IDEA GENERATION:

INNOVATION’S
STARTING POINT
HSBC article
Prema Basargekar
OUTLINE
 Emergence of ideas
 Six sources of ideas
 How management can encourage
new ideas
 Four idea generation techniques
EMERGENCE OF IDEAS
 Ideas can be original
 Ideas can be accidental
 Porter: ideas can also come from purposeful
search for new opportunities or solve specific
problem
SIX SOURCES OF GENERATING IDEAS
 1. New knowledge: new knowledge,
breakthrough technology, opens doors for variety
of uses
 DNA molecule technology- agriculture, animal
husbandry, medicine
 Robotics – mines, chemicals, automobiles
 Computer programming, IT technology- vast
impact
 Advantage: far reaching impact, long lasting
advantage
 Disadvantage: take longer time to convert
invention into innovation
SIX SOURCES OF GENERATING IDEAS
 2. customers’ ideas: customers find the
weakness of the product/services- size,
comfort, usability, fitness, etc
 Different ways: direct customer participation
through surveys, focus group discussion,
forming customer communities, eg.
 Eg: My Starbucks Idea, SAS
 Advantage: quick implementation
 Dis-advantage: sticking too close to your
customer may fail to understand the technical
possibilities of the product or service.
SIX SOURCES OF GENERATING IDEAS
 3. Learning from lead users: around 10 to 40
% of the consumer modify the final products
to fit to their requirements. They always
search for better products.
 Sports- professional athletes
 Aircraft- military pilots
 Hotel industry- wealthy people
 Investment – high net-worth individuals
SIX SOURCES OF GENERATING IDEAS
 4. Empathetic design: customers generally
identify incremental improvements – faster
speed, change in size, use of less fuel, etc.
 To go beyond that empathetic design – trying
to observe how people actually use the
product in their own environment is
necessary
 Harley Davidson, Honda (Element – SUV)
 Steps to follow: observe, capture data,
reflect and analyse, brainstorm and develop
solution prototypes
SIX SOURCES OF GENERATING IDEAS
 5. Invention factories:
 Formal: corporate level- to bring radical
inventions eg – Bell Labs
 Business level: to bring incremental changes
 Non-formal or temporary – idea workshops,
ideas contests, focus group projects, etc.
 Eg. Siemens – Corporate Technical
Department brought out 245 ideas within 4
months
SIX SOURCES OF GENERATING IDEAS
 6. Open Market Innovations: either importing
or exporting ideas
 Using various techniques such as licensing, jt
collaboration, strategic alliances, etc.
 Importing ideas- multiplying ideas
 Exporting ideas – creating value for ideas
 Steps- identify customer needs, identify
resources, leverage network, distribute and
screen ideas
WHERE TO LOOK FOR INNOVATIVE
IDEAS?
 Wherever new technology and customer
needs intersect – GPS technology developed
for military navigation
 Either or proposition – when customer have
to face the option of going either for value or
for price
 Demographic change
 Market change
 Fundamental pricing shifts – change in fuel
pricing, input costs, etc
HOW MANAGEMENT CAN ENCOURAGE
IDEA GENERATION?
 Rewards – 3M
 Creating climate for innovation – sense of
entitlement, outward looking policies,
benchmarking, analysing competitors, etc.
 Hire innovative people
 Encourage cross pollination of ideas – across
departments, positions, invite outsiders,
experts, customer visits, field visits, formal
and informal networking with scientisits
 Support innovators with providing sufficient
time, resources, space, etc.
FOUR IDEA GENERATING TECHNIQUES
 1. Brainstorming: focusing on problem and
creating as many ideas as possible by using
various techniques.
 Visioning: finding out a long term, ideal
solution
 Modifying: bringing out changes in current
technology or process
 Experimenting: combining different elements
in various ways.
FOUR IDEA GENERATING TECHNIQUES
 2. Nominal Group Technique (NGT): To evoke
response from everybody, NGT asks people to
write down ideas on paper and circulate
them with anonymity. Then it asks people to
rate each idea.
 This enables everybody’s participation, and
higher democratic process to choose idea.
FOUR IDEA GENERATING TECHNIQUES
 3. TRIZ – Theory of Inventive Problem
solving- In order to remove the randomness
of thinking in brainstorming and NGT, TRIZ
deliberately identifies and tries to eliminate
technical contradictions.
 Eg. Before Edison, it was know that passing
electricity through conducive medium is
possible. But contradiction was wire itself
would burn. Edison placed wire within
vacuum tube and developed Incandescent
lamp
FOUR IDEA GENERATING TECHNIQUES
 4. Catchball:
 It is a tool to develop cross functional
interaction for idea enrichment or
improvisation.
 The idea is tossed from one person to
another for improvisation.
 It helps in creating shared ownership and
bringing gradual improvement.
 It also brings commitment of everybody to
the idea.