IE and Insight collaborate to launch Inforum
I am excited to launch a new partnership for Innovationedge: Inforum is a way to bring together thought leaders from all across northeast Wisconsin to collaborate on innovative ideas.
For Inforum, we teamed up with Insight on Business Magazine, and one look at this cutting-edge online publication and you’ll see why Insight is an excellent representative of innovation!
Check out the full Inforum here, and browse over to Page 26. You can click on the photos of our thought leaders to hear and see how they responded to this quarter’s topic: How do you Innovate in Challenging Times?
You’ll hear how each leader expounds on the importance of building collaboration with your customers to build value and to strengthen corporate culture.
Our thought leaders come from a wide variety of industries and each are experts in their fields. Future topics will include generational marketing, social media and going green.
The Blog is Back!
We’ve been doing some spring remodeling here at Innovationedge, and I think you’ll like the fresh upgrades. Take a look around and check out the addition of more resources and easy-to-use navigation to help you find what you need!
Our team has been tirelessly working to provide even more of the content and capability today’s innovation leaders can put into practice immediately. We’ve also partnered with others to provide top-notch innovation tools that you can’t do without in today’s global landscape.
Now that the legwork is done and the new site is launched, I have more time to Blog about the up-and-coming trends and tips to stay on top of the latest news and events throughout our industry. And I’m particularly excited as “launch day” draws near for the new book, Conquering Innovation Fatigue that I co-wrote with Jeff Lindsay and Mukund Karanjikar. I’ll write more about the book and the extremely positive responses we’re getting in the days ahead. You can pre-order here, and look for your copy to arrive in July.
Glowing reviews from CoDev ‘09!
“My expectations are generally quite low for such conferences, but this one far exceeded them.”
That’s just one of the many comments I’m hearing today from our participants at CoDev ‘09 (8th Annual Congress on Open Innovation and Co-Development) last month! The conference is sponsored by Management Roundtable (MRT) and the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA).
I was so honored to personally connect with so many attendees. Of course it’s always great to be in Scottsdale, Ariz., in the middle of winter.
I was especially excited to be back chairing this great event, which was titled, Building Open Innovation Capabilities for Higher Value Business Opportunities.
If you want to listen to any of the interviews I gave before and during the conference, click here:
Planning will soon be underway for ext year’s 2010 event, and if this year’s feedback is any indication, it’s a can’t-miss event:
“Many of the presenters are highly educated and accomplished and effectively share their knowledge.” (Bissell Homecare Inc.)
“Helps to open up your eyes on what is possible.” ( Pro Actuate)
“If you are new to Open Innovation, or if it is happening on an ad hoc basis in your organization, this conference helps you organize thoughts and provide structure to bank on power of Open Innovation.” (National Starch Food Innovation)
“If you have ‘innovation’ or ‘open innovation’ in your job title or in your job description you need to be at CoDev 2010. It doesn’t matter if you are an expert or a beginner, this conference is very relevant.” (Pure Insight)
Even though the economic forecasts continue to be dim for 2009, it was encouraging to see that leading companies consider open innovation and co-development efforts imperative at this time. Together top experts and advanced practitioners of Open Innovation, Henry Chesborough and I gave high level insight and practical applications for how companies can foster environments that allow open innovation to thrive and integrate multiple business models to achieve greater returns on their open innovation investments.
We had great dialoge with these experts, including open innovation practitioners from General Mills, Weyerhaeuser, Sara Lee and Kraft Foods, P&G, The Clorox Company, Honeywell International, HP Labs, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Burrill & Company Booz & Company, WD-40, Cadbury, R.J. Reynolds, JohnsonDiversey, Frito-Lay, UBS Investment Research, Colgate-Palmolive, Unilever, and many more.
Hope to see you next year!
Marketers pay attention to Alpha Mom’s heritage
How do Alpha Moms handle economic challenges? By using their savvy! Marketers love Alpha Moms because they take advantage of their networks and technology to do their homework.
A new study by a marketing firm shows that while all mothers are battling with the growing concerns such as education and saving for the future, a mom’s high-tech habits and purchasing motivations are tied into her culture and ethnic background.
BSM Media examined the behaviors, values and habits of mothers across racial lines in a new study, and found that when asked about their top three challenges as a mother, saving for the future and the rising cost of food topped lists across all respondents. Caucasian moms named managing the desires of their children for material things as a challenge (45%), African American moms are battling with affordable housing (35%) and Hispanic moms are feeling challenged by the need for steady income (56%).
What I find particularly interesting but not surprising is the technology habits of moms. The majority of our Alpha moms (85%) turn to the Internet first when looking for product recommendations and other mom-related parenting advice.
The Internet was also the top answer among all races, when asked which piece of technology they couldn’t live without. The cell phone came in a close second for Hispanic moms (30%). While online, African American mothers are more likely to read articles (68%) and experience music (45%). Caucasian mothers are likely to frequent social networks (45%) and message boards (43%). Blogs were the top choice among Hispanic Moms (55%) followed by social networks (42%).
Blogs are popular among all respondents, with 58% naming the media among their favorite forms of content online.
When viewing advertisements, the majority of all respondents notice the product first, rather than the ad’s message.
Overall, Caucasian and Hispanic moms think marketers are doing a better job in speaking to them than African American moms.
Harvesting a global trend
Genetically modified crops enjoyed a bumper year in 2008, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), a biotech group.
ISAAA predicts that by the year 2015 a total of four billion acres will have been planted. Last year 26 million more acres were planted globally, and expansion will continue.
Both wealthy and emerging nations are increasingly viewing biotech-enhanced crops as a key part of the solution to critical social issues of food security and sustainability.
The largest increase in the number of biotech farmers in 2008 was in India. In Europe, while France did not plant biotech crops in 2008, seven other EU countries increased their planting 21 percent. That’s a trend worth keeping an eye on, especially in light of the global food crisis.