Friday, May 04, 2007

'Time' to innovate, literally!

Let us think about this for a minute, shall we.

How do you plan an organizational structure that encourages a culture of innovation, more so, one that can scale with the organization's growth? Set aside a day of the week to 'innovate', hoping that all the creative minds fire up on that day, every week? Let people organically generate ideas and build a mechanism to channelize them? Or, hire people that appear to be innovators and hope that they will strike gold when the sun shines through the open window on a balmy Summer day when the temperature hits 70 Fahrenheit?!

What have *you* have done to encourage innovation in companies 'n teams that you have funded and led? Tell us *your* story!

Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time on ideas and projects that are not necessarily tied to their jobs or job descriptions.

IBM has 'Think Fridays', when employees are encouraged to focus on innovative work, by freeing up their time to play with new technology.

Of course, the stories of innovation at 3M are legendary. The Post-It story, of course, being the most famous of them all, although the role of 'luck' is not cited as much. Check out Ralph Katz's book to know more. Want to know where to find it? Come to TiECON East 2007 and ask for .... Obviously. I will tell you, obviously, where to find the real story behind Post-It. What you read might shock you!!

Back to IBM, Google and ... Microsoft. Want to see Ram Shriram, Member of Google's Board in action? Want to hear Claudia Fan Munce, VP Strategy, IBM VC? Or, Don Dodge, Director of Business Development at Microsoft's Emerging Business Team?

You cant do that sitting at your desk or Googling for 'innovative ideas' during your innovation-hours at work :O!

Show up at TiECON East 2007, the LARGEST GLOBAL INNOVATION CONFERENCE and walk away with nuggets of ideas and insights that you can use to make a difference!

sai @ obviousideas dot com

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