At The Front End of Innovation

I am at the Front End of Innovation conference today.  This has been a great conference in the past, so I am looking forward to some great presentations.  It is always interesting to contrast different people and their messages in this type of environment.

As I was milling about this morning before going in to the keynote session, a vendor approached me.  She asked me how things were going at Invention Machine (the company I am with) and then began to tell me about her company’s value proposition and method of delivery.  She went on about how they help companies understand the market receptivity though a web based survey technology.  The concept sounded great, but then she revealed a fatal flaw in her company’s method.  The surveys are based entirely on random sampling.  As anyone who has studied polling and sampling can tell you, random sampling in notoriously unreliable—and yet this company was making a conscious decision to go down this path and label it as a strength by claiming to be tapping into the wisdom of the crowd.  Yes, some people just don’t get it.

Fortunately, some people do.  The keynote speech delivered jointly by Gunter Pauli and Janine Benyus was excellent.  The talk was centered on biomimicry—the practice of looking at how nature solves problems for practical idea to use in solving innovation challenges.  Gunter opened the session by saying that the session wasn’t going to be about going green, it was going to be about innovation and driving business.  As he put it, “If you are not innovating, you are going out of business.”  The pair then proceeded to consider a number of bio-phenomenon and discuss the potential business implications of each.

If you missed the conference today but find this topic interesting, John Bradford, VP Operations and R&D for Interface, will give a presentation tomorrow on Interface’s green innovation strategy and their application of biomimicry.  A $1.1 billion global manufacturer of commercial carpets, Interface has doubled its core business through sustainable innovation.

Comments

[Paul Williams]

Jim:

Thanks for the update.

I'm upset I can't be there this year. Was all signed up to attend and then had a late business conflict.

Thanks for allowing us to live vicariously through you. ;-)

Paul

[James Todhunter]

Hi Paul,

Sorry we won't have the chance to meet here at the conference. Wish you were here. ;-)

Jim