Our thinking appears in marketing articles and publications around the world

The only way to grow, with rare exceptions, is to engage in substantial or transformational innovation that will be a game changer, that will create new categories or subcategories defined by qualities that customers deem “must haves” and protected by actively managed competitive barriers. Healthy organizations often have plenty of ideas that potentially qualify but get killed off before reaching the market. As a result, an opportunity to create a platform for real growth is lost.

The “human library” has its roots in the city library in Malmö, Sweden, which allows curious visitors to check out living people for a 45-minute conversation. Th e experience is designed to confront prejudices and promote understanding. Th e people available to be “checked out” at one point included a gypsy, a transvestite, a blind man, a journalist and an animal rights activist. The conversations are intended to allow people to learn about the life and beliefs of an individual who has been misunderstood, stereotyped and often avoided.

Good business ideas occasionally die an unnatural and premature death. While benchmarks, stage gates, and filters can help prevent bad -- and costly -- decisions, sometimes ideas are just ahead of their time. Revisited periodically, a company’s inventory of dead and discarded ideas may become the source of new opportunities.

The shift in the economic climate has created a sense of urgency among business leaders who need innovation now in order to survive—if not thrive—in the future. Leaders have become impatient to get to the “big idea” that grabs the attention of their customers. This article outlines a framework for creating ideas that is appropriate and relevant to the needs of innovation sponsors within a company—no matter what the economic forecast might be.

For years, companies have been equating performance with speed and “lean” thinking. They have invested in streamlining processes, reducing costs and applying stringent “Six Sigma-esque” criteria to kill ideas that don’t deliver ROI. What they do not do is explore the world of possibilities.

Two Choices: Burger King and Ford followed different paths in their quests to grow-and stand as case studies of why the best marketing comes from innovation, not desperation.

James Walker and Kevin O'Donnell share their takeaways from the recent Consumer Electronics Show Las Vegas.

There is one crucial question for any marketing executive: How do I develop a new product or service that is innovative, differentiated, and generates growth?  This article explains the LAMSTAIH methodology (Look at more stuff. Think about it harder) - a powerful tool that puts employees in the center of innovation within a company.  *Please note this article is in Spanish.

Joseph Gelman talks about innovation and how it can change your perception of a product. He provides 4 concepts to foster innovation: Inspiration Safaris, Human Libraries, Thief and Doctor, and the Worst Idea.

In this article, Joseph explains why it is important for companies to pay attention to trends and understand if they are relevant for their category and brand.

In his article Joseph outlines the typical behaviors that can kill creative thinking.

Kevin O’Donnell believes innovation’s role as a driver of organic growth and a differentiator that adds substantially to a brand’s value remains as critical as ever. In his inaugural column in the newly relaunched Marketing News, a publication of the American Marketing Association, O’Donnell spells out one solution: Creation of innovation “systems” that foster actionable creativity.

Innovation appears to be the holy grail of our times.  But the innovation quest is long, laborious and not for the faint of heart. Success requires strong leadership setting the pace: a catalyst and change agent who has the vision, desire and ability to enlist and inspire others to the cause.

Luxury brands face no small dilemma these days as they try to deliver growth without compromising cachet—all against the backdrop of a severe global recession that’s sure to challenge their fabled resistance to downturns.

There's a "secret sauce," as a friend would put it, to creating a recipe that works for serving up innovation success. But if businesses have trouble getting it quite right, it's because they're short on a critical ingredient: inspiration.

Innovation is a major hot button with businesses these days, given its critical role in driving organic business growth. As one survey of 940 senior managers found, all considered growing revenues through innovation as critical to success. Yet more than half were unhappy with their innovation investment returns.

While the role of the ideation session, in its myriad guises, holds a place in the innovation firmament, and while the role that inspiration plays in such sessions is hardly to be questioned, we challenged ourselves to think more broadly about the role that inspiration plays throughout the innovation process. Ultimately, we determined that an inspiration-driven approach to innovation fundamentally changes how each process step looks, feels and, most importantly, the value it delivers.

There is a growing need for businesses, and particularly their marketing leadership, to look differently at what constitutes innovation, and create a culture that fosters and rewards it.

Marketers aiming to better position themselves and the marketing function to add real value to the organization have their work cut out for them. A new year makes the timing right to recap three of the most critical prescriptions for change.

Classic financial theory has it that all else being equal, the greater the risk, the greater the return. And when it comes to innovation, those businesses that are the most successful embrace that notion.