Scenario Planning and the process of innovation

Sometimes there comes that nagging feeling that one just has to churn out some content, but I have been resisting the temptation.  In the mean time I have been trying to work out what exactly I wanted to say.

The questions that I have been working out how to phrase are these:

• How can one take the various processes that are used to drive innovation as a practice and apply the same principles to scenario planning and analysis? 
• Which processes are best and which elements make sense to look at?  
• Models and methodologies abound, as do different schools of thought. The real question is where is a good place to start?

Product Strategy and Portfolio Development need Scenario Planning

I have been thinking about innovation, and how to identify, and then prioritise potential product portfolio development options.  Quite often, the choice of what needs to be done in order to rejuvenate a product portfolio or evolve it into the next generation of offerings is driven by individual personalities, or a limited leadership group, or just simply "group think"  that is driven by financial decision making metrics, or the latest "pet" idea.  How then can the business ensure that all angles have been covered before a decision is made?

What is doing your Exec MBA really like?

This was a question that somebody posed as we stood next to a BBQ on a very pleasant summers evening.
As somebody working my way along the Exec MBA journey, my experience has been that one of the things that you  have to realise is that your social life is going to take a battering, so a BBQ occasion was one of those to treasure.

You need to ensure that your family is on board.  It does undoubtedly stress everything that previously was relaxed, structured and/or planned out.  But you will meet great people, and learn to work together in a team, in a way that I certainly had never experienced before.

I did find this article on WSJ.com which does give a view of what it is like.

Stakeholder Interests Have to be Balanced

One of the things that I have been trying to do is understand exactly what is required when doing due diligence on a company, whether it is well established or a startup.

Part of that evaluation is undoubtadly understanding why the organisation exists, what the problem is that it solves, and whether its value proposition resonates, but there is another dimension which is equally important - how it approaches the management of its various stakeholders.

While I was researching the topic I came across this article by Charles J. Fombrun on Forbes.com about How To Restore Your Company's Reputation which describes why some organisations have suffered because they have paid more attention to short term financial results than longer term value.  The article identifies 7 key indicators that need to be addressed:

Value Propositions for Services are Different

Most, if not all product marketing and product managers have been faced with the challenge of building a value proposition that needs to resonate with not only customers, but the sales team as well.  There are 4 basic principles to consider when building a value proposition that are pretty much fundamental.  These become even more important when crafting a value proposition that positions a new service as opposed to a product. (and will increasingly become even more so with the move to "cloud" solutions)

• need to be targeted at the audience - you had better understand who the audience is.
• one size does not fit all - which is it? Company size or vertical market?
• what is the best way to craft them?  Different approaches are needed for services vs products.
• what are the potential knock on effects if the customer actually thinks about buying your value proposition? Shock, horror!  :-)

TED: The Hidden Effect of Social Networks

We form social networks because the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs.

This talk from TED is a well worth the time.

Watch it here.

Innovation as a process

There is not always going to be something really sexy or enlightening that is suddenly going to appear here as a new post.  There is another reason why this blog has come into existence ... as part of my EMBA studies we are encouraged to "reflect" and capture reflections as part of the learning process.  In my head, part of the reflection process is to capture some of those ideas, concepts, articles and any random thinking and put them somewhere ... and this blog serves as a great vehicle for that purpose.

We have just completed another set of workshop sessions on Strategic Marketing, which I will cover in another post at some point in the future.  Part of the time was dedicated to an introduction to Strategic Innovation.  But even when one is just skimming the surface (and we were skimming the surface), there were a couple of key points that I took away which are worth noting: