Strong Triage Maximizes Innovation Resources

The costs of innovation have rose to the extent that discovery gaps exist for whole industries.  The pharmaceutical industry has been the focus of many studies as to why such a discovery gap (drugs with expiring patents coupled with few new molecular entities) has existed since the mid-1990s.  Clearly, large expenditures in genomic research have … Read more

Key Success Factors for Creating an Innovation Culture

How to get there and what does it look like…. The success factors for innovative company cultures are the overwhelming alignment of R&D managers to collaborate with openness to promote creativity and to manage risk. In the big picture, innovation strategy (if one exists) needs to align with the corporate strategy. High growth companies typically … Read more

Servant Leaders: Leadership Contains Servitude

This concept is not what most folks think about leaders, being servants of those they lead? This principle is not a cultural norm of most Western civilizations. An example? Think of Harry Potter’s behavior…..Think about the CEO’s showcased in Good to Great. Servant leaders tend to exhibit many of the same character traits: empathy, awareness, … Read more

Corporate Environmental Factors Enabling Innovation

So you have set up a process to innovate. Have you considered some of the cultural issues that affect your corporate environment so you can actually innovate and come up with new ideas to address customers’ needs? People need time off from their daily routines to allow time and energy to focus on new possibilities. … Read more

Getting Out of Your Way to Innovate

Bureaucratic inertia and management faithlessness aside, making your pitch to innovate involves knowing not only consumer needs yet also management needs. Maybe upper management doesn’t know what you do, so send them a short email weekly (2-3 sentences total) to tell them what you’re up to. By opening up a communication channel you can find … Read more

Innovation Metrics Revisited

Since we last spoke about metrics in 2009, metrics have remained the critical factor in measuring innovation success. Metrics are used as key performance indicators–how much bang are you getting for your buck? Overall, everyone should assess the percent of sales revenue generated from new products commercialized within the last five years. Other metrics that … Read more