Google's 9 Points of Innovation

1. Innovation, not instant perfection. Launch new products and ideas early and often, rather than trying to perfect those ideas behind closed doors before releasing them to the public. Then, customer feedback and popularity prove which projects are most successful.
2. Share everything you can. Small teams that communicate openly have proved the best results for Google. They believe in transparency in the workplace so that everyone knows what everyone else is working on. They have a computer program where employees can look up names and see what others are working on, so if they have an idea to contribute they know who to talk to.
3. You’re brilliant, we’re hiring. When Google interviews employees, Lecinski said they set the bar very high. They focus more on hiring generalists rather than specialists, as they have found generalists are more valuable and can contribute ideas to different parts of the company.
4. Allow employees to pursue their dreams. Lecinski said Google allows its employees’ time in a 70/20/10 model. Seventy percent of the time they work on Google’s search and ad flagships; they develop new programs like Images, Desktop and Finance 20 percent of the time; and 10 percent of the time employees are allowed to pursue their own high risk/high reward projects. Lecinski said Google Earth is a result of one of those projects.
5. Ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes Google turns to the public for new ideas. The Google mastheads, which are customized for holidays and events, are taken from non-employee submissions. One of the mastheads was designed by a 12-year-old girl.
6. Don’t politic – use data. With all the ideas floating around Google, the best way to determine which may work is to use supportive data. As Lecinski said, “Data beats opinion.”
7. Creativity loves restraint. Again, Google has to have some way to keep all of the employee-generated ideas streamlined towards the company’s goals. “Let people explore, but set clear boundaries for that exploration,” Lecinski said.
8. Get users and usage – the money will follow. This goes back to one of Lecinski’s larger points, “respect for end users,” but is a principle to follow in any form of business. He says to focus on creating things that are innovative and useful for people, not something you can sell.
9. Don’t kill projects, morph them. Google doesn’t waste ideas. Instead, they try to change and transform them into something the company finds useful.

Source: Jim Lecinski, managing director for Google, speaking at Digital Signage Expo 2007. Article from: http://www.digitalscreenmedia.org/the-perspective/view/10355/google-s-nine-points-of-innovation

Where ideas come from

Ideas come from:

• New patterns/trends
  
• Mix 'n mash - taking 2 ideas and colliding them
• Related worlds
• Overshot customers - C Christiansen's ideas on customers who are being overdelivered

Adapted from Margaret Gold's presentation at the mHealth unconference.

Mappiness - the happiness app

Interesting LSE project to use an iPhone app to track where and when people are happy.

http://www.mappiness.org.uk/

Low employee turnover = high profits

Taco Bell discovered that the 20% of stores with the lowest employee turnover rates had double the sales and 55% higher profits than the 20% of stores with the highest employee turnover rates.

Source: The Service-Profit Chain, Harvard Business Review, Mar-Apr 1994

Disruptive innovation: Steel Mini Mills

In The Innovators' Solution an example of disruptive innovation is steel mini-mills, e.g. Nucor. Put integrated mill companies out of most businesses. But eventually forced all integrated mills out of a given product and hence lowered prices and wiped out their huge profits.

Governments and Behaviour Change (examples)

Great blog post with lots of examples of successful behaviour change initiatives:

http://www.corporateculture.co.uk/blog/government-and-behaviour-change-2-what-examples-are-there-turning-behavioural-insight-practice

Sainsbury's Fresh Kitchen format

Sainsbury's are trialling a new format aimed at lunchtime trade:

Lego Mindstorms: Accidental Innovation

The Lego Mindstorms range came about as a result of Lego embracing hacking of their products.

Mindstorms became Lego's most successful line.

Vodafone Webbox

Vodafone realised that in the developing world many people who don't even have food have a TV. So they put a mobile phone in the body of a keyboard, and added a TV connector. This makes the internet available at a very low cost.

Amazon Door Desks

To show of their thrifty roots Amazon still use doors as desks:

http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/01/early-amazon-door-desks.html