VERBATIMS
WHow does your company produce (or stifle) innovation?
Afraid of taking risks
Not providing the proper environment for creativity
afraid to take a risk
All budgets have been cut for new business ventures and new business growth development. Regardless of that our culture is tends toward 'safe' innovation, which I would call only moving about 10 degrees at a time.
Always saying "we always done it this way, why change?"
As a non-profit cultural institution, we are always governed by money, or the lack thereof. However, that does not prevent us from seeking out new artists, as well as established artists who are producing new work.
beg, borrow and steal. we also listen to what our customers say they are looking for.
being afraid of losing clients
Brainstorm for new ideas, concepts on a regular basis.
brainstorming
brainstorming
communication
invest in high quality people
BRAINSTORMING SESSION
THE STRATEGIC PLANNING DEPARTMENT MAKES TREND REPORTS
brainstorming, use research
By being employee owned. Each person is empowered to bring about change.
By creating amazing creative concept and execution targeting kids and their families.
By staying on top of trends, social behaviour, buying behavior.

By interacting with kids and their families on a regular basis either one-on-one, phone or email.
By surfing youth website, visiting youth turfs and trying to keep up with their lifestyles.
by creating product management boundaries
By creating space for clients products
By employing more anti-talent than talent which is the curse of any large creative organisation.
By encouraging creative thought, requiring collaboration with others and providing a provoking environment.
By getting out of the office and networking with peers. Or observing consumers in action...at the grocery store, etc., if it's for a consumer product launch, for example.
By having managers and executives who have been with the company for years and years and have not worked in other environments to understand how things are moving forward and constantly changing.
By hiring people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines
Allowing time and money to be spent on un-orthodox methods / research
by investing in future oriented things that don't have an immediate payoff; by encouraging employees involvement in charting the future
By listening to everybody and doing everything that's near to see how workable their ideas and principles are. Them we follow our nose.
By utilizing technological advances.
challenge
collaboration
brainstorm
evaluation
opinions of all staff
research
Committees and lack of empowerment to 'syndicate' best practices at grassroots level.
creativity and new ideas are encouraged and when produced explored. We encourage brainstorming sessions between sales, marketing and our engineering. Have developed good relationships with end users to get feedback.
Creativity training, workshops. Creative environment; ongoing ideation and brainstorms involving all employees - very collaborative.

critical thinking based on consumer insight
cross-functional teams
memos exhorting us to be more innovative
visionary co-workers who won't take no/been there-done that for an answer
Current world and economic events have stifled much creativity. We're all about delivering profit and controlling costs. It's gotten so tough that we're on the verge of becoming aenorexic.
Devotes resources to R&D. Conducts ethnography.
Due to the analytical nature of our company, creativity/innovation is not a strong suit...yet they hunger for it...they are uncomfortable by it.
empowerment of employees
entrepreneurial culture
Encourages initiative - discourages OOP expense
Everything starts with the Market-customer.We keenly observe what is happening in the market- market trend,Socio-Economic environment, competition in the industry and offer something required by the market sometimes ahead of time so the customers who are early adopters are benefited by our innovations.Market inteligence is the key to innovation.
of the trends.After this also innovations are verified with the custoners.
We're a consulting company (PR) that doesn't have minimum billable requirements for people, so collaboration is encouraged and part of the culture; there's much more sharing of ideas and work because people aren't competing against each other, worried about billing a certain percentage of time.
Does not stay committed to ideas and/or marketing strategies
does not value "creativity" even though it is a "creative" company. Does not recognise innovation or innovative people.
Doesn't have a process for soliciting and rewarding ideas.
For this the first thing required is social intelligence (Most Marketers lack social intelligence )and interpretations
Asking - Do you want this ? If the answer is 'NO' by majority of customers
the innovation is not introduced.After all this if something do not succeed
the lesson is learnt from the failure. No body is punished for the failure.
Focus on evolving client needs, develop concepts and check back with clients to ensure we're on track.
Stay on the forefront of available technolgy.

Take risks.
Focus on why a particualr new idea won't work versus what can we do to mkae it better. Proposers are subject to gauntlet of questions and criticisms before the idea can get off the ground. We are very dgood at killing new ideas
Fostering an environment open to new ideas.
Consistent and routine participation in industry-related trade shows, semiars, etc.
freedom
free reign. You want to try something new? Go ahead.
Fresh thinking & ideas for clients
good ideas are encouraged and considered
individual contributions are valued
new products come from team member's ideas
Go outside of the industry to see what works in other industries and why? It prompts out of the box thinking and relationships to form where they weren't there before.
Head of company constantly explores new ideas
High freedom and expectation for people to invent
Frequent work with people outside the firm
Keep innovation tied to customer needs
Recognition
Not adequate support to move new innovations quickly across the company.
I can't say much about my specific company, but I think it's easy for any company to get into a rut. It's a comfortability factor. Don't fix what's broke. But in the industry I'm in, we are supposed to be the innovators, people look to us to be creative and help their brands be recognized. So I think it helps when the people at the top are role models for innovation and forcing their employees to be restless. I believe innovation is a mindset, almost an emotion you have to embody. So in order to be innovated, you have to set the tone and attitude that your ideas will always be embraced, even if they aren't excepted as the end all be all.
importing technology from othere fields, and retro-fitting it to our needs, inventing solutions, staying current on successful hot trends and innovations
Innovation is divided clearly into 2 avenues - continuous on new product which is left in the hands of the operations, and innovation of new products. This is restrictive as there is no transparency between the two avenues thus causing conflict and friction at times. I personally feel that innovations should not involve reinventing the wheel and should be under a single team headed by someone senior.
Innovation is literally part of our corporate strategy for growth. It's all over our materials and it's truly driven from the top down.
Innovation is one of our companies Shared Corporate Values. Developing innovative client solutions is at the core of more than half of our business.

Innovation is stifled because we have such strict branding guidelines imposed by corporate communications. Our business is a division of the company, but the guidelines were created with the regulated portion of the business in mind, not the non-regulated products and services. Since we are a non-regulated product of the utility company we have to be careful about new product and service offerings. Many innovations that would grow our business sit in limbo for years waiting for approval from the public utilities commission or regulatory board. It is difficult for a utility company to be innovative in what products and services they can provide their customers due to leagl concerns. So while our competitors offer services we can and would like to offer, we sit waiting for approval and lose valuable market sahre.
Innovative ideas are often stifled by "We've never (or always) done it that way." Also, a lack of understanding of the various functions within an organization, lack of respect for expertise/knowledge in areas outside one's own experience limit understanding, and consequently, innovation. Bureaucracy, as a state agency, various donor relationships (we're a non-profit museum)all work to stiffle innovation.
In terms of product development we do very well. However, this does not spill over into all areas. We struggle to innovate in marketing, finance, and other business areas to solve business problems. There are, of course, pockets of innovation that manage to move forward, but it is difficult.
It doesn't and it squelches those who try.
It encourages people to explore new ideas/ways of doing things. It is small enough (<20 people) to implement changes very quickly. All associates meet once a week to discuss learnings, and share successes, and new ways that we are doing things. We build on each other's ideas and all end up learning from it.
It is at least looking towards and noting an increased emphasis on innovation. However, the focus on short-term tactical needs still skews the work and priorities such that innovation is not widely supported culturally day to day.
It is open to new ideas, embraces them, but tends to underfund implementation.
It is the entire focus of the company. Listening to customers and industry trends and then chasing it. It is our edge.
it's all intellectual innonvation. My company gives our staff room to breathe and flexible parameters to do our jobs.
it's produced by having bright people trying to solve business problems with big ideas
It stifled innovation by valuing the quiet live and profit; having set ways of doing things.
expecting people to be at the office rather than sometimes absorbing ideas and relaxing (when ideas are most likely to come to you).
I work for myself so its staying on tops of things through materials.
I work for the State of Minnesota in a WorkForce Center as an employment counselor. This is an extremely supportive and creative environment and has put us at the head of the pack in the last 10 years in offering useful, effective services to our clients, the unemployed.
We may be a creative cell within a larger organization that may not value innovation as much as survival. (Can you spell looming future budget deficit?)
This group began 10 years ago with a creative approach, and each person is hired to fit in and build upon this creative, innovative atmosphere.
Just added innovation to our list of six shared values. Three product groups out of five just went on a two day off site innovation retreat.
Lack of vision
status quo
Lack or resources, lack of communication between departments, risk averse.
Lean staff, overworked teams stifle innovation.. we just want to get the basic work done.
Limited access to resources, limited desire to take chances and stretch beyond the norm.

Unfortunately, you can't get down the road to innovation without a little egg on your face.
If you aren't wearing any bandaids, you aren't even close to the cutting edge!!!
Limited thinking; using past experiences as deterrents for future opportunities
mainly brainstorming
sometimes one person propose an idea an negociate the time to make it real
Matrixed hierarchical organization (bureaucracy) stifles innovation
Lots of lone rangers out there in the company innovating on their own but we're not duplicating and sharing those ideas and practices
Progress in methodologies and knowledge management, but again organization is slow to change.
Need more involvement from bottom up
Meetings
Most of the employees are of the opinion that they have already tried something once and so why would it be any different now. In addition, do not have any grasp of the growth of technology and internet capabilities. They seem to be waiting until someone else does it and has success. There is no risk.
My company produces innovative concepts by researching the industry, collecting data from all sources - newspaper, magazines, internet, etc.
My company promotes a true entreprenureal spirit by rewarding those who bring a fresh approach to the business. My company has also made great technological advances and product enhancements by investing heavily in R&D in the past two years.
On the flipside, my company tends to stifle innovation by spreading key employees too thin. We tend to require those key employees to engage in work which could be completed at a lower cost by entry-level employees, if more existed in the organization.
My company's purpose is to help organizations transform their thinking. We do this primarily through facilitating creative thinking sessions and helping clients implement the ideas they developed. We recently build a facility designed to foster creative thinking. We continually experiment with new approaches and creative techniques to help our clients.
My company stifle innovations in two ways: (1) lack of risk taking and (2) too many layers of management to gain approval.
My company stifles innovation by concentrating on the "bottom line" financials and not on how to improve their cusomter and employee environments.
No backing, lack of resources and commitment.

not enough time
short term financial pressures
Nothing is a mistake, just a learning curve
Not invented here syndrome definitely stifles innnovation
not invented here
this is the way we've always done it
what if it doesn't work
too risky
we know this product better than anyone else
only the #1 guy is allowed to make decisions His EGO is huge!
Open, collaborative environment that empowers its employees and shares in the decision making process.
open concept physical spaces
multi-discipline work sessions
art all over
music playing
Our business is one of ideas and we recognize (and reward in the form of bonuses and promotions) innovative ones.
Our company develops innovative ways to deliver promotional messages - from packaging innovation to POS innovation. We feed off of each other's ideas and grow seeds of ideas into full-blown innovative concepts.

Our company invests in parrallel thinking and learning that will one day present new solutions to recurring problems. We are very intutive, but our innovation is being stifled by poor management of our intellectual/intuitive capital. The answers lie within with the proper and continued associating of our ideas with those of the varied disciplines of study.
Our entire team actively participates in action sports. We are on the mountains, in the streets, and in the water keeping our finger on the pulse of the market.
Our product line and what we do is the innovation of our company
people, ideas that comes from different employers, off&on
Poor communications of the occasional good idea.
Produced through our business model and how we do business everyday.
Stifled through inability to pay attention and resource all good ideas - too many good ideas, not enough focus
Produce - Good Brainstorming Culture
Stifle - refusal of CEO to acknowldge superior creativity of younger and leading edge employees
Produce innovation by thinking with clear heads. After getting the basics of our brands down, straegy,etc. We try to think of great ideas regardless of everything we learned. Then we look back and see what great ideas match up with the goals of our brands. Not very efficeint as 90% of our efforts don;t make the cut, but exercise often leads to relevant ideas and programs that are appropriate for the brand at question.
We stifle innovation by thinking to much about what everyone in the supply chain currently wants. (i.e. the sales guys expect this element, so we need to keep it, etc.) Not enough focus on what they need/want, but dont know about.
Produce-Its not a concious, dedicated effort. The nature of our business tends to be creative so the primary structured method is group discussion. In general, we generate the majority of ideas from reading and research, associating disparate thoughts to build a bigger idea.
Stifle-We tend to be safe.
Produce: listen to clients
Stifle: respond to competitors instead of going our own way
Produces innovation by "finding" what the customer wants / needs ... and finds a way to deliver.
Produce - Specific innovation task force teams, voice of the customer activities

Stifle - lack of marketing champions, little funding, not a priority mentality by some, little time to devote to innovation, lack of investing in support activities surrounding innovation
Produce via. Innovation Day at company. Work with outside consultants. Training.
Stifle by risk aversion, lack of resources, overworking employees.
Red tape to get ideas off the ground. Procrastination, low risk takers, etc
Reward innovative ideas in a variety of ways and let the entire org. know it.
reward on the basis of successful innovation
follow up and actualise good ideas
form relationships with and employ the most innovative minds we can tap into
work with clients who demand innovation and are always challanging themselves& us
Rewards ees for their contributions. Hires creative, knowledgeable employees.
Right now they are stifiling innovation due in large part to economic downturn in business.
Lack of clear business plan and follow through to acheive goals. Growth limited in part to tight financials.
Fear rules. Following obsolite business protocol. The old boy network way of doing things.
Risk averse "corporate gray" culture.
Rule #1: All ideas are beautiful (for a while). Rule #2: Push ideas through contingency plans to see how they adapt. Rule #3: Subject all ideas to quantitative optimization testing before proceeding.
Senior management is made up of creative people, we make an effort to build innovation into the culture with all new people to the firm.
serious thought processes.

Keeping abreast of innovative iconoclastic thinking and thinkers.
Articles, books on innovation.
Trying to detect innovative products , services
Spending a lot of money and promoting innovation.
Stifle - by not allowing bottom up feedback - suggestions - listening to the coalface
Stifled by lack of $$$ and management the old way
Stifled by lack of enough gestation time in idea development.
Produced by such things as: Learning Lunches - where individuals share learnings with others over pizza and soda. RISE - repeat innovation, seek efficiency. Pushing empowerment and responsibility downhill.
Stifle: "we've been doing it X way for years -- it's our legacy"
Produce: "we've got to come up with something to satisfy this pressing need."
strategic partnerships
Supportive Culture
Study consumer and market trends
Open to new Ideas
Dedicated Staff
Not good process for integrating innovation
surrendering to time constraints

relying on the true but tired
not opening up the process to more levels of the organization
That's a secret. No, we really just look to do things differently than they've been done in the past.
The generation of too many ideas masks the true gems and they all get lumped together. We can't separte the gems from the rocks.
The main product we sell is a comodity so we need to conform to industry standards for interoperability.
Within my company, we have very few management levels (we are a huge company) -- and a lot of decisions can be made at a fairly "low" level. This helps things get done quickly.
The phrase "Too many cooks spoil the stew" comes to mind. Our company is a huge believer in he who travels alone gets there first. We have a lot of lonely travelers wandering around doing nothing.
we encourage complete free thought and flexible hours. Innovation comes at all tiomes of the day and night so we encourage people to work from home, work at night, or work when it feels best.
We also are firm believers that 99.9% of the work out there is done by followers following followers! If you look at what 99% o fth epeople are doing and do the exact opposite you have a 99% chance of succeeding!!
nothing
We encourage innovation through openness to new ideas; using past successes to generate new successes; seeking out insights and creativity in unusual places and sources; not settling for the predictable, the tried and true and the status quo
We risk stifling innovation by letting others, often our clients, create barriers that prevent our best thinking from seeing the light of day
we foster innovation through exploring, sharing and learning. there are no wrong answers. there's alway possiblities. and everything fits.
We have a chosen area of innovation that is constantly explored both internaly and with partners. We have regular meeting with professional users of our technology to discuss improvments and new product areas.
We have too much inovataion at times and do not focus on the key issues that will make the company move foward. The goal is to balance creative innovation and market value balances.
We have a formalized innovation idea submission and approval program with cash incentives for implemented ideas.

We have created at team of bright, excited, and creative people. We are always looking ahead and striving to improve

relying on the true but tired
inside the agency we have different tools to stimulate innovation - for example questionaire on the "all over feel/ cultural check-up" for all employees. everybody is encouraged to come up with ideas for innovation. innovative thinking on clients is highly encouraged.
We live and die by the "procedure manual" and policies, which stifle innovation and creativity. It also reduces productivity. Motivation, energy, excitement, rewards for new ideas, etc. is not recognized as being important, which it should be.
We market Broadband technology. We need to stay with cutting edge technology and deliver hip and cool products. We need to bundle services, deliver one bill, and have one # for installation, sales, and support for all products. We concentrate on these enhancements, yet often fail to do the basic blocking and tackling (i.e. answer the phones quickly, install services professionally, and troubleshoot effectively). We're a cable company - need to eliminate the stigma associated with long install windows, poor service and create the belief that cable companies have new cutting edge technology.
We produce innovation by having no rules. Instead they are guidelines and goals.
We produce innovation by trying to have a fun and creative atmosphere to work in every day. We stifle innovation by using phrases and words like "we try that before" "we can't" instead of "what if.."
we produce innovation through a constant emphasis on communication, collaboration, and risk taking. we make creativity a priority, for us it means looking at more stuff and thinking about it harder.
we produce it by constantly being attuned to popular culture and its implications for business and marketing efforts. We do this through extensive media grazing.
We provide all employees with proprietary tools (technological and non-technological) that are themselves innovative and designed to help them streamline processes that could best be described as "daily routine." Not only is less "quality time" wasted, but more of each employee's time may be put back into exploring pathways of thought and creativity that, ideally, will lead to more and/or otherwise unattainable innovation.
We're a direct mail company, and we do about the normal amount of testing with our mailings ... offers, prices, even the occasional new creative piece to test against the control. The product itself has not changed in 30 years. The direct mail part of the company runs like clockwork and it seems like fiddling with it just wastes resources.
Two managers started a second division of the company about four years ago that takes the same product process, but produces a product that is sold to distributors and retailers. It's been an uphill battle and, even though all revenue targets have been met and the promise is huge, management continues to take a "wait and see" attitude, forcing marketing to produce the numbers with a paucity of resources and with management second guessing every decision.
The result is a very low level of innovation. All of our innovation goes to trying to take care of customers in spite of management. And even though customers are begging for new products, I doubt we will ever get the "permission" to invest in them.
We're an agency, so we propose new and innovative ideas all of the time. However most of our clients are from traditional brand backgrounds and it's hard for them to break out of the traditional MBA-trained thought process.
We're establishing process to ensure that all of the general steps to design, development and implementation become second nature. In that way, we minimize time spent on who's-doing-what-and-when and find we have more energy for the client-focused steps--those which lead to the truly innovative, responsive ideas and actions.
We removed other duties from the product groups for part of the year, so they can focus clearly and only on innovative new products.

We say we're proactive, but wind up reacting to our competitors.
We stifle through dysfunction and red tape.
Some people here do encourage innovation but as a whole, we are not there yet.
We stress learning - magazines, books and speakers are promoted. Discussions are encourged on all subjects. Not jsut that impact the bottomline. I beleive it has to part of the culture of an organization - that it can not be turned on and off. You either believe in innovation and the costs that go with it or you don't.
We study processes for improved innovation continually. These include: recognizing trends, futuring, creative processes, and decision making processes.
We take too long to launch new products and we don't seize opportunities for new products and markets--we know that we need to expand to new markets but when push comes to shove the "old school" ("we've always dont it this way--let's not mess with success") always wins.
We try to innovate producing new formats for online advertising
we use an array of tactics ... from various ideation processes to market place monitoring. It's an activity that is recognized and rewarded.
Whatever innovation I can do on my own without spending any money, I can do. Otherwise, nothing.
While my company, right now, consists of only me, I utilize all resources available to me for innovation. This includes professional and personal relationships, a variety of trade publications and ezines from different industries, time for relaxation and renewal, enjoyment of art and music for relaxation and inspiration. Each of these brings me a new and unique perspective. While I've been in the marketing/pr/advertising profession for 14 years, I've worked in several different industries and have found that served me well in terms of innovation. I am able to see new possibilitites and connections that "seasoned" professionals in a specific industry often are not open to realizing. That's one of the main reasons I decided to go out on my own. I feel too stifled inside a "corporate" culture.
Wide-open receptivity to new ideas, fresh thinking
Eagerness to build on lessons learned
Freedom to take risks
Willingness to explore multiple sides of an issue or situation
Constant exposure to and interaction with leading industry thinkers

relying on the true but tired

will tend to move outside of established processes that are set up to allow for innovation
It's like sniffing the air...Or maybe what's between the molecules ...