Why Commercial Innovation in a Corporation? Business is going well. Profits are growing. The stock price is increasing. Why innovate now? There are many books written about this. Here is my experience with the value of innovation and different “corporate innovation engines”. Innovative Pharma companies’ growth is fueled by R&D. As patents in practice only last for about a decade, the researchers must invent and develop major new medicines frequently. Or the company dissapears. There is a very appealing case for commercial innovation in addition to the R&D invention. Let’s start with the core business: “the pill”. One example: even the best medicines are not being used by everyone who…
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1 + 1 = 3
New innovation blog: 1+1=3
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Oscar
Annual Innovation Awards Annual awards for innovation are the best and worst thing around. Awards ceremonies can be a time consuming show. Awards can be a demotivator for those who do not win. Innovation shouldn’t be a once a year event. Still, I recommend organizing annual Awards, as they are a high impact opportunity to promote innovation in the corporation. How did we organize them? Once a year, I asked the commercial leaders for their most critical business/customer challenges that required innovative solutions. I secured the final challenge selection and sponsorship from the President. Proposals were solicited through broad global communication. A jury selected the winning innovations, based on specific…
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Herding cats
Tracking and sharing innovations Innovation is dynamic. Innovations can start every moment. They change continuously. They fail frequently. Multiply this activity across 100 countries, 10 brands, 5 divisions and its clear that an innovation leader cannot manage this number of initiatives with an Excel spreadsheet. The simple solution is to buy one of the many off the shelf software programs and roll it out across the organization. It’s fast. It has been tested. It looks professional. However, the software program may not address specific needs. Does it help the innovation leader to identify new innovations, to prioritize innovations, to track ongoing innovations, to manage Innovation Challenges/competitions, to connect innovators, to…