BQF Innovation BlogBQF Innovation BlogWe review business innovation issues. We discuss creativity, leaderhsip and innovation as part of a special interest group for the British Quality Foundation. 
Articles
The Needs that Customers cannot articulate
2008-08-06 17:20:00 I went for a walk in the park today and noticed that most of the people who were walking their dogs were using ball throwers. We had a dog for many years and in all that time I threw balls and sticks for it and was never aware of any need for a ball thrower. ... More About: Customers
Innovation Blogs
2008-08-02 16:02:00 There are several interesting innovation blogs. Some of my favourites are listed in the blogroll on the right hand side of the page. A couple of compendiums usefully compile a list of all the latest postings on innovation blogs and I am pleased to say that the BQF Innovation Blog gets listed. Try these two: Pageflakes Alltop ... More About: Blogs
Competency Traps Meeting
2008-07-30 17:33:00 Today’s meeting of the BQF Innovation Unit discussed the issue of Competency Traps. The session was led by Richard Granger of Arthur D Little. He presented a comprehensive review of the topic and then facilitated a workshop where delegates assessed their organisational competence in 7 key areas. Competency traps are skills, attributes and things we ... More About: Meeting
Use a Japanese Haiku for a different view
2008-07-29 13:15:00 If you ever get frustrated with Windows errors then try some of these Japanese Haiku computer messages for an altogether calmer point of view. The Web site you seek Cannot be located, but Countless more exist Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return. Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much. Windows NT crashed. I am the ... More About: View
Customers can guide innovation
2008-07-11 17:07:00 Customers can be an important source of innovative ideas. Many companies conduct conventional customer surveys and focus groups. These are useful channels of feedback but in terms of original ideas they are often disappointing. Customers are good at demanding incremental improvements in products, lower prices and better service but they are notoriously poor at predicting ... More About: Customers , Innovation , Guide
Solving the Unsolvable
2008-07-04 20:05:00 I thought it was an urban legend; the story of the student who mistakes a pair of ‘unsolvable’ maths problems for his homework assignment and solves them. It has been used as an example of the power of positive thinking. If you do not know that a problem is unsolvable then you have a better ...
Thinking the Unthinkable
2008-07-02 19:55:00 We can broadly simplify innovations into two kinds ? incremental and radical. Incremental innovations are improvements to current products, methods, processes, services, partnerships and so on. Customer complaints and suggestions are a good source of ideas for incremental improvements. So are the people who work in the organisation. If you ask customers how your product ... More About: Thinking
Competency Traps - Next Meeting of the Innovation Unit - July 30
2008-06-24 20:40:00 The next meeting of the BQF Innovation special interest group will take place in Westminster on the morning of Wednesday July 30th. The topic is competency traps and the main presentation will be given by Richard Granger, Senior Associate at Arthur D Little. What are competency traps? They concern the aspects of a company’s skills, ... More About: Events , Competency , Meeting
UPS innovates by not turning left
2008-06-20 13:52:00 I read an interesting post on the E-myth blog about UPS. They found that they could save time and fuel by instructing drivers not to turn left. It sounds crazy but by planning their routes to include only right turns they saved time spent waiting to turn left. ‘In 2004, after evaluating their CO2 emissions, ... More About: Left
Lessons from the Leadership Conference
2008-06-13 11:10:00 The BQF annual leadership conference went well. Here are some of the key messages I took away from the speakers: Tim Cross, former army officer, gave an inspirational talk. He argued that the key thing missing for most modern leaders was a sense of moral purpose. We think we can solve society’s ills by exercising levers ... More About: Events , Leadership , Lessons , Conference
Innovation Metrics - which are the best ones?
2008-06-09 11:57:00 Last week I ran a session for GBPA corporate members where we discussed innovation metrics. We reviewed the Boston Consulting Group 2007 research on the subject and the results of my innovation metrics web survey. It was agreed that most organisations find it difficult to measure innovation in any satisfactory way. The most common measurements ... More About: Innovation , Metrics
Penalty Shoot-outs - innovation needed?
2008-05-24 13:12:00 So the greatest every match between English clubs was settled by a penalty shoot out. John Terry missed the chance to win the European Champions league for Chelsea and Manchester United went on to grab the trophy. MU seize the title and the glory while Chelsea fans curse their luck. Football fans everywhere enjoyed a ... More About: Innovation , Penalty , Shoot
Penalty Shoot-outs - innovation needed?
2008-05-24 13:12:00 So the greatest every match between English clubs was settled by a penalty shoot out. John Terry missed the chance to win the European Champions league for Chelsea and Manchester United went on to grab the trophy. MU seize the title and the glory while Chelsea fans curse their luck. Football fans everywhere enjoyed a ... More About: Innovation , Penalty , Shoot
Leadership Conference - June 11th
2008-05-17 10:49:00 The BQF is hosting a leadership conference on June 11th 2008 with a terrific line-up of speakers including Nigel Risner, Tim Cross, Susan Scott-Parker and Tim Peach. It will be held at the Latimer Conference Centre in Chesham. There are more details here: http://www.bqf.org.uk/sbp_studytours.htm Paul Sloane More About: Leadership
11 of the Dumbest Business Decisions Ever
2008-05-09 10:06:00 We know that innovation involves taking risks. Yet it often seems that the safe option is to turn down the risk. However, turning down a risk is also a risk - the risk of losing an opportunity. Just to remind us of how big that risk is we have here a list of some of ... More About: Business , Decisions
Knowledge Management for Innovation
2008-04-30 19:10:00 We had a successful meeting of the BQF Innovation Unit today in London where the topic was Knowledge Management for Innovation. Professor Michael Kelleher gave a comprehensive explanation of KM. Some of the points he made were: The cost of ignorance is high. NASA and the British Nuclear Industry both lost important early knowledge. You should align your ... More About: Knowledge Management
Innovation Nation - White Paper
2008-04-28 20:44:00 The UK Department for Innovation , Universities and Skills (DIUS) has recently issued a White Paper on how the government plans to help the UK ‘excel at all types of innovation.’ You can download the press release, the executive summary or the full report (all 98 pages). The role of the Department is ‘to champion innovation across the board, ... More About: Nation
The Apprentice
2008-04-17 20:02:00 Do you watch The Apprentice ? Candidates for the position of apprentice to Sir Alan Sugar are set business tasks in teams. The losing team then has to face trial by ordeal by Sugar and his henchman and henchwoman. Ultimately, with a great dramatic flourish and an accusatory pointed finger, Sir Alan announces, ‘You’re fired!’ And ... More About: Innovation
Starbucks turns to Customers for Innovation
2008-04-13 13:07:00 According to this report from the BBC, coffee chain giant Starbucks is hoping its loyal customers may be able to brew up the bright ideas to help turn around its struggling fortunes. The company recently launched a website offering its US customers the chance to pitch ideas for how the firm can improve its stores ... More About: Customers , Innovation
Do Schools kill Creativity?
2008-04-03 11:15:00 In this entertaining and challenging talk Sir Kenneth Robinson argues that creativity is as important as literacy and that our education system is failing in this regard. He points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize — much less cultivate — the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their ... More About: Schools , Innovation , Creativity , Kill
Next BQF Innovation Unit Meeting - April 30th
2008-03-26 09:36:00 Innovation and Knowledge Management The next meeting of the BQF Innovation Unit will take place in central London on Wednesday April 30th from 9.30 to 12.30. The main speaker is Professor Michael Kelleher, Senior Consultant: Knowledge & Information Management, DNV IT Global Services. His presentation and interactive session will illustrate a model of knowledge management that ... More About: Events , Innovation , Meeting
Seven Myths of Innovation
2008-03-21 18:10:00 Are you being hampered because of belief in one of the myths of innovation? George Chen and John Zapolski have listed what they consider to be the top 7 falsehoods in this article in the Indus Business Journal. Their seven myths are that innovation …….. …can’t be taught …is about creating industry-changing ideas …is risky …means creating cutting-edge products …is expensive …distracts ... More About: Innovation , Myths
Try this quick test
2008-03-20 08:43:00 Try this little test: http://www.dothetest.co.uk/ It virtual online casinojeu roulette russeplay free kenojeux baccarat en lignewww groupe casino frblack jack innjeux casino pokerjeu casino gratuigamme com jeutelecharger jeux de casino,telecharger jeux casino,telecharger jeux de casino gratuitesvideo poker gratuitscasino en ligne paypaleuro vip casinocomment jouer au casinojeux casino bonusjeux de casino onlinewww casino on net comcasino jeux francejeu ... More About: Innovation , Quick , Test
Try setting drastic expectations
2008-03-16 21:22:00 Most business leaders plan modest incremental growth each year. They set expectations that they are confident can be achieved. This way everyone can get a pat on the back when the plan is reached. Growth in revenue in line with the market at 5% and growth in profits of 6% is the sort of thing. ... More About: Innovation , Expectations
Innovation Master Class - London May 12
2008-03-09 11:09:00 We are running another Master Class on Innovation and Creativity in London on May 12th. Key topics I will cover include: The characteristics of innovative leaders Problem analysis techniques Idea generation techniques Lateral thinking skills Advanced brainstorming Idea Evaluation De Bono?s Six Hats Paul Sloane More About: Events
Linkedin or Facebook - which is better for business?
2008-03-07 00:10:00 There is a wide choice of social networking sites for business people. I use Linkedin , Facebook , Plaxo and Ecademy but I find it hard keeping up with them all and I am sure that I am not getting best use out of them. Maybe they just demand too much time. Linkedin has been useful - ... More About: Business , Innovation
The International Innovation League Table
2008-02-22 20:48:00 For the past 7 years the European Commission has compiled an assessment of the innovation competitiveness of all the EU states and some other countries as comparisons. The 2007 report has recently been published and you can read the full report. The key factors that are used to compare the performance of countries are as ... More About: International , Innovation , League , The International , Table
Collaborative Innovation takes time
2008-02-18 18:19:00 Here is an interesting article on collaborative innovation in the Exchange Morning Post. It draws on the collaborative experiences of Advanced Micro Devices and IBM, Renault and Nissan, Nike, Reuters and others. Key lessons are that success takes time and depends strongly on a shared strategic outlook and a deep level of trust. Paul Sloane More About: Time , Innovation
Feb 5th Meeting
2008-02-06 11:42:00 We had an excellent meeting on Feb 5th. It was kindly hosted by the Royal Mail at their offices in Old Street. The meeting started with a talk from Robin Mar of Royal Mail who gave examples of the successes and difficulties that they have had with innovation. They introduced a prize competition in order ... More About: Events , Meeting
Essay about the Future
More articles from this author:2008-01-29 23:17:00 Here is a marvellous little video clip that I got from Frank Calberg. See what you think. Paul Sloane More About: Future , Innovation , The Future , Essay 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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