Latest Post

One in a million - an innovation that works for a children’s hospice

Francis House Children’s Hospice is 18 years old. “In January 1990 Sister Aloysius called a meeting of like minded people to discuss how to provide help to the many families around the Northwest who had children with life limiting conditions, the Rainbow Family Trust was born! Never one to let grass grow under her feet [...]

Featured Post

Asides

• At the HR Forum in London today Phil Richardson presented biomimetics and how that can be used in helping understand busines relationships and growth driven change management. A summary can be found in Personnal Today #
• I am a tutor for B820 the Open University MBA module for strategy. It forms a core module for the MBA and is enjoyed by those in the second year of the MBA with the OU. I've just come from a session delivered by Professor Susan Segal Horn at the B820 residential about the planned update to B820. She asked if the tutors had any suggestions for changes. I thought it might be interesting to throw this out to the group to see what you think? If you let me have your thoughts by the 10th March I will forward them to Susan. I have suggested that the course team should consider strategy maps, an application of the balanced scorecard, the change kaleidoscope and business biomimetics. It would be great if we could build a practitioner led profile to augment the academic thinking. You never know! #
• Phil Richardson's poster Naked Strategy: using biomimetics to drive busines change won the poster award at the recent research collaboration conference sponsored by the University of Bath. Phil was presented with his award after being voted best poster by the other researchers at the conference. http://www.bath.ac.uk/research/researchers/community/rsconfhome.html #
• Making the connection between the idea and the delivery needs more than just a proven consulting method. By understanding the "what's in it for me question" change can be better managed and success achieved more readily. If you can answer this question for your key stakeholders then you are halfway home. Next time you write a business case include the wider benefits making sure there is something in it for you! #
• Many involved in innovation are buried in the R&D departments of large corporations. This isn't right. There are a few who sit at a senior level and may be called Innovation Director or Head of strategy and innovation. I'm not sure that this is right either. I see innovation as a process. It is not the name to give idea generation for product development, nor is it the name to label off-site meetings that generate a pile of flip charts and post it notes for some lucky admin person to type up and circulate. I believe that innovation is a process and should permeate strategy, organisation design, process design, the application of technology, leadership, the development of behaviours and values and the development of customers, markets, products and services.  As you know I am a fan of biomimetics because nature innovates on the macro scale. In these times of futures which are both unplannable and uncertain then perhaps it's time to look at your innovation competition rather than your product competition. Perhaps it is time to have a "Fitness for the Future" project? #