1st Edition
Lean Innovation Understanding What's Next in Today's Economy
Do these comments sound familiar?
- We would love to be more innovative, but we don’t have the resources
- Innovation works in some companies; we just aren’t that creative
- We get some good ideas, but nothing ever happens with them
Unfortunately, they reflect the general perception and environment for innovation in many firms today. In Lean Innovation: Understanding What's Next in Today's Economy, Barry Cross explores how to use Lean to free up resources from within the organization to support and ‘fund’ innovation and inspire a culture of creativity. Easy to read and humorous, Cross’ stories resonate and his tactics are very applicable. He demonstrates that you likely have the people needed to drive innovation.
Based on Cross’s twenty-five years of experience, and filled with stories and anecdotes from a number of industries, the book presents a different look at innovation and how to recognize opportunities for moving past merely talking about innovation to action and making it a priority. The author examines roadblocks and how to use enablers like Lean to facilitate and focus the approach on driving the focus forward, to the place where creativity in our ranks is more important that responding to an email and where the organization isn’t afraid to make an existing product redundant in favor of a new opportunity.
Preparing the Organization for Innovation
The Need for Innovation
Innovation at CVS Pharmacy: Reimagining the Prescription Fulfillment Process
Notes
What’s Lean Got to Do with It?
Three Steps to a Lean Culture Shift
Step 1: Watch and See
Step 2: Think and Learn
Step 3: Get Our Hands Dirty
A Lean Opportunity: Research in Motion and Blackberry Product Complexity
Cirque du Soleil and Lean Innovation
Notes
Driving Innovation
The Innovation Framework
Cool Ideas: Saunders Farms
Cool Ideas: Noble Crop Science and Innovation
Note
Innovation Culture
DN101 Lighting Program and Innovation Culture: Applying the Innovation Framework
Innovation Culture
Generating Ideas
Refining Ideas
Spreading Ideas
Adoption
Notes
Generating Ideas
Create an i-space
Storyboarding
Breaking Paradigms
Cool Ideas: Tim Horton’s Tim Card
Cool Ideas: Walshy Stick Repair
Notes
Refining Ideas
Lean Evaluation
The Sounding Board
The Devil’s Advocate
Idea Failure
Motorola Iridium Satellite Phone System
Notes
Spreading the Ideas for Adoption
Launch Well
Know Your Customer
Commit the Right Organization
Effective Launch: Crocs
Notes
Embedding Innovation for Long-Term Growth
Back to Culture
BC’s Innovation Calisthenics
Shake Up Your Routine
Take a New Route Home
Turn Off Your E-mail
Electric Cars and Disruptive Innovation
Notes
Appendix 1: Fearless Predictions and Things to Create or Kill
Home Phones and Land Lines Will Disappear by 2020
The Number of Wristwatch Manufacturers Will Drop by 50%
Meter Maids/Traffic Ticket Police/Parking Attendants Will Not Be Necessary
Desktop Computers Will Disappear by 2017
Plastic Bottle Use Will Decline 75% and Take Paper Cups with It by 2018
"Occupy" Movement Becomes a Tax Revolt by 2016
A Rehumanization of Communication by 2015
Ten Things to Create or Kill
Create: No-Brainer Food Labels We Can All Read
Kill: Cyberbullying
Create: "Express" Departments in Grocery Stores
Kill: The Facebook "Like-Me" Marketing
Create: A Better Password System
Create: Smarter, Synchronized Traffic Lights
Kill: The "Reply All" Button
Create: Better Kitchen Timers
Create: Doggie DNA Testing
Create: Active Messaging on Clothing
Note
Appendix 2: More Thoughts on Lean
Personal Lean Tactics
Index
Biography
Barry Cross joined Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 2006 after spending 20 years in various leadership positions with several companies. While in industry, Mr. Cross led many key strategic initiatives, including significant development projects in Asia, Brazil, Mexico, and Europe.</p>