The innovation value chain

The challenges of coming up with fresh ideas and realizing profits from them are different for every company. One firm may excel at finding good ideas but may have weak systems for bringing them to market. Another organization may have a terrific process for funding and rolling out new products and services but a shortage of concepts to develop. In this article, Hansen and Birkinshaw caution executives against using the latest and greatest innovation approaches and tools without understanding the unique deficiencies in their companies' innovation systems. They offer a framework for evaluating innovation performance: the innovation value chain. It comprises the three main phases of innovation (idea generation, conversion, and diffusion) as well as the critical activities performed during those phases (looking for ideas inside your unit; looking for them in other units; looking for them externally; selecting ideas; funding them; and promoting and spreading ideas companywide). Using this framework, managers get an end-to-end view of their innovation efforts. They can pinpoint their weakest links and tailor innovation best practices appropriately to strengthen those links. Companies typically succumb to one of three broad "weakest-link" scenarios. They are idea poor, conversion poor, or diffusion poor. The article looks at the ways smart companies - including Intuit, P&G, Sara Lee, Shell, and Siemens- modify the best innovation practices and apply them to address those organizations' individual needs and flaws. The authors warn that adopting the chain-based view of innovation requires new measures of what can be delivered by each link in the chain. The approach also entails new roles for employees "external scouts" and "internal evangelists," for example. Indeed, in their search for new hires, companies should seek out those candidates who can help address particular weaknesses in the innovation value chain.     

扬思想建设之帆 走创新发展之路——工行北京市方庄支行思想政治工作点滴

工行方庄支行地处北京南城城乡结合部，经营区域从南二环至南五环，南北宽、东西窄，整个区域呈现“三多一少“的特点，即居民多、流动人口多、批发市场多，大中型企业相对较少。面对相对匿乏的市场资源，支行在党委书记、行长曲琐带领下，始终坚持将思想政治工作贯穿于全行中心工作，体现在理念创新、业务发展和队伍建设中，在创新上下功夫，在结合上做文章，促进支行在经营管理各个方面取得可軎的成绩。去年上半年，在支行行长绩效考评中由去年的第18名上升到第4名，绩效等级由B＋＋上升为A级。     

The discipline of innovation

Some innovations spring from a flash of genius. But as Peter Drucker points out in this HBR Classic, most result from a conscious, purposeful search for opportunities. For managers seeking innovation, engaging in disciplined work is more important than having an entrepreneurial personality. Writing originally in the May-June 1985 issue, Drucker describes the major sources of opportunities for innovation. Within a company or industry, opportunities can be found in unexpected occurrences, incongruities of various kinds, process needs, or changes in an industry or market. Outside a company, opportunities arise from demographic changes, changes in perception, or new knowledge. These seven sources overlap, and the potential for innovation may well lie in more than one area at a time. Innovations based on new knowledge, of course, tend to have the greatest effect on the marketplace. But it often takes decades before the ideas are translated into actual products, processes, or services. The other sources of innovation are easier and simpler to handle, yet they still require managers to look beyond established practices. Drucker emphasizes that in seeking opportunities, innovators need to look for simple, focused solutions to real problems. The greatest praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, "This is obvious!" Grandiose ideas designed to revolutionize an industry rarely work. Innovation, like any other endeavor, takes talent, ingenuity, and knowledge. But Drucker cautions that if diligence, persistence, and commitment are lacking, companies are unlikely to succeed at the business of innovation.     

The customer-centered innovation map

We all know that people "hire" products and services to get a job done. Surgeons hire scalpels to dissect soft tissue. Janitors hire soap dispensers and paper towels to remove grime from their hands. To find ways to innovate, it's critical to deconstruct the job the customer is trying to get done from beginning to end, to gain a complete view of all the points at which a customer might desire more help from a product or service. A methodology called job mapping helps companies analyze the biggest drawbacks of the products and services customers currently use and discover opportunities for innovation. It involves breaking down the task the customer wants to accomplish into the eight universal steps of a job: (1) defining the objectives, (2) locating the necessary inputs, (3) preparing the physical environment, (4) confirming that everything is ready, (5) executing the task, (6) monitoring its progress, (7) making modifications as necessary, and (8) concluding the job. Job mapping differs substantively from process mapping in that the goal is to identify what customers are trying to get done at every step, not what they are doing currently. For example, when an anesthesiologist checks a monitor during a surgical procedure, the action taken is just a means to the end. Detecting a change in patient vital signs is the job the doctor is trying to get done. Within each of the discrete steps lie multiple opportunities for making the job simpler, easier, or faster. By mapping out every step of the job and locating those opportunities, companies can discover new ways to differentiate their offerings.     

The call for innovation

To help promote innovation in health care, nursing and finance leaders can: Begin by asking the "why" and "why not" questions. Earmark dollars for experimental care models. Advocate for eliminating legal and regulatory barriers that prevent innovation.     

不创一流不立名——工行河北省张家口分行桥东解放支行建设现代金融企业工作纪实

工商银行张家口桥东解放支行，位于张家口市繁华地段，已有50余年的历史。和着时代前进的节拍，乘着改革开放的春风，解放支行不断成长壮大，在山城金融界树起了闻名遐迩的“老字号”金招牌：连续三次被团中央、人总行授予全国“青年文明号”，三次被河北省工行评为省级“巾帼文明示范岗”，1999年被河北省政府命名为先进集体和优质文明服务先进单位，2000年荣获工总行“最佳支行”，2001年荣获工总行“巾帼文明示范岗”称号，2004年被市妇联命名为全市十大“巾帽文明标兵岗”，2005年，又荣获全国妇联“巾帼文明岗”。     

The discipline of innovation.

As managers recognize the heightened importance of innovation to competitive success, they face an apparent paradox: the orderly and predictable decisions on which a business rests depend increasingly on the disorderly and unpredictable process of innovation. How can managers expect to plan for--or count on--a process that is itself so utterly dependent on creativity, inspiration, and old-fashioned luck? Drawing on his many years' experience studying innovative and entrepreneurial companies, the author argues that this paradox is apparent only, not real. Most of what happens in successful innovations is not the happy occurrence of a blinding flash of insight but, rather, the careful implementation of an unspectacular but systematic management discipline. At the heart of that discipline lies the knowledge of where to look for innovation opportunities and how to identify them. It is to this study of the sources of innovation that Mr. Drucker here addresses himself.     

论金融理论的创新

把金融看成是与货币流通相关的经济活动有它的合理性；把货币流通和信用活动包含在金融定义之内，强调金融是货币资金融通，有其合理性和局限性，把金融定义为“资本市场的运营、资本资产的供给与定价”是由融资活动的发展变化推进的；从方法论的角度说有从横向考察金融和从纵向考察金融；新近出版的博迪、莫顿合著的《金融学》在什么是金融、为会么要研究金融及怎样研究金融等方面都有创新。     

The World Bank's innovation market

Large, tradition-bound organizations can make space for radical, low-cost (and therefore low-risk) innovations. Just ask executives at the World Bank. The story of this best practice begins in 1998, when a young new-products group at the international funding agency proposed holding an Innovation Marketplace to capture novel ideas within the Bank for alleviating poverty. The forum, which eventually was opened to external participants, let people informally present their antipoverty ideas to potential funding sources. Funders could move among hundreds of booths and evaluate proposals for, say, a program that would provide postdisaster reconstruction insurance in developing countries or a vaccination development initiative. The marketplace truncated the Bank's standard project-review processes, which often stretched to a year or more, and gave funders permission to make commitments in the tens of thousands of dollars, rather than in the tens of millions more typical of Bank-financed projects. The marketplace concept met with some skepticism at the beginning. Some senior executives at the Bank felt no group had the right to spend the agency's money without following its well-established resource allocations process. But the marketplace team believed an open process for allocating grants would produce more breakthrough ideas in the long run than a centralized one. In this article, the authors describe how the new-products team brainstormed to create a market for ideas, how it got senior management's support, and how it has expanded on the original concept for these innovation marketplaces. The program's success, they contend, offers hope both for the world's poor and for business leaders looking to find new ideas under the hard crust of corporate dogma, conformance, and bureaucracy.     

百联汇模式:一种中小企业金融服务的创新模式

解决中国中小企业融资困难的问题不能仅仅依赖机制体制等外生的政策改革,也可结合中国实际,挖掘中小企业自身特点和优势,提高其内生的竞争力。百联汇金融创新模式是:区域内一定数量并达到标准的企业的实际控制人共同出资,依法组建企业法人,使成员企业间共享资源和金融服务平台,通过互     

The discipline of innovation. 1985

How much of innovation is inspiration, and how much is hard work? The answer lies somewhere in the middle, says management thinker Peter Drucker. In this HBR classic from 1985, he argues that innovation is real work that can and should be managed like any other corporate function. Success is more likely to result from the systematic pursuit of opportunities than from a flash of genius. Indeed, most innovative business ideas arise through the methodical analysis of seven areas of opportunity. Within a company or industry, opportunities can be found in unexpected occurrences, incongruities of various kinds, process needs, or changes in an industry or market. Outside a company, opportunities arise from demographic changes, changes in perception, or new knowledge. There is some overlap among the sources, and the potential for innovation may well lie in more than one area at a time. Innovations based on new knowledge tend to have the greatest effect on the marketplace, but it often takes decades before the ideas are translated into actual products, processes, or services. The other sources of innovation are easier and simpler to handle, yet they still require managers to look beyond established practices, Drucker explains. The author emphasizes that innovators need to look for simple, focused solutions to real problems. The greatest praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, "That's so obvious!" Grandiose ideas designed to revolutionize an industry rarely work. Innovation, like any other endeavor, takes talent, ingenuity, and knowledge. But Drucker cautions that if diligence, persistence, and commitment are lacking, companies are unlikely to succeed at the business of innovation.     

天士力商业模式的创新之处

看病难、看病贵是医药领域亟待破解的难题。在“传统行业企业如何借助新销售平台和市场生态变化创新商业模式”的专题论坛上,2013年安永企业家奖获得者、天津天士力控股集团创始人及董事局主席闫希军先生认为,在政府推行医药体制市场化的同时,医药企业也要主动出击,顺应改革方向,探索和创新商业模式。     

The innovation consequences of mandatory patent disclosures

We investigate the effect of patent disclosures on corporate innovation. Using the American Inventor's Protection Act (AIPA) as a shock that increased patent disclosures, we find an increase in innovation for firms whose rivals reveal more information after the AIPA and a decrease in innovation for firms whose own disclosures are divulged to competitors as a result of the law. These findings suggest patent disclosures generate both spillover benefits and proprietary costs. Our findings provide justification for patent disclosure requirements by demonstrating positive externalities: rivals' disclosures facilitate a firm's innovation. However, we also highlight that mandatory patent disclosures can impose proprietary costs on firms. These results broadly contribute to our understanding of the real effects of disclosure, such that forcing firms to share proprietary information can be privately costly but beneficial to other firms.     

中华文化金融的创新之路(续)

中国正成为全球文化金融市场第一大国,国际资本正提供中国向全球文化产品定价中心机会,各地方政府正面临产业转型,文化产业成为政策优惠的重点产业;机构资本投资文化产业已成潮流。中华文化金融创新正受到国家领导重视,有关产业政策正在落实中、处于地方政府大力支持、社会资本涌入、国际资本渗入的关键发展期,因此,创新道路选择极其重要。中华文化金融创新之路,需要高举中华文化复兴伟大旗帜,发挥文化与金融创新双优势,以"三高"标准,助力新四化,并通过资源、制     

国能生物：全球生物质发电的领航者

＂十大绿色创新企业＂的评选活动在《国际融资》杂志评选项目工作组及55位评委、5位独立评审顾问和联合国工业发展组织国际环境资源监督管理机构的共同努力下,历时半年时间,终于揭晓。     

第三届融洽会将推出更多创新

根据中国企业国际融资洽谈会组委会新闻发布会披露：第三届中国企业国际融资洽谈会将于2009年6月10日至12日在天津举行。应对国际金融危机,第三届“融洽会”继续秉承“参与全球资本流动,创建直接融资平台,服务企业健康成长,促进区域经济合作”的宗旨,以“创新谋发展、合作求共赢”为主题,将“资本对接、快速约会、资本交易”作为会议核心,进一步加大直接融资的规模和比重,     

Enlightened experimentation. The new imperative for innovation

The high cost of experimentation has long put a damper on companies' attempts to create great new products. But new technologies are making it easier than ever to conduct complex experiments quickly and cheaply. Companies now have an opportunity to take innovation to a whole new level--if they're willing to rethink their R&D from the ground up.     

创新型高科技中小企业融资需求旺盛

招商银行行长马蔚华在融洽会上谈到金融要支持高科技企业发展时指出：中央政府提出经济转型。转型就是逐渐从传统的经济模式中走出来,而各种各样的股权基金,应该是和新兴产业连在一起的。转型必然推动创新,而创新必然给股权投资基金带来机遇     

Open-market innovation

Companies in many industries are feeling immense pressure to improve their ability to innovate. Even in these tough economic times, executives have pushed innovation initiatives to the top of their priority lists, but they know that the best ideas aren't always coming out of their own R&D labs. That's why a growing number of companies are exploring the idea of open-market innovation--an approach that uses tools such as licensing, joint ventures, and strategic alliances to bring the benefits of free trade to the flow of new ideas. For instance, when faced with the unanticipated anthrax scare last fall, Pitney Bowes had nothing in its R&D pipeline to help its customers combat the deadly spores. So it sought help from outside innovators to come up with scanning and imaging technologies that could alert its customers to tainted letters and packages. And Dow Chemical and Cargill jointly produced a new form of plastic derived from plant starches--a breakthrough product that neither company could have created on its own. In this article, Bain consultants Darrell Rigby and Chris Zook describe the advantages and disadvantages of open-market innovation and the ways some companies are using it to gain competitive advantage. By importing ideas from the outside, the authors say, companies can collect more and better ideas from different kinds of experts. Creative types within a company will stick around longer if they know their ideas will eventually find a home--as internal R&D projects or as concepts licensed to outside buyers. Exporting ideas also gives companies a way to measure an innovation's real value. However, the authors warn against entering into open-market innovation without properly structuring deals: Xerox and TRW virtually gave away their innovations and had to stand by while other companies capitalized on them.     

The dark side of analyst coverage: The case of innovation

We examine the effects of financial analysts on the real economy in the case of innovation. Our baseline results show that firms covered by a larger number of analysts generate fewer patents and patents with lower impact. To establish causality, we use a difference-in-differences approach that relies on the variation generated by multiple exogenous shocks to analyst coverage, as well as an instrumental variable approach. Our identification strategies suggest a negative causal effect of analyst coverage on firm innovation. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that analysts exert too much pressure on managers to meet short-term goals, impeding firms' investment in long-term innovative projects. We further discuss possible underlying mechanisms through which analysts impede innovation and show that there is a residual effect of analysts on innovation even after controlling for these mechanisms. Our paper offers novel evidence on a previously under-explored adverse consequence of analyst coverage—its hindrance to firm innovation.