All industries have innovative pioneers, and the financial industry had one with Theodore Forstmann, who recently passed away at the age of 71. Theodore Forstmann, with others, pioneered leveraged buyouts (LBOs), which is responsible for not only leveraging new companies, but also leveraging and enabling dormant human capital already within organizations. Mr. Forstmann is associated … Read more

What are hurdles to creating disruptive innovation in your organization? Many organizations, including companies, do not set aside time and other resources to enable innovation. First, some focus is needed to exert direction and space provided so staff (employees and external consultants) will not be overwhelmed. Second, marketing your wares to existing customers is a … Read more

Open innovation has been used by organizations,including companies, on the vanguard for several decades. The antecedents are large manufacturers that have historically relied on their trusted vendors, then efforts followed that enabled supplier-customer partnerships involving shared privileged data, development plans and goals, to morphing in the current state into a committed reliance on these outside … Read more

So you are wondering how to improve or sustain innovation performance, especially in comparison to others in your industry? Conduct an audit. Pick a group of people capable of implementing changes, to map the elements of your operation, the satisfaction with internal and external customers, and set long-term metrics and benchmarks for your organization. What … Read more

Are all of the elements of your innovation environment working optimally? Find out what parts need tweeking, streamlining, and optimizing. The term ‘innovation environment’ is used to describe your stakeholders, internal and external, as well as the market and cultural drivers for maximizing sales/profit on new products. An audit can identify areas, organizations, groups, processes, … Read more

Just think of the successful companies of decades past, ITT, General Motors, Sunbeam, as well as others. Developed and especially developing companies (like countries) need innovation to advance, yet innovation brings about threats to comforts, core competencies, and past successes. Success is not forever, nor is failure, yet we can design systems to maintain sustainable … Read more