Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category

What Market are you targeting?

Monday, November 1st, 2021

                                                                                          By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                                   www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                                   www.matrixthinking.com

Innovation can be a risky business!

There is a limit to how long a business that fails to innovate can survive, especially in these times of such dynamic change.

Whilst it definitely is “innovate or perish”, innovation is not without its risks. In our experience innovators and inventors usually deliver great solutions, but where they fail is most often in the market place.

Improve don’t invent

It’s generally far safer, in terms of market risk, to improve a product that everybody is using rather than create an entirely new one that often requires costly marketing to generate awareness and in some cases even attempt change people’s behaviour.

What’s your target?

One of the first things we advise is to explore the position of your product on the Market Risk Map we developed quite some years back, but it’s just as valid today.

Broadly speaking there are three types of markets:

  • Industrial/commercial – where it’s usually possible to establish the “Value Proposition” or cost benefit of implementing a new idea or approach
  • Consumer markets is where it’s often hard to establish a quantitative value proposition, but it’s a market where we know the public engage, for food, consumer goods and domestic needs
  • Fashion where nobody can say with any certainty if a new product, that is largely unnecessary in any case, like a $100,000 dollar watch or designer handbag, will ever sell. No quantitative value proposition exists for such markets.

Additionally there are two other major considerations, novelty/newness or lack of newness.

Things that are entirely new that may require a change of behaviour or learning to use are often far more risky that things that are simply slight improvements on existing practises.

For example, the first credit card that took more than 10 years to realise significant buy-in from users, compared with say the touch card that was quickly adopted compared with the “swipe to pay” card.

The Market Risk Map

The above can be simply summarised on the “Market Risk Map” that is one of the first “go too” places we suggest you use to evaluate the likely risk of a new product or practise.

What’s the message?

Market risk is the biggest risk with new products. Make sure you determine just where your product or service fits on the risk map in evaluating its likely success.

Products of low novelty that are innovations or improvements to existing products that are located in the bottom left corner of this map are by the far the least risky. Compare that with products in the top right hand corner of the map where the risk calculation is little more than a lucky guess. In our world of innovation, we always try to eliminate the need for luck.

**** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, commercialisation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. Several of Roger’s own inventions are on display in technology museums in Australia. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at Queens University in Belfast. Roger created “Matrix Thinking”™, now used in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program.

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Beware of Turbulence

Wednesday, August 25th, 2021

                                                                                          By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                                   www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                                   www.matrixthinking.com

Business is about selling stuff!

There’s an old saying in business “Nothing happens until you sell something”.

How true this is. In business no matter what you develop, a product, service, App or software, there is little point unless you make a sale. After all the best definition of business is: “Creating wealth through profitable transactions”©rls. In short, sales need to be made.

In our previous blog we discussed some of the essential ingredients of a good idea. Now perhaps we can look at this from a slightly different perspective, the market and the rate of innovation.

Turbulence

The term market turbulence generally refers to volatility in the stock market, but that term may equally be used in relation to products and services and more particularly the rate of innovation.

Many years ago we became involved with a US based company that was investing heavily in a modular plug-in segment for computer mechanical hard drives. The idea being that as the drive became full you could replace a segment with a new piece, thus providing additional storage. The idea was steeped in technical challenges but good PR attracted a lot of investors. The outcome unfortunately was a dismal failure. The rate of change or, as we prefer to say, turbulence in that market, especially computer memories in the mid 1990’s was incredible.

A costly example

In Australia the National Broadband Network, (NBN) rollout across the vast continent of Australia represented a massive investment, underpinned by fibre technology that required a physical connection to each customer.

A physical connection – wow – a big mistake and a throwback to times of old.

 It doesn’t take much imagination to realise the folly of this vastly expensive experiment. In some ways it harks back to the idea of a copper cable network requiring a physical connection to every customer. This physical connection was of course rendered obsolete by the ubiquitous cellular phone network.

The NBN is now operating as a somewhat “flaky” communications network with a mix of last mile technologies, all soon to be rendered obsolete by the march of technology with 5G, soon 6G and a proliferation of private satellite networks with global reach, all operating to over-run the NBN, even before it is finished.

What’s the message?

Working in markets where change is both rapid and unpredictable carries a lot of risk, there are better spaces to operate. Always consider carefully where it is you invest your innovation dollars and avoid turbulent markets, especially those steeped in technology.

**** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, commercialisation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. Several of Roger’s own inventions are on display in technology museums in Australia. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at Queens University in Belfast. Roger created “Matrix Thinking”™, now used in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program.

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What make a good idea?

Wednesday, July 21st, 2021

                                                                                          By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                                  www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                                   www.matrixthinking.com

Confidence can be a killer

What makes a good idea – this is the so called “64 million dollar question”. Without doubt anybody with a new idea naturally thinks and hopes their idea will be an outstanding success, however, most are wrong. Interestingly, this overwhelming confidence is why business plans are so often overly optimistic.

The real question that needs answering is what are the ingredients of a good idea?

Stage Gates – or “Due Diligence!

Many companies, especially the larger ones, have so called “Stage Gate” models for new products where an idea progresses through a series of gates with “hurdle criteria” at each gate to be passed before moving on to the next phase of development. Of course big companies need this type of due diligence to put some science to their work. Such approaches are commonplace and also serve to limit the wrath of senior management or shareholders, in case of a failure.

Notwithstanding the use of a stage gate approaches, these may be of little value unless the right questions are being asked.

Technology Diffusion

The assessment tool we employ and have refined over many years as a “first pass assessment” is referred to as the “Technology Diffusion Model”. The term “diffusion” being the rate the product will likely penetrate the market, much like the analogy of a dye diffusing into a liquid.

This tool has proven to be extremely reliable and in fact when we applied it to the A380 Airbus, it gave a negative answer. It seems history has proven this to be correct. However, no product in the gadget category would pass our Diffusion Model test. Such things seem impossible to confidently predict. The one possible exception may be a clear and meaningful change to a successful product, such as a Braille embossed Rubik Cube. This is a sure success and even better, the market size can be immediately established.

Just a few of the questions the Diffusion Model explores and asks to be quantitatively scored on a scale of 1 to 10 includes:

  • How well does the innovation improve performance relative to current practise?
    • Are the gains significant?
  • What is the cost benefit or “Value Proposition”?
    • When will I get a return on my investment?
  • How easy is it for the user to understand and adopt?
    • How much training is involved and will it be easily understood?
  • How compatible is the innovation with existing practises?
    • Does it require a significant change in behaviour for the user/market
  • What is the level of investment to test the innovation?
    • How much investment is at possible risk?
  • What are the consequences of the innovation failing?
    • If the new approach fails, how hard is it to revert to previous practises?

With these and other questions scored it’s a simple matter to evaluate the likely success of the product, market penetration and Diffusion rate.

Another way we look at products is by reference to our Market Risk Map where the market category, degree of novelty and market turbulence are explored. More will be said about this in following posts.

What’s the message?

There can never be 100% certainty of success with any new product. To assume backing a new idea is guaranteed to succeed is a complete folly. What is important is to ask the right questions, apply measures where possible and never to be blindsided by enthusiasm, passion and overconfidence?

                                                                        **** END ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, commercialisation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. Several of Roger’s own inventions are on display in technology museums in Australia. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at Queens University in Belfast. Roger created “Matrix Thinking”™, now used in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program.

hat Makes a Good Idea?

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Patents – Licenses – Maybe a game of Bluff!

Tuesday, June 8th, 2021

                                                                                          By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                                   www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                                   www.matrixthinking.com

It’s tough out there

Unfortunately, the business of new products is a tough one with some products that seem like absolute winners somehow never able to succeed, yet others that on the surface would appear to be worthless, becoming raging successes.

My favorite example is the Rubik Cube. Who would ever have anticipated the success of this product, or indeed the failure of its fast follower that used triangular shapes to try and create a similar challenge?

No Patent – no profit!

The recent “Fidget Finger Spinner” fad is also a great example, so too may be the Yo-yo and the Tamagotchi digital play toy of some years back. Interestingly, the lady who invented the Fidget Spinner reportedly did not seek a patent and evidently she made no money from this amazing fad.

The question of patents is a difficult one, but one thing is for sure, too many are too quick to lodge patent applications, often at great expense and seeking protection in too many jurisdictions. This happens as people move quickly to protect what they believe is a great opportunity. This, even before they have done a proper technical feasibility study, costings, market research or even searched prior art.

All this and yet the percentage of patents that actually turn a profit is frighteningly small. Moreover, even with a granted patent, unless there is the wherewithal to defend an infringement, a patent may be of little value in any case. The exception here for the “small player” is to seek to license the product to a larger company that is prepared to fund an action against infringement.

License Agreements

This raises the issue of the License agreements and the need to spell out clearly on just whose shoulders the onus of defending the patent will fall. Of course the aim is to put this liability on to the licensee, but in our experience no licensee will take this risk unconditionally. A license agreement is the aim of many, but beware the pitfalls and the tricks that can be played, even with what may seem a water tight agreement.

In one case we were involved with after the event, a license agreement was made and a Royalty agreed, but what was not agreed was at what time after the product was released the royalties payments would commence. This may seem surprising, but none the less this oversight led to unfortunate and costly legal issues, even though the product was an outstanding success.

What’s the message?

Unless you are a major corporation, patents and IPR can be somewhat a game of bluff with many unforeseen turns, but it’s a game that if well executed can reap rich rewards.

More will be said about this in another post and perhaps an answer to the “64 Million Dollar question”, “what constitutes a good idea” and moreover, how does one systematically search for one?

                                                                        **** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. Several of Roger’s own inventions are on display in technology museums in Australia. Roger created “Matrix Thinking”™, now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at Queens University in Belfast.

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Do they work – Confidentiality Agreements?

Friday, April 30th, 2021

                                                                                          By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                                   www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                                   www.matrixthinking.com

Keep it secret

When we wish to engage with others in relation to our innovations, naturally, we are keen to protect our ideas and have confidence our interests are not betrayed, either accidently or deliberately by the other party.

There are generally two ways we can try to do this. The first is by some sort of IP Registration such as Patents, in the case of tangibles, or perhaps a Trademark or Design Registration. Interestingly, copyright can be claimed by the simple insertion of this symbol © (Cnt-Alt C) at the end of your text with the date and ideally the name of the creator. To validate the date, one simple way is to send yourself a Registered Letter with the written work inside and leave it unopened until there is a need to prove the date claimed.

The alternative way to try and protect your interests is with a Non-Disclosure Agreement. In the past we have found these to be somewhat problematic. Indeed apart from attempts at restraint of trade or restrictions of trade secrets in the case of departing employees, we have found most NDA’s to be next to useless and almost impossible to enforce.

The common problem

In general all NDA’s have a clause that in effect voids the agreement if the information disclosed:

  • was in the public domain, or in the Recipient’s possession prior to the date of this agreement
  • comes into the public domain after the date of this agreement
  • is supplied to the Recipient by another party who is under no obligation of confidence to the Disclosing Party.

The problem with this clause is that, apart from entirely new IP, of which there is little, most inventions are usually a combination of already known components. On this basis an argument can be made, though perhaps somewhat tenuous, that the disclosed information was already in the Public Domain.

The new Clause

In order to overcome the possibility of an argument that a disclosure was valid as the information was already available, we have added a vital new clause. This clause is simple and straight to the point and makes it a strict betrayal of confidence if any disclosure is made by the receiving party.

The clause:        The recipient may be aware that some or all of the technology(s) required to implement the innovation/invention disclosed herein may already be in the public domain however in signing this document the Recipient agrees not to disclose or discuss with another party in any manner the innovation/invention that is the subject of this agreement.

The Outcome

Clearly the outcome of the addition of this one simple clause means that any disclosure by the recipient is a betrayal of confidence, there can be no argument.

To this end, we suggest you adopt this or a similar clause in your NDA.

                                                            **** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies, both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Several of Roger’s own inventions are on display in museums in Australia.

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Observation – One key to unlocking amazing Innovations!

Wednesday, February 24th, 2021

By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                              www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                              www.matrixthinking.com

The previous Business Insight was about process innovation, with more to follow on product innovation. However some readers commented that many Western economies are now largely service based, so what has process innovation got to do with that?

Be assured, Process Innovation is not confined to the manufacturing sector. It’s just as relevant to any business, or indeed life itself.

The Service is unchanged – The profit gain is enormous

Consider three stunning examples of business processes undertaken with insightful observations that achieve outcomes out of all proportion to the simple changes made.

Trains:               In one case a rail company was looking to update its fleet of suburban commuter trains, which ran every seven minutes stopping at 30 stations along the route. In considering the design for new carriages a review was made of the process involved in people getting on and off the trains.

It was observed, not surprisingly, that the “hang time” (how long a train spends at a platform) when passengers are boarding and alighting related to the number of people using the service, with peak times of course showing the longest interval.

In considering ways of reducing hang time, experiments were conducted with different seating configurations to allow better people movement and door openings also increased from 1.9m to 2.3m. The investigation concluded that optimal seating arrangement and door openings of 2.2m would considerably reduce average hang time by an average of 14 seconds per stop. This may seem insignificant, but across 30 stations this amounted to seven minutes.

With a seven-minute train frequency, this tiny saving per station allowed the company to operate with the same service, but with one less complete train. The saving in capital outlay ran to tens of millions of dollars.

Airlines:            The second case involved a major USA based airline looking to improve profits by training staff to be more vigilant for opportunities.

An alert flight attendant observed that on meal-services where a salad was provided, most people chose not to eat the olive in the salad. Further, the company providing the prepacked salads had a pricing scheme that allowed three ingredients for a low standard price. Any fourth ingredient, in this case the olive, was supplied at a much higher marginal cost.  When the flight attendant observed the wastage of the olive the suggestion was made to dispense with it as a normal salad ingredient. Instead, olives could be offered from a jar kept in the galley to any customer who requested one. The effect on customers was practically nil, but the cost saving ran to more than $500,000 a year – just for withholding a seemingly insignificant olive.

Couriers:          Another well documented example is for courier drivers in the USA that, in city deliveries, will drive further rather than make a left turn into traffic. The time saved by this simple rule is said to run into millions of dollars annually in time and wages saved.

What’s the message?

It doesn’t matter what you do, there are almost always hidden ways to make improvements. Even the smallest change can sometimes deliver huge profits.

Have you taught your people the art of “observation, it’s fun and it’s easy. The most potent example is that of a blind person that can detect all sorts of things by sound alone. Sighted people can as well, but they are “blinded” by their ability to see. A simple experiment easily proves the point and opens the way to much heightened alertness and observation.

                                                          **** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies, both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast.

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Monday, February 15th, 2021

Are you asking the right Question?

By Roger La Salle

Innovation is about finding better ways of doing – Whatever it is you do!

As we know, a good definition of Innovation is “Change that adds Value” and embracing this term opens the way to make innovation a relatively straight forward exercise, providing you are asking the right question.

How many times do we solve a problem and even implement a solution, only to then realise had we asked a better question we may have come up with a much better solution. How many times do we convene a meeting without having a specific one sentence idea of exactly what we wish to achieve in that meeting?

Being able to crystallise an issue in to a single sentence question is so important, but few people implement that valuable practice.

Have you found the best question?

To put this into context, let me pose the question, and have you think of the answer, before reading on:

  • What is the specific purpose of a written job application?

The obvious answer is to get the job, but this incorrect.

The sole purpose of the written job application is to get an interview, to get in front of the people making the selection.

With that clear purpose in mind, a written job application takes on a different form. Indeed, what you leave out of your application is just as important as what you include. Your application should be a hook to catch the reader. It should lead the readers to a point where they wish to speak with you to learn more. This is quite a different approach from writing everything you can think of in the hope that you will win the job. The written application never wins you the job, it’s just the starting point in the process.

Yet another incorrectly asked question occurs in real estate sales where too much money is wasted on useless advertising, possibly to the benefit of the real estate agent who may receive a commission, but of little value to the vendor.

The question to ask is:

 ”What are you trying to achieve by advertising a house for sale?”

The obvious answer is to sell the property, but this is incorrect.

Nobody purchases a property based on the pictures or just an advertisement.

The real purpose of the advertisement is to create an inquiry, to make the real estate agents phone ring. With this question in mind, perhaps the best advertisement is one that simply refers to a stunning residence and shows only a single picture to capture the imagination of the reader.

For example a house with stunning ocean views need only show the view. That will make the phone ring as an inquiry from an inquisitive party.

The above are just two examples of where the wrong question has been asked, and consequently the wrong answer found. It is essential to properly define the objective, the real issue before you search for an answer.

Too close to the problem

To cite another example, recently a workshop was undertaken in a large multinational trading bank, the team came to the session wanting to resolve the question – “How can we reduce the cost to businesses wishing to raise a Letter of Credit (LC)?”  This seemed like a sensible question and was workshopped by the group for a time until they came to the “Re -Question Catalyst in the Innovation Matrix.

So challenged to “Re-question” the group dug deep searching to find the real reason they wished to lower the cost? The answer that crystallised was, so that people would be more willing to use their LC facility.

In fact, the real and best question to ask was:

“How can we inspire businesses to raise more LC’s?”

On investigating this different issue it was soon realised that the cost of raising and LC, maybe $20.00 was irrelevant. Why would that be a “show stopper” for somebody wishing to raise an LC for perhaps $500k or more?

The real reason people were averse to raising LC’s was the time and effort involved. The process was just too complex and time consuming. Yet the bank in its daily work transfers multi-millions of dollars around the world with little more than the click of a mouse. So why are LC’s so complex?

The better question, the real question was:

“How can we make it easier for clients to raise LC’s?”

 With this question in mind the workshop was continued based on a Process Innovation Matrix and an answer was soon found.

There are countless examples of this, usually resulting from people being too close to the problem.

So what’s the solution?

The classic method of questioning with the “why” “why’ “why” challenge is one way of trying to “drill down” to the best question.

Another way is to have somebody quite remote from the issue present in any meeting that addresses a problem. You can be sure that a person NOT skilled in the area may well ask some very interesting and challenging questions. This always helps in drilling down to the real issue and the best question.

Most often when a group of people comes together to investigate a burning issue, a solution will be found, just make sure the best question has been asked, one that leads to the best solution.

Roger La Salle, is the creator of the “Matrix Thinking”™ technique and is a widely sought after as an international speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and business development. He is the author of four books, Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies both in Australian and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panellist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast. Matrix Thinking is now used in more than 26 countries. www.innovationtraining.com.au

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Growth Strategy – Process – Keep it simple

Monday, February 8th, 2021

                                                                                          By Roger La Salle

                                                                                                                   www.innovationtraining.com.au

                                                                                                                   www.matrixthinking.com

A short series

The next few posts we are proposing will address simple ways to look at your business and simple ways to achieve growth. But please, at all times, keep it simple.

There are only two ways

In essence there are only two ways to improve profits, it is suggested both these initiatives be employed:

  1. Process Innovation – Reducing costs whilst selling the same products
  2. Product Innovation – Exploring new products and markets.

This post will focus on Process Innovation, whether it is in manufacturing, sales, distribution or marketing.

Process Innovation

Process innovation is something every business should invest in, whether in the manufacturing or services sector. The Book, “Think Again” has the byline heading, “Invest in Process Innovation and Harvest Untouched Wealth”. How true this is because with processes there are always gains to be made that are risk free if done properly; and there is no market risk, just more margin to be gained.

5S

The most simple technique is so easy it’s hard to imagine it’s become one of the foundation stones for process improvement. Called 5S, this in essence simply asks you to tidy up, organize, put things back in the right place and ensure everything is in proper working order. The Five S’s are Sort, Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain.

Kanban

Another common and easy to implement method is referred to as Kanban, a Japanese word for Visual Signal. This is a way of visualizing and ordering work flow, often using a system of cards to represent stages of work as it moves through the facility. Kanban is an efficiency optimization tool that properly used also leads to improved inventory management and “Just in Time” delivery. There is a great deal of material on this system on the internet.

ISO9000

Unlike what many people may believe, the ISO regime is not about creating quality products as such, but more about traceability of product development and manufacture. As you can imagine, this is vital in the food and chemical industry, but ISO has over years expanded to include all manner of businesses. Not to guarantee quality, but to ensure all initiatives are documented and traceable.

Six Sigma

This is a quality control system, with the Greek term Sigma (σ) being used by statisticians to signify Standard Deviation in a data set.  The Six Sigma doctrine stipulates that no more than 3 samples in a million are permitted to be outside their specified tolerance limit. This is nice in theory, but if given as unfettered power of enforcement to quality controllers, can lead to huge disruption in manufacturing processes.

Matrix Thinking

The system we also suggest is founded on the Process Innovation Matrix that employs just three “Seeds”, or primary areas of focus, these being:

Costs – What are all the costs separately identified in your manufacturing and business processes

Cycle Time – How much time is spent on each activity, leading to product and business cycle time

Quality – Defined as “Conformity to Specification” asks how quality may be effected by the push for process improvement.

The Process Innovation Matrix presents 10 ways to explore each of the Seeds. It is virtually impossible to explore each of the matrix intersections without identifying a breakthrough opportunity and thus, reaping that unharvested wealth.

However, before embarking on any process innovation we suggest it’s first necessary to measure and map the process you are exploring. Without that knowledge as a starting point it’s quite amazing how small changes made can have catastrophic unforeseen knock-on effects. In short “Map and Measure” before you start.

What’s the Message?

Process Innovation is a must for all businesses and can yield unharvested wealth. The key to this goes beyond just 5S, Kanban and others; and when combined with the Process Innovation Matrix a unique and comprehensive approach is provided that has been employed with great success in more than 20 countries.

                                                            **** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies, both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast.

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Innovative Plastic will save lives and money

Friday, November 6th, 2020

My latest business insight, please feel free to pass this on to any colleague or publish it in any form you may wish, with due acknowledgement to the author, of course.

Regards

Life Saving Innovation from Opportunity Scanning

By Roger La Salle

Innovative permanent colour change plastic clips warn of Hot Spots

  See:  www.safeconnectaustralia.com.au

The secret to identifying possible good ideas really lays in the art of observing people’s behaviour. This is best done using the tools of “Opportunity Capture” where there are really only five things one needs to observe:

  • Predictable activities
  • Widespread Activities
  • Repetitious Activities
  • Emerging Trends in activities
  • Comparison between groups

Of course these are just the Seed of Opportunity capture with the entire opportunity scan process being embedded in a five by eight matrix that gives some 40 ways to explore the opportunity horizon. However, the above seeds alone will suffice if we just use these to observe behaviour.
 
Observation is in fact more important than asking people what they may need. Most people are unaware of the problems they encounter during their work and simply treat such difficulties as just part of the job. Imagine in days gone by a person using a bucket to draw water from a well, that’s their job. An observer may see this and go on to invent a windless, the next one a windless powered by a donkey, the next the Archimedes screw and so on. Observation was always the key to these inventions.
 
Properly used this approach makes it easy to identify opportunities, indeed more likely disruptive innovations.
 
This brings to mind a problem we observed many years ago and have now resolved and in fact brought to market. It too was based on observation but at that time the solution was a “bridge too far”. We never lost sight of the target, persisted if you like, but only acted when the time was right.
 
Fires in electrical switchboards and circuits almost always occur at terminations as joints become loose, corrode and resistance rises. Thermal runaway occurs with faults being termed a “Hot Spot” often resulting in fires.
 
For many years the approach to identity these hot spots has been all of predictable, repetitious and widespread activities with thermographers annually taking single shot thermal pictures inside electrical switchboards in an endeavour to find hot spots.

Unfortunately, as good as this may have been at the time, a thermography can never be sure when the picture is taken that the load actually causing the hot spot is even operating. It may be a water boiler that comes on early in the morning during off peak power rates, or a furnace, heat exchanger, heavy duty crane or elevator that only activates periodically. Who really knows what’s happening when the thermal image is captured?
 
Of course real time radio IOT alert devices are available, but these are simply not cost effective for use across the myriad of switchboards and wires that populate every building in the country.

It was this observation of the potentially dangerous hot spot situations and the sheer population of switchboards and wires that led to the development of a newly released technology.
 
Costing only a few cents each, permanent colour change clips that change from PURLPE to bright PINK are now available and can be attached to every cable to indicate the presence of a hot spot, no matter when it occurred. Faults are now obvious the moment you open the switchboard.
 
There are a number of takeaways from this development:
 
Switchboard monitoring fulfils many of the main criteria for an opportunity:

  • Predictable
  • Widespread
  • Repetitious

Taking this as a simple example of what an Opportunity scan can achieve, on just one level, how many other safety related events do we see only periodically monitored that could be monitored in a more thorough fashion; and thus lead to break through innovation:
 

  1. Vehicle tyre pressure
  2. “Tag testing” of trade power tools only to find the tool being damaged and dangerous the very day after is passes all tests.
  3. Smoke Detectors
  4. Life jackets in boats
  5. Electrical appliance connections
  6. Gas leaks
  7. CO monitors for domestic heaters
  8. Water leaks and dripping taps

The list is endless if we simple employ this opportunity scan approach to systemize the search for innovations.
 
                                                            **** ENDS ****
 
 Roger La Salletrains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies, both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast

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Commercialisation – Far from a Linear Process!

Monday, September 14th, 2020

                                                                                                                www.innovationtraining.com.au

www.matrixthinking.com

By Roger La Salle

Solve a problem, and hey presto – riches galore?

Though it may be one thing to teach people the art of innovation, or at least provide some tools that may assist in the creation of new ideas, turning them into money, which is generally the aim of innovation, is far more difficult than people may think.

A brilliant solution that solves a well know problem is just one tiny step in the commercialization process, a process that can be steeped in mystic and roadblocks that may seem unimaginable.

Perhaps the most often cited example is the idea of a water powered internal combustion engine. An invention supposedly purchased by the oil cartels and buried forever. Of course though this may be untrue, it is certainly a behavioral model by powerful interest groups that could be forgiven.

Teach me commercialization – really?

Some years ago we were invited to meet with a very large organisation. We attended the meeting and were flawed with the naivety of the opening statement and request. Note a request, not a question.

It went like this: “We are developing a new product, teach us commercialization”

After explaining that is was not quite as simple as a bit of training and away you go, much like passing a driving test, the meeting broke up. We never heard from them again and after many years, I have yet to see their product on the market.

It all about strategy

The old saying, “build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door” is a nonsense. Some of the most unbelievable products seem to make it whereas others fail for reasons often hard to understand.

Pet Rocks, a nonsense product sold at ridiculous prices were huge many years ago. Pre-aged and torn clothing and jeans is another example of a mind boggling success story.

Maybe these were marketed to success, but that’s a very high cost and risky strategy that failed to work for many products. The Edsel Ford car of the 1950’s, heralded for great success and one of the most widely marketed product in history, was a notable failure.

The reasons some products have failed seem truly remarkable:

  • An electrical safety product that would definitely reduce fires in commercial buildings was shunned because selling it would reduce the company’s replacement parts market
  • Frozen good labels to alert if the product had been thawed and refrozen shunned because it may expose weaknesses in the cold chain
  • The Concord, a revolution in air travel was rendered largely unprofitable because it was prevented from flying supersonic across the USA to LA. One wonders if this ban was on the back of Boeing’s failure to complete their much larger version of the Concord. In fact overflying the USA at supersonic speed was banned by the FAA soon after the US Government stopped funding BEOING development efforts. Perhaps it was seen as too expensive, too ambitious and maybe unachievable at the time. Was this a co-incidence or a plan?

What’s the message?

There are just too many variable, technical, political, business and personalities that are part of the commercialization mix with even the simplest of products.

The purpose of this blog is to remind readers that a strategic approach to commercialization is as important as the products itself, you don’t learn that from a text book.

Experience is the best teacher.

Our definition of experience is: “We have been there before and can predict the likely outcome”.

The Dictionary definition:direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge”

Remember – forearmed is forewarned.

                                                            **** ENDS ****

Roger La Salle, trains people in innovation, marketing and the new emerging art of Opportunity Capture. “Matrix Thinking”™ is now used in organizations in more than 29 countries. He is sought after as a speaker on Innovation, Opportunity and Business Development, is the author of four books, and a Director and former CEO of the Innovation Centre of Victoria (INNOVIC) as well as a number of companies, both in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for a number of successful technology start-ups and in 2004 was a regular panelist on the ABC New Inventors TV program. In 2005 he was appointed to the “Chair of Innovation” at “The Queens University” in Belfast

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