Innovation Constipation: Is your business as innovative as it thinks?

Your business has the resources, talent and willingness to innovate, but for some reason your business isn't recognised for striding ahead and being the one to try something new. Perhaps you have tried some product diversification, or an "industry first" project, but it has'nt quite worked out.

Strategic marketing experts like to talk about how businesses can handle innovation. How to take the ideas that come out of the business and it's customers and drive them forward and get them over the line. There is less discussion, however, on just how capable businesses are at preparing for innovation.

Would you ask an overweight 45 year old man to run a 100m dash against Usain Bolt and expect him to win? You might, but he will be on his knees before he has hit the 50m mark, and it will have taken him ten minutes to get there.

The point is that if you need a business to innovate, you first need to make an assessment of the potential of your organisation to do so, and that can sometimes prove difficult.

I have developed an Innovation Capability Assessment Matrix to help identify which elements of the business struture are working as blockers to innovation, and which elements have the potential to promote and facilitate it. Completion of this scoring based mechanism should allow a quick understanding as to how able your business is when it comes to handling innovation, and will give tips on how to make positive changes to facilitate innovation further.



The above model is an example of how an organisation with a score of 20 would respond, and is not indicative of a particular business



The Matrix is based upon 5 key blockers to innovation:

1. Perceptual

2. Cultural

3. Environmental

4. Emotional

5. Intellectual

It is a simple premise. 10 questions, each answer gets a point score between 1-4. The closer you are to 40 at the end of it, the more capable of innovation your business is. Give it a try. The questions are as follows:-

1. What percentage of new positions are filled with recruits from outside of the business?

                  - 0-25% (1 point)

                  - 25-50% (2 points)

                  - 50-75% (3 points)

                  - 75-100% (4 points)

2. How do salaries and benefits packages in your business compare to those of the industry average?

                   -Below Average (1)

                   - Average (2)

                   - Above Average (3)

                   - Excellent (4)

3. Does your organisation have a widely used and functioning ideation programme?

                   - No, nothing (1)

                   - Yes, but it is under used (2)

                   - Yes, for less than 2 years (3)

                   - Yes, for 2 years or more (4)

4. Does your organisation have a sustained and functional reward and recognition programme?

                  - No, nothing (1)

                  - Yes, but it is under used (2)
                  - Yes, for less than 2 years (3)
                  -Yes, for 2 years or more (4)

5. Number of special projects delivered this year versus £1m profit?
                 - No special projects (1)
                 - Average 1 per million (2)
                 - Average 3 per million (3)
                 - Average 5 per million (4)

6. Does your business have a dedicated cross functional innovation team in place?
                 - No (1)
                 - We have individuals who tend to get special projects but no dedicated skill set (2)
                 - Yes, but they also have busy day jobs (3)
                 - Yes, we have a dedicated innovation project team (4)

7. What is the average percentage of year on year growth of your core product or service?
                 - 0-2% (4)
                 - 2-3% (3)
                 - 3-4% (2)
                 -  4% + (1)

8. How many new products or diversification programmes have you taken to market in the last 3 years?
               - None (1)
               - 1 (2)
               - 2 (3)
               - 3+ (4)

9. What percentage of special projects in the last year have included the introduction of technology new to the business?
               - 0 - 25% (1)
               - 25-50% (2)
               - 50-75% (3)
               - 75-100% (4)

10. What percentage of your innovations in the last year have beat competitors to the market?

              - 0 - 25% (1)

              - 25-50% (2)
              - 50-75% (3)
              - 75-100% (4)


Here is a brief assessment of your score:-

30-40 Innovation Fascination

You are willing to spend money on the right people and have the ability to attract high calibre candidates with specialist knowledge and experience. You like to take a risk and have a positive approach to change. Your innovation infrastructure is sound, and you are likely to take innovative ideas from across your business or your customers, and have the ability to move forward quickly.

20-30 Innovation Probation

Your colleagues and customers are a great resource of innovative ideas, and often you do deliver innovative projects that have a positive benefit to the business. This may however take place in the shadow of your competitor's innovations, perhaps because you feel restricted on budget and resources or prioritise your core product or service. You will probably find it easy to graduate your innovation programme to the next level with some concerted effort.

10-20 Innovation Consternation

Your ability to handle innovation is potentially limited. You may sit as an average player in the industry when it comes to reward and recognition, employee benefits and ideation programmes. You are not currently a business that takes a proactive approach to innovation.

0-10 Innovation Constipation

It is likely that you under value your workforce by offering below average salaries and no reward and recognition scheme for good work or ideas. You seem to have an eyes and ears shut approach to new projects and challenges and are happy to focus on your basic service or product proposition. You run the risk of getting left behind by your competitors in the longer term unless you involve your colleagues and customers in an ideation process and facilitate the development of new initiatives with resources and finance.

Turning Strategic Values into Training Room Tangibility

Welcome to the world of the Customer Services Trainer, the upbeat, high energy individual who seems to have undying blind passion for the job and has the duty to install ethos and values from day one on the job.

Enter the burly front line service teams, arms crossed, straight faced, the scars from the three line whip fresh on their backs. They have been doing the job for years, they know best, they know how the service is meant to look. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

Does the pink and fluffy Customer Services Trainer shrink under the pressure of a group of dominant mindsets, or have the ability to challenge them head on and change perceptions?

So how do we take a set of customer service values created as a strategic anchor and translate them into a training room package that will stick in the minds of employees and set the scene for the service moving forward?

The truth of the matter is, every single person in that room is a customer themselves, and they already have the knowledge and ability they need to translate their own expectations and experiences into excellent customer service. What might come in handy is some gentle facilitation.

I've been trialing an approach to customer services training that places front line staff teams firmly in their rightful place, right up at the top of the corporate structure chart, next to customers (with senior management teams and strategic leaders firmly at the bottom).

The premise is that rather than the Customer Services Trainer delivering a syllabus of values or behaviours, they take a less dominant role and allow the delegates to lead the session themselves. It goes a little something like this:-


1. The Culture Change Ice Breaker
              
An interactive demonstration that blows people's minds. Watch out for my next post "The Power of Positivity" for the finer details.

2. Our Experiences

Ask every single member of the audience to think of two companies. One with which they have had a negative customer experience, and one with which they have had a great customer experience. Then ask them to select one of these companies and say the name aloud, note the number of bad vs good companies mentioned. Spend a good 30 minutes talking in detail about why the individuals have made these selections, get a good understanding about the fundamental issues that created the situation.

This session should be completely unrelated to your business, and will place delegates into the mind set of customers, rather than employees.

3. Our Service

Brainstorm for single word answers to the following 2 questions, and make note of the responses:-

- What do I want people to say about the service I deliver?
- How do I want people to feel about the service I deliver?

Then ask the group to create the service standards for the service. Rather than be told what the standards are, they will decide and define what they should be. Create headings based upon your pre-established customer journey points and create standards for each specific element of the journey. Write as much as you need to.

4. Our Personal Pledges

Produce a pro-forma that gives each delegate the opportunity to give their name, job title and a personal pledge as to how they will personally contribute to delivering great service. Then have them move into a room where a professional photographer is waiting so they can have their photograph taken. Place the framed photographs on the wall in the service environment with each colleague's pledge edited onto the image.


The great thing about this system is that no matter how many sessions you deliver, whether it is one colleague or 50, the value sets and service standards will always align to those of your strategy, because everybody knows what great customer service looks like. At the same time, you have given your teams the opportunity to take ownership of their own service, allowing them to understand that the business does value their input, and is willing to let them take the lead.

Fascinating and Infuriating - What would you do?

I just watched a fascinating documentary on Channel 4 On Demand. Would you save a stranger? An hour long documentary recounting the stories of people who have been victim to violence, and those who have watched others being subject to violence and their consequent response.

In a week that has seen a local man randomly stabbed to death just round the corner from my home here in Manchester this documentary raises realistic and timely questions about the way in which we both as individuals and a society address violence when exposed to it in this often shocking and brutal way.

Very often we read in the media about somebody taking a beating or even being killed. Yet we can distance oursleves from it and, very often we cannot envisage or may not even consider what our own reaction would be in that situation.

For most of us, the violence that we encounter comes through a televsion screen. A re-enactment, actors working through a sequence, jerky black and white CCTV images. By now we are used to seeing this kind of content on a regular basis. However, for those unfortunate enough to encounter this king of violence in real life, our reaction is often exactly the same as the one we provide from the couch when watching TV. We sit still and we gawp.

When I lived in North East London, I read an article in the Guardian written by a woman who had been on a bus in Islington when another passenger was stabbed on his way home from work. On a bus full of people, she was the only one who went to his aid. As he died in her arms, she asked another passenger for his coat so she could wrap it around the victim because he was shivvering. He said no because he didnt want to get blood on it. No one offered any support even after the attack was over and the attacker was long gone.

As far as I can tell there are two reasons why someone would not go to the aid of someone in immediate distress:

1. They have a serious concern for their own safety
2. They believe someone else will - or is already - dealing with the problem

I think it is entirely reasonable that a lone female should not try to tackle ten men beating someone up. She should certainly try and get someone's attention and call the police. However, for a bus full of grown men to sit and watch a 13 year old girl get her head stamped on is pitiful, and to watch this documentary was at times totally infuriating.

Similarly, there were two men featured on the programme who had gone to the aid of an attack victim. One died of a stab wound to the heart and another was stabbed five times but survived. The beauty of this documentary was that it was objective. It didnt judge those who did or did not intervene, and it highlighted the contradictory elements of the "Should I?, Shouldn't I?" question.

I once taught a man in prison who had stamped on someones head until they were dead. I asked him why he kept going, why he didn't stop. He said if only someone had pulled him away he knows he would have left the man alone. He infact blamed the lack of action of others for the mans death.

Would I help a stranger? Yes, I think I would, because I would look to others for help if I found myself in a situation where I could no longer defend myself.

Potty Protests, Pink Parrots and Zip Lines

Every now and again I tune into a web based alternative news portal called LiveLeak.com. It is a viral collection of videos from around the world. usually captured on handheld cameras and mobile phones, they are typically the things that dont make it onto the mainstream news, or are an alternative viewpoint of the issues that do.

The thing about LiveLeak is that its raw and often unedited. Feeds are often placed on the site directly from personal cameras and are not subject to censure. You can be right in the action with British troops in Afghanistan or in the crowd at a Barack Obama pep rally.

I love the psychology of bandwagons and, this past few weeks has seen almost every former hippy, powerliberal, and bandwagoner get on the Gaza Strip boat. Please don't assume that I condone Israel and its actions, a lot of people have died and some of the scenes have been truly shocking. I am not talking about Israel and the Gaza Strip today. I am talking about ineffective protesters.

I tuned into LiveLeak.com this week and came across a video that was taken from within a pro-Arab protest in London. It essentially involved a gang of young British asian men leading a "protest". By protest I mean they were marching on the police with such force that they could not be contained, they were goading the Police to fight with them, shouting racist insults, throwing traffic cones, bricks, bottles, anything they could get their hands on. For the several minutes that the video lasted, I couldn't help but wonder what they were aiming to achieve. Normally you would expect that a protest would strive to get a message across, to get people on board, to win some exposure. Yet by being so aggressive, hurling bricks and generally acting yobbish, whilst at the same time yelling "Allahu Akbar", I can only assume that their cause wasn't inundated with new recruits.

I wear a Palestine scarf, I'm no political activist, Im just fashionable. I also wear some geek chic glasses and a flat cap, but it doesn't mean I'm a chimney sweep, even though I do talk a bit like the legend that was Fred Dibnah. My selection of scarf however, has made me the target of pro gaza campaigners. They think I'm all on board, one dreadlocked student even tried to recruit me to stand behind his desk on Market Street in Manchester. He was called "Snoops" and he couldn't tell me anything about the history of the Arab/Israeli conflict. His awkwardness and the "you're a numpty" look on my face was enough to cement my release.

Similarly on the protest front, the "highly criticised" third runway at Heathrow airport seems to be getting nothing but bad press. A whole village will be destroyed and Joe Bloggs was even on the radio complaining about having to move house after 30 years. He didnt mention how much compensation he will get though, and if h has been there 30 years he could probably do with a change. We are in a recession and we seem distraught by a new runway despite the fact that it will create 65,000 new jobs, not to mention the money spending visitors it will facilitate and aircraft carbon emmissions are a third less than they were ten years ago, and they are still going down.

The point I am trying to make is that there are plenty of ineffective protesters about these days. If you stand in the street shouting "Free Gaza" what are you actually going to achieve? I often wonder if protesters actually think that the powers that be will notice and say "oh look, we've annoyed those people outside the BBC in Manchester, do you think we should tame it down a bit and just let Hamas fire rockets at us and hope for the best?". In this age of modern technology, surely there is no need to stand out in the cold and wave banners. Surely things have moved on and well placed emails and letters to MP's, MEP's and Newspapers are going to have more effect. Some of the Heathrow Airport protesters were pretty clever this week and actually bought a piece of land that the new runway will cover, and they are outright refusing to sell it. Good for them, it wil truly throw a spanner in the works. That's how you do it.

In other news, in 16 hours America will inaugrate its first black President. A rather cool pilot became the first in history to ditch a fully loaded aircraft in water and have everyone survive. The Royal Bank of Scotland reported a 90% drop in profits and I couldnt help but think "it serves you right for charging me £38 for exceeding my overdraft, you fatcat muppets". There are 3 bright red Australian parrots vacationing on Whalley Range in Manchester. The other night (and armed with a very large pepper grinder) I chased a robber out of my back garden at 1:30am, and yesterday a 12 year old zip lined into my front garden with the use of some dodgy old rope and the tree across the street. I can't help but think that they are using our house as a training ground for some high profile Oceans Eleven style robbery.

The Mighty Fallen

There were a number of things I planned to blog about this evening:-

1. My sister and her limitless talent as an urban artist has once again caused some controversy following a newspaper article about her role teaching young people from sheffield how to "do graffiti". I think controversy is good when it comes to publicity, but I really do wish she would make more use of her free of charge PR guy brother before she jumps in with these wet behind the ears, out for a scoop journo's working the local rags (learn to take a hint sis).

2. The rugby team I play for each Saturday conceding its ninth consecutive defeat was also high on my list. The Didsbury 3rd team seem to be having less luck than a final destinaton movie, and I have sore shins.

3. The fact that I have become completely and utterly obsessed with this years X Factor, mostly because of our home girl from Blackburn Diana Vickers, but also because I simply love to watch the way they run things. The PR stunts, the media scandals, the emotive editing. They must be making a bloody fortune.

4. The entire staffteam of numpties who work at the Vodafone store on Market Street in Manchester. It seems a maximum IQ of 49 and a fancy hairdo are the only pre-requisites to employment there.

But then I watched The Fallen, a feature length docufilm that provides a candid and often brutal insight into the lives of the families who have been left behind following the deaths of their loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq. I could not help but feel a pang of dissapointment in myself for being so self concerned and ignorant, shouting insults at the X factor whilst kicking back and enjoying a few cheapo Asda beers and feeling sorry for my lightly bruised rugby shins whilst wondering whether my housemate Greg will notice that I nicked one of his Rocky Robins.

I know a lot of lads who are completely Army Barmy. They know that when they go into the theatre of conflict they are at risk of injury or death. Some enjoy the thrill, some just want to survive and come home. Yet there is an amount of the "it wont happen to me" ideology that exists amongst them. It was truly heart wrenching to delve into the lives of the surviving families and to see how they handle the flood of emotion that wells up within them when they talk of their fallen sons and daughters. This was a film that truly needed to be made. When we see the news of another soldier dead in Afghanistan, there is little we can do to relate or associate oursleves with their life. We often fail to realise or understand the enourmosity of their death. A name, a rank and regiment, their age, perhaps the name of their hometown. Then we close the page and go back to our spreadsheet or overpriced coffee.

What we dont see is the shot that enters through the side of the flack jacket, into the kidneys and up through the spine and into a lung. We dont see the desperate attempts of close friends to fashion a stretcher from combat jackets and branches. We dont see the team of medics battling on the Chinook elbow deep in blood to save a 19 year old life that they watch ebb away. We dont think about the mental trauma that being part of this brings to his fellow infantrymen. We dont think about how the family accept the news. We dont think about the empty bedroom their son wont come back to or how a widow comes to terms with sleeping alone in a double bed.

I am guilty of turning the page and moving on. Almost a year ago to the day I was in the front rank of the Duke of Lancasters Infantry Regiment parade on Rememberance Day. As we marched off the square following the service the hundreds of people in attendance began to applaud and cheer. It was at that point I realised that we turn the page not because we dont care, but because we simply struggle to relate and because we are pretty powerless to do much else.

So The Fallen was a very appropriate film, because it allows us to relate to the realities of what happens to the soldiers of the British Army and their families. The next time I see a story of another soldier dead in Afghanistan or Iraq I will certainly take a moment to reflect on just how lucky I am before going back to my spreadsheet.

The Mountain of Martin

At 4am this morning Barack Obama reached the summit of the proverbial mountain that represents the struggle that has befallen the black people of the United States throughout that countrys history.

This afternoon I crossed the road to visit the Urbis museum in Manchester to find a group of school children winding their way through an exhibition that tells the complex and violent story of the Black Panther movement of the years gone by. The lives of Malcom X, Martin Luther King, John and Edward Kennedy -all advocates of black rights in the United States - which were taken so violently and tragically can now be remembered as the true and real foundations for what has happened in the United States within the last 24 hours. In 1963 Martin Luther King conveyed his dream that his four little children would one day live in a world where they would be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Today his only surviving daughter Bernice sat and wept as she saw elected the first black president of the United States.

It's not only the fact that Barack Obama is black that is important - that issue sits to serve as a contrast between the social constructs of modern america and the america of decades gone by - but it is the fact that he bears such inspiration, vigour, youthfulness, appeal and grit that matters the most. I will certainly be watching his progress with great interest. Well done the Democrats.

In other news, a 50 foot high effigy of Jonothan Ross and Russel Brand will be burned this weekend in response to their recent faux pas on BBC Radio 2, and here I am talking about civil rights and humanity in modern times.

God bless public transport

Manchester will soon have a referendum on whether to introduce a congestion charge for traffic coming into our fair city. I just spent 1 hour and 15 minutes on an early morning bus which brought me 6.8 miles into work on a road which seemed totally bare of cars. I would like to write more but I cant, because I'm late. God bless public transport.