Corporate innovation is almost an oxymoron today except for a select few organizations.  How do they do it and, more importantly, how did they begin?
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Try starting with an employee suggestion scheme. Implement the good ideas and reward the proponents. And then formalise the evaluation process so people know that ideas wont be ignored by prejudiced managers.
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Beyond Bureaucracy:\nThe Development Agenda\nMaking it to the 21st Century\ndepends on the participation of everyone \nand the re-creation of our major institutions\nan Interview with David C. Korten, by Alan AtKisson\nOne of the articles in Making It Happen (IC#28)\nSpring 1991, Page 26\nCopyright (c)1991, 1996 by Context Institute | To order this issue ...\n\n\nIf your interest is in "making it happen" - participating in the transformation of our societies to a more humane and sustainable way of life - there is one book you simply must read: David Korten's Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and the Global Agenda. The distillation of nearly three decades of research and field experience, Korten's book is both tightly focused (on the primacy of non-governmental organizations and voluntary action in creating a better world) and expansive (his analysis weaves together such diverse elements as the environment, global economy, governance institutions, and the transformation of consciousness).\n\nBut while Korten's agenda is radical in the truest sense, his roots are decidedly mainstream - M.B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business; faculty positions at Harvard, the Asian Institute of Management, and other institutions; on staff at the Ford Foundation; and consultant to the US Agency for International Development [AID]. And his message - despite its challenge to the legitimacy of some of the world's most entrenched bureaucracies - is being heard.\n\nKorten is now Founder and President of the People-Centered Development Forum, "a voluntary organization ... to encourage and support the definition and pursuit of a people-centered development vision as a global citizens' movement." We are pleased to announce that he is also the newest contributing editor to IN CONTEXT. In this lengthy and wide-ranging interview, he traces the development of his thinking and sketches out the critical elements of an action agenda for getting to the 21st Century. His book is available from Kumarian Press, 630 Oakwood Ave., Suite 119, West Hartford, CT 06110 ($19.95 postpaid).\n\nAlan: Development has, in the West at least, been considered too big for anyone but government to tackle. But in your book, you argue persuasively that such thinking is inherently flawed - and that, in fact, it leads to disaster.\n\nDavid: Right. We have to think of development as a people's movement, not as a government-funded project. Development issues relate to values and relationships - which you cannot buy with government funding.\n\nThat's a trap we've gotten into - we think government can correct these things for us. But we cannot expect our "leaders" - in quotes - to provide the necessary leadership. What we see now demonstrated is quite the opposite - our current leadership is taking us very skillfully and powerfully in exactly the wrong direction with great intent.\n\nAlan: How did you come to these conclusions, and move from large institutional settings such as USAID to developing something like the People-Centered Development Forum? What was the evolutionary pathway?\n\nDavid: My start in the international development business was actually in business management and management education. The shift began when I was the academic director of INCAE, the Central American management institute. We were studying the family planning programs of El Salvador and Nicaragua, and one of the critical influences on my thinking was seeing how the structures of those systems thwarted any effort to both generate client demand and be responsive to it. The nature of bureaucratic organizations made such responsiveness impossible.\n\nSo, once back in the US, I began working with people from Third World management institutes and the heads of national family planning programs in a major effort to improve management in these programs. Some of us reached the conclusion that one of the important f
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If you're sure it will work, you do the following;\n\n1. Patent the idea.\n2. Get yourself a lawyer\n3. Have your lawyer write to their lawyer requesting a meeting.\n4. Send the letter recorded delivery.\n5. Hope.\n\nYou need to bear in mind that many corporations have policies in place that stop them accepting any ideas from anyone outside the company.  These days its very easy for them to get sued.
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We live in competitive markets, so innovations are important. They also include superior quality, efficiency & customer responsiveness.\n\nWhat Inspires Innovation? \n\nDriver One: Frustration with the Status Quo \nDriver Two: Responding to Crisis \nDriver Three: Focusing on Prevention \nDriver Four: Emphasizing Results \nDriver Five: Adapting Technology \nDriver Six: Doing the Right Thing \n\nWhat Makes Innovation Successful? \n\nKeep It Simple in Concept\nMake It Easy to Execute \nShoot for Quick Results\nBe Frugal\nMake It Appealing\nKeep It Apolitical
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Owned by different companies based on different technology
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deliver results on time\nquality work\nstay up with your field\nshow up at work on time\nwork while you are there\nbe a team player\nwork smart\nbe innovative\nhelp others\nsolve problems
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The number one thing is to think of what the COMPANY'S needs are, and try your best to fill those needs.\n\nThink about problems the company faces and try to help solve them.  This doesn't have to be big stuff like global financing and distribution problems, it can be little things like making a list of nearby restaurants that deliver so that when people need to work at their desks through lunch break there is a way for them to order food.\n\nBe proactive, participate in meetings and show that you are trying to help the company avoid possible problems before they become problems.\n\nBe very honest with yourself about your strong and weak points.  When you identify something within your job requirements that you are not very good at, ask your supervisor who in the company IS good at doing this thing, and go learn from that person.
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Consider a part-time college teaching gig.  It gives you a great avenue to hone your skills at presenting ideas to people whom you need to inform.  A very valuable skill to have as you go into your career.\n\nYou would be surprised at how time much we Econ's spend teaching in the corporate work place.  Heck, we're usually the only one's who have a clue how to approach something and have the skills and the "toolbox" to tackle it.
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Sounds like you have some excellent ideas.  Have you considered checking out some pros who are already successful, such as hands-on children's museums and petting zoos?  Actually, many businesses might have children's angles, if you ask corporate headquarters.
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Build it around a key goal - a company you want to open, question you want to answer, something you want to change in the world. Invent it if you have to, but make sure it is something you can be passionable about. Also make sure it is consistent with current fads in the field, and challenging yet realistic. \n\nThen, explain how your previous studies and work both drove you to this idea and helped you to come closer to realizing it. Finally, say how education at said school will further help realize it.\n\nMake a draft, spell check, show to as many university professors as you can, get feedback, revise, repeat 3 times.
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NONE.  All things were created!  Things adapt to changing environments, but they never turn into something entirely new.
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Nature never gave us on earth anything we didn't need. If you take a look at out cells, they are very creative, never work alone, constantly in harmony with eachother. \n\nCreativity:\n\nInspirations from unknown sources introduces creativity most ppl aren't evolved to lead. As trendsetters, rebellious or wahteverr, we tend to bring humanity into a higher reality.\n\nWe dont loose humanity it just changes.
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21st Century Modern Inventions:\nhttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa063002a.htm\n\nWow... there are some pretty cool inventions.  Check it out!
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It was actually a mistake. A chemist working for an adhesives company was trying to make a new adhesive. When he showed it to his bosses they discarded the idea, after all, what good is an adhesive that doesn't really hold that well. Not wanting to trash his invention, the man bought all rights to it and played with some ideas to market the adhesive. Eventually, he noticed people tacking or taping notes around the office and the post-it was born!
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A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation.\n\n[Blend of intra– and ENTREPRENEUR.]
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context?\n\nI know it as Manufacturing Resource Planning, and Enterprise Resource Planning.... what are you talking about?
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Success rates vary with individuals, not with the corporation, and it is all in the leadership STYLE.  You have to learn to achieve results through INFLUENCE rather than by having direct power over subordinates.  That's difficult for newer/less skilled professionals to do, because managing by influence means earning people's respect and harnessing their natural motivation, and not really managing at all.  If you walk into someone else's shop barking orders, what do you think will happen?  If, on the other hand, you pitch in as one of the team to help them accomplish their goals, you will create a totally different perception and will earn their cooperation in return.  \n\nYes, it works.  I was able to get regional/branch people to help me with a big corporate project once because the month earlier, I had gotten on a plane to go pull an all-nighter with them on a big systems conversion.  They said "you were the only one from corporate who was really WITH us all the way!"\n\nRead any of Warren Bennis's works on leadership, and he will explain the concept.  I was very lucky to participate in Professor Bennis's Leadership Seminar in the MBA program at Southern Cal.