The Innovation Blog

Yeah, yeah it’s a bit late.  I know.  We’ve been busy!  And, apparently we’re not alone in that respect in the innovation space.  That’s good, because not only does it mean the economy is trending in the right direction, it means I had plenty to choose from to compile this list.  So, without further ado, here’s what we saw “innotweeted” the most in June 2011:

The Role of Boredom in Innovation

This may be a wee bit misleading but the ultimate take-away is that if you are proactive in those moments of relative inactivity (yes, a bit of a contradiction) you can actually stimulate an “ah-ha” moment.  Scott Anthony of Innosight tells us in essence to stop and take a look around, and make connections – the seemingly irrelevant can lead to unexpected insights and valuable newness.  http://bit.ly/jJWYpX

America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs

Social entrepreneurship (and also social innovation – not the same thing) have experienced a dramatic rise in prominence in the last few years and is now seeing major traffic throughout the social media stratosphere.  I, for one, am greatly optimistic that this trend will only continue to grow, and loved this article about some very noteworthy domestic social entrepreneurs and their endeavors. http://bit.ly/ihXDLC

Mobile Innovation

Not a novel trend by any stretch but there were a lot of interesting developments in the mobile space as we see it getting further and further along in its capabilities: most notably the use of the smart phone for educational and also medical/health purposes is actually proving itself out, and the ubiquity of phones around the world has allowed previously alienated entities, say in the Middle East or Africa, to enter the global conversation, which is now less one-sided than ever. http://ht.ly/5oR1v

Innovating in spite of the Economy

It’s an ongoing battle we fight – when the economy slows, the tendency is to cut costs where there is the most risk.  Unfortunately, this tends to be where the real innovation comes from – the R&D department, the New Business Ventures group, etc.  We have to fight that urge and look elsewhere to trim the fat – you will be left behind when the economy does turn around if you neglect or worse decimate your innovation generators.  Such times are actually a good time to get skinny in places you normally wouldn’t even look! http://bit.ly/jSzjAq

Restoring Innovation to a Leading Brand

This was an interesting read on the fight a big, established brand has to go through in evolving to handle and assimilate the array of innovations coming at them from every direction, and simultaneously maintaining the loyalty of its core customer base. http://bit.ly/oUyK2w

Remixing your Innovation Portfolio

Figuring out what the right portfolio of innovation is for your company (meaning how ambitious, how transformational, how far out the time-to-payoff can be) is absolutely essential.  This Business Week article does a nice job of identifying some of the telltale signs that you may need to do a bit of readjusting. http://buswk.co/jGbmpD

Collaboration in Innovation – All Good?

In this blog post, our friend Jose Baldaia talks about the pros and cons of collaboration and how it can stimulate and also hinder innovation. http://bit.ly/jRcnfE

Financial Innovation

A space not often thought of for being particularly innovative (or at all), this is an interesting expose of some of the innovations happening in the financial sector. http://bit.ly/q2xQEA

The Top 10 Innovation Challenges for 2020

This was a fascinating, thought-provoking list, looking ahead to 2020 via Forbes. http://onforb.es/jBvF6n

A Brief History of Innovation

And, to round out the list, I thought this was a neat video showing innovativeness as it has evolved over time. http://ht.ly/5avhG

- Clay Maxwell (@bizinovationist)