Welcome to my blog – Innovation Explained.  My name is Steve Sponseller, and I teach entrepreneurs and business leaders how to tap into the power of innovative ideas to grow their business.  I enjoy working with innovative companies and have more than 20 years of experience counseling companies of all sizes in a variety of different industries.  I have worked as an Electrical Engineer and an Intellectual Property attorney – I am also the founder of my own company, Innovation Strategies, Inc.  These experiences give me a unique perspective on business from both the “inside” and the “outside”.

After working with hundreds of business leaders and innovators, I have developed proven systems and techniques to identify, develop and implement innovations in any business.  These innovations can grow your company by increasing revenue, reducing expenses, providing a competitive edge, positioning the company as an “innovator” in the market, and more.  I also “practice what I preach” by applying my innovation systems and techniques in my own company.  Keep watch for upcoming announcements about innovative courses and educational content that enable entrepreneurs and business leaders to quickly leverage innovation in their companies.

The first step to creating an innovation strategy is understanding innovation and how to leverage it in your business.  This blog provides regular information related to business innovation that you can apply in your own company right away.  Get your free report “Innovation Excellence” using the sign-up box on this page to start developing your own innovation strategy.

Here are three tips to help you get the most out of your brainstorming sessions.

1. Schedule Brainstorming Time – Put this activity on your calendar so it is not forgotten or pushed aside by another project.  Schedule as much time as you can, but even a 10 minute brainstorming session can generate a long list of creative ideas.
2. Record Everything – During your brainstorming activities, write down every idea that comes to mind.  Do not filter out any ideas and never trust yourself to remember the ideas at a later time.  Write them down immediately so you can refer back to the ideas in the future.
3. No Criticism or Judging – When you are capturing creative ideas, do not criticize or judge any of the ideas.  You can evaluate your list of ideas at a later time.  During the brainstorming session, your goal is simply to come up with ideas and get them recorded.  Don’t worry about the cost or other obstacles involved with implementing an idea, just write it down.  If you are brainstorming with other people, do not criticize or judge any person’s  ideas – that can ruin a brainstorming session.

After your brainstorming session, keep writing down future ideas as they come to you.  For the next few days, be sure to keep a pencil and paper, recorder or other system close to you for recording additional thoughts.  These thoughts may be completely new ideas, a refinement of an earlier idea, or thoughts on how to implement a particular idea.  The same rules apply here: write down every idea without any criticism or judging.

Try scheduling a brainstorming activity every week and watch your list of creative ideas grow.

There are many examples of businesses that failed, at least in part, because they did not recognize trends in their own industry.  Blockbuster Video is one example.  There are many stories and theories regarding the reasons for the downfall of Blockbuster.  But, most business analysts agree that the company waited too long to revise its business model of renting DVDs from retail stores.  By the time the company began offering DVDs by mail, the strongest competitor offering that service (Netflix) already had a big lead.  Netflix has gone on to offer instant downloads as well – following the trend of growing Internet access and increased download capacities.

There are many factors that cause a particular company to experience problems, but it appears that Blockbuster’s failure to take action on industry trends was a significant part of its current problems.

When was the last time you looked at trends in your own industry?  What about general trends, such as increased mobile phone usage, mobile advertising and point-of-sale purchases using mobile phones?

You do not need to be on the very leading edge of these trends, but you cannot ignore trends that affect your business.  Social media is a good example.  Certain groups of people rely heavily on social media as their primary means of communication.  If your customers are in these groups, you need to have a social media presence if you want to reach these customers.

Keep an eye on others in your industry to see how they are adjusting to certain trends.  Don’t just copy what they are doing.  Be innovative and develop your own procedures or systems that leverage those trends to strengthen your business.

Many trends move quickly – spend some time this week studying current trends and look for ways to leverage those trends to grow your business.

I was talking with a friend recently who mentioned that he often comes up with his most creative ideas in the shower.  I found that interesting because I also have innovative ideas while in the shower.  I also have many creative ideas when I’m driving.

Since we all have creative thoughts at unexpected times, it is important to be prepared for those innovative ideas ahead of time.  To me, being prepared means having a way to record the innovative idea before it “disappears”.  Here are a few ways to be sure you are always prepared to record your innovative thoughts:

1. Carry a pen/pencil and paper with you at all times – get a small pad of paper and a short pencil that easily fit in your pocket or purse.
2. If you have innovative ideas in the middle of the night, keep a pad of paper next to your bed to record those ideas.
3. Use an audio recorder to quickly record your thoughts.  Or, carry a portable video camera, like the Flip video camera.  Since these video cameras also include microphones, you can use them to record your thoughts – just ignore the video.
4. Use your cell phone.  If you have a smart phone, use a note-taking application or a voice recording application.  If your phone does not have those abilities, send yourself a text message or call your voicemail and leave a message for yourself.
5. Keep a pad of paper and a pen in your car.  If I’m waiting in my car for an appointment or to pick up one of my kids, I will often use that time as a mini-brainstorming session and write down all of my ideas.
6. Put a white board in your office or other location just for creative ideas.  I have a white board in my office that is used exclusively for innovative business ideas related to my current projects.

I realize that the above ideas for recording your thoughts probably won’t work in the shower.  So, here’s an opportunity for you to innovate:  How can you record ideas while in the shower?  A water-proof white board?  Leave a comment below with your ideas.  Also, let me know about other systems you use to record your innovative ideas.

With previous lunch boxes, we have included a re-usable ice pack to keep the contents of the lunch box cold.  This approach works pretty well, but sometimes the ice pack “crushes” the food or the ice pack begins to leak blue liquid all over the contents of the lunch box.

As I reviewed the vast selection of lunch boxes at a local store, I noticed a new type of soft-sided lunch bag that had “built-in” ice.  The advertising materials for the lunch bag said “No Ice Needed!  It’s Built-In!”.  This innovative design includes a freezable gel in the sides of the lunch bag.  So, instead of putting an ice pack into the lunch bag to keep the contents cool, you put the entire lunch bag in the freezer overnight to chill the gel in the sides of the bag.  In the morning, you take the lunch bag out of the freezer and put the lunch inside.  The frozen gel keeps the contents of the lunch bag cool until lunch time.

I love this idea.  The lunch bag does a wonderful job of keeping the contents cool until lunch time.  I believe it does a better job than the old ice packs we used in the past.  Now I don’t have to worry about leaking ice packs or a shifting ice pack that slides to one end of the lunch bag and only keeps part of the lunch cool.

This creative product is an innovation example that combines two existing products to generate a new product providing new benefits to the customer.  This innovation adds a new feature that simplifies use of the product, rather than making it more complicated.  When looking for ways to provide more value to your own clients, don’t forget to consider simplifying your product or service for the benefit of your client.

After ordering, we asked the waitress if she had any crayons and paper for our kids to color while waiting for our pizza. She told us that she did not have crayons, but would bring us something else for the kids to play with.  There were no other kids in the restaurant, so we didn’t know what kind of “toy” she might bring.  The toy was uncooked pizza dough.  Each of our daughters got a small plate with some pizza dough and flour (to keep the pizza dough from sticking to the plate) to play with.

Our kids loved playing with the pizza dough and made all kinds of things: a snowman, a leaf, a smiley face, rings for their fingers, and more.  For several days after visiting that restaurant we heard them telling us how much they liked that restaurant.  They didn’t like the restaurant because of their pizza, it was the pizza dough they got to play with.  You can be sure our kids will want to go back to that restaurant when we are vacationing there again.

Here’s the innovation lesson.  Someone had the bright idea of giving kids a unique “toy” to play with in the restaurant.  Yes, crayons and paper are great, but you find that at almost any restaurant.  By giving the kids an alternative toy that lets them use their creativity, the restaurant is setting itself apart from its competitors.  Both the kids and the parents will remember this unique toy and will likely think of the restaurant when they want pizza again.

What kind of simple actions like this can you take to boost your own business?

Here is an approach to business process innovation:

1. Big Question:  Is the process necessary? The first question to ask when evaluating a business process is whether the process is necessary.  What is the purpose or end result of the process?  Is it still needed – does it provide value to the business?  If not, don’t spend time “optimizing” the process, just eliminate it.
2. Identify the desired result of the process. Ask questions to determine the goal of the process.  Why was the procedure originally developed and what are the desired results of the process?
3. Eliminate steps. Once you identify the desired result of the process, look at each of the steps currently performed and see if any of them are unnecessary.  Look for ways to achieve the same desired result with fewer steps – or by simplifying steps to be faster or cheaper to perform.
4. Combine multiple steps.  In addition to looking for steps that can be eliminated, find ways to combine multiple steps to improve the overall efficiency of the process.  For example, can multiple steps be performed at the same time?  Or, if several people are performing different steps, consider whether the process can be simplified by having one person perform all of those steps at the same time.
5. Automate the process. Look for ways to automate some of the steps in the process.  If several people are involved in the process, consider collaboration tools that allow those individuals to work together more efficiently – especially if they do not work in the same location.  Consider document management tools, project scheduling tools and other resources to automate steps in the process.

Start looking for ways to streamline your own business procedures to boost your bottom line.  Please share your comments below.

You don’t need a Research & Development Department or an Engineering Staff to take advantage of creative thinking in your business.  In fact, many small businesses can bring creative ideas to market faster than large corporations because of their smaller size.  Take advantage of the flexibility available to small companies and start the innovation process today.

Here’s all you need to start leveraging innovative ideas:

1. At least one person willing to spend some time doing “creative thinking”.
2. At least one “seed” idea.  This “seed” can be a problem or unmet need in your industry or in your own business.  Creative thinking exercises can start with seed ideas to develop potential solutions to these problems or unmet needs.
3. A way to record the creative ideas (paper/pencil, computer, audio recorder or a white board) – even a napkin and a crayon works (I’ve done this myself several times in restaurants).  If you use a white board, be sure to take a picture of the board before it’s erased or record the ideas using paper or a computer.
4. A system to evaluate creative ideas.  I have found that a small group of 4-6 people works well for evaluating creative ideas and refining those ideas into products or services that can be implemented in a business.

This is all you need to get started.  You can add more steps and activities as your innovation strategy develops – but keep things simple in the beginning.

However, creating a list of innovative ideas is not enough.  You must take action!

Here are several ways to start taking action:

1. Evaluate the ideas on your list. Get a group of people from different parts of your business (different job functions) and review the ideas submitted.  Perform a cost-benefit analysis on the most promising ideas.  Initially, look for ideas that can be implemented quickly and are likely to produce a significant result to the bottom line.
2. Prioritize the ideas. Perform an initial ranking of the ideas – be sure to include ideas that are “short term” projects as well as “long term” projects that take more time or resources to implement, but can provide significant long-term growth for the business.
3. Take steps to implement one or more of the ideas on the list. Take steps to begin implementing at least one of the ideas on your list.  The first step may be to perform further investigation into the feasibility of the idea – such as seeking input from various groups in the company to determine costs, timing, or potential obstacles to address when implementing the idea.

Track the results of the innovative ideas implemented in your business.  For example, you can track increase in revenue, reduction in expenses and customer growth.  Celebrate the positive results of your innovation to encourage further creativity and innovation.

Start building your list of creative ideas today and take action on those ideas to grow your business.

To properly evaluate innovations, a reliable tracking system is necessary to capture all creative ideas and monitor the evaluation and implementation of those ideas.

When creating an Evaluation Group to review innovative ideas, include individuals with different job functions in the company.  Many groups I work with include individuals involved in sales, marketing, product development, customer service and production.  These different job functions have different perspectives and can identify potential problems related to certain ideas.  Also, people with different perspectives can expand on the initial ideas based on their additional knowledge or expertise in a particular area.

After evaluating innovations, the tracking system is updated to indicate the current status of the innovation and the next step in the analysis or development process.  Review and update the status of active ideas on a regular basis.

Begin a regular system of innovation analysis to evaluate the creative ideas that are growing in your business.  Select the most appropriate ideas to leverage for the maximum benefit to your company.