Searching for innovation opportunities

Stephen Johnson – Where good ideas come from

Posted on March 19th, 2015 by John Bessant

In this TED talk Stephen Johnson explains how ideas emerge and connect to enable innovation.

Activity – Improving a service process

Posted on March 17th, 2015 by John Bessant

    Think about a service process which you have been involved in recently – a visit to the bank, shopping, waiting in a restaurant, booking tickets online, etc. Now try using some of the tools below – or others you can think of – to explore ways in which this process could be improved.

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Yellowberry

Posted on March 11th, 2015 by John Bessant

Yellowberry case study  This case describes a start-up in the field of teenage clothing and highlights a number of themes including user-led innovation.

Local Motors

Posted on March 11th, 2015 by John Bessant

Local Motors Case Study  This case explores a vibrant community of enthusiasts sharing ideas to co-create cars and other vehicles.

Frugal innovation – activity

Posted on February 13th, 2015 by John Bessant

Activity: Frugal innovation   This is an approach to innovation which is based on the principle of simplification – finding solutions to a problem which solve the problem but without adding unnecessary costs or adding unwanted functions. A description can be found in the ‘Deep dive’ section of the Portal and some case examples include

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Deep dive: Frugal innovation

Posted on February 12th, 2015 by John Bessant

Frugal innovation is a term increasingly used to describe an approach to innovation which is simple and sustainable. It grew out of experiences in locations where shortages of key resources required ingenious solutions to problems and where the simplicity of such innovations permits their widespread diffusion.

How to statements

Posted on February 11th, 2015 by John Bessant

     How to statements     A useful tool in creative problem solving is the ‘how to’ statement which provides a powerful way of reframing the problem. For example, consider the problem of a city council concerned with the amount of graffiti being scrawled on bridges, walls, trains and other surfaces. It regularly receives

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Deming Wheel (PDCA cycle)

Posted on February 10th, 2015 by John Bessant

  The Deming Wheel (PDCA cycle)   W. Edwards Deming was one of the architects of the quality revolution which transformed the shape of manufacturing and then service industry in the late 20th century. His pioneering work on how quality could be managed as a system originally developed in the USA but it was in

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Metaphor

Posted on February 9th, 2015 by John Bessant

Metaphor is a powerful tool for generating fresh insights in creative problem-solving.  It helps us ‘get out of the box’ in our thinking and offers new perspectives on problems we are trying to solve. See also analogy, brainstorming  

Analogies

Posted on February 8th, 2015 by John Bessant

Analogies offer a powerful way to generate new ideas based on linking similar worlds or properties to give fresh a fresh perspective. See also levels of abstraction, DOME project