Innovation Blueprints Magazine issue #102

InnovationBlueprintsJUNE 2016 • ISSUE #102
www.innovationblueprint.com.au
INNOVATION STRATEGIES & SATIRE
SPECIAL
FEATURE:
DRIVING INNOVATIVE
BEHAVIOURAL
CHANGE
• INNOVATION BRAIN: INSIDE THE INNOVATORS BRAIN
• IMITATION VS. INNOVATION: HOW TO AVOID IMITATING
• MISTAKE MAKING: RETHINKING THE VALUE OF MISTAKES
Special feature:
WHY BEHAVIOURALISTS
ARE CHANGING HOW WE
INNOVATE
Behavioural innovators

LETTER FROM EDITOR
Nils Vesk, Chief editor
I
nnovators never ceases to amaze me. What inspires me is
the depth of thinking that professionals can bring to the
forefront to allow themselves to innovate day in-day out.
In this edition we dig into some of the unique insight
generation skills that behaviouralists can bring to the world
of innovation. Insights are what help us determine where
we should be innovating and behaviouralists are masters at
identifying these insights.
It therefore makes sense to investigate some of their
behavioural secrets to help us all become better innovators. In
this edition we have the good fortune of sharing the strategies
of two world class behaviouralists. So get ready to hypnotise
some chickens and read some minds.
On another note we had great feedback about our last edition
of Innovation Blueprints. Thanks also to those spreading the
word about our unique magazine, it helps us work even harder
to deliver something special.
Keep on innovating!
Cheers,
NilsNils Vesk
Chief Editor & Founder of Innovation Blueprint
nils@InnovationBlueprint.com.au
www.InnovationBlueprint.com.au
“Insights help
determine where
we should be inno-
vating
2 www.innovationblueprint.com.au

CONTENTS
WHAT’S INSIDE
Imitation - how to avoid the trap 4
Inside the innovators brain 6
Isolation innovation 8
New innovations 10
D.I.Y Innovation - innovation tips 10
Innovation strategist - Donald Trump 12
Scores for Insight generation 14
Behavioural thinking 16
Innovative cultures 20
How to market your ideas 22
User groups to test innovation 25
Leading vs. Bleeding edge 28
Mistake making - innovation tips 30
Film review by George Clooney 33
Regrettable innovations 34
Innovation coach Q&A’s 36
Social Innovation - Eat me chutneys 38
behavioural insights lead
to commercial gold
MISTAKE
MAKING
why it's so good
Franziska Iselishares her geniusmarketing tips
6 22 30
16
inside the
innovation
brain
3www.innovationblueprint.com.au

NEW HEADING HERE
INNOVATION TIPS
I
mitation is the greatest form
of flattery. And why not? If
something works well, why
not copy it. But innovation,
I hear you say, is surely about
inventing new things, not copying
what's already been done.
And you'd be right - the actual
innovation is new. But imitation is
a great innovation tactic - we have
to get inspiration from somewhere!
But there are different types of
imitation. Smart imitation can be
an important input to the creative
process. Blind imitation...well,
you've been warned!
As with many things, imitation
requires a balance. Here we look at
when we should copy a good idea,
and where we should draw the line.
IMITATION: THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN SMART & BLIND
IMITATION FOR INNOVATION
LOOKING AT WHAT YOUR COMPETITOR IS DOING?
MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK AGAIN.
ANDREW POPE EXPLORES IMITATION.
WITH ANDREW POPE
Imitating the boss' fashion
Surely the biggest faux pas - before
you even start innovating, you want
to impress the boss. You subtly
mimic their look, hoping to be a bit
more like them. They start wearing
a tie, so you start wearing a tie.
They attempt shiny pink shoes, so
you adopt shiny pink trousers. Not
only will you look like a prat to your
colleagues, you will possibly terrify
your boss. And crucially, innovation
is all about diversity - that we are all
different. We need to think and act
much more individually than just
wanting to be like someone else,
constrained by their imagination,
not ours.
One of the biggest blockers to
innovation is the expectation of
how we should conform, not step
outside the way they think. By all
means be influenced, ride on their
backs even, let them take you on
part of the journey. But ultimately
be yourself, and allow your own
individual creativity to flow.
crucially
innovation
is all
about
diversity

imitation
Imitating a good experience
Had a memorable experience?
Received a service that made you
feel quite special? Then definitely
imitate this. Crucially, this needs
to be unpacked into why you felt
so good - what was your un-met
need that they solved? How did
they go about doing this? It's
all about replicating how they
made you feel. Can you apply
this feeling to what you do for
your customers or stakeholders?
Go back and look at all the ways
that this experience interacted
with you. What were the specific
'touch-points' that made the
difference. Collectively, they
may not be of much use to your
specific project, but looking at
the components individually,
there may well be one or more
that stand out, and can be used in
your work. This isn't copying, it's
simply absorbing what works, and
bringing it into your thinking.
Copying a good slogan
Sometimes we need a catchy
slogan to get behind: "Yes we
can!", "I'm luvvin' (sic) it", "Abbott
for Prime Minister" - ok, maybe
not that one! The importance
of crystallizing your vision into
something that connects with
your target audience cannot
be overstated. But adapting a
slogan that works for someone or
something else is not the way to
do it. Our own innovations are by
nature unique. It's important to
find our our own motivation that
inspires us to do wonderful things
for our clients. And this slogan has
to come from the wellspring of
our own vision of the future. What
are we doing that's so amazing
for our customers, and how will
we do it? Look at the future, then
turn it into a way we work. That
way it'll be finger lickin' good
(hmmm, that one could come
in handy for a flavoured rubber
glove business...).
Replicating a technique
Many good innovators apply
simple techniques to create
great ideas. They transform
things – find an assumption,
then remove it. For example,
we used to assume that fans
need to have blades. So a well-
known household appliance
company simply challenged
that assumption: bladeless fans.
We can apply that thinking to
our everyday work. Can we
remove something? Can we
swap something? Can we do this
differently? Simple techniques
that can produce anything but
simple outcomes.
So what about a major game
changer being applied to politics?
Creating a presidential nominee
without a brain…? The next few
months will show whether this is a
technique worth copying.
Repeating mistakes
Innovation is all about making
mistakes, right? We fail as we try
to find a way around obstacles or
when we try out new possibilities.
We have two choices when this
happens. We can either clean up
and apportion blame, or work
with those who failed to learn
from what they did and thereby
increase our future chances of
getting it right.
Failure is a natural part of
innovating. Put an idea into an
environment where you know it
won’t succeed doesn’t sound itself
like a good idea, but its this sort
of approach that, when we pilot
ideas, makes them stronger. It
pushes us to come up with even
more innovative approaches. It’s
effectively innovation evolution,
or survival of the fittest. Keep
failing to make your final idea
stronger.
Some mistakes are worth
repeating: Australia in the
Eurovision song contest? Actually,
it isn’t working out to badly. The
UK finishing in the bottom five
every year? Sometimes, repeating
a mistake will never succeed!
Andrew Pope is a specialist
in innovation collaboration.
To find out more stalk him at:
www.Innosis.eu

NEURO NONSENSE
INSIDE THE IMITATION BRAIN
What's driving
the mind of most
managers
illustrations by Nils Vesk
risk
detector
lobe
spread sheeting
cortex
ability to copy
competition lobe
office politics
nucleus
delegating
nasty tasks
cells
take
credit
gland
avoid new processes
region
career advance
detector
impulse to
re-use nerve
trend
spotting
accept responsibility
for failure
lateral
thinking
skills
prototyping
skills
asking for
new ideas
particle
willingness to
unlearn
ANTI - INNOVATOR

NEW HEADING HERE
INSIDE THE INNOVATION BRAIN
NEURO NONSENSE
What reallydrives the mindof an innovator
www.innovationblueprint.com.au 7
idea
generator
nucleus
prototyping
skills strip
fun
nucleus
INNOVATOR
trend
spotting
gland
collaboration
system
process
improvement
stem
problem
seeking
cells
adaptation
region
customer
empathy
nerve
marketing
cortex
R.O.I
converter
pitching
lobe
copy cat
gland
ego cell
wait for
permission
particle
excuse
making
micron

INNOVATION TIPS
ISOLATION INNOVATION
WE TAKE A LOOK AT WHY ISOLATING YOUR
INNOVATION DOESN'T WORK
I
come across a few
organisations who have set up
their own innovation teams
or design thinking teams to
create innovation for organisations.
While the notion of having a smart
team to develop ideas is admirable
in reality it falls short on what they
are trying to achieve - which is to
innovate across an organisation.
The reason why they fail is
that they have separate units,
that are isolated from the whole
organisation. This means that
whilst they might come up with
some good ideas, the rest of the
organisation (who incidentally are
the ones who will have to execute
the ideas) are more than likely
receive any blame if the ideas don't
succeed.
Herein lies the problem.
Innovation is not a separate skill
reserved for the special chosen few.
The more we prevent everyone
from innovating the more other
people will resent innovation, and
especially resent the people who
are allowed to innovate.
Much of this stilted thinking
mentality stems from the old
notion of the R&D department.
Too many organisations still think
of innovation helping to invent the
next widget. While it's important
to continually create new products,
innovation can also be applied to
the processes & services we have
in our organisations. These are all
proven areas that can have just
as much commercial return if not
more than innovating on product.
So if we can't have separate
innovation teams who's going
to spearhead innovation within
the organisation.? This is a
good question, because leading
innovation is different to executing
innovation. Innovation leaders
should be there to help facilitate
innovate either by teaching
innovation skills, facilitating insight,
ideation & prototyping sessions not
to mention encouraging people
to innovate. Keeping this type of
innovative potential locked away in
a separate team fosters resentment
and a resistance to accept other
peoples ideas.
So how do we find or create these
innovation leaders and facilitators?
Innovation like other key business
skills is a skill that anyone can learn
and apply. All you need is good
innovation training, step by step
innovation processes that people
can follow and some work on
creating behaviours that lead to
innovative cultures.
BY NILS VESK

Innovation
teams are often
expensive
investments that
look impressive
yet fail to deliver
how isolated are
your teams?
I
n my latest client research
(as documented in my
latest book Innovation
Archetypes), I've identified
4 key phases to innovation that
allow sustainable and profitable
commercial innovation. Within
each one of these phases there are
a number of professionals trained
with skills & mindsets that excel
in innovating. After diagnosing an
organisation's innovation strengths
and weaknesses it's easy to look
at recruiting or training strategies
to strengthen any weaknesses
in order to allow consistent
innovation. Any professional can
adopt the key innovative principles
of what I call Innovation Archetypes
(those that epitomise innovation).
This might all sound expensive
and time consuming. The reality is
it doesn't have to be. With access
to the right step by step processes
anyone can become a world class
innovator and any team can start to
create world class innovations.
Rather than look at isolating
innovation teams, focus on
developing innovative facilitators
and acquiring innovation processes
so that everyone becomes
equipped to innovate. Follow this
up with some clear innovation
objectives and KPIs such as the
number of insights, ideas &
prototypes etcetera that you would
like to create each month or each
business quarter.
Finally ensure you develop
innovation rituals that encourage
innovation. This might vary from
innovation 'show and tells' from
outside of the industry, celebrating
failures, going on field trips and
having a 'most improved innovator
award'.
Separate innovation teams are
expensive investments that fail
to deliver consistent. It's better to
invest in training and equipping
facilitators throughout the whole
organisation with simple tools
so that innovation becomes
integrated, accessible and a
powerhouse engine of profitability
for your organisation.
Go and integrate vs. isolate.
Cheers,
Nils
9www.innovationblueprint.com.au 9

T
he god of innovation
Innovatus once said"Take
away their pain and you
will be rewarded."
Many of the best innovations
come from taking away peoples
pain. Part of the innovators journey
is investigating and being on
the look out for peoples pains. If
you can find a pain, you've just
generated an insight as to where
you can apply your creative
thinking to create a commercial
idea and innovation.
WE SCOUT THE WORLD FOR THE MOST IMPRESSIVE INNOVATIONS. FROM
TECH TO CUSTOMER SERVICE, NO STONE IS LEFT UNTURNED AS WE AIM TO
FIND GREAT INNOVATION. THIS TIME WE LOOK AT JUKEDECK.COM
One such innovation has recently
come out from the UK in the form
of an Artificial intelligence jukebox.
Ed Rex was a music composer
who understood the power of
identifying a pain and innovating
around it. Inspired by a lecture on
artificial intelligence, Rex thought
there must be a way for AI software
to compose it's own music. At
the same time, the pain that Rex
had identified was in the cost and
difficulty in sourcing royalty free
music.
With over 400hrs of video
uploaded to youtube every hour
and 3000 hrs of video and film
content produced every day, and
some $2 billion spent on video
music every year it was obvious this
was an expensive pain as well.
When you're trained in musical
composition but you need to build
a prototype, the most difficult thing
to do is learn how to code and
create a prototype of your idea.
This is exactly what Rex did.
NEW INNOVATIONS: JUKE DECK
JukeDeck
founders Ed
Rex & Patrick
Stobbs
JukeDeck team working on their
AI music composition software

After working out his prototype,
Rex teamed up with Patrick Stobbs,
an old friend who worked in
creating partnerships for YouTube
and together they devised a
business model for their concept
'Juke Deck Make'. Next came a
pitch for funding to some Venture
capitalists and then came the
funding.
The whole process before they
launched took around 5 years, yet
their product is making plenty of
heads turn.
Some of the unique features of
JukeDeck.com is that every song is
unique. That's the AI making that
possible. At the same time there
are components that enable the
user to customise their story.
The user chooses a genre of
music style that they would like eg.
Electronic, piano, folk, ambient.
Then they choose the tempo and
key instrument as well.
They follow this by selecting a
mood for the music eg. Uplifting,
melancholic etc. and finally you
select how long you want the song
to be.
The AI takes care of the rest and
the user ends up with a unique
downloadable royalty free song.
There are a variety of pricing
models. Tapping into the freemium
model -you can download 5 free
tracks every month and then after
that it's $7 a track.
Juke Deck's pricing is around
80% cheaper than the existing
stock music libraries (and don't
forget it's unique and cropped to
your length).
While it's still early days the
future looks bright extremely
bright for JukeDeck.com.
If we were to unpack the key
innovation steps taken by JukeDeck
they were:
1. Identify a pain (cost &
complexity of finding and buying
music)
2. Be self sufficient and learn
what needs to be learnt (coding)
3. Build a prototype
4. Create a winning business
model
5. Pitch for funding (over 2million
pounds received)
6. Complete execution (include
customisation and DIY component)
7. Get some testimonials and case
studies (the Royal family used a
JukeDeck song on one their royal
videos)
7. Launch product
I hope this inspires you to
continue to innovate. To check
them out visit: www.jukedeck.com
Nils
NEW INNOVATIONS
A music composer who
taught himself how to code to
create an AI program
learn how to
code & create a
prototype of your
idea

GREAT INNOVATION TIPS FROM A GREAT MAN
DONALD TRUMP
TOP TIPS
INNOVATION STRATEGISTS
UNDERSTAND
YOUR
CUSTOMERS
I spent millions getting to know
my voters and most importantly I
know how to rub shoulders with
them too.
Well okay, it helps when you have
3 bodyguards to keep them from
mugging you, but that's close
enough. I mean have you seen
some of these voters?
2
IMAGE IS
EVERYTHING
Personal branding is
crucial to success. I work extremely
hard in finding the right hairpiece
that makes me looks younger and
more vital than I'll ever be. That's
great personal branding
3
USE AN
IDENTIFICATION
PROCESS
Business is a tricky job and that's
why I use processes to identify
what I'm doing and what's mine.
That's why I label my jet 'TRUMP'
it just prevents me from stepping
onto someone else’s plane.
That's a smart process in place.
1

4
ADAPT GOOD
IDEAS
Most of my best
ideas come from adapting
ones I've seen elsewhere. For
example my most popular idea
at the moment is to build a wall
between the USA and Mexico.
I simply adapted the idea of the
Great wall of China. Adaptation
at it's best.
6
EMOTION
DRIVES
BEHAVIOUR
Emotion really does charge
behaviour. This is exactly why I pick
the most emotionally charged topics
and issues to discuss. It gets people
moving.
5
CREATIVE
RESEARCH
Most of the statistics
you see in the world are made up. I
know, I've done it for years in some
of my businesses. Not everyone
will believe them, but enough
people will, which is enough to
sell whatever you want, and that's
smart thinking.
7
SPEAK THE
TRUTH
I learnt a long time
ago that 'blunt' was better than
'poignant'. Dare to 'say what no
one else will say' and even if they
disagree with you they'll respect
you for talking about it.

ANALYST ARCHETYPE
O
ne of the best
examples and uses of
data analytics is the
practice of creating
a 'score'. Many industries have
developed 'scores' that utilise
data to reveal more about an
opportunity or existing situation.
For example a financial institution
may use a 'credit score' that is
based on lending history, length
of credit history, amount of credit
borrowed, repayment history and
the sort. The value is that it gives a
person a quick score to determine
the risk or level of security that will
happen if lending to a potential
client.
USING ANALYTICS CAN DRIVE VALUABLE INSIGHTS.
NILS VESK INVESTIGATES HOW SCORES AFFECT INSIGHT GENERATION.
Scores can be used to compare
clients against one another, to
help keep track of how a client or
contact may be progressing and to
help in decisions that need to be
made.
A score can be as simple or as
sophisticated as you like. The more
variables and metrics you have the
more you can use it to predict what
might happen.
Scores can come with a little bit
of a risk in that boiling everything
down to one number might mean
that things get simplified too much.
When designing your score it's
important to keep in mind whether
the score is helping to quickly
identify opportunities. Is it helping
you to predict an upcoming action?
Or is it helping you to make a
better decision? If the score isn't
enabling you to do these activities
then perhaps it's better to have a
number of scores or indicators.
A good example of a score that
may not always be interpreted
the right way is the Intelligence
quotient (IQ score), a prospective
employee recruit who has a higher
IQ than another candidate doesn't
necessarily mean they will be a
better hire.
Despite some of these issues, on
the whole scores can provide us
with a great opportunity to predict
and make business decisions.
USING SCORES FOR CUSTOMER
INSIGHTS

Another good example of a
score is a Business lead score. A
business lead score may be made
up of a number of separate scores.
This score commonly looks at
elements such as engagement
(how interactive a lead may be
with your organisation - this could
be through website, newsletters,
events and the sort), a qualification
score (to determine whether a lead
is ready to be converted into an
account or opportunity), and finally
we have data quality score (this
looks at the 'newness' of a lead as
old leads die, completeness how
much information you have on a
client and relevance which may
include position of client, industry
or the lead source).
The key elements to include in
your score should be:
1. Criteria/ factor
2. Data - where you will be able to
find the data
3. Metric - the metric you will use
to measure
4. Weighting - how much weight
each criteria or factor should have
Some key variables you may want
to consider no matter what your
score is about may include:
Recency
Urgency
Difficulty
Quality
Risk
Value
Compliance
Keep in mind metrics that you
can measure regularly.
Scores can be used to com-
pare clients...& help in decisions
that need to be made
Other score examples include
for financial advisors a 'retirement
readiness' score, predictive
policing scores (used to determine
geographic locations of where
people are likely to come from to
create crime and crime zones),
churn scores (used to phone
providers to determine which
customers are likely to switch
providers), job security score,
donor scores (which predict which
households are likely to make
donations to charities) and health
scores.
A good tool to aim to develop
for your organisation is to create
a 'score' for a certain part of your
business.
Enjoy your scores.
Nils

INTERVIEW WITH DARREN HILL BY NILS VESK
W
hat's a day in a life
of a behaviouralist
involve?
Sprinkling pixie dust around the
workplace…. Well maybe not. A
recent example was working for
a major mining company where
we were looking at the process of
how they can do a better job of
inducting new staff. For example,
in mining a 'safety induction' is
typically very boring and it's not
that uncommon for some new
employees to have experienced 50
of these in their career. Most of the
inductions are uninspired, death by
PowerPoint and boring to say the
least.
We often start by asking the
question of our clients "How do
you want your people to behave at
the end of our work?" A response
in this example might be "We want
people to double check everything
and ensure no one makes any
mistakes".
Now that we have a end
behaviour in mind we begin to
code backwards to establish what
needs to happen to make this
behaviour. Innovation is at the
heart of this codifying. We want to
find out what is the current story
behind their behaviours eg. 'safety
is boring'. And then we challenge
the client to look at what this
process could actually become.
"What if our induction program
became the corner stone of the
culture and was so engaging and
popular that existing employees
were actually asking to attend the
induction because everyone has
been talking about it?".
So how do we actually go
about observing and measuring
behaviours?
Find a nice bush to hide behind…
Part of the behaviouralist skills is
in recognising that the client will
know more about their people
than you do, you just need to
help them explain what they see
using behaviour based language.
A simple way we start is by asking
"If you could clone your best
people, what would they do and
what would those behaviours look
like?" Once we have that picture
we ask them "What does your
worst employee look lie and what
behaviours would they exhibit?"
Once they have both the 'best of'
and 'worst of' they can go about
identifying the gaps between them.
TAP INTO INNOVATIVE
BEHAVIOURAL THINKING
BEHAVIOURAL EXPERT DARREN HILL GETS GRILLED
ON THE LATEST ON USING BEHAVIOURAL THINKING.

BEHAVIOURAL ARCHETYPE
Darren Hill
For example in mining we
might find that Lisa always cleans
the truck at the end of her shift.
Why does she do it and how can
we get other people to do the
same? It's an interesting fact that
mining organisations actively
seek out female truck drivers over
male drivers because they care
more about their equipment.
understanding why and the story
behind this is extremely valuable.
The reason why it's better to
look for someone who has the
best qualities or behaviours that
an organisation wants to emulate
is because even behaviouralists
come in with biases and cognitive
distortions. Find the best
behaviours and look to replicate
this by 1000.
How do we go about getting
people to adopt new behaviours?
Most organisations aim to turn
an objective into an outcome. For
example the objective is to be
more innovative and the outcome
is to create a 'think tank' or a
'hackathon' once a quarter.
This however isn't enough to
determine success.
To create behavioural change
there are 2 critical components.
1. You need to create a
compelling narrative or story that
shares why doing this really matters
in a way that speaks to someone’s
heart.
This is so crucial because of the
second point:
2. Emotions drive behaviour.
Our brains are wired to respond to
stories. Cortisol (which stimulates
concentration), Seratonin (which
makes us feel good) and Oxytocin
(which helps bond us) are all
chemicals in the brain that are
released by the emotional triggers
of stories.
For example the 'Mad men'
(advertisers) of the 50's and 60's
knew people would buy if there
was a compelling story behind the
product or service. Emotion is the
biggest driver of behaviour and
therefore the key to behavioural
change.
What's missing in organisations
is stories or that their people have
contradicting stories and carry old
stories versus new ones.
What do 'insights' mean to you
as a behaviouralist?
There is a myth that the Eureka
moment only occurs for the
brilliant select genius. This is
a myth. Insights are a result of
the 'choice architecture' you
have in front of you. 'Choice
architecture is used to describe
the environment that leads to our
choices or decisions. For example
in retail, the supermarket aisles
and shelves are laid out a certain
way to help you make decisions as
to what to purchase by narrowing
your decision stream. The 'choice
architecture' in your environment
can either make or break
innovation. Surround yourself
with the worst people possible,
have a work environment that
breeds boredom, prevent people
attending programs, prevent the
reading or finding out about new
ideas and you've got the 'choice
architecture' to prevent insights
from happening. However, if you
can create a mix of great people
with an environment where people
can hang out and share their
thinking, give access to books,
magazines and publications,
support people to attend programs
then you can't help but create a
new behavioural set as a result.
Our brains
are wired to
respond to
stories

CATCH INSIGHTS
How else can we introduce
habits & rituals around innovation
in the workplace?
Once again we need to ensure
that we create the 'why' story first.
Creating a compelling story as to
'why' we need to innovate and then
looking at a ritual that will embed
the 'why' behind the story. If we
fail to have the 'why' no matter
how well designed, interactive or
spectacular our event may be, it
will become a 'yawn-fest' or 'cynics
delight' with no emotional buy-in.
Examples of generic visible
innovative behaviours include , for
example a team going as a group
to a cafe at 11:15am and having
some 'slow think' time to write
ideas and notes in their moleskin
diaries before talking as group on
projects and ideas. Taking the team
out for an industry visit to another
organisation in a completely
different industry. Yet the big
daddy behaviour would be having
leaders continually tells stories of
successful & unsuccessful stories
of innovation with reverence. What
they learnt from the experience
and how important it was.
It's worth noting that events such
as 'hackathons' don't work unless
leaders turn up and participate in
them and after the 'hackathon' the
leaders keep telling stories about
how good they were and the value
that they created.
What are the biggest obstacles
to innovation or innovative
behaviour in a business?
The biggest obstacle is punishing
or shaming someone around a
project failure. The reality is that
if you are truly innovating you will
often be on the cusp of failure and
shaming someone for trying to
innovate will kill innovation across
an organisation. Another common
obstruction is people being 'shut
down' by a manager and not given
the opportunity to innovate on
their idea or even share their idea.
This is compounded when people
aren't given adequate time to
innovate because they're expected
to do their every day job.
What are the best ways to
establish what a client or team
member needs, desire or wants to
avoid?
More often than not
organisations will have a stack
of pure data in the form of
engagement surveys. You simply
need to ask 'what' and 'where' is
the existing data that's revealing
how people are feeling?' Failing
that, taking a cross section of 50
people across an organisation and
running a 'think tank' with them
and asking the team for areas of
improvement and the sort can
work really well.
Where else do you think
you can see innovation better
applied?
Nearly all or 98% of the R&D
budget goes to product innovation.
Product innovation however can
come with a high failure rate. Yet
innovation on systems, processes,
culture and customer service has
significantly less failure rates whilst
significant results. Innovation
is skewed to products yet if an
organisation has complaints about
hierarchy or structures within an
organisation, innovation would be
better spent addresses these areas
for improvement.
Do external rewards work for
increasing the motivation and
output of innovation?
Externalising rewards will change
the intrinsic motivation as to why
someone should be doing it.
Money is not a great emotional
driver for innovation. It's better to
invest in a great story as to 'why'
you need to innovate. You'll find
when this is strong enough that
you can continually build on this
story and you'll no longer have the
need to reward people for their
efforts.
Darren Hill is a behaviouralist and
founder of Pragmatic thinking. He's
the author of the best selling business
book 'Talking about the tough stuff' and
consults and speaks around the world on
behaviour.
To find out more stalk him at
www.PragmaticThinking.com
If you are truly innovating
you will be on the cusp of failure

Insight.Full
Innovation Blueprint
Fill your innovation treasure trove
with commercial insights.

W
hat do you do
as a corporate
anthropologist?
Culture auditing is one the most
common activities we do in our
job. This is where we observe
behaviours and audit these
behaviours against their values
and strategies they have for their
culture. We then help them to
articulate their culture in a way that
makes sense to both customers,
shareholders, the board and to
employees.
Essentially we codify cultures
from an anthropological
perspective versus a systems
perspective. To do this we look
at behaviours, their motivations
and find metaphors to help
describe what they do. We then
look for contradictions that might
indicate whether an organisation is
misaligned.
INTERVIEW WITH CORPORATE ANTHROPOLOGIST MICHAEL HENDERSON
The 2nd part about our work
is about cultural education and
planning. Values are what drive
the behaviour of people doing the
work, yet what people talk about is
not the behaviours.
We try to keep these and the
following things in mind.
1. Sense of purpose
2. Sense of identity (how you
see yourself and how others
see you)
3. Values
4. Background
5. Heroes journey
6. Cultural capacity &
capability
To live 'values' in an organisation
you need to have a skill set that
enables you to live the value. For
example the value of collaboration
means that an organisation has to
have the skill set of listening. We
then codify how listening occurs
in an organisation so that they can
replicate it if it is working well.
We also try to help them identify
the capability that they need to be
better at.
Where do you think innovation
is best applied in an organisation?
There are 3 areas that innovation
can be applied:
1. Price - innovative techniques to
manage costs
2. Product - innovative product
invention
3. Service - innovative customer
delight
What's the best way to create
behavioural change?
To initiate behavioural change
first you must help people achieve
an 'aha' moment or an insight.
Asking "do you know where your
good ideas come from & where do
they occur?" is often a great insight
generator that leads to the 'aha'
moment.
CULTURES CAN MAKE OR BREAK
INNOVATION

BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS
Anthropologist Michael Henderson
Other questions include:
"Are we using that at the
moment?" and then "how do we
replicate that?"
Those 'aha' moments make
people open to possibility or
elevation.
Here's an example of a 'call
centre' that we were working with.
Essentially the client was having
a poor performance with their
sales, and so our team went and
asked individuals within the team
questions such as "What's the
worst aspect of your job?" and the
most common response was that
they said "Fridays - it's impossible
to sell on Fridays".
When we looked at this
hypotheses we actually found
contrary evidence. We found that
the best sales people could still sell
on Friday. So we asked the group
"if it's possible that some people
can sell on Friday why can't we all
sell on Fridays?" and followed it up
with "What would need to change
for in order for you to believe that
you actually can change?"
We then asked them "what could
they do to sell more on a Friday"
and the ideas started rolling in.
Later that Friday they gave it a go
and they had the best results of any
day they had ever had before.
What are some ways to keep a
culture innovative?
Identify where good ideas are
already coming from. To do this we
want to ask:
"Where were you when the best
idea came to you?"
"What were you doing when the
idea came to you?"
"When did the idea occur?"
"Why do you think it happened?"
"Who were you with and how long
did the ideation process take?"
A good example of an
organisation doing this is Google.
They have a full-time anthropology
team who's job is to identify and
locate where the best ideas come
from and how to replicate it.
Their investigation found that
the queues for the canteen was the
space and place where the most
number of ideas came from. They
found that people would share
what they've been working on
and tell people about what they
had been stuck upon and share
solutions.
They realised that it takes about
3-5 mins of conversation in the
queue for people to share the
best breakthrough, so they have
designed the queue in the cafeteria
to last for at least 3-5 minutes to
provide the best opportunities
for those breakthroughs. "The
cafeteria was also designed as
a comfortable place to sit and
continue the conversation over
lunch."
Michael Henderson is an international
author, speaker and anthropologist he is
the founder of Cultures at Work.
To discover more about Michael stalk
him at www.CulturesAtWork.com
What would you need to
change in order for you to believe
that you actually can change?

TOPS TIPS FROM INTERNATIONAL MARKETING GURU FRANZISKA ISELI
10 WAYS TO HELP MARKET THOSE
MILLION DOLLAR IDEAS
1
IMAGINE THE
PERCEPTION OF
YOUR PRODUCT
Think of the perception or image
you want to create to be perceived
by your market. The exciting piece
about this is that you can make
it up. For example I want to be
perceived
as fresh,
exciting and
cheeky. Just
ensure the
perception
is authentic.
3
THINK WHY
YOUR
CUSTOMER
NEEDS IT
When it comes to selling a new
product, process or service think
about 'why' your customers
really need it. Be mindful of 'why'
they need it before looking at
marketing it. And although it's
important to understand the 'why'
of your customers, it can be as
valuable to know your own 'why':
why you are in business as to why
you are in business.
2
EMOTIONAL
'EDU-TAINMENT'
Be attractive to
your audience by creating a
cross between educating and
entertaining.
Activate the emotions of your
audience by making your audience
'feel' things.
The more
emotional
words you
can use the
higher the
engagement.
4
CREATE GREAT
CONTENT
Content marketing
is the most successful of all
marketing strategies. Create
content that adds value to your
client whilst connecting it with the
perception you want to create.
5
LAUNCH INTO A
PLATFORM
The biggest mistake
people make when it comes
to marketing is launching into
nothing. That is, they don't have a
platform or audience and therefore
no one pays attention.
Build your
audience
and platform
5-6months
before you
launch your
new product.

MARKETING ARCHETYPE
6
OWN YOUR
OWN PLATFORM
To succeed in
marketing you need to have your
own platform. Start collecting
through your database & build
your own platform by distributing
your message via social media be it
audio, video, or written material.
8
CO-CREATE
WITH YOUR
AUDIENCE
When it comes to designing a new
product, or service from scratch it's
a great time to get your audience
involved in the beginning of the
process so that they feel like they
are co-developing the new product
or project together. This increases
buy-in and loyalty.
7
CREATE
PARTNERSHIPS
When building a
platform from scratch or at the
start of your journey, in launching
a product, partnerships can
really accelerate your reach. Be
mindful of how you can add value
to your partnership. Know who
your market is and what your
edge might
be as well as
considering
what other
things your
audience is
interested in.
9
GET VISIBLE NO
MATTER WHAT
No matter how good
you or your organisation are, you
need to be 'seen' to sell. One of
the biggest obstacles people have
when it comes to marketing a new
idea is the fear of being seen, and
a fear about what other people will
think. People need to be irreverent,
and get over themselves.
10
NEVER LOOK
AT THE
COMPETITION
Don't look at your competition.
Marketers of today rather than
worrying about the competition
need to be courageous and think
differently. Radical is good as long
as you match
your intended
market
perception.
Franziska Iseli is the co-founder
of 'Basic Bananas' an international
marketing agency. To stalk her visit
www.BasicBananas.com

Is it possible there is one way to innovate that creates
more commercial success than any other?
ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE
I
nnovation Architect Nils Vesk knows
there is just one such way. Determined
to discover why so many organisations
were suffering from too few innovations, he
started researching, testing and applying the
principles of innovating through professional
archetypes.
His research was startling, as he discovered
that professional biases had led to the
creation of an obstructive innovation
paradigm. This book has set out to change
that. The old paradigm was that innovation
was only for the privileged few. The new
paradigm is that innovation be accessible to
everyone, so everyone has the opportunity
and knowledge to innovate.
The new paradigm means revealing the
limiting biases and perceptions that have
been thwarting innovation potential.
This book counters these obstructions by
utilising key principles from the worlds best
professional innovation archetypes, allowing
you to generate commercial innovation day in
day out.
To find out more about the book head to www.innovationblueprint.com.au/products/
INNOVATION
Making

NEW HEADING HERE
T
his article is all about
user groups, test groups,
market groups or
whatever you want to call
them and how to best use them to
help in the innovation of your new
product, process or service.
Test groups in short are most often
a small representational group
that personify some of the key
attributes of a potential customer
or user of a product, process or
service. Test groups are used in
a variety of industries and can
range from advertising, digital user
experience (UX), to clinical trials
and product test groups.
One of the most successful test
groups in the world meet in the
showers every work day. What on
earth does shaving and showers
have in common with innovation
you might be thinking? A lot in
fact.
GOING TO TEST OUT YOUR OWN PROTOTYPES ON YOURSELF?
THERE'S A LITTLE BIT MORE TO IT THAN THAT.
This happens to be the way that
Gillette use test groups to test
the prototypes of their latest
shaving equipment. Employees are
encouraged to shower and shave at
their workplace (specially designed
to have bathrooms to cater for this)
in order to gain valuable feedback
and ideas on how to improve their
shaving equipment. If Gillette can
have a great user group, you can
too.
Market researchers like to think
they have all of this test group stuff
sorted, and that the only way you
can effectively test a new product
is by using their very expensive
services. Whilst it's true that market
researchers are good at what
they do, we don't all have to have
double psychology degrees or 'two
way mirrored' glass in order to start
testing out our new innovation.
Here's some simple things to
consider when wanting to use a test
group to test your latest prototype
or potential innovation.
Intention
Answer the following questions:
What are your intentions about the
product, process or new service?
Who's it intended to be used by?
When is it intended to be used?
What time, what day of the week,
what season?
Where is it intended to be used?
Internally, externally, in an office,
on a phone?
How is it intended to be used?
Sitting up, standing down, when
driving, when on computer?
What happens when it is used &
when it isn't being used?
Selecting & recruiting you user/
test group
Do they represent the typical type
of user/ customer?
Do you cater for a variety of
demographics including, sex, age,
profession, location, experience?
Familiarity
Do they need to have a prior
experience with the product,
process or service?
Will you group be biased by prior
knowledge or prior experience?
Is familiarity a crucial part to the
user group knowing how to use it?
WHY YOU NEED USER GROUPS
BY NILS VESK

NEW HEADING HERE SCRATCH TESTING
Biased
Will your user group be likely
to behave differently in order to
impress, show how smart they are,
or any other modified behaviour?
Observer/ observation
Is the use of the product, service
or process going to be occurring in
their typical natural environment?
Are the observers typical of the
people they would have around
them?
Is it possible to have other
people who are in their natural
environment day-in, day-out, to do
the observation for you?
Difficulties
Do you notice any difficulties that
the user might be having with
the innovation? Difficulties in
understanding what its used for?
how to use it? how to start it? open
it? change things? stop it?
Questions& topics to address
NB: it's a good idea to work on
both open ended questions and
closed questions. For example a
closed ended question might be
"is it easy to use?" whilst an open
ended question you could ask is
'what specifically makes this easy to
use?" or "what specifically makes
this difficult to work with?"
Ask for a specific response and
you'll get what you need, if your
question is too general, you'll get
a monologue that's interesting but
not very useful.
Consider asking both quantitative
and qualitative questions:
Qualitative questions might be:
What did you enjoy most about the
service?
What would you do to improve the
way this functions?
Quantitative questions might
include:
Which functions of our program
are most important?
Which feature is the most
appealing?
Usability
Consider asking questions that will
ascertain what might make it more:
Efficient
Effective
Simpler
Safer
Stronger
Easier
More intuitive
Needs
Are there any more needs that the
user might have with the product.
Eg. It needs a handle, or it needs a
button, or the new 'sign up' page
needs a 'wizard' to help show me
how to fill out the form.
Desires
Are there any desires that the user
would like to be able to do beyond
what already exists? For example
"I wish I could hold it in one hand"
or "I wish my assistant could fill out
this form instead of me".
Aversions
Are there any elements that annoy
the user so much that they wish it
didn't exist or was changed? For
example "it's so heavy I can't lift it"
or "there's just too many questions
and it takes too long".
Recruiting
Where and how are you going to
recruit your study group?
Existing clients, colleagues, family
friends, suppliers, partners?

USER EXPERIENCE
Facebook has become one of the
simplest and easiest recruiting
options that exist. You can select a
target group, age, demographics,
location etc. And nearly all of the
time you get the user to use their
web-cam to film and record their
interaction with the innovation
being tested.
Size of the user group?
When it comes to digital usability,
the worlds leading UX design firm
Normal Nielson suggest that 5
people are enough to ascertain
a good sense of usability on a
product or process. What this
means is that you don't have
to have thousands of people to
recruit, but a small number with a
good cross-section will suffice.
Tools for assessing
Digital - eye tracking technology
can help, though it pays to have
the psychology of why people are
looking at certain things sorted.
Just because people are looking at
one point on a screen doesn't mean
it's good. I could be because it's so
confusing that people are stuck.
Surveys
The simplest, cheapest and most
effective tool by far for surveys is
SurveyMonkey.com - you can do
a lot with a free account and you
can do even more with the paid
account, well worth the investment.
The study group designer and
observer need to think and
determine "why are they doing
that?" "what's behind their decision
and behaviour to do that?" "can we
modify it and do something else?"
Here's why you don't have to be a
behaviourist to observe the a user
group:
Lego, one of the worlds most
successful toy manufacturers use
mothers as their behavioural team.
Knowing that observing children
in a different environment to
their home would skew results,
they realised it would be much
easier to study them at home,
and even more effective if they
got their mothers to do the
observation. That way there would
be no external influencers on the
children. Just a child playing with
their Lego and a doting mother
keeping an eye out & jotting down
some notes from time to time.
With the right questions, strategy
and thinking anyone can engage
their behavioural intelligence
to study their user group and
formulate ways to improve their
innovation.
Good luck becoming that user
group behaviouralist.
Cheers,
Nils

Reduce the bleeding
component & reduce the risk
W
hen it comes to
innovation, we
come across the
dreaded curse of
'risk-itis'. After all there are so many
stories of organisations blazing a
path to be the first in a new market
only to come crashing down. Well
at least that's what we're led to
believe.
The reality is quite different, sure
there a some good examples of
organisations that have been at the
bleeding edge of innovation only
to be overtaken by a leading edge
innovator a short time later. Yet on
the whole, the organisations that
are the leading edge innovators
are still conducting bleeding edge
activities it's just that they utilise
prototyping, piloting and trialling
to reduce the bleeding component
and reduce the risk.
LEADING VS. BLEEDING EDGE
EVALUATING THE PROS & CONS
BY NILS VESK
Even organisations that have had
a bleeding edge setback, will learn
from their mistakes and often you
will find that their next innovation,
comes with more testing and
subsequently more commercial
success without the pain.
On the other had we have what
we call trailing edge organisations.
They come onto the scene after
everyone has already forged an
incredible product, brand and trust
in the market place.
Trailing organisations think that
simply imitating the leading edge
will suffice. It seldom does, for they
end up spending too much time
and resources trying to reduce
costs of production. By the time
they do get to market, the leading
edge innovators already have a
new & improved product or service
hitting the market.
Here are 7 ways to become
leading edge without bleeding or
having to compete on price.
INNOVATION TIPS
utilise
prototyping,
piloting &
trialling

ITERATION
ANTICIPATE
1. Anticipate future
trends such as socio-
cultural, technological,
environmental, economic
and political trends so
that you can foresee the
needs of your future
customers before they
have realised they will
need you.
IDEATE
3. Generate lots of
ideas that respond to
upcoming trends and
to the customer insights
you have generated. Just
because you have an
idea doesn't mean it's
going to satisfy someone
else's needs. Be customer
centric.
PITCH
5. Share your
conceptual prototype
with others. Feedback
is favourable, develop
further with more
conceptual prototypes
CATCH INSIGHTS
2. Borrow from
behavioural sciences and
look for insights that go
beyond just what your
customer needs. What
are your customers
desires, aversions and
capability issues as well?
PROTOTYPE
RAPIDLY
4. Start rapid
prototyping before
you've even finalised
a concept. Conceptual
prototyping will enable
you to generate better
ideas and helps you
think of ways to make it
all possible. If you need
to ask permission to
prototype then you've
raised the bar too high.
Allow yourself no more
than 30 mins for rapid
prototyping. Do the
following - a) identify
customer needs, desires
& aversions b) follow up
with ideas that satisfy
the needs & desires etc.
c) flesh out an idea and
finally build a conceptual
representation of your
idea
PLAN TO
PROTOTYPE
6. PLAN -Start to plan
your prototype/ pilots -
include elements such
as What, Where, When,
Who, How long, etcetera
of your prototype. For
example- 'what are you
trying to test or prove?
Where will you run
the trial? Who will be
involved? When is the
best time to test?
PREDICT - Predict what
you think will happen
during and after the pilot
or prototype has been
executed. Will sales go
up? Will things be easier
to use? Will there be less
breakages?
TEST - run the tests on
your trial or prototype
and measure everything
that happens. Observe
as much as possible and
record your results.
EVALUATE - compare
your results against your
predictions. Was there a
shortfall? Did you exceed
your expectations? What
did you learn?
PLAN AGAIN
7. Plan your next
experiment/ prototype
incorporating the
learnings of the last.
Continue to test until
you feel have enough
certainty and the risk
has been lowered
considerably to go live
with the product or
service.
Avoiding bleeding
edge will not mean we
become leading edge.
It's only through strong
iteration of piloting,
prototyping and testing
that we can reduce the
risk and potential pain.
Start planning your
prototyping now.
Nils
rapid
prototyping

INNOVATION TIPS
I
t's no surprise that innovation
comes with risk and that
includes the risk of not
succeeding or as some might
call it 'failing'. If we want a strong
culture of innovation, that means
creating projects, products and
services that will unfortunately
from time to time fail. How we deal
and respond to those failures plays
a crucial part in whether we build
a strong innovative culture or a
culture that suppresses innovative
thinking.
I had the great fortune of
interviewing a colleague of mine
recently who had some great
views on the subject. Michael
Henderson is one the worlds
leading corporate anthropologists
who helps organisations create
high performing cultures.
I was asking him about innovation
and failure and he said celebrating
failures is crucial to innovative
cultures. In fact of all the
organisations he has worked
with across the world the most
innovative ones were the ones who
would celebrate their innovation
failures.
Michael, as he often does,
simplified the concept by telling a
story of a common ritual that tribes
use. Say a small hunting party has
been out on a hunt to find a good
meal for the tribe. After tracking
a buffalo for the last 2 days they
are finally in close proximity and
ready to make the final kill when
accidentally one of the tribesman
steps on a twig and the cracking
twig sounds spooks the buffalo and
it charges off into the distance. The
tribesman have to return to camp
empty handed and with some
difficult explanations to do.
Later that night around the fire, the
tribesman who stepped on the twig
has to explain to everyone in the
tribe why they're all hungry that
night and why there's no buffalo
on the menu. He has to share the
mistake he made, what caused it,
and how to avoid it next time.
The next day a new young hunter
joins the hunting party and you can
be guaranteed that he has learnt
about the twig mistake and will
do everything he can to avoid it
happening to him.
This same tribal concept of
acknowledging, sharing and
learning from mistakes is what
organisation with strong innovative
cultures do.
W.L. Gore & Associates (the
organisation that invented Gore-
Tex the breathable fabric used in
outdoor parkas) is a great example
of just this. Their 'celebration
of mistakes' culture plus an
innovative flat business structure
that encourages collaboration
on projects are some of the key
reasons it's made the list on
Fortune Magazine's '100 Best
Companies to Work For'. Gore &
Associates not only celebrate the
mistake and take ownership of it,
most importantly they learn from it.
Henderson suggests that
organisations should actually create
champions of certain mistakes so
that they become the 'go to' person
on how to avoid that mistake from
happening in the future.
Risk is inherent in innovation, whilst
we can reduce this risk through
prototyping, no innovation is ever
guaranteed success. The only thing
we can guarantee is that we can
always learn from the mistakes
we make and use this knowledge
to be better prepared for the
next upcoming life changing,
industry changing, world changing
innovation.
Go & celebrate those mistakes.
Nils
WHY MISTAKE MAKING
IS SMART BUSINESS
MISTAKES ARE SMART
BY NILS VESK
Mistakes
shouldn't be
punished
but rather
celebrated

theinnovationprocess,
reinvented.

SCREENAUSTRALIA;BADTASTESTUDIOS PRODUCTIONINASSOCIATION WITH INNOVATIONENTERTAINMENT*WESANDERSON
RYANGOSLING NATALIEPORTMAN DANIELCRAIG/BRADLEYCOOPERcBECKdJEANPAULGAULTIER
tKENDONEeGONSKIfBAZLUHRMANgTOMFORDpMIKETYSONaENYAjEMINEMkWESANDERSON
COPYCATSevery good idea is worth stealing
IN CINEMAS AUGUST 19
RYAN
GOSLING
NATALIE
PORTMAN
DANIEL
CRAIG
BRADLEY
COOPER

I
must admit, I was bummed that I wasn't asked for
the lead role in this movie, after all it had many of
the hallmarks of the uber cool thieves from my
Oceans 11, 12 and 13 movies whilst being a little
bit more heavy hitting.
FILM REVIEW: COPYCATS
THINK 'OCEANS ELEVEN' MEETS THE BIG SHORT' AND YOU'LL HAVE A
GOOD IDEA OF THE COOL THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN IN THIS LATEST EDGY
MOVIE FROM WES ANDERSON
WITH GEORGE CLOONEY
FILMS WORTH WATCHING
4 and a half stars.
What starts as an innocent bit of business advice
starts to develop into a business venture that runs
parallel to his work.
Crunch point comes when Chad starts to enjoy
creating ideas versus stealing ideas, his intellectual
thefts of the past start to catch up with him and he
wrestles his inner demons and moral wrong-doings.
The tension is palpable as Chad is led to a 'life
defining' and 'career making' decision that could
either decimate one persons life savings or set one up
for life.
Daniel Craig replaces his 007 gun for his corporate
briefcase and excels as the protagonist CEO Edmond
Faulkner who is constantly pushing Chad into more
extreme situations to find the intel they want.
Heart throb Bradley Cooper triumphs as the slightly
offbeat, mentally unstable yet brilliant inventor
who has his own demons to face in actually getting
commercial success with his ideas.
This movie will leave you with either the desire to
want to innovate or leave you with pangs of guilt for all
the other great ideas you've left on the table.
George
My loss has been Ryan Gosling's gain. Maybe as
Ryan ages he's going to become the new 'George
Clooney'? Ryan plays the lead character of Chad
Whittaker an ex -Harvard MBA and McKinsies
consultant who heads up business intelligence at the
ageing but well known corporation of Eggson Oil. Like
many multi global conglomerates that are listed on
the stock exchange they're an organisation that don't
seem to really do much for the world.
As the building intelligence officer, Chad puts his
Menses IQ to the test with devious ways of finding out
what competitors are doing. From insider contacts,
to pretending to be customers and clients, Chad uses
spy-craft, intelligence and brazen balls to get the ideas
that other organisations are using.
At first glance, Chad has the ideal life, the brilliant
career wife Lani (played by Natalie Portman), and
the perfect home. But the cracks begin to show as
Chad befriends a new neighbour who's a crackpot
inventor who's working on a new business app that will
revolutionise a whole new industry.

REGRETTABLE INNOVATION
C
reating an idea isn't
good enough to create
an outstanding result. It
takes a couple of more
steps of going from an idea to a
finished product or service. It's in
these steps that we can lose a good
idea and end up with a lemon.
Generating ideas is all about
creating as many ideas as possible.
In the 'ideation' stage we are
looking for quantity not quality.
Sometimes in our excitement to be
'creative' we can lose our common
sense and the innovative part of
our idea.
The iteration stage is when we
start to sort our ideas and start to
prototype them to see if they have
legs.
I recently noticed an advertising
agency in the UK had started to
invest time into not just creating
ideas for their clients but started
to create products for consumers
from their own ideas. They started
to move into the world of product
design.
LEARNING FROM
LEMONS
WHEN INNOVATION COMES CLOSE
BUT FALLS SHORT
WITH NILS VESK
The creatives saw a possible
opening in the area of personal
alarms (targeted at women) and
came up with some very creative
ideas. Their main concept was
having an alarm that screams like a
woman. There is a lot of creativity
at play here, something that's
unexpected and hadn't been done
before. essentially it was a good
concept, the only problem is that
the idea wasn't challenged and
tested to ensure it would create an
outstanding result.
If they had run their idea through
a strong sorting system they might
have realised it needed a little bit
more work. If it had then gone
through vigorous prototyping
they also might have been able
to salvage a good idea rather
than create the lemon that it was
destined to be.
The sad fact is that around
the world people may hear the
sound of a screaming person yet
unlikely to respond. Interestingly
the sound that has been known to
get attention & assistance is when
people shout FIRE.
The concept behind the agency's
ideas was to catch someone's
attention, the attributes would be
something that's loud, something
that wouldn't be ignored and
would prompt someone into
action. Unfortunately the choice
of a women screaming didn't
satisfy all of these attributes. If their
prototyping tested other sounds it
may have well worked. A recording
of the words call of FIRE, FIRE, FIRE
would have had more success.
To make sure your great creative
thinking doesn't result in a
sinking ship, be sure you have a
sorting process and prototyping
stage which thoroughly tests
other materials, elements and
components to best achieve an
outstanding result.
Cheers
Nils
mistakes
happen

WE ALL GET INNOVATION CHALLENGES FROM TIME TO TIME. IN OUR
COACHING SECTION WE SHARE SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WE HELP TO
SOLVE FOR OUR CLIENTS.
Q&A INNOVATION COACH
Q Most of our executive
team believe that only
the R&D team need
to innovate. How can I change
this mindset so that we can start
applying innovation elsewhere?
A
Nice question. The modern
reality is that innovative
organisations will apply
innovation across three areas.
Product, process and service. The
reason for this is that even if we
have the worlds best product, if
our processes suck then we'll be
wasting time, energy and money.
Add to that poor service and we'll
have a tough time selling our
amazing product.
I've always found the best way to
create change is through a good
story or two. You can approach
this in a couple of different ways.
Find a story about a number of
organisations with successes
innovating on process or service
& business model. Then look for
examples of where innovation
has already occurred in your
organisation that contradicts their
'mental story' of where innovation
can be applied.
Another important component to
work on is understanding the R.O.I.
Product development has a fairly
high risk associated with it and it
will have a higher failure rate than
that of process innovation. You
need to demonstrate the value that
a new improved innovative process
will bring to the organisation. Is
it saving time, money, resources
etcetera?
Persist with this, as innovation is
certainly not something that should
be confined to product nor to any
particular department such as
R&D.
Often some of the biggest
innovation successes I have with
my clients can be found in the
inglorious departments such as
finance and the overlooked area of
business processes.
Good luck.
Nils
Send us an email with your challenge:
coach@InnovationBlueprint.com.au

INNOVATION COACH
Q We ran an innovation
brainstorm session a
few months ago, and
despite the energy on the day, it
seems that nothing has happened
with our ideas and our team
have lost interest in the notion of
innovating. What's the fix?
AThanks for your question
- Unfortunately it has a
number of causes and
challenges with it. Congrats on
running an innovation event.
This is much better than most
organisations will ever get around
to, so kudos for the commitment to
running it. The big issue here is the
commitment to continuing it, and it
needs to come from the top down.
I'm curious, was the CEO present
through the whole activity? And
did the CEO continue to talk about
the session and how valuable and
important it was?
I've got a feeling that the CEO
wasn't seen. I've seen it first hand,
the leader disappears to another
mtg. and unfortunately people take
notice. If the CEO's not hanging
around it can't be too important.
Even if the CEO did stay around,
what usually is lacking is the
continued message of support,
encouragement and sharing the
story of 'why' innovation is so
important. Without a reinforced
message as to the 'why' we need to
innovate, people lose interest and
motivation behind it.
Let's say however that the CEO
was involved, and continued the
message (which is highly unlikely in
this case) what's most likely going
on is the innovation structure that
you have in place.
The quickest way to lose innovation
is to have a separate innovation
team that are supposed to create
ideas, new products and processes.
The reason these teams or
strategies fail is that the people
who helped come up with the idea
have no more involvement in the
process. It's a bit like a suggestion
box, they write it down and then
forget about it. The next factor that
hammers the nail into the coffin
for innovation is having a secret
committee of people deciding
which ideas are going to get the
green light. Very few do and those
whose ideas don't get the nod feel
left out an alienated.
I was recently contacted by an
organisation that had spent well
over $1million dollars on a program
just like this and they were looking
to salvage the whole thing with no
budget to spend.
Some successful strategies that
we've already implemented are
presented below:
Run multiple smaller events
through out the year versus a
'one off' event. This will show to
the team that the organisation is
serious about innovation.
Include prototyping as part of
the session so that people start to
understand the need to prototype,
pilot and test their ideas.
Allow teams to have a continued
involvement in their idea, after all
they were the ones who came up
with it and the knowledge they
learn in co-developing it will help
immensely.
Avoid having an 'innovation team',
instead have innovation trained
facilitators available to help and
guide the innovation process.
Continue the story of 'why'
innovation is so important. The
higher leadership and more
consistent this message is delivered
the more the buy-in.
There's a lot more but hopefully
this helps.
Good luck.

E
at Me Chutneys is
an Australian social
enterprise rescuing
bruised and 'ugly' fruits
and vegetable from landfill by
converting them into chutneys.
Their goal - is to prevent food
wastage to reduce landfill whilst
creating ethical and sustainable
chutneys that are good for people
and the planet. They also aim to
focus on providing employment to
disadvantaged female job seekers.
Eat Me Chutneys was founded
by Mother & Son duo Jaya & Ankit
Chopra. Ankit is a corporate 'drop
out' with some clever thinking
behind him including stints at SAP
and Deloitte, whilst mum Jaya
brings the chutney experience
with him. Ankit, not to be outdone
by his mum has taken his culinary
skills to the next level and is a
Cordon Bleu trained chef.
Following in the footsteps of
switched on Social entrepreneurs
Ankit is a recent graduate of the
Stanford Social Entrepreneurship
Executive Program.
SOLVING GLOBAL WARMING PICKLE WITH CHUTNEY.
Not content to sit back and wait
for support to come their way, Eat
Me Chutneys worked the markets
for a couple of years before
creating a crowd funding campaign
on StartSomeGood.com to help
accelerate their growth.
Eat Me Chutneys believe
transparency is key to their success.
They use organic produce and
Fairtrade spices and sugar in their
chutneys.
SOCIAL INNOVATION
Eat me Chutneys are serious
about being self sufficient as is
epitomised in their definition of
social entrepreneurship:
"Social entrepreneurship is
about innovative, market-oriented
approaches underpinned by
a passion for social equity and
environmental sustainability.
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS CREATING CHANGE THROUGH INNOVATIVE THINKING
It's estimated that roughly
$4-5 billion of fresh produce is
wasted every year in Australia
Ultimately, social
entrepreneurship is aimed at
transformational systems change
that tackles root causes of poverty,
marginalisation, environmental
deterioration and accompanying
loss of human dignity."

NEW HEADING HERE
In my interview with social
entrepreneur Ankit Chopra
who's the co-founder of Eat
me chutneys I asked him a series
of questions to find out more
about his innovative thinking.
1
What's the most
important thing/ lesson
your mother taught
...........you?
Never give up on family.
2
Where and how did
the idea for Eat me
Chutney's come to you
...........and or your mother?
The idea for Eat me chutneys
was developed over a long time
that started with growing up with
a family where food was never
wasted and our father used grow
his own produce in India. Even
back then if we had 'wonky'
vegetables they were all used,
nothing was wasted.
When our family moved to
New Zealand I became aware of
Fairtrade and Oxfam.
Fast forward to a job in the
corporate world and then I decided
I wanted to become a chef and
moved to London and then to
France to study and become a
Cordon Bleu chef.
I was training in a 3 star Michelin
restaurant and noticed that in their
strive for perfection how much
food was being wasted. Then
I spent a year cooking in soup
kitchens and saw how 'donated'
food was so valuable.
Finally I went back home and was
helping my mum taking and selling
chutneys at the markets. I decided
to get a bit more serious and
applied a strategy document similar
to the ones I had used at Deloittes'
to try to work out where all the
ingredients we were using for our
chutneys were coming from. A
year of research and we were then
getting fair trade certified.
I also noticed when going to buy
and pick up some rhubarb from
a farmer, that there was some left
over rhubarb that was looking a bit
frail and I asked him what he was
going to do with it and realised
most of it would be thrown away.
So I offered to buy it a cheap
price. The more farmers I met,
the more I realised the same thing
was happening and we decided
to 'rescue' these frail and 'wonky'
vegetables to use in our chutneys.
3
When you think of the
word innovation who's
the first person you
...........think of?

I think of region versus people.
I think at a grass roots level
people in Asia are very innovative.
Because when you don't have
access to everything and you are
under pressure you have to use
what you have at your disposal.
4
How did you go about
prototyping your
product and venture?
The farmers market was our
testing ground and in many ways
we were forced to buy the materials
ie. these are the veggies available
right now so "how can we turn
them into chutney?" We made
small batches for the markets and
as we expanded we had to start
standardising our recipes and
methods.
We made small batches for
the markets & as we expanded
we had to start standardising
our recipes and methods
Interview with
socialpreneur
Ankit Chopra
- co-founder
of Eat Me
Chutneys

NEW HEADING HERE
5
Having to sell a product
to fund your social
venture is no small task,
what's your take on marketing
and what has worked for you?
When we first went to markets
we had to educate people about
'rescued' vegetables and we
would say this is reused chutney.
We also realised that even more
waste was happening in people's
own kitchens, and so we started to
expand into teaching people how
to make their own chutney from
their own food that was destined to
become waste.
We didn't really do any traditional
marketing as we didn't have the
money for it though we did do
some crowd funding through www.
startsomegood.com even though
it was already 2 years after we had
started our business. If you're doing
something special then cool people
will rock up to buy it, especially
if you're doing something with a
good intention.
6
I've noticed how
refreshing your copy
writing is on your
website, was that self created
or did you find someone to do
that for you?
We did it ourselves because we
didn't have the money for any
copywriters. When I was working
at Deloitte's we used something
called the 'bull index' to apply to
our reports to detect whether too
many jargon words were being
used. So when it came to our
website we used simple language
as the social problem we are
working doesn't need to be sugar
coated and it was best to 'keep it
real'.
7
When you're feeling
down or overwhelmed
with the immensity of
the work in front of you, what
do you do?
Just get through it, though a
game changer for us was our first
hire. Suddenly with an employee
it's a big responsibility and you just
find a way and all the emotional
connections you have with people
such as the farmers you meet
help you to get through it, not to
mention a few funky emails from
customers.
8
What advice would
you give a twenty-
something version of
yourself about to launch a
new innovative business?
Ask him "have you travelled?"
and if the answer was no, then
encourage him to spend 1-3yrs
travelling as you will learn and
absorb so much more by travelling.
To find out more about Eat me
chutneys head to:
www.EatMeChutneys.com.au
A game
changer for us
was our first
hire.
Chutneys
saving our
planet

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innovation blueprints
Changing how we look at innovation
PUBLISHING DETAILS
Innovation Blueprints is published by Innovation Blueprint (an enterprise of
Nils Vesk Pty Ltd - ACN 26 127 162 592
PO Box 252 Collaroy NSW 2097 Australia.
Editor in Chief is Nils Vesk.
While every effort has been made to verify any facts contained within this
publication, no responsibility will be taken for errors or omissions contained
herein by Innovation Blueprint, its officers, employees or their agents.
Readers should rely on their own enquiries when making business decisions.
Satirical articles discuss public figures for the purposes of humour do not
purport to give truthful accounts of these public figure. We expect readers
to use their own common sense in determining the truth or otherwise of any
statement in this publication.
C 2016 Innovation Blueprint
Innovation Blueprints is available
from www.InnovationBlueprint.com.au
and various affiliated distributors.

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