Innovation Consultancy |
Innovation is often over-rated, confused with creative indulgence and fiendishly difficult to reliably deliver.
Terms such a Disruptive Media are used that really just mean "doing things differently" or better. For example, one of the most important aspects of the blogging revolution was not the blog itself but the fact that IT departments and publishing companies who were previously bottlenecks in the process of IT creation were almost instantly removed from the equation.
Blogs, being easy to learn and free to create empowered millions of people to use them for education, marketing, in-house knowlege management, project collaboration and experimentation. But innovation isn't as simple as starting a blog, if only it were. Many a company has tried to participate in the Web2.0 world with a woeful once a quarter blog post from the CEO predicting a successful year.... yawn!
There are however a number of essentially simple things you can do that will help a culture of innovation to flourish in your company:
- Research & Development. What is your company looking to learn and understand? How can what you learn be re-integrated into your business? The internet is forever changing, your plans need to adapt to this change.
- Rapid Prototyping. How many new ideas and approaches have you trialled this month? The startup costs for many websites is so low that they can be envisioned, designed, tested and launched in the time it would normally have taken to organise the meeting to decide whether or not it is a good idea or not. Let me help you put your ideas into practice, now!
- Upskilling and empowering your staff. So often, when working with clients I have to admit that most of great and innovational ideas created aren't mine but are a result of staff being introduced to new tools and approaches. It's all about the people, not the tools.
- Collaboration. Encouraging and supporting participation using these new Web2.0 tools means that collaboration can happen across departments or between companies in ways that just weren't possible ten years ago.
- Connecting the technological dots. Sometimes the most effective changes are not about change at all, they are about letting information flow more easily, making the technology disappear.
Whilst we would usually start with User Centred Design exercises to better understand and stimulate thinking about your customers, we would also begin the process of developing your in-house technology literacies, introducing your staff (or you if you are a small company) to new tools and new ways of doing things.
We will probably work on a mix 'n' match selection from the steps below...
Step 1: The basics
Depending on your business, we would begin by exploring blogging, wikis, RSS and news aggregation, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Upcoming, Flickr, Delicious and Stumble Upon, Last FM and You Tube, Open Source Software, Slideshare, Analytics, Firefox, Adwords, Yahoo Pipes and Google Docs.
Don't worry if this sounds like a long and varied list, it's funner than it sounds and ever changing. It is my job to continually research and trial the uses of these tools, so I can make them easy to learn and select the tools that will make the biggest contribution to your business.
Step 2: The more ambitious
Whilst learning new tools and putting them to use for your business we will also touch on the more esoteric areas of...
- Mashups. The art of making something from nothing some might say. What unique value can you add (or mash) to an existing service such as Google Maps with your data.
- Crowd Sourcing. How can you put the enormous workforce living on the web to work for you in a way that you both benefit? Large businesses are even crowd-sourcing innovation (
- User Generated Content. How might your customers create content that is as valuable as Amazon's book or DVD reviews.
- Value Mining. In most companies I work with, their crown jewels are sitting in a drawer in a desk in their offices, in at the back. I can help you make the most of the hidden value that is trapped inside your company and get it out there on the internet where it can be working for you.
- Niche-finding and Long Tail Marketing. Personalising your products for a thousand niches (Goths who Knit or Gay HGV drivers) each with millions of members can often reach more potential customers than mass marketing.
Step 3: Getting our hands dirty
How and what we work together on will depend on you and your company. How you begin to change your online presence and your organisation might require a blend of any of the following...
- Hands-on Training. The best way to quickly learn lots of new technologies is a little and often. It makes the learning more digestible and has the benefit of enabling me, in your office, to spot the opportunities and tools you need most. Let me come to you and teach you all I know.
- Workshops and Presentations. My background in educational research means I'm more than happy to stand in front of a crowd and share my ideas but most happy when you are shaping and sharing yours.
- Software Development. Let me make the tools to help you do your job better. From finding the best blogs and forums for your PR and marketing departments with our Engagement Engine to facilitating better internal collaboration with blogs and wikis.
- Technology-oriented brand and PR consulting. Let me advise you on how your organisation can use the internet more effectively.
If you are looking for fresh ideas and approaches, do Contact Us to talk about your needs.
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