Thomas Edison’s most important achievement was the development of an effective incandescent light bulb. Most people believe he invented the light bulb but in fact he improved upon a 50 year old idea. 50 years to create what we now know to be one of the most important inventions of the 19th century.
Imagine if he was armed with today’s innovation management tools. Imagine if everyone were. It’s fair to say that perhaps Humphry Davy (the first to invent the electric light) would have emerged the father of the light bulb had he been given access to the wisdom of the crowd.
The Innovation Management Players
While it doesn’t take 50 years to bring new products to market anymore, it still takes much longer than it should. The innovation management companies Spigit, Jive Software and BrightIdea are looking to cut down an idea’s time to market while simultaneously surfacing the best ideas. Between the three of them, they have a lot of success stories that make the case.
The Innovation Management Guide
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Innovation |
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In 6 words or less |
Behavioral science meets innovation social network |
Social community driven innovation |
Full Lifecycle innovation Management |
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Key customers |
Cisco, Southwest Air, Pfizer |
Chordiant |
Adobe, American Express, Philips, Emerson |
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By the Way |
Amongst its portfolio, they have the only SMB focused solution |
The most recent innovation entrant |
The oldest of the group, this company was started in 1999 |
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Search Buzz Meter* |
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Web Traffic** |
30k/month |
10k/month |
48k/month |
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Cloud/SaaS enabled? |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
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The Videos |
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Known for? |
Algorithmically discovers winning ideas and people |
Community, Community, Community |
Being the first to market |
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Modules |
· Enterprise · Contest · Prediction Market · SharePoint · WE for SMB |
Ideation |
· Product · Marketing · Process · Organizational |
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Target Market |
Enterprise & SMB |
Enterprise |
Enterprise |
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Strengths |
Easy to use, many tools on their website to demonstrate the power of their software. |
Can leverage the Jive SBS platform to increase value of innovation module |
Has 300+ customers and good enterprise traction |
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Weaknesses |
Maybe spreading themselves a little thin with additional focus on SMB |
Needs a more specific focus like point solution players |
Needs more social media traction. Should work with E2.0 group to get more exposure |
| * from Google insights & trends. Jive meter for innovation module only. | **Est. traffic from Google Adplanner. Jive Traffic for innovation module only. |
Why you need Innovation Management
I’ve written about BrightIdea and Spigit before (here and here), and have been studying the innovation market for the past 6 months. While the natural inclination of most companies is to cut R&D spending in a recession, they should be doing the opposite. Lean times require innovation for growth.
Harnessing the wisdom of your employees, customers and suppliers allows you to find the best ideas, improve upon them and bring them to market. And don’t forget internal improvements as a result of executing on employee ideas. Both are a huge competitive advantage that will help position your company to better take advantage of better economic times. With innovation management solutions, it’s easier than ever before.
Enterprise Champion Recommendations
Every company looking to improve their financial situation through innovation should evaluate at least one of the solutions above. If you believe your company has a leg up on the competition already, be prepared to have your top competitors use one of these solutions to keep pace or try to surpass you.
Be equipped to enter a new era of the Red Queen effect. In other words, “it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place.” Your company will need to evolve through innovation and innovative practices to maintain a competitive edge.
I realize not every company is ready for innovation management solutions. So find a department or division that is and give it a shot. Start small and focus on progressive innovation. Meaning improve a process or idea and execute on it visibly. Learn from the experience and look for other areas to introduce the solution.
It takes guts to introduce change. It’s worked for me (mostly), but you need to have the stomach for it. If you do, there’s always room for more change agents.
(Cross-posted @ Seek Omega )
Very well written & researched article. I’ve been successfully implementing BrightIdea in Latin America, we developed the first-ever spanish language Webstorm. I would agree that their focus is in the complete lifecycle which is something I miss in other productos (what about Hype Innovation ?). Keep up the good work.
Interesting article, and a nicely done comparison, but please don’t forget about BrainBank as an innovation management provider. Truth is, we were the first to market over 12 years ago.
I truly believe that no other company understands the innovation process like we do. Spigit, Brightidea are nice tools, but when you dig deeper you’ll see that it was a collaboration platform, tweaked for innovation management, whereas ours was built from the start with innovation in mind.