MORE INSIGHTS ON INNOVATION

My recent interest in the topic of INNOVATION led me to clicking on related links about the subject. And reading these articles made me think about how I could put the ideas I picked up to good use,for example,here at Chowking.

One idea I got was to have a meeting with RDR and try to convince him that we ought to explore ways of encouraging NEW IDEAS GENERATION. Right now there seems to be no forum for this. New ideas that get translated into product improvement or organizational change seem to come from him. What if he's gone? What will happen to the company then.

Bill Gates is reported to take an idea retreat annually where he just reads thru suggestions of employees that can be put to use at Microsoft. Maybe something along this line might help.

I don't think our R&D is also doing R&D in the strictest sense of doing research into new products. If I were to list what really came from them in terms of new ideas that made it to the market I would say there was really none. Most came from RDR. Maybe R&D ought to be encouraged to do more experimenting & not be limited to their current way of thinking.

In the end,new ideas or innovation will have to come from people but these people who innovate must get heard by the main man otherwise their ideas just get forgotten or are eventually used by somebody else.

I realized too that the innovations do not really have to come from within the organization. The "Open source" mentality and practice of techno-geeks helped in the development of LINUX. This operating system was a product of many minds contributing to the development of a product.

Another insight I got was that INNOVATION that gets bought or used by customers is USUALLY SIMPLE and does not have to be a radically new idea. Take the case of the iPod (which I still don't have) which is simple in design and functionality. It's concept is similar to the Sony Walkman (portable music) but it allows it's users to customize music they want to listen to.

My challenge as a consultant now is how to help transform Chowking into an organization with a culture of learning, innovation and experimentation. Because only if we become nimbler than our competition in building our capacity to compete can we survive and thrive in today's business world.