2 Oct 06

“This is the Golden Age of Innovation.  It’s the greatest time in history to be an innovator [and] there are more tools than ever to innovate with.”

Serial Innovator and Priceline founder Jay Walker, 27 Sep 06

Jay Walker and some of his 200 patents

            While we may be in a golden age, the vast majority of individual innovations continue to fail.   Studies by consulting firms like the Doblin Group and Nielsen Market Research indicate that fewer than 10 percent of corporate innovations earn back their investment.    

Over the past two decades, a wide number of tools and approaches have been developed to help innovators improve their success rate.  These range from software to structures, from brainstorming to outsourcing. 

Certainly, all these tools were intended to be helpful.  As many managers have found, however, intentions don’t always align with results.  There has not been a broad evaluation on the prevalence or effectiveness of many of the newest ones.

            To gain a better understanding of this, the ICE Center has developed the Preview of Innovation Tools and Trends (POINTT) Survey.  We launched it last week to a primary survey base of Babson Alumni – from the College, our Olin School of Business, and School of Executive Education.   Responses so far have been both numerous and enthusiastic.

            I wanted to give you the chance to participate in this confidential survey before it closes on 9 October.

You might be familiar with some of these tools and trends, while others might be brand-new to you. In either case, we'd encourage you to participate in the initiative, regardless of the size or type of organization where you work.

In return for participating, you'll have a chance to learn about some of the new tools companies are using to improve their innovation performance. The survey provides definitions for each innovation tool we discuss.

In addition, you'll be able to receive the survey results before general release, and also benchmark your organization to others in your industry and across industries.

You'll also be helping us at the ICE Research Center collect information on an important area of innovation research, answering the question: “what tactics are companies using to improve their innovation performance?”

          The survey takes 15 to 25 minutes to complete. As I mentioned above, you'll be able to participate from today until October 9th. It's on Zoomerang, and you can access it here:

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB225NGBHTZEJ

        The preliminary results are quite interesting, both in terms of new tools being used, and levels of satisfaction and dis-satisfaction with the tools discussed.  I hope you decide to participate.

More Information:

1.      Jay Walker is the founder of companies like Priceline and Walker Digital.  He spoke at MIT’s Emerging Technologies Conference.

2.      Doblin Group’s website is here.