We have a world full of problems, but what about a world full of solutions?
Innovation shouldn’t just be something for corporate departments to churn out to feed product development, it should be a tool used for collaborative development of global problems. OpenIDEO has just been launched with this goal in mind. Not only is this a great advertisement for the innovation capabilities of IDEO, it’s simply a great humanitarian effort.
I really look forward to seeing what this website is capable of but I do worry that it will turn into a sponsorship platform for blue chips to exert a ‘social conscience’. Only time will tell..
igloo’s key values are Innovation, Collaboration and Exceptional Service, or what us in the know like to call – ICE. So it’s no real surprise that it’s something we focus from time to time here on the blog. I’m going to tell you what innovation means to me and then try to explain how to bring it to life for your yourself or your organisation.
What is innovation?
Innovation is creating something new; something original. But not inventing and not designing.
It’s using what’s around you, but just doing it better. Using your experience and knowledge to develop a product or process that is superior.
Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile.
He wasn’t even alive when it was invented in 1769. 1806 saw gas internal combustion engines, 1838 for the electric car, 1885 introduced petrol engines In 1902, at least 50 US firms manufactured and sold cars, generally expensive to purchase and difficult to maintain.
Ford developed an intuitive understanding that many people wanted faster horses to do practical jobs like getting to and from town quicker so more work could be done on the farm.
Innovation Forum - held at Danks Depot in downtown Waterloo on Tuesday 24th of November.
Innovation can be fleeting. One person’s idea of innovation can be another persons idea of failure. Innovation comes and goes, often leaving behind either infused fans or scathing critics. What is innovation and how is it defined? mmm how long is a piece of sting? (more…)
