Comments on: Brokering ideas

By: Aisa Pereira

Aisa Pereira — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:10:25 +0000

The same goes to marketing and sales, especially if we are talking about software. The thorough study of what is already available, the alignment between strenghts and opportunities, a clear and differentiated positioning, the discipline to follow a methodology that helps sales and marketing people to define niches and offer an unique product or service: that´s innovation too..

By: Roger von Oech

Roger von Oech — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:03:16 +0000

Daniel,

Thorough and thought-provoking, as usual.

By: Daniel Scocco

Daniel Scocco — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:09:12 +0000

Chris,

Thanks for the exhaustive comment, I will certainly dig more about Alph Bingham.

Regarding Larry Huston from P&G, I am also a big fan of his work, and I will try to write my view on his innovation strategy on the near future.

By: Chris Flanagan

Chris Flanagan — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:51:49 +0000

I’m a big fan of Andrew Hargadon. His HBS essay builds on his book from a couple years ago - How Breakthroughs Happen. He's on our advisory board so I had the opportunity to interview him a while back on this concept of technology brokering. Basically he believes that organizations today are too fixated on invention. Successful innovators, he says, do not invent, they recombine. And they do it openly, not secretly. Which plays into what Larry Huston of P&G is doing with his Connect + Develop model. I wrote an article about Huston which contains a couple of great quotes I use often. The first - which reflects your point about specificity and asking the right questions -

“You need to get really clear on what you’re looking for and how value gets created,” says Huston. “Look for things with a pedigree and a reason to believe. Here at P&G, we’re looking for solutions that solve a consumer problem and are ready to go. Without proof of concept, we don’t move forward.”

The second quote is that Huston is very clear that Connect + Develop is not an idea factory:

“The reality,” he says, “is that the world is filled with great ideas. We want ideas filled with solutions—we want a solutions factory.”

I have a couple of suggestions for further follow-up if you’re interested. First is Alph Bingham of Innocentive. He spoke at our summit last month and you can see his video here. He presented a great metaphorical question: are you organized for Edison or Archimedes? I also recently blogged about Bingham and his model. You can check it out here. Best, Chris