A full day workshop by Chris Trimble, professor, author and speaker. Copenhagen, February 3rd at 09.00 – 16.30


“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Thomas Edison said it over a century ago, but nobody listened. When corporations launch innovation initiatives, they invest almost all of their resources in the initial one percent of the innovation journey — the thrilling hunt for the breakthrough idea.

Overview:

But the truth is that ideas are only beginnings. The far more difficult stage of the innovation challenge is moving forward — from inspiration to impact. Corporations achieve far less than their full potential in this area, because many executive subscribe to some surprisingly simplistic notions about how to make innovation happen — such as “Innovation is chaos. It can’t be managed…” or “Innovation can only take place in a skunk works, far removed from the rest of the organization.”

Based on eight years of intensive research, including case studies of a wide range of innovation initiatives both successful and unsuccessful, Chris Trimble has identified the best practices for organizing to innovate. This workshop will present the latest thinking in this crucial area.

Recommended advance reading:
Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, “Building Breakthrough Businesses Within Established Organizations”, Harvard Business Review, May 2005

Workshop schedule:
09.00 – 10:15: Innovation: Beyond the Idea
Presentation and Discussion

Innovation begins with high aspirations and inspired ideas. But then what? This session will challenge several popular notions about how to make innovation happen, and develop a better framework for organizing to innovate.

10:30 – 11:45: Innovation Teams
Case Example: New York Times Digital

What is the best way to build an innovation team? In what ways should the team adopt a company’s organizational norms, and in what ways should it depart from those norms?

11:45 – 12:45 Lunch

12:45 – 13:45 Application Exercise
Team Work with Coaching

How would you build the right innovation team for your specific innovation initiative? Who would be on the team? Where would they come from (internal, outside hires, through small acquisitions)? How would the team organize its work? What relationships would be needed with the rest of the company? What tensions would naturally arise in those relationships? How could they be managed or mitigated?

14:00 – 15:30 Innovation Initiatives: Planning and Learning from Experience
Case Example: Hasbro Interactive

A central discipline of innovation is the discipline of learning from experience, a process that is closely tied to the planning process. However, most of what executives familiar with mature businesses have learned about planning disrupts learning. When moving from plans that are 90% based on knowledge and 10% based on assumptions to one that is 10% based on knowledge and 90% based on assumptions, the very foundations of traditional planning practices crumble. This session will show what custom planning frameworks for innovation initiatives should look like.

15:45 – 16:45 Application Exercise
Team Work with Coaching (real life case from participating company)

Describe, in simple terms that you can explain to anyone, what the path to success for your innovation initiative looks like. What do you plan to spend money on, and why? What do you expect to happen? What assumptions have you made? What are the most critical unknowns? How can you test them? Describe the special managerial forum that you will set up to validate assumptions. How will it operate differently from your company’s routine planning meetings?

16:45 – 17:00 Wrap up

Price:
DKK 4,500 per participant.

Registration:
By e-mail to stefan@intrap.com.