The digital edition of Strategy & Innovation launched in September 2008, and we now have four times as many subscribers as we had for our print edition. So in this last month before the anniversary of our digital launch, we’re reaching into our archives for some great stories that many of our readers will not have had a chance to see. One is “Constraining Innovation” by Joe Sinfield and Scott Anthony, about why constraints are important for innovation and how to smartly set those constraints. Here is an excerpt:
During the dotcom era, many businesses focused their attention on creating a workplace environment that was thought to encourage creativity and innovation. Stories of offices full of bean-bag chairs, videogames, and ping-pong tables were commonplace. Managers were encouraged to "think outside of the box," to dream up the best new idea that they could, and this often created an environment that let chaos reign. But does all that creative freedom really lead to meaningful innovation? While there is some merit to the notion that talented people should be able to work when and how they feel most productive and creative, simply allowing employees to wear flip-flops is not a sustainable path to creating an innovative organization. In fact, our work with leading corporations in a wide range of industries has led to a perhaps surprising finding: Properly constraining innovation can actually lead to superior results.
In this issue's Innovators' Insight, Scott Anthony discusses the power of 'starting' questions saying that different starting questions can expand or contract the opportunity space for innovation. Here is an excerpt:
The start of the innovation process almost always begins with some kind of question. “What if we did this?” “Why don’t we go after this market?” “What could we do with this technology?” It pays to choose your starting question carefully. The right question can send you down the path to disruption. An overly narrow question too focused on competitors or existing capabilities can unintentionally wall off disruptive options.
Featured in the InnoBlog, Editor, Renee Hopkins, discusses the emerging technology of self-assembling DNA. Innosight Manager, Robyn Bolton, writes about the importance of circumstances and how it relates to innovative products. Kai Itameri-Kinter analyzes the disruptive potential of 3-D printing and Innosight Analyst, Andrew Laing, discusses Apple's newest product and its place in the disruptive landscape.
As always, thanks for reading Strategy & Innovation! All issues are available and free with registration here.
