Innovating To Win

Does Size Matter?

Over on Innovate on Purpose, Jeffrey Phillips discusses recent comments from Andy Grove regarding the ability of very large corporations to capitalize on disruptive opportunities by looking outside of their current market.  However, small enterprises should take note as well.

Andy’s point is that with the critical mass of the mega-enterprise often come certain competencies that can be exported to new markets as innovations.  But this concept can be generalized.

Companies have key competencies, whether these are business processes or technologies, which can be viewed as novel when applied outside of their primary market space.  This is true regardless of size.  The key is developing the disciplines to identify the intersection points between you organizations capabilities and the opportunity spaces of other markets.  These intersections represent potentially disruptive opportunities.

Repurposing your process or technology assets can be a fairly painless way to find a huge opportunity in a new market where you can take the innovation high ground.

A Conversation With Vincent Lyons - Part III

This is the final installment of the first podcast in my series of conversations on innovation and innovation practice with leading innovation practitioners.  In this three part discussion, I have been chatting Vincent Lyons, Vice President of Engineering & Technology for Leggett & Platt.  Vincent joined Leggett & Platt in 2006 to head up the company’s Innovation Redefined initiatives and has achieved much in a short time.

In the first segment, Vincent and I talked about the universal challenges encountered by global 2000 companies when trying to create a sustainable innovation engine.  In particular, we discussed how companies:

• have few if any models for repeatable means of innovation
• are pushed to rush to a solution by competition & time pressures
• lack the ability to leverage of internal corporate wisdom
• have limited visibility to relevant knowledge outside their domain of expertise

In the second segment, we explored the strategies for successful deployment of sustainable innovation practice.  In particular, we touched on how to think about culture, personnel, process to drive innovation, communication, and impacts on the organization.

In this final discussion, we delve in to how these strategies are being put into action at Leggett & Platt to power their Innovation Redefined initiatives.

(Podcast length: 14:36)

I hope you have enjoyed the discussion series as much as I have.

Patents – Innovation Killer or Innovation Accelerator

It seems every time I scan the recent blog postings on innovation, I see at least one or two posts declaring patents are stifling innovation.  This certainly wasn’t the intent of the patent system.  To the contrary, the idea was that by providing the temporary monopoly granted by a patent, the cause of innovation would be advanced by publishing the latest state of the art so that other innovator could learn.

In a brightly lit room somewhere, the question is asked, “So, how does this patent busting method work?”

“It is really quite simple,” comes the reply.  “The Doctrine of Equivalents and its application in case law give us very good guidance as to how you can break through a competitive IP barrier.  In short, if you follow a simple 3 step process you will rarely fail to find a new non-infringing way to accomplish the goal.

“One, Identify each of the independent claims of the patent in question.

“Two, Model each claim so that its design intent is unambiguously represented.

“Three, Refactor each modeled claim consistent with the principles of the Doctrine of Equivalents.

“Your newly refactored set of models now represent potentially distinct, non-infringing IP.  Of course, there are a few subtleties to this method, and you should always run your new invention by your patent group to be doubly sure, but that is essentially the way it works.”

Although this conversation might sound like a work of fiction, it isn’t.  I can’t even count the number of time I have had this conversation over the years, nor can I count the number of time I have discussed the results people have had applying this and other similar methods.

Yes, it seems clear to me that patents are a springboard for innovation.  If you have the right tools and understand the associated best practices, patents represent a rich source of ideas to spur innovation.