I will be giving a talk at the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Engineering, Built environment and Information Technology, University of Pretoria on August 26, 2008.

Innovation is a crucial component of business strategy, but the process of innovation may seem difficult to manage. To plan organizational initiatives around innovation or to bolster innovation requires a firm grasp of the innovation process. Few organizations have transparently defined such a process. Based on the findings of an exploratory study of over 30 US and European companies that have robust innovation processes, this paper breaks down the innovation process into discrete stages: idea generation and mobilization, screening and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, and diffusion and implementation. For each stage, context, outputs and critical ingredients are discussed. There are several common tensions and concerns at each stage, which are enumerated; industry examples are also given. Finally, strategies for and indicators of organizational success around innovation are discussed for each stage. Successful organizations will use an outlined innovation process to create a common framework for discussion and initiatives around the innovation process, and to establish metrics and goals for each stage of the innovation process.

I have now arrived and settled in at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS). I decided to spend a few minutes blogging…

My travel route took me from Seattle to Washington, D.C. (I spent a night near the Washington Dulles International Airport), then to Frankfurt (I spent a whole day in Frankfurt), after which I headed to Johannesburg. Luckily, all of the flights were on time, were comfortable, and I got plenty of rest during the travels.

Sunday: I got to Johannesburg early on Sunday morning (about 9 AM) and was greeted by Jason Cohen (Professor of IS, WITS). We then drove about 40 minutes to get to the Melville area and my home away from home, the Melville Manor House. After checking into my room (see below for pictures), I headed to the streets of Melville to get some lunch and then got plenty of rest. During lunch, I obviously had to indulge in tasting a local wine from Cape Town. The evening was quiet and involved preparing for my class, Information Systems and Strategic Planning.

Monday: I woke up quite early (about 3 AM, thanks to the jetlag) and then completed the preparations for my course. I had a wonderful breakfast prepared by the staff at the Melville Manor House and then headed to WITS. I spent the entire day teaching my class (9 AM- 4 PM). I have 14 wonderful honors students in the class and the discussions were lively and highly engaging. We discussed among other issues: the role of IT in shaping business strategy, the fallacy of IT-business alignment, the impact of technology on change management programs, the role of IT in developing economies, and even the future of IT and its impact on corporate strategy. Besides teaching my class, I did get set-up in my office, which is a comfortable working environment, with two windows. I did some exploring of the WITS campus during my lunch break – first reactions, it is a nice campus and the atmosphere is lively and friendly. I got back to my room around 5 PM and then headed out for a quick dinner bite... before heading to sleep.

Tuesday: I am up at about 2 AM…having my morning tea…and now that I am done spending some time blogging, I will get onto some real work…like revising a journal article…Then I will be off to WITS again for another full day of teaching. Today’s topics include: enterprise resource planning, innovating with technologies, and organizational innovation programs…

Continue to check this blog for updates. I will do my best to write on a regular basis. So far, I am enjoying South Africa and the city of Johannesburg…Cheers!

Innovation is a crucial component of business strategy, but the process of innovation may seem difficult to manage. To plan organizational initiatives around innovation or to bolster innovation requires a firm grasp of the innovation process. Few organizations have transparently defined such a process. Based on the findings of an exploratory study of over 30 US and European companies that have robust innovation processes, this paper breaks down the innovation process into discrete stages: idea generation and mobilization, screening and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, and diffusion and implementation. For each stage, context, outputs and critical ingredients are discussed. There are several common tensions and concerns at each stage, which are enumerated; industry examples are also given. Finally, strategies for and indicators of organizational success around innovation are discussed for each stage. Successful organizations will use an outlined innovation process to create a common framework for discussion and initiatives around the innovation process, and to establish metrics and goals for each stage of the innovation process.

Time:
12:45 -14:00

Venue:
LT4, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
Portswood Road, Green Point

Cape Town, South Africa