Difference.001

Creating A Difference That Makes a Difference

by with No Comment Innovation News

Creating a difference that makes a difference … is the purpose of life.   

In simple terms a difference that makes a difference is…

–  A BIG Idea
A True INNOVATION
A Meaningfully Unique product or service improvement
Something that builds PRIDE among workers 
Something that ignites word of mouth
The barrier to making a difference that makes a difference is that our teams and cultures embrace being practical and prudent. We accept that “we can’t”. 

As we enter September – it’s time for all of us to say NO to compromises. It’s time for all of us to come together to create a difference that makes a difference!

The first and most important step in making a difference that makes a difference is being honest with yourself, your team, and boss about what you are focusing your energy on.

Are you working on REAL STUFF that matters?

Are you EXCITED about how you are spending your time?

If not – NO STRESS – it’s time to pivot, adapt and begin again…

Ignite a plan for change…
LEARN MORE: Nothing will help you restart better than education.   Read any of the amazing books out there on innovation, change and creativity.   If you can’t find one – here’s a FREE LINK to the abridge one hour audio of my latest book Driving Eureka!  
SPEED BUILD A NEW VISION: Gather a team of “willing change agents” and invest 2 to 4 days in “speed building” a new vision. Over the past nearly 40 years we’ve found that when teams get out of their office and FOCUS on creating a new reality – thinking through all of the stuff… finance, customer, consumer, legal, regulatory, manufacturing, etc..  then big ideas happen. 
CHANGE HOW YOUR TEAM WORKS: Instead of handing the idea from department to department – approach the development as a journey of never ending innovation. As your idea moves forward let the idea change, adapt, adjust – keeping your entire team focused  on MAKING A DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. 

Math is the innovation gas pedal

Numbers are Your Friend when Innovating

by with No Comment Innovation News

Years ago at Procter & Gamble my team and I were trying to sort out what to do after having just gotten some horrible product testing results. Tim Feely, who I believe was a Product Development Director at the time, stopped into the meeting and told us, “Numbers are your friend when innovating.”    

At that moment the numbers on the pages in front of me didn’t seem like a very friendly friend. Tim explained that having a solid failure was a gift to us – as it made it clear that what we were doing was not working. It was time to change and to change significantly.
Tim’s comment has stuck with me for over 40 years :). I remembered it last week when a team was stressing that they didn’t have time to get their innovation idea ready to go out with a test that was scheduled. They were afraid they’d fail. My response was to paraphrase Tim, “Numbers are your friend – win or lose we will be smarter than we are now. My vote is to SHIP.”  Note – the idea shipped – setting a record for uniqueness and for purchase. Well – that was a record high for uniqueness and a record low for purchase interest. And from that the team began to pursue another cycle of learning.
The “Numbers” associated with innovation include:
Customer research results on your idea, product/service or non-profit program
Forecasts for sales, profits, fundraising, cost savings
Forecasts for investment required for production or marketing
As I wrote about last week, these numbers are the key to you being able to generate “pull” for your innovation from investors, management and other stakeholders. 
NUMBERS transform your idea from an “ABSTRACTION” into a TANGIBLE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY.
If you don’t know how to do the math GET HELP. Find a numbers person you trust to collaborate with.

Measure Innovation Risk

Confront Reality & Build a Plan to De-Risk your Innovation Project!

by with No Comment Innovation News

Using innovation to grow sales and profits is an accepted business concept.

Actually taking action on innovations – especially big idea innovations – is scary for many.
The Eureka! Ranch team has developed a new PROJECT P&L tool for helping innovators build support and confidence among leadership, investors and other stake holders.
I’ve learned over the years that the P&L statement for innovation projects is the key to building support. It’s the place where all of your assumptions about sales, profits and return on investment come together on one piece of paper.
Sadly, many innovators have not been taught how to use their PROJECT P&L as an innovation acceleration tool.   
With PROJECT P&L the Eureka! Ranch team helps you do risk adjusted math on AN EXISTING INNOVATION PROJECT. Having identified the three highest risk / variance areas they then help you craft a plan to de-risk these areas. The bottom line is a reduction of risk of failure by up to 80%.
Risk is quantified through measurement of the variance around your estimates. Some estimates associated with your PROJECT P&L will be relatively firm – with little standard deviation. Others, will have very large variance. The areas with high variance are the ones that are most likely to cause you to fail.
You can do this yourself – by simply estimating best case, worst case and best guess and using a spreadsheet to model that impact of the uncertainty inherent in your P&L on your odds of success.  
Alternatively – you can use the TrailBlazer Innovation Project Software developed by the Eureka! Ranch team. It’s a collection of easy to use tools that help you quantify the risk associated with forecasting inputs. Your quantified inputs are then used to forecast sales, cost and profit using a state of the art “Market Simulation” system.  It allows you to do a “virtual introduction” of your innovation into the marketplace some 10,000 times. The PROJECT P&L report predicts five years of trial, repeat and diffusion of your innovation into the marketplace. It also models the uncertainty associated with your estimates of cost and profitability. 
The first couple of PROJECT P&L assessments are done by the Ranch team working with your team. In time, your staff becomes trained to run them on all projects.
The bottom line result is nothing short of amazing.  You decrease your project risk AND build confidence among your stakeholders.
To learn more about how the Eureka! Ranch can help reach out to Maggie Nichols at Maggie@EurekaRanch.com

Innovation Team Earning Turst

How Leadership can Learn to TRUST their Teams

by with No Comment Innovation News

After 48 years of innovating and 33 years of consulting – I believe that the ROOT CAUSE of a lack of innovation at most companies is the lack of TRUST that leaders have in the ability of their teams to innovate successfully.

This lack of trust sets off a chain reaction of bad behaviors…
Because they don’t trust their teams can execute big ideas – leadership sets small goals.
Setting small goals for innovation results in changes without the WOW factor needed to be successful
When senior leaders see that they are failing on what seem like easy ideas – they lose more confidence.
Eventually – a “guru” is brought in to create big ideas – with fancy design ideas & marketing smoke.
Not being connected to the reality of how to actually develop and deliver – the ideas soon fail.
Management – having failed with little ideas & guru ideas – gives up – and resorts to using cost cutting to drive growth.
This strategy works for a short time – but soon sees diminishing returns.
Leadership is replaced and the cycle repeats
And it all started because the Leader didn’t TRUST in the ability of the company teams to innovate.
THE GOOD NEWS IS –
The people can innovate. The people have big ideas. The people can turn those big ideas into reality.
They just need support and structures to help them focus their energy more successfully.
Under the leadership of CEO Maggie Nichols the Eureka! Ranch team is using Eureka! Inventing projects to build leadership TRUST.    The Ranch experts – work side by side with employees.  They show by doing – teaching, inventing and driving out risk though rapid quantitative research. 
With this success – leadership sees a pathway to winning with innovation.   Leadership sets project missions that are more challenging – and that deliver higher sales and profits.
To make the process sustainable – the Ranch team provides Innovation Engineering courses and software tools.  Soon a new mindset develops where employees, managers and leadership believe – really believe that they can win with innovation.
 
 
WHAT IS EUREKA! INVENTING?
Use that button below to learn more about how Eureka! Ranch, CEO, Maggie Nichols and the team at the Ranch help companies win with innovation every single day through Eureka! Inventing projects!