Is Innovation a Fad?

by Jeffrey Phillips

I had a rather disconcerting part in a recent discussion with some senior leaders and executives who were discussing innovation. It was interesting to hear from some of them that they believe "innovation" is a fad, and will run its course shortly. They believe that innovation is simply another "quick fix" elixir cooked up by management consultants to find new things to sell to senior executives. Some others in the discussion believed that innovation is more systemic, and will have a longer shelf life, and add value for many years to come. I found myself disagreeing with both schools of thought.

The cynics suggest that innovation is simply a buzz word for creating new products or services, something that many firms already do. In that regard they view innovation as the current flash in the pan, meant to distract everyone from the real problems and place a nice bow on a box that already exists. To these cynics I say - you couldn't be more wrong. In a market that is moving and changing as quickly as the one we are experiencing now, and an environment where consumers are demanding more, and better, products and services, and in a production environment where any new idea can be copied fairly quickly, the only real winners are those who create substantially new concepts on a consistent basis. The old, static product lives and days of lower competition are over. Innovation isn't a "nice to have" or a "flash in the pan", it is rapidly becoming the most important skill set your organization can acquire.

For those who believe innovation does add value and can be more systemic, I say they are right, but only partly so. They see innovation as a tool that can be used, until the next tool comes along. This follows the theory of "waves". There was the "wave" of quality improvement, followed by the "wave" of rightsizing and outsourcing. Now, these folks believe, is the time for the "wave" of innovation, which will run its course and introduce a new wave of something else yet unseen. The problem with considering innovation as a wave with a specific time horizon is that new products and services will continue to be important long after the expected time frame of the "wave" is complete. If your investment is to simply adopt innovation as the next tool down the pike, and expect to jettison it once the wave is over, your team won't commit the necessary resources to innovate effectively. It will be a sideline to the "real work" of the organization, eagerly awaiting the next wave or fad.

No, here's where I diverge from the discussion. We are in a fundamental environmental shift. The pace of change and the increase in global competition means that the way we work has to change. Innovation isn't an interesting sideshow or fad, unless your management team allows it to be. Innovation isn't a wave or trend for the next "x" years to be replaced by something else. Innovation is THE differentiator between firms that are thriving and healthy today, and those that will be thriving and healthy a decade from now, because innovation isn't a fad, and isn't a wave, but is going to become a permanent way of life, a sustaining capability for the firms that understand the shift underway and adopt innovation as a cultural imperative.

If you think this doesn't matter then simply consider the culture and environment of the organization where you'd most like to work. Do you want to work in a firm that places emphasis on the future and staying abreast of trends and new ideas, or do you want to work in a firm where the constant activity is reacting to what other firms do in the market? The most innovative firms will attract the best people and accelerate their capabilities, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The firms with less innovation skill will atrophy because they can't compete on new ideas, and they can't generate new products and services fast enough to retain customers.

What's it going to take for us to wake up and realize that innovation is the most important skill we can gain within most organizations? I recognize that this kind of change threatens the status quo, but if we ignore the shifts underway in the market and economy we risk a future with far fewer jobs and far fewer opportunities.


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Jeffrey Phillips is a senior leader at OVO Innovation. OVO works with large distributed organizations to build innovation teams, processes and capabilities. Jeffrey is the author of "Make us more Innovative", and innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com.

Innovation Perspectives February Wrapup

Innovation Perspectives is our monthly feature to present our loyal readers with different perspectives on a single topic all in one place along with the ability to compare, contrast and discuss them in the comments here on Blogging Innovation and in the Continuous Innovation group on LinkedIn. This month's topic was:


"Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?"

• Thank you to Jeffrey Phillips for submitting this month's topic

Here is a list of all of the authors that participated this month and links to their articles on this topic.

1. Jim Estill - Leader's Role in Trend Spotting


2. Mike Brown - Trendspotters' Fab Five


3. Braden Kelley - Trendspotting Trifecta


4. Rocco Tarasi - All of the Above


5. Jeffrey Phillips - Purpose, Frequency and Responsibility


6. Robert Brands - Shepherding a Team of Opportunists


7. Vyoma Kapur - Trend Spotting Collaboration


8. Adam Schorr - Your Trend Spotting Team

If you would like to suggest a topic for next month's Innovation Perspectives, or would like to contribute, please leave a comment or contact us.

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Innovation Perspectives - Your Trend Spotting Team

This is the eighth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Adam Schorr

It is critical that businesses have a clear sense of the state of their current marketplace. They need to understand the needs of their customers, the relevant business models, the competition... But all of this is only good for keeping the lights on today. It does nothing to insure the future viability of a company because the world changes. New competitors emerge from nowhere. Business models grow stale and new ones are created. Customer needs change. In order to insure a healthy future, companies must remain aware of emerging trends, identify which are relevant and develop plans for responding.

But who should do that? The market research or insights group? Marketing? Sales? R&D? Well of course the answer is yes. Every employee ought to maintain a healthy curiosity about their world and do their best to help the company see around corners. But this is not enough. For one thing, these employees have day jobs. Their job is to keep the lights on today. You can add another task to their list but don't imagine for a moment that their current responsibilities won't suffer just a little bit. Secondly, if every employee does this, the company will have quite a bit of trend information and will need to separate the wheat from the chaff and synthesize meaningful insights. And, finally, this all needs to be integrated with the overall vision and strategy of the company.

I believe companies ought to establish standalone innovation groups that would be responsible (among other things) for identifying, interpreting and planning against emerging trends. These groups should report into the CEO directly who must make innovation a top priority - as important as keeping the lights on today. Attitudes need to change. Given the pace of the business environment (which is only getting faster), a company has got to identify its next move before such a move is needed. This is a matter of survival and only by treating trend management as a core competency can a company have any hope of long-term success.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Adam Schorr is an experienced innovator and brand manager with a passion for the human soul and its ability to reshape the universe. Adam blogs about innovation, marketing and all sorts of quirky topics at www.adamschorr.com.

Innovation Perspectives - Trend Spotting Collaboration

This is the seventh of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Vyoma Kapur

Typically, a corporation would hire a market research or a consulting firm to keep up-to-date with the latest consumer trends. Millward Brown, Iconoculture and Forrester are examples of firms which use sophisticated research techniques to advise their clients on how consumers are behaving today, and how they might behave tomorrow. Whether we are talking about changing media habits, evolving taste buds or the growing popularity of a certain sport, keeping tabs on consumer lifestyles does not happen automatically. Time, effort and capital need to be invested to stay ahead of rapidly changes and adapting business operations accordingly.

However, trend-spotting does not always have to be a function of active, dedicated research. Often, passive observation can result in insightful findings of emerging habits and trends. With an observant eye, anyone can identify and take note of valuable information around him or her in the physical space. With information at our fingertips, we are also equipped to browse through the virtual space of blogs, forums and social networks at our convenience. Such an enormous amount of content can tell us something about every facet of consumer lifestyles. Hence, active observation of social activity is a resource everyone can and should take advantage of when it comes to trend-spotting and understanding emerging behaviors.

This is not to say that casual observations should not be verified or backed up by data. Noticing something is only starting point of successful trend-spotting. Following that, objective and unbiased research needs to be carried out before a particular trend or behavior can be evaluated for business.

Therefore, for an organization to optimize its market research efforts, all its employees should take personal responsibility for trend-spotting and then sharing key observations internally. An internal communication system, where employees can post and discuss observations could be implemented. An open forum would enable everyone in the company to either back a particular observation ("I have noticed that too") or reject it ("I have noticed quite the opposite of that").

Employees could be given incentives in the form of prizes for the "Trend-spotter of the month". The most relevant observations could then be taken to the next level where their implications for business are discussed and further action is taken. Such an effort in open collaboration would facilitate the movement towards more effective and holistic ways of trend-spotting.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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A marketing professional turned entrepreneur, Vyoma avidly supports and practices open innovation. Earlier this year, she founded Colspark LLC (www.colspark.com), a crowdsourcing platform to help companies tap into student talent for ideas and solutions.

Innovation Perspectives - Shepherding a Team of Opportunists

This is the sixth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Robert F Brands with Jeff Zbar

When an entrepreneur creates a new product or company, the result usually is borne by spotting an emerging trend, conceptualizing an innovation, or seizing an opportunity unmet or consumer behavior emerging in the marketplace.

But what happens once the company opens its doors or the product hits the market? Whose responsibility is it to spot the next trend or opportunity? More important, who should be charged with shepherding the behavior of trend-spotting across the organization?

Everybody is responsible for trend spotting. This isn't some cliquey club; limit your people's involvement at your own peril. From the Marketing and New Product Development Departments, to sales representatives in the field, from the CEO to the receptionist or CSRs - trends happen and are spotted everywhere. Therefore, everyone needs sharp eyes and piqued ears for emerging trends.

But trend spotting doesn't just happen. Part mandate, part innate behavior, people have to want to be on the look out for new opportunities. Just as many organizations seek to break down silos that traditionally have separated teams or departments, the same sense of unified, yet independent thinking must permeate any organization that hopes to spot and capture the Next Big Thing.

This cannot be an idle mandate - a sort of set-it-and-forget-it statement from on high. Trend spotting is learned by example, and encouraged or shepherded by senior managers who also focus on innovation. This can be the CEO of a smaller organization, or the Chief Innovation Officer at a larger one.

This kind of lead-by-example encouragement transforms employees across the enterprise into Idea Generators - trend spotters who become champions of their space and sources of new ideas that touch every part of the organization. One who submits an idea is more likely to take ownership of it - and help shepherd it in kind through the research and discovery process

(Whether a trend that is explored and later travels the path to New Product Development is another topic. To be sure, not all trends spotted and submitted to the Idea Hopper for further discovery will blossom - at least right away. Some will, and some must wait for market or company conditions to blossom in kind. And that's fine.)

How can you improve and become more creative in organizational trend spotting?

• Create a Trend / Idea War Room. Like lighting company Sylvania "War Room" for trend spotting. Yours can be a permanent place where white and dry erase boards, competitive products, and ads clipped from magazines line the walls (see more below).


• Solicit outside involvement. Do you have field reps, distributors, retailers who are on the front lines of customer interaction? They can help target opportunities by specific geographies or market segments.


• Tap tradeshows. I've always encouraged aggressive trend spotting at tradeshows. As your people walk the floor, encourage them to envision and cross apply. At Kohler, we would attend design and household appliance shows, and come up with better and trend fitting kitchen product designs for faucets and sinks.


• Read (with a trend-spotting eye) trade and consumer magazines. See something cool? Tear it out and stick it to the wall. Let the Innovation Team mull them over. Ideas may crystallize.


• Buy new and competitive products. Tinker with them in a War Room. It's amazing what will emerge.


• Buy your own service. Experience the process. Where does it shine? More importantly, where is it frustrating? What can be made easier and better?


• Ask your customers. For customer-facing organizations, customers often are your best trend spotters. When I was at Airspray we convened with multitude of disciplines. But most came from customers via sales, rife with bias and lacking filter.


• Set an agenda for trend management. Along with feeding the Idea Hopper, plan to manage ideas and attack the opportunities they present.

Trend spotting in the innovative workplace is by necessity a persistent activity. Opportunities emerge for competitive advantage. Competitive forces constantly emerge that require reaction. It's a natural part of a corporate evolution, whether related to new product or services development, or the establishment of new internal processes meant to improve the organization itself.

Aristotle is thought to have said, "Excellence is not an act, but a habit." Replace "Excellence" with "trend spotting." And embrace the mandate.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Robert F. Brands is President and founder of Brands & Company, LLC. Innovation Coach Robert Brands has launched a new site - www.RobertsRulesOfInnovation.com - to complement his upcoming book.

Innovation Perspectives - Purpose, Frequency and Responsibility

This is the fifth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Jeffrey Phillips

I've written before about the reactive nature of many businesses. It often seems there are more incentives to ignore signals in the marketplace and then conduct heroic efforts at recovery than to simply plan effectively and study trends and act accordingly. The purpose of today's topic is to examine whether or not trend spotting and scenario planning is important and valuable (hopefully already answered) and if trend spotting and scenario planning are important, what individual or team within your firm should be focused on this work, and how frequently it should be done.

First, let's put to bed the debate (admittedly a thin one) about whether or not your organization should track trends and try to understand likely future scenarios. The answer for most firms is a resounding "yes", especially given the increasing pace of change. In the past you might have been able to argue that change was slow and steady, and an occasional peak in the periscope was all that was necessary. As globalization increases and the pace of change increases, you need to be identifying trends and making sense of those trends consistently, or the disrupters will eat your market share for lunch. Your planning efforts can't assume the future looks a lot like the present, and also must look further out in time. You need to look further out in time because even though the demand cycle has sped up, many firms haven't improved their product or service development cycle, so if you only look a year or two into the future, but it takes 18 months to two years to get an idea through the pipeline, you are shooting behind the curve.

OK, let's assume for the sake of argument that you agree that trend spotting and scenario planning are valuable. Then the question becomes - who should spot and capture trends, who should develop scenarios and who should interpret the results? These questions need to be answered on two levels: at the corporate or business unit level, and at the product or service level.

Trend spotting should be underway, all the time, as a consistent activity by a wide range of people within your organization. Those trends should be reported to a central analyst (individual or team) who is capturing, recording and tracking trends. This model works at both the product/business unit level and at the corporate level. We at OVO emphasize this work at the corporate level, because work at a product or business unit level can too easily be focused too narrowly on a specific product or market or geography, and miss trends or disruptions from other sources. We'd rather see a number of people recognizing and reporting trends throughout the organization, centralized in some team at the corporate level, who capture, report and synthesize the trends, typically in four or five categories (demographic, technological, economic, governmental). One central repository of these trends reduces the "my trends are more accurate than yours" debates and should ensure a more all encompassing view of trends. Of course everything I've described can be replicated in a business unit or product line, with the awareness that these are often more narrowly tailored.

If we centralize this skill, what kinds of people are necessary to capture, analyze, report and synthesize trends? Anyone in the organization who reads, or interacts with customers or business partners, or who has an interest in what's happening or unfolding can capture and register trends. We've set up several systems like this where anyone can report trends. Additionally, the central team can also track and register trends. As trends are recorded and categorized, we can also begin to identify which are important and relevant for the business, and request more insight or investigation into some trends over others. As this is an ongoing activity, over time it becomes evident that some "trends" fade away while some are enforced. Periodically (we recommend twice a year) a team comes together to select trends and build scenarios about a 5 to 7 year distant future.

We tend to pick 5 to 7 year futures because in many firms the selection and implementation of a new idea and the rollout of a new product can take several years, so we want to get the product to market slight early rather than slightly late. With the pace of change as is currently experienced, trying to understand more than seven years into the future is really a crap shoot. Using a horizon less than three years is really not effective, as most concepts will be incremental.

Who should develop the scenarios? We believe these should be guided or facilitated by people who don't necessarily have a vested interest in the outcome. A scenario guided by a product manager is likely to reinforce his or her biases, since they have a stake in the outcome. Again a central innovation team acting as facilitators with a representatives from a product unit or business unit can mix the best of both worlds and ensure a relatively unbiased examination of several potential future outcomes.

Note that through all of this discussion we assume that this function exists as a continuous offering over time, not a discrete, start-stop program but a team that builds insights and skills and offers them to executives within the business. If you want the inexpensive, low hanging fruit of innovation, here it is. No where else can you get a great understanding of the near future and your opportunities and challenges for less cost. The only requirement after the scenario plan will be your ability to take action.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Jeffrey Phillips is a senior leader at OVO Innovation. OVO works with large distributed organizations to build innovation teams, processes and capabilities. Jeffrey is the author of "Make us more Innovative", and innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com.

Innovation Perpectives - All of the Above

This is the fourth of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Rocco Tarasi

There are a lot of easy answers to this question, but the easy ones are not necessarily the correct ones.

The first easy answer is "the CEO", because they are responsible for the strategy and direction of the business, are presumed to know more about their business than anyone, and are responsible for promoting a culture of innovation. But the CEO isn't on the front lines of most businesses - they aren't stocking the shelves with Proctor & Gamble goods at the grocery store, or working at the mall kiosk selling Blackberries, or greeting customers at the Citibank checkout window You can't trend-spot without the "spot", and it is difficult to do any spotting locked in the corner office. Plus, they probably have more than a few other things to do.

The second easy answer is "everyone." This is great in theory since they have the bandwidth and are on the front lines, and in a perfect world with unicorns running through rainbows this would be the answer, but in reality there are two big problems. First, it can't be everyone's responsibility when they already have "real" responsibilities (making sure the shelves are stocked, the right phone is sold, and the right bank account is credited) and they are compensated and evaluated based on those responsibilities. Second, most people probably don't care about innovating their job or their company, as much as we wish they did.

The final easy answer is "a designated manager/executive", probably someone with "innovation" in their title. This person would be the most motivated, since it would be their primary responsibility. And they could presumably put themselves into a position on the front lines talking to customers, suppliers and partners to identify trends. But the bandwidth of one person would be way too limited to be truly successful anywhere but the smallest of companies.

So the answer must be "D" - all of the above.

• "The CEO" can promote the right culture, and when given good information can make the right strategic decisions.
  
• "Everyone" is in right position and has the bandwidth to identify new trends, even if only a small percentage of people actively take the time to look.
  
• The "designated manager" has the motivation and incentive to foster ideas from "everyone", analyze those ideas and put them into context for the CEO.

So while the answer seems pretty clear, why is everyone bemoaning our country's innovation deficit?

• Hubris leads many CEOs to believe they don't need any help with innovation from the rank-and-file.
  
• Most companies don't have the culture or infrastructure to support those employees that are actually self-motivated to find trends and be innovative.
  
• Few companies designate a manager/executive with innovation responsibility. The CIO, if there is one, is often incorrectly presumed to have or share this responsibility but in reality spends 100% of their time managing the company infrastructure and reacting to fires.

Most of the media spotlight on growing innovation is on education, financial incentives, and political support. While those are all important factors, most companies have control over their innovation capability through a combination of the right culture, useful supporting infrastructure, and clearly defined responsibilities.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

Image Credit: EssjayNZ on Flickr

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Rocco Tarasi was an accountant, investment banker, and CFO before becoming a technology entrepreneur. He writes about innovation at www.InnovationMinute.com with a focus on "everyday" innovations in business models, sales strategies, products and services.

Innovation Perspectives - Trendspotting Trifecta

This is the third of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Braden Kelley

I believe this question should really be broken up because there are three VERY different (and incredibly important) pursuits intermingled here:

1. Trend spotting
   
2. Putting emerging behaviors into context for a business
   
3. Putting emerging needs into context for a business

Only at the very beginning of a business, when it is all or nothing for a small team of founders, should responsibility for these three tasks be combined. The reason responsibility for these three different pursuits should be split up is because each requires a different way of thinking, that often requires different types of people to generate the most relevant and actionable insights.

As I've written before, insights and execution are the real keys to business success, and in building any successful innovation - the insights come first. So, combining these three pursuits properly and getting the insights correct is incredibly important - otherwise you'll design, build, and distribute a solution that misses the mark with customers.

Trend spotting requires big picture thinking, a talent for separating the notable from the unimportant, the ability to see how potential trends connect together, and the vision to see the impact of this trend intersection (what megatrends might they point to, etc.).

Putting emerging behaviors into context for a business requires an incredible capacity for insightful observation, the ability to spot influential thinkers who are good at identifying and describing changing behaviors, and the skills to synthesize a collection of perspectives into a cohesive view of the future. This view of the future must of course have a strong chance of being correct.

Putting emerging needs into context for a business is incredibly difficult and requires understanding how emerging trends and behaviors will intersect with new technologies and other business capabilities to expose new customer needs. Those new needs then represent potential growth areas for businesses to enter with new solutions. The goal of course is to identify and act upon these emerging needs before the competition has the opportunity to observe these needs as expressed behaviors and actions and react.

The one skill that all three share in common however, is the ability to disconnect one's own perspective from the changing perspectives of others. Whether you as an organization choose to hire people into these roles, hire in consultants to provide this insight, or to spread the responsibilities around the organization, you must have a strategy.

Personally, I believe organizations may soon begin creating insight networks within their organizations in the same way that they currently do with innovation. This means having a central insights team at Corporate HQ with strong executive support that is responsible for managing the process, the distributed global network, its training/certification, and its outputs. This does not have to mean starting a new team - companies could incorporate these responsibilities within an existing dedicated-innovation infrastructure. So, can an insight management software industry be far behind?

And last but not least you will need to assign people to monitor trends and emerging behaviors and needs from Six Ways to Sunday:

1. Demographic and Psychographic Changes
   
2. Legal and Political Changes
   
3. Different Geographies
   
4. Different Industries
   
5. New Supplier and Technology Capabilities
   
6. New Business Capabilities and Business Models

Do you have a strategy and responsibilities in place for spotting trends and emerging needs/behaviors in your organization?

What are you waiting for?


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Picture - Trends for the 2010s

by Venessa Miemis

Here are a few recurring themes that have been popping up on my radar.
(click to enlarge)



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Venessa Miemis is a Media Studies graduate student at the New School in NYC, exploring what happens at the intersection of technology, culture, and communication. Connect with her at www.emergentbydesign.com and on Twitter @venessamiemis.

Innovation Perspectives - Trendspotters' Fab Five

This is the second of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. Here is the next perspective in the series:

by Mike Brown

Who should be deciphering the future and helping shape how a business understands and prepares for it?

The first inclination might be to think about a specific part of an organization for the function. It's important though to identify the individuals well-suited to this challenging role. From that perspective, five capabilities are vital to successfully champion this effort:

1. Having a Natural External Perspective


• Creating solid insights about the future depends on starting with a view outside, not inside the business. It's a natural orientation that not all people share. Someone in a trend-interpreting role has to be a sponge for gathering, processing, and extrapolating information on markets, customers, competitors, and a broad set of inputs on the economy, demographics, and other environmental factors.


2. Being an Integrator


• Being able to do something with a broad set of future-looking inputs requires someone with a solid perspective on the business and what drives its success. This has to be coupled with the ability to understand how other industries and markets affect the business today and imagine how they might in the future. Finally, it demands a strong command of frameworks to integrate meaningful interpretation of broad, and typically incomplete, forward-oriented data sets.


3. Possessing Both Left and Right-brained Orientations


• Ideally solid quantitative metrics (i.e., demographics, demand forecasting, industry sizing trends) are available to help form relevant predictions. Often though, numeric information isn't available. In any case, analysis has to be coupled with creating compelling stories to drive strategic actions anticipating and preparing for the future. "Whole brain thinkers" are essential, since they provide left-brain quantitative and analytical skills coupled with creative, communications-oriented right-brain perspectives to help make on-target, forward-looking action happen.


4. Displaying Strong Intuition


• There's no single clear picture of what the future holds. Creating credible future scenarios requires tremendous amounts of interpretation and extrapolation. Some of this can be learned; much of it can't. Trend watchers and prognosticators need to be able to instinctively "know" what all the information they're seeing means. If it's a broad intuitive sense, that's fantastic. Even if it's industry-specific, that can be fine too. I used to work with an economist who had been in transportation for many years and had tremendous instincts for our market. I'm not sure he could have been dropped into another industry and had the same feel, but for our market, he could look at a competitor's quarterly numbers and tell you exactly what was and would be happening in its logistics operation with high certainty.


5. Building Powerful Relationships and Networks


• It's quite a list to this point, isn't it? It's challenging for one person to excel at all of these skills. As a result, the fifth essential capability is to be an outstanding relationship builder. This includes the ability to recognize the talents necessary in others who can help shape a view of the future along with the interpersonal skills to cultivate and share value throughout the network of experts that's needed.

There are certainly other skills and capabilities which make for a strong trend watcher and interpreter. But if you can find someone in your business solidly embodying these skills, don't wait for a clearer view of the future. Get them into the job right now!


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Mike Brown is an award-winning innovator in strategy, communications, and experience marketing. He authors the Brainzooming TM blog, and serves as the company's chief Catalyst. He wrote the ebook "Taking the NO Out of InNOvation" and is a frequent keynote presenter.

Innovation Perspectives - Leader's Role in Trend Spotting

This is the first of several 'Innovation Perspectives' articles we will publish this week from multiple authors to get different perspectives on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?'. So to kick it off, here is Jim Estill's perspective:

by Jim Estill

I believe that it is the leader's role to be active in spotting trends in both the market and within the company. Of course in order to do this, they need to get the assistance and input from all of their people.

A leader who believes in Trend Spotting and believes in capitalizing on emerging trends and technologies can set the example for staff to create an openness that new ideas and trends are brought forward.

I found when I was leader of a 2 billion dollar organization that the bulk of the emerging trends were presented to me filtered through a number of different eyes of people who worked for me, people in the industry, people in the press, etc. and the trends tended to be a synthesis of ideas.

The following are my seven rules of Trend Spotting:

1. If trends aren't going the way you want them to go, then create change. One of the best ways to have a trend and for everyone to think you're genius for knowing the trend is to nudge it along or create it. As a leader of an organization, you often have lots of resources like sales, marketing, R&D, etc. that you can put towards creating a trend.


2. Different trends are worthwhile for different companies at different ages and stages and resource capacity. I'm a business optimist and believe that there are right-sized business opportunities for every company at every size and that successful companies are the ones that choose the right-sized opportunity for them. Just because something is a trend, does not mean a company is positioned to take advantage of it or that they can make money on it.


3. Existing companies are often hampered by their own paradigm. What got you here won't get you there. It's difficult, particularly for companies that are doing reasonably well to consider going into new markets and looking at new trends since they've profited by the old patterns. It takes a great leader to be willing to give up a proven company method and to risk some on emerging trends.


4. Leaders are meant to lead and to be visionary, managers are meant to implement and be tactical. If you're the leader of an organization, recognize that your greatest value is in being visionary (even though implementation still counts). That would mean Trend Spotting...


5. A leader needs to set the example by being open to new ideas. They also need to free up resources where required in order to allow their company to take advantage of trends.


6. I have been wrongly credited with being a genius at spotting trends. The reason why I say "wrongly credited" is I often placed multiple bets on multiple horses within a technology race at the same time. So I was right when I joined the board of RIM. Blackberry did become huge (and I still sit on that board today). I was right when we signed Apple as a product line in 1992 when everyone said they were going bankrupt. At the same time, I did these "genius moves" I also invested in a number of companies which are no longer here today and I sold a number of product lines from companies you've never heard of because they've also gone away.


7. One of my favorite mantras is "Fail Often. Fail Fast. Fail Cheap." So although I have my foot planted firmly in multiple camps, I don't risk so much that failure in one area creates a failure.

It's the leader's responsibility to spot trends but clearly this is not done in a vacuum, it's their role to inspire everyone to give them input.


You can check out all of the 'Innovation Perspectives' articles from the different contributing authors on 'Who should be responsible (if anyone) for trend-spotting and putting emerging behaviors and needs into context for a business?' by clicking the link in this sentence.

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Jim Estill is a venture capitalist, author and business consultant. He sits on the board of RIM. He is a blogger at www.jimestill.com or follow him on twitter @jimestill.

Cisco Announces $250,000 iPrize Competition v2.0

by Braden Kelley

Cisco has announced its second Cisco iPrize Competition. At stake is a $250,000 Grand Prize that will be awarded after eight selected finalists have the opportunity to present their innovation idea to Cisco's selection commitee using Cisco Telepresence.

The first Cisco iPrize was awarded to an idea focused on reducing the energy consumption in the electrical grid. This idea is currently undergoing development in Cisco. But the winners are back at it again and have entered an idea in Cisco iPrize v2.0.

I had the opportunity to do a video interview with Sharon Wong, Director of Business Development in Cisco's Emerging Technology Group about the competition:

Interview with Sharon Wong about Cisco iPrize from Braden Kelley on Vimeo.

In this open, global competition entrepreneurs submit proposals and collaborate to create the seed idea for Cisco's next billion-dollar business.

You have until April 30, 2010 to submit your idea. Idea submissions should fall in one of four categories:

1. The Future of Work: New solutions that accelerate and change the way we do business


2. The Connected Life: Technological inspirations that dramatically improve living conditions and disseminate culture


3. New Ways to Learn: Next-generation solutions that transform when, where, and how people learn.


4. The Future of Entertainment: New solutions that change how people play together

Below on the left you'll find a video of Marthin De Beer announcing the Cisco iPrize Competition and on the right you can watch Guido Jouret speak about some of Cisco's views on what makes a big idea:



You can submit an idea by yourself or you can work together as a team. Once ideas are submitted, iPrize community members can vote for the best ideas, and otherwise engage with the community of people who have submitted ideas. For complete rules and other information, please check out the Cisco iPrize Questions and Answers.


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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Exploiting the Competition for Innovation

by Mike Myatt

Whether you want to admit it or not, competition is part of your world, and likely a bigger part than you'd care to admit. Granted, exploiting the competition is not a novel concept. Even so, it is still very common to hear many executives adopt a competition neutral position. These executives simply don't believe competition to be a significant factor in the execution of their business plan.

While this may make for a nice sound bite, I don't buy it, and if they're truly honest with themselves, neither do they. In business you can either choose to deal with your competition (even if that means partnering with them), or you can opt to stand idly by and let the competition eat your lunch. In today's post I'll share my thoughts on the proper way to view your competition and how to identify competitive threats...

While some companies talk a good game with regard to competitive strategy, in my experience very few businesses actually address the issue in adequate fashion. I suppose much of my perspective on competition was formed during my days as a soldier and athlete. In the military we valued intelligence, studied our enemy's strengths and weaknesses, developed a battle plan around a solid strategy, and executed our tactical mission as if our lives depended on it - because they did.

Similarly, in my days as an athlete, our game plan each week was refined based upon the strengths and weaknesses of the team we were playing next. If we didn't study films and scouting reports, develop plays that would exploit match-ups, and execute our game plan we would lose... it was as simple as that. Dealing with competition in the business world is really no different than dealing with enemies on the battlefield or competitors on the athletic field... you either win or lose based upon your state of preparedness, desire and commitment.

How well do you know your competition? No, really... Not how well do you think you know your competition, but how well do you really understand them? Do you have a business intelligence platform? When was the last time you conducted a formal competitive study? Do your R&D and innovation programs evaluate the competitive landscape? Do your marketing, PR and branding initiatives exploit the competition? Do you stack-up as well as you think, or have you just adopted a position out of convenience?

The first step in developing a competitive strategy is to identify your current and potential threats, and then to prioritize said threats based upon perceived risk/reward and cost/benefit scenarios. The following list is clearly not exhaustive, but it is representative of the main competitive threats to a business. As the following list indicates, competition can come in the form of any one or combination of the following potential threats:

1. Existing or potential direct and indirect competitors.


2. Existing clients or end-users that could either become competition or strengthen your competitors if they have a change in loyalty.


3. Current or former employees who could become competition.


4. Vendors, suppliers or distributors that could become competition, or provide an edge to your competition.


5. Competitive innovations in process, management, talent, pricing, efficiency, etc. that can cause disruption in the market.


6. Strong changes in brand perception via news, PR, branding, litigation etc. can create changes in the competitive landscape.


7. Competitive technology innovations that could adversely impact your business.


8. Competitive mergers, acquisitions and roll-ups that could adversely impact your business.


9. Political, legislative, regulatory, or compliance actions that could create a competitive imbalance in the market.


10. Changes in general market dynamics that could create competitive changes in the market.

Once all areas of competitive risk have been identified and prioritized it will be much easier to develop a strategy for stacking the odds in your favor regardless of when, where, or how you encounter the competition.

The key to successfully exploiting competition over the long haul is linking your competitive strategy to the discipline of innovation and the mindset of custom centricity. A sustainable competitive advantage is not found by creating minor advantages in product features. Long-term competitive separation is created by innovating around the needs of your customers and clients with a focus on long-term value creation.


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Mike Myatt, is a Top CEO Coach, author of "Leadership Matters...The CEO Survival Manual", and Managing Director of N2Growth.

2010 - Year of the Man Purse

by Braden Kelley

I've been trying to decide whether to make any 2010 predictions, and I never thought that this would end up being the one that I chose, but here goes:

2010 will be the year of the man purse - thanks to the proliferation of netbooks, e-readers, and a new generation of tablets launching this year from Apple, Plastic Logic, Google, and others.

It probably won't happen in the first half of the year, but by the time back-to-school and christmas roll around, man purses will finally start to catch on.

Some people will call it a satchel to make themselves feel more manly, and others will see no shame in calling it a man purse, but the fact remains that people will want a way to keep close at hand the gadgets that they are beginning to see as an extension of themselves.

Way back in 2006 celebrities including Robert Downey Jr., David Beckham, and Cuba Gooding Jr. were using man purses, but they didn't cross the chasm because there wasn't enough value created for the average joe. But now, don't be surprised if by the end of 2010 you see more celebrities like possibly Shaquille O'Neil, LeBron James, or Chad OchoCinco sporting a man purse to help carry the gadgets they choose to use to connect with their fans.

For my money, the biggest unknown is not whether man purses catch on, but which devices will be their main residents. Which devices will earn the right to be worn?

Apple is not going to have this market to themselves, no matter how cool their tablet might be.

So, what kind of device will Google come up with?

Can Amazon counter with something to keep the Kindle relevant?

What do you think?

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Electronic Readers Hit the Big Time

Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook

by Kevin Roberts

Fear of new technology is not new. In 1982, the king of all Hollywood lobbyists, Jack Valenti, told the US Congress:


"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."


Hysteria aside, the movie industry was utterly convinced that the advent of video cassettes would destroy the film industry. 30 years on, video and DVD have had the opposite effect - far from undermining the industry, they are integral to its ongoing profitability. How could Hollywood keep producing so many films, at such great cost and such variable quality without the "straight to DVD" option? Even the notorious box-office bomb, Waterworld, almost broke even in the end, thanks to DVD sales.

There has been similar angst about the fate of books and the publishing industry since the arrival of the Internet and new technology like e-readers. In 2007, the US National Endowment for the Arts reported a "remarkable decline" of American reading habits, its chairman saying that it would damage the civic, political and economic fabric of the country. The New Yorker chimed in, quoting sociologists who claimed that "reading for pleasure will one day be the province of a special 'reading class', much as it was before the arrival of mass literacy." The Boston strangler strikes again!

E-readers are all the rage this holiday season. Industry experts forecast that Amazon will sell 900,000 Kindles in the last two months of 2009. The Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which sold-out before it even hit the shelves, are also on a tear. There was a lot of skepticism about e-readers in the first couple of years, and a lot of doomsayers who thought they spelled the end of the written word.

The truth is that technology has ended the monopoly of bound, mass-produced manuscripts we call books, and expanded choice for readers. We can read on the computer screen, on dedicated e-readers like Kindle and Nook or on our cell-phones.

We love books for the stories and the emotional power, the insights and inspirations. Who ever puts down a great book and says, "Wow, I loved the paper-stock, and the font was awesome!"

People who love reading will read more than ever before - I know I do.

Circumstances, mood and moment will determine how and what we read - the Kindle is great for plane trips or train-rides; the cell-phone works well for a quick catch-up with emails or news, and nothing (for me, at least) will beat the pleasures of a book on a beach, or a bookshop on a rainy afternoon.


Editor's note: Will Apple go after the e-reading market with the rumored Apple tablet?

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Killer Small Business Social CRM

by Hutch Carpenter

Parker Smith wrote a piece that got me thinking. In Foursquare: Democratizing the Loyalty Program, he posits that Foursquare could be the loyalty program provider to small businesses. I think he's right.

Then I noticed these identical product benefits touted by the companies themselves, Foursquare and Jack Dorsey's Square:


"For example, foursquare can tell you how many times a customer has been to your venue or the frequency of their visits. Many venues are now using this data to reward their most loyal customers with freebies or discounts." - Foursquare

"If you frequent a place that accepts Square, we'll let them know you're a repeat customer. That 10th cappuccino may be on the house, no paper coffee card required." - Square


Would you look at that? Are these guys going to end up competing with one another?

A few years back, I was the personalized marketing product manager at Pay By Touch, which offered the ability to pay for items with biometrics (i.e. your finger). Once you could identify the customer and her spending, interesting loyalty program solutions became available.

Which brings me to what Foursquare and Square are doing. Square is still in beta mode, so it's hard to predict fully its uptake in the market. But let's assume Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and his backer, Khosla Ventures, are on top of this opportunity. And Foursquare is growing quickly.

Each provides pieces of what would be needed for a small business CRM. The companies are independent, but I can see new value created if they were to work together.


There is no CRM for offline small businesses

At least, not for businesses that operate in the physical world. Dry cleaners, restaurateurs, retailers and other small businesses. They may have loyalty punch cards, but generally don't have any programmatic way to track and engage customers.

But they could use CRM as much as a large business does. I like this customer lifecycle framework by Gary Hawkins in Customer Intelligence:



It shows the stages of a business's customers: new, existing, declining, lapsing. And the ability to tier active customers also is valuable. Each tier has its own dynamics. There is much more to CRM than a simple frequency loyalty program. It's a deeper level understanding of the customer base. Understanding the statuses of customers from this point of view is powerful marketing information.

Modern CRM is more than the analytics and outbound campaigns. The social CRM movement is gaining strength, and it's incorporating many social network principles into the customer engagement process.

And it's not readily available for small businesses that operate primarily in the "offline" world. Unlike the digital platforms of e-commerce, offline transactions are not measured. At least not beyond the credit card transaction for consumer transactions.

This is an area of enormous opportunity. The company that solves the CRM issue for the 4.3 million small businesses in the U.S. has an enormous opportunity in front of it.


Complementary CRM strengths of Foursquare and Square

The two services each bring unique strengths to a small business CRM solution. Take a look:


Start with the commonality Diagram. Foursquare and Square both provide:

• Customer identity = who are your customers?


• Visit frequency = Foursquare check-ins, or Square credit card swipes

When you see them both tout free products for repeat customers, this is how they’d do it. Identity + frequency = loyalty punch card.

But what about the services' other features?


Foursquare provides the social fuel:

• Social incentives: It's fun to build up points relative to your friends, show off your Foursquare badges. And who doesn't want to be Mayor of some local business?


• Social interactions: People use Foursquare to to broadcast their location. This lets other meet up with them. Or in the case of crowded venues, find someone else there.


• Game dynamics: This reporting in on your locations is an addictive game for many. It's cool to get your first check-in daily bonus, to unlock a new location (hooray!) and oust someone as the Mayor of a place.


• Social media word of mouth: By following people on Foursquare or Twitter, you can see where your network hangs out. This raise awareness for businesses, an incredibly important benefit.

Here's an example on that last point. Socialtext CEO Eugene Lee often tweets this:


"I'm at Coupa Cafe (538 Ramona St, at University Ave, Palo Alto). http://4sq.com/IITeJ"


I don't spend much time in Palo Alto, and I'd never heard of Coupa Cafe. But you know what? If I find myself in Palo Alto needing lunch or a coffee, guess which place I'd specifically look for?

Square provides the transaction processing power:

• Dollar spend: Incredibly valuable information to track. Does someone come in a couple times a week, but spend heavily on food? Or do they frequent the cafe more often, but only buy coffee? Dollars spent is an important complement to simple visit frequency.


• In-the-flow process: Square captures its information in-the-flow. That is, you don't have to do anything extra. You're have to pay, it's part of the normal process. Foursquare requires a check-in, which is outside-the-flow of regular small business-customer interactions.


• Transaction handling: By owning the transaction handling, Square can implement low-maintenance marketing programs. Businesses can create promotions tied to specific accounts, and execute them at the point-of-sale via Square.


• Merchant account process: The process of getting businesses signed up for these programs isn't trivial. It is standardized, but there's a lot to tackle to provide good service. Some early reports indicate that Square has a superior merchant account set-up process, which may be its best innovation.

The in-the-flow nature of Square should not be underestimated. Getting adoption for any service is tough, and removing whatever friction to participation that exists is a critical element. This commenter on a post about Foursquare makes a good point:


"The sort of people who will stop and record their restaurant visits and who have friends who also stop and record their restaurant visits and then write reviews of same. And while that's a prime demographic, I'm thinking it's not nearly as large as you'd hope. Most people just don't have the time or inclination to 'play' FourSquare."


This is why putting the process of playing Foursquare in-the-flow would be valuable.


Making it happen

The challenge is in connecting a credit card transaction to a person's Foursquare account. Then I realized Square's intentions are much bigger than a simple transaction swipe. The company lets people set up their personal accounts on Square. I assume you will enter your credit card number online, and when that number comes through in a transaction, it's associated to your Square account. Thus Square can manage loyalty punch card programs.

Well, why not associate your Foursquare account to your Square account? When you swipe your credit card at the local business, Square processes the transaction the way it normally does. But it also does something else. It prompts an update to your Foursquare account.

I'm not talking a Blippy-style broadcast of your credit card purchase amount. Rather, your location status is updated automatically on Foursquare. Just as if you'd updated from your iPhone.

The small business then gets the social part of the CRM program.

What do you think? Two great tastes that taste great together? Small business could use the combined elements of Foursquare and Square.

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Hutch Carpenter is the Vice President of Product at Spigit. Spigit integrates social collaboration tools into a SaaS enterprise idea management platform used by global Fortune 2000 firms to drive innovation.

Panera Bread Rising

by Steve McKee

"Most of the world seems to be focused on the Americans who are unemployed. We're focused on the 90% that are still employed."


Those are the words of Ron Shaich, CEO of Panera Bread, the 1,300-unit bakery-cafe that has found a way to thrive in spite of the recession. Its formula? A combination of smart financial management and keen understanding of its core customers, most of whom remain gainfully employed (and ever-more attuned to good value).

Rather than cutting corners, Panera has focused on offering more to its broad range of middle income customers, including free wi-fi access and frequent new menu offerings. According to Shaich:


"In many ways, we're renting space to people and the food is the price of admission,"


Panera COO Rick Vanzura agrees, saying, "A bunch of folks have been cutting quality to cut price to go after the marginal customer. We said a better strategy that addresses a bigger group of people is providing better value."

The strategy is working. In 2008 (a very bad year for most fast-casual restaurants), Panera Bread grew by double digits. In 2009 - the worst economic year in generations - the company managed to keep same store sales from declining, and in the third quarter actually increased them by 3 percent. Food industry analyst Darren Tristano pinpoints why:


"Panera's on-trend with what consumers are asking for: fresh, customizable, convenient, won't break the bank."


Panera Bread has been able maintain its focus because of careful cash management. Rather than using debt to expand, assuming the good times of years past would keep on rolling, the company grew slowly and deliberately over the past decade. That kept it healthy from a cash flow perspective and prevented it from having to cut corners or cut margins (or both) when times got tough. As Shaich says:


"Every chain is cutting something - portion size, quality, hours of labor. The result is that ultimately the customer feels it."


Most players in the restaurant industry - in most industries, for that matter - think the current game is all about price. Panera Bread is an all-too-rare exception, demonstrating that companies that keep their focus, nerve, consensus and consistency can thrive even in bad times. I'm a fan.

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Steve McKee is a BusinessWeek.com columnist, marketing consultant, and author of "When Growth Stalls: How it Happens, Why You're Stuck, and What To Do About It." Learn more about him at www.WhenGrowthStalls.com and at http://twitter.com/whengrowthstall.

Innovating Your Wallet

by Drew Boyd

Innovation puts cash in your wallet. But what about the wallet itself? For this month's LAB, we will apply the corporate innovation method, S.I.T., to create new and useful concepts for the wallet.

Wallets are the most personal items we own. They carry our money, credit cards, identification, licenses, photographs, and other memorabilia. Your wallet says a lot about you. As with food, we try to stuff more inside while staying thin. Wallets have been around a long time. Today, the wallet industry is a multi-billion dollar market fueled by new designs and innovation.

Here are six unique wallet concepts invented using the five templates in the S.I.T. method. They were created by graduate students at the University of Cincinnati as part of their course requirements in "Applied Marketing Innovation."

1. FINANCIAL WALLET: "A complete personal financial guide to assure financial success." This concept features an online portfolio manager, a stock ticker, account summary, Forex calculator, and Quicken integration.

• Benefits: stay alert to changes in your financial situation so you can make better, real-time decisions to manage your personal finances.

2. ARMOR WALLET: "The most secure wallet on the planet! Helps protect and manage your critical information." This concept features titanium casing, fingerprint scanner, auto-lockdown, missing card alert, and a data manager.

• Benefits: keep your financial instruments secure, get easy access to your important information, and be alerted when something is not right.

3. TRENDSETTER WALLET: "Always keeps you high on fashion. The ultimate style statement." This concept features color changes according to your mood, attire, and occasion. It stores and displays pictures on an LCD screen to capture memories, plays the most hip music, gets real time fashion updates, gives you full body views with an advanced zoom in and zoom out mirror.

• Benefits: helps you match your fashion to your state of mind.

4. SHOPPERS PARADISE WALLET: "The most convenient shopping companion that always gets you the best deal." This concept features credit card select (the appropriate credit/debit card pops out while shopping), then alerts you until the credit/debit card is back in the wallet. It manages your to-do list and shopping lists, and it gets graphical information on your expenditure with tips on money management. The wallet searches for the best discounts, and it controls cash flow with an online budget tracker. It has an aisle navigator to help you shop more efficiently.

• Benefits: gives you an enjoyable shopping experience while saving you money.

5. GLOBETROTTER WALLET: "The ultimate travel guide that makes you feel right at home anywhere in the world." This concept features built in GPS, trip management, food/tip management, weather watch, language translator, and current Forex rates.

• Benefits: helps you get the most out of your travel experience by staying informed about what is going on around you.

6. FITNESS WALLET: "The perfect personal trainer to suit all your work out needs." This concept features a heart rate monitor to check workout intensity, digitized locker key, first aid kit, stopwatch, distance and time, calorie watcher, MP3 player, sports updates, and a fitness scheduler.

• Benefits: helps you maximize the time spent staying in shape.

Check out this and the other Dream Catalogs at the Innovation Wiki.

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Drew Boyd is Director of Marketing Mastery for Johnson & Johnson (Ethicon Endo-Surgery division). He is also Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing and Innovation at the University of Cincinnati and Executive Director of the MS-Marketing program. Follow him at www.innovationinpractice.com and at http://twitter.com/drewboyd