{"id":1532,"date":"2011-08-29T21:01:04","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T03:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/workingknowledge.com\/blog\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2023-03-02T21:27:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T03:27:40","slug":"the-search-for-innovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.workingknowledge.com\/blog\/the-search-for-innovations\/","title":{"rendered":"The Search for Innovations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Point<\/strong>:\u00a0 Use roving cross-functional teams to hunt for promising new product and service ideas.<\/p>\n

Story<\/strong>:
\nIn a world of large organizations and diverse global hotspots for R&D, innovation occurs everywhere.\u00a0 Companies can tap those innovations through search processes, which may be cheaper and more effective than only using traditional \u201cstart from square one\u201d R&D efforts.\u00a0 The rationale: there may be no need to re-invent the wheel if the wheel already exists somewhere inside (or outside) your organization.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how multinationals General Mills and Whirlpool approached the search for innovations. General Mills formed two \u201cinnovation squads\u201d consisting of six-to-eight employees selected from multiple functions. The squads are tasked with hunting for ideas from inside and outside the organization \u2013 one squad focuses on finding ideas internally, the other focuses on looking outside the organization.\u00a0 The squads present the best ideas they\u2019ve found to division heads. Once a quarter, the squads give their top 10 ideas to the company chairman.<\/p>\n

For example, one squad found a patent for a new method of encapsulating calcium. The patent had been donated to a university. The squad converted it into a very successful new line of orange juice with added calcium that doesn\u2019t taste chalky.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Whirlpool designates some employees as innovation mentors \u2013 \u201ci-mentors\u201d \u2013 training them in innovation and tasking them with identifying promising new product ideas from across the organization. Whirlpool has 1000 i-mentors globally.\u00a0 Most of the individuals self-identified and asked for the training, which consists of a formal training program that creates a common language for innovation and embeds innovation into an organizational competency the way Six Sigma training does. Whirlpool developed \u201chow-to\u201d guides for its innovators, including analysis of who has contact with whom [network analysis].<\/p>\n

Action<\/strong>:<\/p>\n