Author Archives: Gary R Schirr

Brainstorming groups still kill ideas

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

I was surprised to find an article in a leading innovation journal that summarized a recent research paper on brainstorming. The summary stated that in contrast to most past studies this one showed that group ideation may reduce the number of ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer Research Methods, experiential innovation, Ideation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

In Search of Innovation

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

A great article on innovation in todays WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204830304574133562888635626.html Look away from the lampost I suppose a cynic might claim that “great” means that it agrees with the recurring themes and principles discussed in this blog. Specifically: Storytelling, Involving users … Continue reading →

Posted in Co-creation or User collaboration, Customer Research Methods, experiential innovation, Experiment, Ideation | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CEO as chief storyteller

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

More on the importance of storytelling for innovation: RT: @GuyKawasaki Chief Storytelling Officer: why CEOs need to be great storytellers. http://trkk.us/?bSG This is a followup on an earlier post: http://servicecocreation.com/2009/06/08/storytime/

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Medicine and Social Networking

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

Business on Twitter Commercialization of the social networks is inevitable. Dell has posted over $2,000,000 in sales. [ RT @mashable Making Millions via Twitter: @DellOutlet Surpasses $2 Million in Sales http://bit.ly/NkKHR %5D  Social Networks and Medicine Social networks may have implications … Continue reading →

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Storytime?

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

Storytelling, innovation and organizational change How do you get an organization to share an innovative vision and push for change? A common theme, from different perspectives, is the power of stories to impact organizational culture and promote change and innovation. … Continue reading →

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Social Design

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

The NY Times has an article on “social design” or bringing designers together with social scientists to improve organizational problems; in this case excessive time off by government workers.  It seems to me that the application discussed might better be called … Continue reading →

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Fitnoke.com

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

One of my enthusiastic professional sales students (Lee Bradshaw) somehow managed to produce a press release on his thriving online site while preparing for his finals. Check out Fitnoke: Fitnoke.com

Posted in Internet effects | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Innovating in a down economy

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

An innovation consulting firm lists five steps to success in NPD in a down economy. Three of them are: Understand your customers’ new values Manage your new product portfolio/pipeline for the long term Manufacturing (process?) is your best friend. To … Continue reading →

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Facebook doesn’t listen to customers

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

Is it best to ignore your customers? Innovation thought leaders such as von Hippel, Utterback and then Christensen, have written about the risks of listening to customers when trying to innovate. A fellow blogger defended Facebook’s policy to ignore users … Continue reading →

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Cross functional innovation teams

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

Cross functional development teams seems like a no-brainer: Having representatives from marketing, finance, operations, customer service, etc. involved early should speed the development process by allowing communication and coordination to be performed in parallel instead of linear fashion. Diversity of … Continue reading →

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