How do you combine technologies to innovate?

This makes so much sense. It is the combination of technology that becomes so powerful in this model.

Well worth reading and thinking through as an enabler of innovation. Adam really nails this one.

These technologies can be combined in numerous ways, and we are just starting to see companies really taking advantage of the possibilities. These four technologies will have a disruptive impact on your business, almost regardless of which industry you're in. The question is whether you will choose to adopt them before a competitor does.

What are they?
1.  Microprocessors
2.  Sensors
3.  Wireless connectivity
4.  Databases

The Four Technologies You Need to Be Working With - Adam Richardson - Harvard Business Review

Define relevance by how relevant the experience is

The customer journey is evolving (albeit very, very fast). That shouldn’t surprise you but it is good news. You haven’t been left behind completely. Your customers have changed though. Their experience of you and your mission may not be what any of us would want. In this case, relevance is defined by how relevant the experience is. Passion for your products and services is contingent on amazing experiences.

How you personally decide to react or lead is up to you. It, of course, is not about technology. What is the journey of getting closer to customers and staying relevant really about? Here are some ideas:

• Creating a culture built around the customer and their experience being the focus of all you do.
• Empowering employees to do what it takes to create amazing experiences.
• Opening up the floodgates of innovation.

Saying we want to get closer to customer won’t get senior management on board. While a customer revolution is at the C-Suite doors, someone (meaning you) needs to convince the top that change is imperative. Without that we will fail.

You know that most executives don’t use social networks personally. While they have smartphones, their primary utilization is for email and looking at the calendar to know where to go to next. The reality is that most in the C-Suite won’t read this won’t read this book. Trying to make a case that this is about technology will be a losing battle.

What is the future of companies built on? It isn’t about how Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, tablets or real time-time geolocation check-ins evolve. The future of companies does depend on relevance and the ability to at least understand technology to be able to make decisions about new opportunities. It does require the ability to strategically adapt to the new opportunities to create a competitive advantage.

So much of this is about change. There is a technology revolution occurring. Other companies understand this. But it is also about a whole series of real-world revolutions that are seizing how your customers live which impacts their experience with you. Expectations are moving fast. You can’t afford to get left behind. The kind of change we are talking about involves three things:

1. Listening
2. Learning
3. Adapting

As a digital executive, you can create the culture to make the change. If you can’t change the company, you can change your department or work team. You have a sphere of influence. You can make an impact.

Am I experimenting enough?

End of the day question: Am I experimenting enough?

Answer? Probably not.

Challenge? How do I do it more? How do I do it faster?

You Call That Innovation? Maybe it is just change management

Everybody is on the innovation bandwagon. It is the "buzzword" of the year. Unless what we are talking about is disruptive, we are probably talking about monumental change and change management. This may be the "elephant in the C-Suite" but it is an elephant none the less.

Got innovation? Just about every company says it does.

Companies throw the term "innovation" around but that doesn't mean they are actually changing anything monumental. Leslie Kwoh reports on digits. 

Businesses throw around the term to show they're on the cutting edge of everything from technology and medicine to snacks and cosmetics. Companies are touting chief innovation officers, innovation teams, innovation strategies and even innovation days.

But that doesn't mean the companies are actually doing any innovating. Instead they are using the word to convey monumental change when the progress they're describing is quite ordinary.

via You Call That Innovation? - WSJ.com.

R & D spending to perceived innovation. Is Apple the best?

For the third year in a row, Apple has been voted most innovative company in the world by R&D professionals. In the survey, conducted by Booz & Company, almost 80 percent of the respondents named Apple as one of the three most innovative companies in the world. Google is a distant second with 43 percent of the respondents naming the search engine provider in their top three. This result comes at a time when many are starting to wonder whether Apple has lost its magical innovative touch. Although the company recently updated its entire product range, people are missing revolutionary new features from the company that re-imagined the mobile phone with the iPhone.

What’s interesting is the fact that Apple has the lowest R&D intensity (the ratio of R&D investments to a company’s sales) of all companies in the top ten. In fiscal 2011, Apple spent 2.2 percent of sales ($2.4 billion) on research and development. Google and Microsoft, two of Apples main competitors, each invested more than 10 percent of sales in R&D. Overall there is surprisingly little correlation between R&D expenditure and perceived innovativeness. Only three of the top ten R&D spenders in 2011 made the list of most innovative companies as perceived by the industry experts.

This chart shows a ranking of the most innovative companies in the world, based on a survey among 700 high-level R&D professionals.



http://www.statista.com/markets/15/technology-telecommunication/chart/686/the-most-innovative-companies-in-the-world/