
for technology companies or in other industries where
digital innovation represents the highest and best use of
innovation investment.
Outposts in various geographies and/or regions and
communities of critical ideas sometimes deserve dedicated
people. Many leading innovative companies place key
entrepreneurs, data scientists, and leaders in innovation
hubs such as Silicon Valley or key stations of higher
education like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.
When CEO Scott Cook recognized that
he was not a visionary like Steve Jobs,
he sought a different strategy to drive
innovation throughout the organization.
and services, all while reducing time to market. (“The 5
Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company” by Gary
Hamel and Nancy Tennant, Harvard Business Review, April
2015)
Clear leadership, vision, processes, training, and
communication throughout the organization all create a
foundation for coordinated and measureable innovation.
Many organizations fail before they begin by failing to lead
innovation from the c-level.
Whirlpool successfully trained 15,000 employees and
dramatically increased innovative products and services, all
while reducing time to market.
The tasks of identifying key people inside the organization,
clarifying the specific processes and measures, and training
them with consistent innovation methodologies are all
important steps to ensure measurable outcomes. To be
certain, training all employees in the innovation imperatives
of an organization provides a powerful mechanism to
unlock novel ideas. Whirlpool successfully trained 15,000
employees and dramatically increased innovative products
11
Create a Shared Definition
of Innovation
A common and shared definition of innovation
establishes the foundation and benchmark by which
all ideas will be created and measured. Creating a
common definition for innovation is critical to ensure
that an organization is working toward the same vision
and goal.
Recently, Whirlpool deployed a new enterprisewide innovation process, including training every
employee in the company on innovation. Prior to
the training, leaders worked diligently for several
months and determined that for a product or service
to be declared innovative, “it must be unique and
compelling to the consumer, create a competitive
advantage, sit on a migration path that can yield
further innovations, and provide consumers with more
value than anything else in the market.” This definition
became the cornerstone of the training curriculum to
inspire all employees to contribute ideas with specific
and aligned intent. (“The 5 Requirements of a Truly
Innovative Company” by Gary Hamel and Nancy
Tennant, Harvard Business Review, April 2015)
...leaders worked diligently for several months and determined that for a product or
service to be declared innovative, “it must be unique and compelling to the consumer,
create a competitive advantage, sit on a migration path that can yield further
innovations, and provide consumers with more value than anything else in the market.”
The definition of innovation is then used to inform the
metrics to measure ideas:
•
customer experience improvement rating
•
gross margin
•
return on invested capital (ROIC)
•
total revenue
•
number of innovations that reach the market in a
given period
•
percentage of revenue derived from new products
and services
•
margin gains related to specific innovations.
13
Foster a Culture of Innovation
An organization that both formally and informally
rewards innovation is exponentially more likely to
successfully innovate.
A study found that corporate culture was a more
significant driver of radical innovation than labor,
capital, government, or national culture. In a
significant research study of 759 companies in 17
major markets, Gerard J. Telis, Jaideep C. Prabhu and
Rajesh K. Chandy found that corporate culture was
a more significant driver of radical innovation than
labor, capital, government, or national culture. The
importance of corporate culture goes even deeper, as
MIT’s Jay Rao and Joseph Weintraub identified three
people-focused elements of innovative culture, by
building on the research findings and major research
on “innovative culture” by Harvard, Booz & Company’s
Katzenbach Center, and the works of Charles
O’Reilly and Daniel Denison (“How Innovative Is Your
Company’s Culture?” MIT Sloan Management Review,
March 2013):
a. Values drive priorities, resource allocation, and
decisions. Innovative companies spent more on
innovative and entrepreneurial endeavors, promoting
creativity, and encouraging continuous learning.
b. Behaviors describe the way people act as it relates
to innovation. Innovative leaders provide a vision of
the future, show a willingness to end older, successful
product and service lines to reapply resources for
newer products and services, and demonstrate
willingness to gain consensus in the face of obstacles.
Innovative employees exhibit understanding of
the customer, grit, and doggedness to overcome
challenges in the face of financial constraints.
c. Climate is the “tenor” of the day-to-day life of
the team. The innovative companies in this study
demonstrated a climate that cultivates engagement
and enthusiasm, challenges people to take risks,
fosters learning, and encourages independent
thinking.
The discretionary time of employees is one of the most
precious resources. 3M started their 15% initiative in
1948, in which all employees were encouraged to spend
15% of their work time pursuing their own innovative
projects (this was long before Google’s more well-known
20% time, which sparked such innovations as Google News,
Gmail and AdSense). For years, 3M has invested 6% of
its approximately $21.2 billion in revenue in innovation.
Former CEO William L. McKnight summed up the way to
ensure continuation of an innovative culture: “Hire good
people and let them do their job in their own ways. And
tolerate mistakes.”
Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and the famous design thinking
guru, describes the ideal personality profile of an innovative
team member as follows (from “Design Thinking” by Tim
Brown, Harvard Business Review, June 2008):
a. Empathy - They can imagine the world from various
perspectives (e.g., current and future customers, colleagues,
clients, end users, etc.).
b. Integrative Thinking - They not only rely on analytical
processes (those that produce either/or choices) but also
exhibit the ability to see all of the salient—and sometimes
contradictory—aspects of a confounding problem and
create novel solutions that go beyond and radically improve
on existing alternatives. (See Roger Martin’s The Opposable
Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative
Thinking.)
c. Optimism - They assume that no matter how challenging
the constraints of a given problem, at least one potential
solution is better than the existing alternatives.
Idea flow happens when people feel
safe, encouraged, rewarded, healthy,
empowered, autonomous, and together.
lone creative genius with the reality of the enthusiastic
interdisciplinary collaborator. The best design thinkers don’t
simply work alongside other disciplines—many of them
have significant experience in more than one. Tim Brown
underscored this point by saying “At IDEO we employ
people who are engineers and marketers, anthropologists
and industrial designers, architects and psychologists.”
Steve Jobs, infamous CEO of Apple, once said, “Innovation
comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling
each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because
they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve
been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six
people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the
coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other
people think.” (“The Seed of Apple’s Innovation,” Business
Week, October 2004)
Spaces and environment matter too. At Google, Apple,
and Facebook, offices embody the playful, fun, expansive,
collaborative, inclusive, beautiful spaces that are now
synonymous with “innovation.” Idea flow happens
when people feel safe, encouraged, rewarded, healthy,
empowered, autonomous, and together.
Culture prevails in any organization—whether it’s formal
or informal, intentional or accidental—and it can inspire or
suppress innovation.
d. Experimentalism - Significant innovations don’t come
from incremental tweaks. Design thinkers pose questions
and explore constraints in creative ways that proceed in
entirely new directions.
e. Collaboration - The increasing complexity of products,
services, and experiences has replaced the myth of the
15
Manage the Innovation Portfolio
Like a Venture Capitalist
Venture capitalists manage portfolios of investment
funds, making high risk/high return bets on numerous
early-stage companies. They usually take board seats
and even implant key c-level and engineering leaders
in the companies. And they look at the expected return
of their entire portfolio, not just a single investment.
In other words, they don’t expect every bet to pay
off—but in aggregate, they expect the portfolio to pay
off. Most importantly, they measure current value
creation results and assess anticipated future results.
Many companies are shut down, restructured, or
taken over by venture capitalist investors. The idea
of modern portfolio management is rooted in risk
diversification strategy. The venture capitalists look
for overall portfolio performance versus putting all
of their eggs in one basket. Likewise, companies are
wise to include low- and high-risk investments in
their respective innovation portfolios. The aggressive
mindset for measuring and managing the portfolio
requires discipline.
Companies need to be disciplined at
balancing their innovation portfolio
and also must take risks to find the
innovations that will deliver large
returns.
As was mentioned earlier, Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff
published a perspective in the Harvard Business
Review in 2012 that showed specific allocations of
resources for each type, proven to provide a best
practice allocation as revealed by correlated share
price performance: 70% for core, 20% for adjacent
and 10% for transformational. The returns from each
category prove to be almost inverted: 10% from core,
20% from adjacent and 70% from transformational.
These metrics are averages and each individual
organization must determine their own best target
ratios.
This means that companies need to be disciplined at
balancing their innovation portfolio and also must take risks
to find the innovations that will deliver large returns and
revenue streams going forward. Just like venture capitalists
looking for the next Google or Facebook to go public,
companies need to balance their investments in innovation
to find not just the near-term core and adjacent wins, but
also the next big thing that will be transformational to their
business.
Similarly, Proctor & Gamble builds portfolios with specific
innovation profiles. It uses sophisticated portfolio
management tools to help managers identify and kill the
least promising innovation projects and to double down
on the gainers. The tools also help create projections for
various elements: financial potential of an innovation,
the cost of human and capital investments required for
the innovation, anticipated customer adoption rates,
etc. Other qualitative metrics roll up into a scorecard,
including net present value calculations and risk adjusted
real-option models. The tools provide rank-ordered lists
of projects. P&G’s innovation leaders use the information
to instigate conversations with project leaders. Their point
of view is that the data is directionally helpful, but the
innovation journey is a dialog with lots of discussion before
shutting down a potential innovation. (“How P&G Tripled
Its Innovation Success Rate” by Bruce Brown and Scott
Anthony, Harvard Business Review, June 2011)
Transformational or moon shot
innovation efforts do not fit neatly
within a fiscal year.
Funding for innovation projects should be borne by the
relevant business unit for all core and most adjacent
projects, but transformational projects should be funded
from a top-level group. It is important to consider that
the path to funding should not be constrained by typical
budget cycles, as the path to market and market-related or
customer-related timing is unpredictable. It bears repeating
that transformational or moon shot innovation efforts do
not fit neatly within a fiscal year.
Additionally, for transformational investments, it’s
important for companies to utilize rapid prototyping to
learn quickly and give employees permission to fail fast and
fail often. Given the large-scale investment required for
this category of innovation investing, companies are better
off cutting their losses if they can quickly determine that
the desired results with an initiative will not be delivered.
By failing fast, companies can move on to investments in
new areas, rather than becoming bogged down in the long
delivery cycles that can kill innovation.
17
Commit to Design Thinking
Let’s take a look at the role of design thinking as it
relates to innovation. Design thinking is a proven
technique for innovation—through teamwork,
empathy for the customers through direct observation
and interaction, rapid prototyping, and data-driven
testing. Gaining momentum from the intense focus
at Stanford’s Design School and from the proven
work from David M. Kelly, Stanford alum and
founder of IDEO, many Silicon Valley companies,
including Google, view the design thinking method
as foundational to progress. Design thinking begins
with a vision-first approach versus scientific method.
The distinction of this modern method of invention
and innovation can be explained as an approach more
similar to architectural design than scientific method.
In 1972, psychologist Bryan Lawson conducted
studies to understand the differences between
problem-focused scientists and solution-focused
architects. He learned that scientists use the scientific
method to analyze while architects synthesize. David
M. Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO emphasize that
both analysis and synthesis are important in the
modern design thinking approaches.
Tim Brown defines the concept best: “Design thinking
is a human-centered approach to innovation that
draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the
needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and
the requirements of business success.”
Jon Kolko summarizes the approach:
“The Change. Increasingly, corporations and
professional services firms are working to create
design-centric cultures.
“The Reason. Many products, services, and processes
are now technologically complex. People are not
hardwired to deal well with high levels of complexity.
They need help.
“The Idea. People need their interactions with
technologies and other complex systems to be
intuitive and pleasurable. Empathy, experimentation,
design smarts, and other qualities help create those kinds
of interactions. Those qualities need to spread from the
product design function to the whole organization.” (“Design
Thinking Comes of Age” by John Kolko, Harvard Business
Review, September 2015)
Google Ventures utilizes the Design Sprint, a one-week
intensive design approach chockfull of design thinking
elements. For example, in 2014, Google Ventures design
partner John Zeratsky helped design and prototype a robot
with the company Savioke to deliver items like toothbrushes
and bottles of water to hotel guests. Starwood Hotels then
tested the crude prototype to get real customer feedback.
Shortly after, the full-production version of the robot
became a reality and orders flooded in from many different
hotels.
We use design sprints with great results. The key to
successful design sprints is to include the right multidisciplinary team. This cannot be underestimated. At the
core of design thinking is the bias toward a vision, working
with experts from various disciplines, moving quickly to
prototype, and testing with real customers.
The design sprint is one method related to design thinking.
The key to the power of design thinking rests in: a keen
focus on the future, empathy for the customer or user,
collaboration of a multi-disciplined teams, speed to
prototype, all while utilizing both analysis and synthesis.
Here are the key elements involved in Google Venture’s
five-day Design Sprint, as outlined by Jake Knapp in his
2016 book Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New
Ideas in Just Five Days:
Day 1: Map
The entire team will share what they know about the
problem at hand to help others understand the problem
from various vantage points.
Day 2: Sketch
The team will work individually to sketch a detailed solution
to the problem on paper.
Day 3: Decide
The team will converge to share solutions, focusing scope to
find the best solution to the problem, and set the blueprint
for prototypes to be created.
Day 4: Prototype
Quickly create one or more prototypes to be used to gather
insights.
Day 5: Test
Share the prototype with ‘real’ customers or end users, and
collect user data.
19
Create a Radical Connection
With Customers
The innovation journey begins, ends, and includes
along the way the protagonist of the story—the
customer. Empathy with the customer and anticipation
of the customer journey is central to innovation.
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and that is
amazing by itself. But he didn’t stop there. He knew
that he also needed to invent and build the electricity
distribution systems to make sure everyone could
enjoy the benefits of light.
The voice of the customer is one of the most important
sources to tap into in order to ideate and test new
innovations. Whether using focus groups, surveys,
crowd sourcing, mystery shopping, or a variety of
other techniques, gaining insights from customers to
fuel innovation is absolutely critical.
In some cases, companies have created special groups
of customers to include in the testing of innovations.
For example, eBay regularly utilizes its eBay Power
Sellers group to preview and test innovative
enhancements prior to a broader release. Many of
these users appreciate getting an early view into what
is coming and having the opportunity to shape the
results, given that it impacts their business. Testing
innovations with real customers is a critical part of the
innovation process.
There is nothing better than a real customer for
customer feedback. This may seem obvious, but in our
experience many companies substitute real customer
feedback with internal focus groups that try to imagine
what customers think. Take the story of publisher
Nigel Newton, who reviews book manuscripts for
potential publication. He handed a manuscript to his
8-year-old daughter. She loved what she read, which
is a good thing for the many millions of kids who would
later come to know and love the Harry Potter series.
What is fascinating is that eight other publishers had
“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology…
I’ve made this mistake probably more than anybody else in this room… As we have
tried to come up with a strategy and a vision for Apple, it started with ‘What incredible
benefits can we give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?... I think that’s
the right path to take.”
Steve Jobs
Apple World Wide Developer Conference, 1997
already rejected the idea. None of them shared the
story with a child, so they all missed the involvement of a
customer.
Similarly, we recently worked with an industry-leading
company. With over 300,000 end-point delivery
destinations, they wanted to apply extreme prescriptive
analytics, eliminate left turns, and incorporate modern, realtime inventory management methodology. The magnitude
of change was radical. So before any system design, we
began with weeklong deep dives with real customers
in several different geographic regions, showing them
extremely low-tech mock-ups of what the new processes
and services would look like. Our team of cross-functional
experts from different business units would compile the
information from the interviews in the hotel each night,
gleaning powerful insights. From those customer insights,
we modeled a business case based on reality. This provided
a budget framework from which to design, build, and
deploy the solutions—knowing ahead of time the market
share growth potential. The customers even became
excited about the effort and created powerful “pull” for the
adoption of the changes.
In our experience, involving customers early and often in
the project life cycle significantly increases the success of
the innovation design, implementation, and adoption.
21
Build Strong Internal
and External Networks
The most innovative companies invest to increase
communication and collaboration in both internal and
external networks.
In the simplest terms, the organization
must lead the focus and strategy for
innovation.
In the simplest terms, the organization must lead the
focus and strategy for innovation.
While both are important, research illustrates that the
internal networks and initiatives are more important.
This is due to the need for strategic direction and a
portfolio management approach for ideas. Without
this direction setting and measured approach, there
could be large numbers of uncoordinated innovation
initiatives and related investments deployed without
any knowledge of expected returns. In the simplest
terms, the organization must lead the focus and
strategy for innovation. Networks of c-level leaders
and innovation team members from all major functions
collaborate for better returns. Proctor & Gamble
illustrates the importance of this internal and external
network capability.
In 2002, Proctor & Gamble faced a dilemma—how to
continue to grow at 4-6% through organic growth.
At $70 billion, this growth target meant growing the
equivalent of a net new $4 billion company in one year.
P&G had to figure out how to exponentially increase
their innovation capacity and success rate. While in
the past most of the innovation came from internal
R&D among P&G’s 7,500 researchers and support
teams, the CEO, A.G. Lafley, challenged the leadership
team: “We needed to change how we defined, and
perceived, our R&D organization—from 7,500 people
inside to 7,500 plus 1.5 million [external researchers
and entrepreneurs] outside, with a permeable boundary
between them. So P&G moved from a R&D to a Connect
& Develop or C&D model. The model works. Today, more
than 35% of our new products in market have elements that
originated from outside P&G, up from about 15% in 2000.
Our R&D activity has increased by 60%. Our innovation
success rate has more than doubled, while our cost of
innovation has fallen. R&D investment as a percentage of
sales is down from 4.8% in 2000 to 3.4% today.” (“Connect
and Develop: Inside Proctor & Gamble’s New Model for
Innovation” by Larry Huston and Nabil Sakkab, Harvard
Business Review, March 2006)
This model illustrates the importance of external innovation
networks. Different than outsourcing innovation, Connect
& Develop is P&G’s way of connecting internal teams with
external partners. Specifically, P&G has approximately 70
technology entrepreneurs around the world who lead the
development of coordinated top 10 local customer needs
lists, product adjacency maps, and technology briefs—all
defining the focused list of innovation categories. Next,
these internal P&G technology entrepreneurs meet with
university and industry researchers to gain clarity on the
types of skills, thought leaders, and sources with potential
to accelerate the completion of innovation projects.
The technology entrepreneurs conduct rigorous data
mining of scientific literature, patent database review,
attend product conferences, and research online. These
technology entrepreneurs are part investigator, part
connector, and part inventor—generalists with a mind for
connecting the dots and identifying patterns. They work
out of six hubs: China, India, Japan, Western Europe, Latin
America, and the United States. This enables P&G to focus
on the unique customer needs as well as tap into the local
talent pools.
No amount of idea hunting outside will
pay off if, internally, the organization
isn’t behind the program.
and ranked in the continue-to-pursue categories. Once
business unit directors inside P&G commit to pursue
the product for development and market testing, P&G’s
External Business Development group gets involved to
ensure proper licensing of the intellectual property.
No amount of idea hunting outside will pay off if, internally,
the organization isn’t behind the program.
The important lesson is that “no amount of idea hunting
outside will pay off if, internally, the organization
isn’t behind the program. Once an idea gets into the
development pipeline, it needs R&D, manufacturing,
market research, marketing, and other functions pulling
for it. But, as you know, until very recently P&G was deeply
centralized and internally focused. For Connect & Develop
to work, we’ve had to nurture an internal culture change
while developing systems for making connections. And that
has involved not only opening the company’s floodgates to
ideas from the outside but actively promoting internal idea
exchanges as well.” (“Connect and Develop: Inside Proctor &
Gamble’s New Model for Innovation” by Larry Huston and
Nabil Sakkab, Harvard Business Review, March 2006)
Through connecting the internal and external innovation
networks, P&G increased external sourced innovation from
10% to 50% between 2001 and 2008. During this time, the
company launched Tide Pods, Crest White Strips, and the
Swiffer.
Partnerships with external teams, companies, individuals,
and universities result in prototypes. Internal innovation
teams then screen the prototypes. The technology
entrepreneurs connect the business unit innovation team
members with the external teams as prototypes are scored
23
Closing
Enhanced strategies to lead innovation provide significant
opportunities for all organizations—big and small. C-level
leadership and commitment, along with business unit and/
or business function leadership provides the best approach
to instill internal initiation and prioritization of innovation
pursuits. The organization benefits when leaders provide
a clear definition of innovation, as this will provide the
foundation for all measures of progress, prioritization,
and success. Creating a culture of innovation is possible
by selecting and training people to harness empathy and
other critical values, behaviors, and climate. Commitment to
design thinking optimizes speed to market and relevance to
customers. Managing the innovation portfolio like a venture
capitalist injects rigor and measurement to prioritize at
a macro and micro level, ensuring the achievement of
revenue and customer experience goals. Radical connection
with customers throughout the journey produces the
most rewarding insights. And, finally, integrated internal
and external networks increase the volume, creativity, and
efficiency of innovative ideas and related products and
services.
Innovation is a uniquely human gift. The frameworks help,
but they truly dim in comparison to the beauty of the
natural human potential unlocked when we engage the
childlike, the creative, the dreams of what could be just
around the corner. We need to keep exploring, keep pushing
the boundaries. We need to go to Mars and beyond.
24
This short study of innovation, which is
intended to identify and share best practices
related to innovation, is an ongoing initiative,
fueled by several key fountains of knowledge:
our own client experiences and related
research; external research in academic
journals; discussions with professionals at
other firms; the study of the engineering
history of NASA’s Apollo space program; the
Google Ventures approach to Design Sprints;
IDEO and Stanford Design School; and
several books focused on historic innovations
in science, aeronautics, and medicine.
Credera is a full-service management consulting,
user experience design, and technology solutions firm.
We work with Fortune 500 companies, medium-sized businesses, government organizations and clients across a broad range
of industries, and we give them the experience and perspective to solve today’s toughest business and technology challenges. Credera delivers solutions to clients across North America. Founded in 1999, we currently have office locations in Dallas,
Houston, and Denver.
FIRM HIGHLIGHTS
Credera possesses a unique combination of deep technical expertise with extensive business backgrounds. Our Innovation,
Analytics and Owner’s Mindset separates us from our competitors. Our rigorous recruiting and selection processes provide top
talent at every position – all modeling our core values of Integrity, Humility, Professionalism and Excellence.
About the Authors
Scott Covington, Vice President & Partner
Scott Covington is a Partner at Credera and strategy advisor to many client executives. Scott leads
the Customer Experience Forum. Covington began his management consultant career with Andersen
Consulting over 20 years ago, focused on strategic transformations with Fortune 100 clients in the U.S. and
Europe. Prior to Credera, Covington was COO in a private equity firm. Covington co-founded, and led as
CEO, two VC-backed technology companies. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University and completed the
Stanford Finance and Accounting executive program (FANFE). [email protected]
Justin Bell, President & Partner
Justin is president and a partner at Credera. He is also the leader of Credera’s Digital Strategic Forum. Bell
has a passion for helping clients utilize technology to improve their customer experience and grow their
business. Throughout his career, Bell has led many strategic and innovative engagements for great clients
including American Airlines, Hilton, GameStop, Pep Boys, Neiman Marcus, The Container Store, National
Geographic, and HomeAdvisor. Bell graduated from Oklahoma State University.
Jake Carter, Principal
Jake Carter is a Senior Manager in the Management Consulting practice at Credera, where he focuses on
product and marketing strategy. He has 10 years of technology experience, including work for both Google
and Zynga. Prior to joining Credera, Carter worked at Google, where he worked with the Google Apps,
Google Enterprise, Online Operations, and People Operations teams. Carter holds an MBA with distinction
from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, as well as a bachelor’s degree with
honors from Northwestern University.
Gabe Knapp, Principal
Gabe Knapp is a Principal with Credera and has over 20 years of experience in consulting and industry,
spanning various industries including high technology, consumer and industrial products, financial services,
hospitality, retail, and energy. Knapp specializes in customer and marketing strategy, digital strategy,
customer experience, and customer loyalty. Prior to joining Credera, Knapp worked for Deloitte Consulting/
Monitor Group in their strategy practice serving Fortune 500 clients. Knapp holds a bachelor’s degree in
business administration from Trinity University in San Antonio and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
25
Appendix
1. A Brief Discussion of Disruptive Innovation
Disruptive innovation is a phrase first defined by Harvard
professor Clayton M. Christensen in 1995. He defined disruptive
innovation such that disruption “describes a process whereby
a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully
challenge established incumbent businesses. Specifically, as
incumbents focus on improving their products and services
for their most demanding customers, they exceed the needs
of some segments and ignore the needs of others. Entrants
that prove disruptive begin by successfully targeting those
overlooked segments, gaining a foothold by delivering moresuitable functionality at a lower price. Incumbents, chasing
higher profitability in more-demanding segments, tend not to
respond vigorously. Entrants then move upmarket, delivering the
performance that incumbents’ mainstream customers require,
while preserving the advantages that drove their early success.
When mainstream customers start adopting the entrants’
offerings in volume, disruption has occurred.” (“What is Disruptive
Innovation?” by Clayton M. Christensen, Harvard Business
Review, December 2015)
Andrew A. King, professor of business administration at
Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, criticized Christensen’s
approach. Specifically, King studied and statistically argued that
Christensen’s theory proved to have very limited predictive
power. King’s substantial analysis can be found in the MIT Sloan
Management Review’s Fall 2015 issue, “How Useful Is the
Theory of Disruptive Innovation” by Andrew A. King and Baljir
Baatartogtokh.
While the debate to determine what is truly “disruptive
innovation” versus incremental, moon shot, or other types of
innovation is interesting, it is mostly academic.
2. Sample Measurements for Gauging the
Success of Innovation Efforts
a. Strategic
•
•
•
•
•
b. Process
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Number of innovations in a fiscal year.
Speed from identification of innovation to release of
prototype.
Speed from prototype to full product/service.
Percentage of projects with customer interaction in the
first stage of an innovation project.
Number of prototypes needed to get to the final solution
(trend declining over time).
Patents filed.
Patents granted.
c. Culture
•
•
•
Percentage of employees rating “culture encourages
innovation.”
Employee innovation involvement (total involved/total).
Collective satisfaction rating from innovation team
members about innovation results.
d. Financial
•
•
•
•
26
Customer purchase correlated to innovation projects.
Customer satisfaction rating attributed to innovation
projects.
Innovation team members’ perception of c-level
commitment to innovation.
Market share gains correlated to innovation.
Percentage of enterprise revenue invested in innovation.
Percentage of sales from products or services released in
the last 24 months.
Dollar and resource allocation discipline (70%, 20%,
10%).
Return on invested capital (ROIC) related to innovation
projects.
Tax dollars reclaimed through R&D tax relief.
3. Innovation Labs Model
Our practitioners favor a monetization process that revolves
around the innovation labs model. In this approach, the enterprise
strategy and related top-level business objectives inform the
innovation strategy led by an innovation council. A majority of the
lab team’s work will stem from the innovation council’s initiatives,
with a minority from other sources (including employees at large,
customer experience teams, external alliance partners, etc.).
The innovation labs team will evaluate and prioritize a portfolio of
innovation initiatives based on core, adjacent, or transformational
categories. Each innovation project will go through three stages:
prioritize and plan, prototype and test, and iterate and incubate.
The projects that successfully make it through testing and are
rated as high-probability projects (related to their customer
feedback, effort and return projections, etc.) will be transitioned
to operations-oriented business units, whereby an innovation
architect (embedded in the business unit) will partner with the
business to implement the solution (products and/or services) at
scale.
The innovation architect assigned to the project works with the
business unit to scope the project and estimate the effort and
realistic financial expectations. While these are initial estimates,
the information is stored and tracked to create a full life cycle view
of ideas from original innovation council through prototyping
and then on through to actual results. This provides a complete
feedback mechanism to identify opportunities for improvements
in efficiency and alignment to enterprise strategy and objectives.
27
Sources
Books
Johnson, Steven. Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural
History of Innovation. New York: Riverhead, 2010. Print.
Keeley, Larry, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, and Helen Walters. Ten
Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs.
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print.
Kelley, Tom, and Jonathan Littman. The Ten Faces of Innovation:
IDEO’s Strategies for Beating the Devil’s Advocate & Driving
Creativity throughout Your Organization. New York: Currency/
Doubleday, 2005. Print.
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago,
IL: U of Chicago, 2012. Print.
Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free,
1983. Print.
Utterback, James M. Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation:
How Companies Can Seize Opportunities in the Face of
Technological Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School,
1994. Print.
Articles
Fallows, James. “The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the
Wheel.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, Nov. 2013.
Web. 31 Aug. 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/
archive/2013/11/innovations-list/309536/>.
Rao, Jay, and Joseph Weintraub. “How Innovative Is Your
Company’s Culture?” MIT Sloan Management Review RSS. MIT,
13 Mar. 2013. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.
Price, Robert M. “Infusing Innovation into Corporate Culture.”
Organizational Dynamics 36.3 (2007): 320-28. Harvard Key.
Harvard University. Web.
Brier, David. “What Is Innovation?” Fast Company. Fast Company
& Inc., 01 Nov. 2013. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <http://www.
fastcompany.com/3020950/leadership-now/what-isinnovation>.
Huston, Larry, and Nabil Sakkab. “Connect and Develop: Inside
Procter & Gamble’s New Model for Innovation.” Harvard
Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 31 July 2014.
Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2006/03/connect-anddevelop-inside-procter-gambles-new-model-for-innovation>.
Allis, Ryan. “The 12 Greatest Innovators of All Time - The Startup
Guide - Creating a Better World Through Entrepreneurship.”
The Startup Guide Creating a Better World Through
Entrepreneurship. The Start Up Guide, n.d. Web. 01 Sept.
2016. <http://startupguide.com/world/greatest-innovators/>.
28
McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. “The NEXT
Industrial Revolution.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.
com/magazine/archive/1998/10/the-next-industrialrevolution/304695/>.
Hamel, Gary, and Nacy Tennant. “The 5 Requirements of a Truly
Innovative Company.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard
Business Publishing, 27 Apr. 2015. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.
<https://hbr.org/2015/04/the-5-requirements-of-a-trulyinnovative-company>.
Satell, Greg. “Want to Do Corporate Innovation Right? Go Inside
Google Brain.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business
Publishing, 01 June 2016. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.
org/2016/06/want-to-do-corporate-innovation-right-goinside-google-brain>.
Kolko, Jon. “Design Thinking Comes of Age.” Harvard Business
Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 01 Sept. 2015. Web.
01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/product/recommended/an/
R1509D-PDF-ENG?referral=02527&cm_vc=rr_item_page.
articles>.
Brown, Tim. “Design Thinking (HBR Bestseller).” Harvard Business
Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 01 June 2008. Web.
01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/product/recommended/an/
R0806E-PDF-ENG?referral=02542&cm_vc=rr_item_page.
rr1>.
Christensen, Clayton M. “Disruptive Innovation Explained: Is Your
Organization Prepared?” Harvard Business Review. Harvard
Business Publishing, 29 June 2016. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.
<https://hbr.org/webinar/2016/06/disruptive-innovationexplained-is-your-organization-prepared>.
“Rethinking the IT/Business Partnership to Drive Digital
Innovation - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ORACLE.” Harvard
Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 03 May 2016.
Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/sponsored/2016/04/
rethinking-the-itbusiness-partnership-to-drive-digitalinnovation>.
Monterde, Stephan. “How We Think About Innovation at Cisco.”
Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 08
June 2016. Web. 1 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2016/06/howwe-think-about-innovation-at-cisco>.
Goetz, Kaomi. “How 3M Gave Everyone Days Off and Created
an Innovation Dynamo.” Co.Design. Fast Company & Inc., 01
Feb. 2011. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <http://www.fastcodesign.
com/1663137/how-3m-gave-everyone-days-off-and-createdan-innovation-dynamo>.
Narsalay, Raghav, Jitendra Kavathekar, and David Light. “A HandsOff Approach to Open Innovation Doesn’t Work.” Harvard
Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 03 May 2016.
Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2016/05/a-hands-offapproach-to-open-innovation-doesnt-work>.
King, Andrew A., and Baljir Baatartogtokh. “How Useful Is the
Theory of Disruptive Innovation?” MITSloan Management
Review (2015): 121-31.MIT Sloan Management Review
RSS. MIT. Web. <http://ilp.mit.edu/media/news_articles/
smr/2015/57114.pdf>.
Govindarajan, Vijay. “The Three-Box Solution: A Strategy for
Leading Innovation.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard
Business Publishing, 26 Apr. 2016. Web. 01 Sept. 2016.
<https://hbr.org/product/the-three-box-solution-a-strategyfor-leading-innovation/15029E-KND-ENG>.
Jain, Vani. “Innovation Without Borders: Six Best Practices to
Improve Innovation Success Rates.” Innovation Management.
Innovation Management.se, 23 June 2015. Web. 01 Sept.
2016. <http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2015/06/17/
innovation-without-borders-six-best-practices-to-improveinnovation-success-rates/>.
“Business Model Innovation in Emerging Markets: New
Opportunities and Challenges.” Harvard Business Review
Analytic Services (n.d.): n. pag.Harvard Business Review.
Harvard Business Publishing, 2011. Web. 1 Sept. 2016.
<https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/tools/17129_HBR_Qatar_
White%20Paper_FNL.pdf>.
Taylor, Bill. “Please, Can We All Just Stop.” Harvard Business
Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 23 July 2014. Web. 01
Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2012/05/please-can-we-all-juststop-innovating>.
Brunswicker, Sabine. “Open Innovation Not Fad But Phenomenon.”
LinkedIn Slide Share. LinkedIn, 9 Oct. 2013. Web. <http://www.
slideshare.net/christophervoeglein/open-innovation-not-a>.
Nagji, Bansi, and Geoff Tuff. “Managing Your Innovation Portfolio.”
Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 19
May 2015. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2012/05/
managing-your-innovation-portfolio>.
Pisano, Gary P. “You Need an Innovation Strategy.” Harvard
Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 01 June 2015.
Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/product/you-need-aninnovation-strategy/R1506B-PDF-ENG?cm_sp=Article-_Links-_-Buy+PDF>.
“The+worlds+most+innovation+companies+2016 - Google
Search.”The+worlds+most+innovation+companies+2016 Google Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://www.
google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=the%2Bworlds
%2Bmost%2Binnovation%2Bcompanies%2B2016&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8>.
Christensen, Clayton M., Michael E. Raynor, and Rory McDonald.
“What Is Disruptive Innovation?” Harvard Business Review.
Harvard Business Publishing, 01 Dec. 2015. Web. 01
Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptiveinnovation>.
Marion, Tucker J., and Sebastian K. Fixson. “The 4 Main Ways
to Innovate in a Digital Economy.” Harvard Business Review.
Harvard Business Publishing, 27 June 2016. Web. 01 Sept.
2016. <https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-4-main-ways-toinnovate-in-a-digital-economy>.
Brown, Bruce, and Scott Anthony. “How P&G Tripled Its Innovation
Success Rate.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business
Publishing, 07 Oct. 2014. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://hbr.
org/2011/06/how-pg-tripled-its-innovation-success-rate&cm_
sp=Article-_-Links-_-End%20of%20Page%20Recirculation>.
Knapp, Jake. “How Savioke Built A Robot Personality In 5 Days.”
Co.Design. Fast Company & Inc., 03 Mar. 2016. Web. 01 Sept.
2016. <https://www.fastcodesign.com/3057075/how-saviokelabs-built-a-robot-personality-in-5-days>.
Videos
Brown, Tim. “Tales of Creativity and Play.” TED Talks. TED
Conferences, 2008. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://
www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_
play?language=en#t-1033846>.
ProjectHappyWay. “Best Ted Talks 2015 - The Secret of
Innovation - Take Control of Your Life.” YouTube. YouTube, 01
May 2015. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=i48iYHQwUBw>.
TEDtalksDirector. “Where Good Ideas Come From | Steven
Johnson | TED Talks.” YouTube. YouTube, 21 Sept.
2010. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=0af00UcTO-c>.
“The Design Sprint.” GV. GV, n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2016. <http://
www.gv.com/sprint/>.
29
WE KEEP
OUR PROMISES
Our clients hire us to own their toughest challenges.
They retain us because we keep our promises.
GET IN TOUCH
Has this paper been helpful? Need additional information on our
services? Please reach out and let us know how we can help:
DALLAS
| DENVER
| HOUSTON
CREDERA.COM