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THE I-WORD

How many meetings have you attended where someone – possibly even you – declared that it was time for innovation? But the reality behind the rhetoric is that, nearly 80 years after the idea of innovation emerged from the researches of French sociologist Gabriel Tarde, we still can’t innovate how we want, where we want and when we want.

Paul Sloane, author of ‘The Innovative Leader’, has an explanation for this innovation gap, saying bosses need to replace this “bland, vague, management speak” with what he calls “A Declaration Of Innovation” (http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2011/12/26/issu e-a-declaration-of-innovation/).

This declaration must, Sloan says, spell out why innovation is critical for the company, where it is needed (e.g. in launching new products, improving processes, breaking into new markets), invite everyone to propose ideas, promise to hear and respond to ideas, pledge to commit resources to developing ideas, sketch a process by which ideas are evaluated and managed, make it clear that ideas from any and every part of the organisation are welcome and emphasise that employees will not be blamed if innovative ideas, honestly pursued, fail.

This kind of specific, detailed commitment is essential, Sloan says, if innovation is to become more than a buzzword. His findings are backed by Jeffrey Paul Baumgartner, author of Report 103 (http://www.jpb.com/report103/archive.php?issue_no=20111 116) who points out that the more innovative a company is – he uses Google, Apple and Gore-Tex as examples – the less likely they are to pepper their website with the word “innovation”.

SPECIAL FX

Hollywood doesn’t have the monopoly on special effects. Singaporean printer Dominie Press (http://www.dominie.com.sg/) has been winning awards and clients across the world with an approach to print that it calls “creative engineering”. Frayed edges, irregular diecut holes, bullet-holes and burnt effects have all been used to give some pizzazz to traditional printed products. (The company even inserted a blood bag into one book.) Dominie is a litho printer but there’s nothing to stop digital and wide-format printers from learning from its example and devising their own effects.

THE WISDOM OF THE CLOUD

You’re probably already sick of reading about cloud computing – in essence, the provision of IT as a service rather than as something which is part of a company’s infrastructure – but tough. You’ll read much more about in 2012, with companies like Apple, Fujifilm, IBM, Google, HP, Microsoft and Xerox investing heavily in it. Cloud frees businesses from the burden of maintaining their computers and digital networks. By using a network of remote servers, companies can outsource computing needs, avoid the cost and hassle of software and hardware upgrades and only pay for the data services they use. In this model, IT almost becomes a utility like electricity. That said, even early adopters have different ideas on how much of their IT resource they put into the cloud. Some believe cloud will complement traditional desktop software, not replace it. The potential impact on wide-format print is enormous and terribly unclear. New workflows could be created and relationships with customers radically redesigned. For example, Fujilfilm’s new XMF Print Centre enables printers to create and manage e-portals for different customers while Hiflex has launched a system for printers to use cloud to generate estimates and manage order books. The Carbon Disclosure Project predicts that the cloud could more than halve CO2 emissions from IT by 2020. Print suppliers are already developing products to tap into the fashion for ondemand Web or tablet-based print services.

Where will it all end? Who knows but it is worth remembering the words of Paul Saffo, the forecaster who runs The Long Now Foundation: “Change is never linear. New technologies come in S-curves so we routinely overestimate short-term change and underestimate long term change”.

MOBILISING FOR THE WEB

The trouble with websites is that you must keep reinvesting in them. In 2012, as the world shifts from a web-centric model to one based on mobile-centric IT, companies in all sectors will increasingly discover they need three where one was once sufficient: the site you already have, a version optimised for access from smartphones and even one that works as an app. And research suggests that a few mobile websites attract most of the traffic so late adopters risk becoming marginalised.

AND FINALLY…A chilling thought from an industry conference last year: “You’re only as good as your worst employee”.

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The innovation blog

Tuesday, 15 November 2011 00:00

The importance of asking questions

A groundbreaking study into innovation by the business school Insead (http://knowledge.insead.edu/innovation-innovators-dna-091221.cfm?vid=358) found that one of the traits that marked innovators was the quantity and quality of questions they asked. One researcher met Alan Lafley, who runs Procter and Gamble, and found that Lafley asked more questions than he did. Another asked Michael Dell, who turned around the computer firm, what his favourite question was. To which Dell replied: “Hell, if I had some favourite questions, everybody would know the answers. Instead, when I’m wandering the world, I try to construct a question for every conversation that might generate information I’ve never had before.”

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Tuesday, 15 November 2011 00:00

Green and white

To most businessmen, white papers are about as welcome as root canal surgery. Yet Planet Positive has produced one (available on http://beplanetpositive.com/sites/default/files/downloads/White%20Paper%20-%20Realising%20the%20Benfits%20of%20Environmental%20Sustainability%20in%20Business%20-%202011-04-01.pdf) which you might find enlightening and useful. The paper explores the case for businesses becoming more sustainable (paying particular attention to the demand from companies, many of which buy a lot of wide-format print) and sets out a roadmap to help businesses save the planet – and save money. The not-for-profit organization also has a handy environmental index so you can assess the progress you’re making against an external yardstick. That is likely to deliver real feedback on your sustainability performance, and not just the kind of stats to make up a self-congratulatory notices for the canteen notice board.

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Tuesday, 15 November 2011 00:00

The next big thing?

When Bruce Nussbaum was one of the most respected journos on ‘Business Week’, he fervently believed that design thinking – ie the intellectual and physical process designers used to create anything from iPads to chairs – could solve many corporate ills and stimulate innovation. Now blogging for the entrepreneurial American magazine ‘Fast Company’, he has a new creed: creative intelligence. He defines this as “the ability to frame problems in new ways and to make original solutions”.

Face up to Facebook

“If people don’t see you, how can they choose you?” This simple question, recently raised by Pierre Chandon, associate marketing professor at the Insead business school, underlines the importance of an online presence. With budgets under pressure, it is easy to see why printers might cut costs in this area but it is a false economy.