Business Innovation Articles

Introduction to business innovation
A quick introduction to business innovation -- Read more...

Leading Diverse Teams
Diverse teams are more innovative and smarter than homogeneous ones. But, they are also harder to manager. Here are some tips. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Questions you should ask when an innovative project fails
You can learn a lot from the failure of an innovative project, but you need to ask the right questions. Here are those questions. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Unmarketing the Competition
A look at creative, but unethical dirty trick marketing campaigns designed to damage the competition By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Imaginativefulness and the Fisherman
What does a fisherman wearing a cycling helmet have to do with imaginativefulness? Quite a lot, it seems. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Actually, Criticising Ideas Is Good for Creativity
People have long assumed criticising ideas in a brainstorm inhibits creativity. Research and experience shows that is wrong By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Imaginativefulness
Imaginativefulness is a state of heightened imagination in which your mind allows thoughts, memories and ideas to play with each other freely. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why and How to Exploit Alternative Uses for Your Products
Discovering new ways customers use, misuse and could use your products can inspire innovation. Jeffrey Baumgartner explains. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Cost of Not Innovating
If your company fails to innovate, you pay a steep price in terms of loss of leadershop, tight margins, missed opportunities and more. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Don't Trust the Status Quo
Jeffrey Baumgartner has never trusted the status quo. He explains why this is so and why you should also not trust the status quo By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

In Innovation, Good Enough Is Good Enough
Corporate people tend to perfect ideas before launching them. Entrepreneurs launch when their ideas are good enough and marketable. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Thought Experiments for Innovation
Creative scientists have long used thought experiments to develop ideas. Innovation leaders should do so too. I explain. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation = Change
When the CEO talks, 'innovation', employees hear 'change'. Understanding this is important to the success of your innovation initiative By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How to Evaluate Ideas
Evaluating ideas is a critical part of your innovation initiative. Jeffrey Baumgartner looks at evaluation methods and makes suggestions. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Battling Ideas
While you are innovating, your competitors are too. This can have an effect on your own innovation and it something you need to plan for. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

12 Ways to Motivate Your Team to Be Creative
A dozen things any manager can do to inspire creative thinking in her direct reports, colleagues and organisation By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Open Innovation Revisited
Open innovation was all the rage a few years ago, now it seems out of fashion? But is it? Not necessarily says Jeffrey Baumgartner By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

No Time for Innovation? Think Again!
Employees claim they have no time for innovation. That's not true. Rather, they do not believe innovation is a true priority. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How to Make Innovative Change Work For You
Innovation leads to change and people often do not like that. Giving them a stake in the innovation works wonders. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Four Types of Ideas, Their Values and the IIPI
Categorise ideas to these four types and use the innovation initiative performance indicator (IIPI) to innovate better and measure results. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

If Innovation Is Going Out of Style, Why Innovate
The innovation trend is passing. You've got too much work to do already. Why bother innovating? Allow me to explain. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Seven Ways to Sell Ideas to Decision Makers
In large organisations, selling innovative ideas to decision makers can be challenging. Here are seven approaches you can use By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Gossip Can Help Your Company Innovate Better
With a bit of creativity and subterfuge, gossip can help your company innovate better by facilitating the introduction of new ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Ten Crazy Things to Do with Your Company This Month
Innovative companies need to have a culture of creativity. These ten unusual actions can help bring about that culture. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Introduce a Bit of Chaos to Your Business
The world of business is becoming increasingly orderly, structured and formatted. However, creativity and innovation require a bit of chaos. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Ten Rules for Innovative Teams
Teams can drive innovation or they can stifle it. Advice for innovative leaders on how to manage innovative teams By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

A Routine of Creativity
If organisations want creative employees developing innovative ideas, they need to establish a routine of creativity By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

After your new product innovation
When you launch an innovative new product, it is no time to rest. You need to keep innovating. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Solving Complex Problems
Business leaders and their teams frequently need to solve complex problems. Their best tool to do this is their imagination. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Make People Care About Your Business
How and why to use creativity to make your customers care about you, your products and your business By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Don't Capture Ideas. Play With Them
Businesspeople focus on capturing ideas using unproven tools. They should play with ideas like children and artists instead. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Imagination Is the Root of Innovation
Imagination is an under-appreciated, critical and magical element of innovation. Pity it is so neglected. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creativity Spans a Spectrum
Creativity is not boolean. It exists on a spectrum from not at all creative to super creative and probably on to insanity. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

A New Approach to Organisational Creativity
Perhaps companies are doing creativity wrong. Rather than try to make employees more creative, hire people exclusively to be creative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Be Different or Else
To succeed, businesses need to be different, but it is not easy in an environment of conformity. Creativity is the solution. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Small Innovations with Massive Impact
Breakthrough innovations are usually complex and risky to implement. But not always. Here are three simple inventions that changed the world. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Wrong Way and the Right Way to Motivate Creativity
Typical corporate innovation activities have a way of killing creativity. Here's a simple way to make it thrive. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Design Your Innovation System Backwards to Move Forward
Most innovation process are designed from idea to implementation and fail. It is better to do it backwards. Here's why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Business Leaders Say Creativity Is Important, But...
Business leaders say they need more creative people and ideas. Their actions speak differently. This article explains. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why It Is Best to Introduce a Culture of Innovation Slowly
If you want to make an uninnovative company innovative, do not force them to change quickly; instead encourage slow, steady change. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Question Everything. Really.
Questioning everything is essential to creativity, critical to innovation and a really, really good thing to do in general. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Efficiency Innovation: How to Find Cost Cutting Ideas
There are all kinds of creative ways you can cut costs, reduce wastage and improve efficiency. Here are a few ways to find those ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creativity Is Breaking Things and Playing with The Parts
Breaking things into pieces, playing with the pieces and creating somethign new is a big part of creativity. Business could learn from this. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Great Disconnect Between Creativity and Application
Companies are hiring creative people because it is tendy, but then failing to apply that creativity. That's not good. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Idea Insurance
Creative ideas are risky things, so why not insure them against failure and mitigate the risk of innovation? By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Importance of Standing Out from the Crowd
Many businesses are afraid to stand out and be original. Instead, they copy their competitors and blend in. This is not a route to success. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

It Pays Better to Improve Inventions than to Invent
Successful innovators tend not to be inventors with bold new ideas, but copiers who fundamentally improve upon inventors' ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Right Way to Exploit Women
Employing women is a good start. Promoting them, listening to them and partnering with them is even better. Here's why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Eight Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Story
Having a story gives your company meaning, sets a strategic vision, makes innovation easier, communicates your values and more. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Is Your Strategic Vision Visionary or Boring?
Your strategic vision statement comprises the most important words your company ever writes. You need to be visionary. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

MBTI, Brainstorming and Making Employees Feel Good
MBTI and brainstorming don't work. Companies use them because they make people feel good. There's a better way to do that. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Twisted Innovation in the Airline Industry
Many airlines have a strange concept of innovation: provide a dismal customer experience in hopes customers pay for upgrades. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Dark Side of Big Data and the Internet of Things
Business leaders are excited about the opportunities of big data and the Internet of Things, however there are somethings we should worry about too, like the end of life as we know it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation Is Past Its Sell By Date
Business innovation is going out of style. Sure, some companies will still innovate and most will improve things from time to time. But there will be a lot less talk about innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Four Stages of Disruptive Innovation Victimhood
Distruptive innovation is great - when you are the disruptor. This is what happens to victims of game changing innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Three Lies Business Leaders Tell About Innovation
When it comes to business innovation, leaders tend to be creative with the truth rather than creative with ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Power of Role Play in Creative Training
Well designed and executed role play is a powerful tool in training, creative idea testing and preparing your team for the unexpected. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Your Smartphone Represents One of the Biggest Threats to Your Business Today
Apps on smartphones are threatening businesses in all sectors. Yours may be next. This article describes the phenomena and how to use creativity to be prepared. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video: Your Mobile Phone Represents One of the Biggest Threats to Your Business Today
Two minute video on threat of smartphones to business and how to use creative thinking to revert the threat. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Business Metrics Are Evil
Businesses have become increasingly obsessed with metrics. This is great for number crunchers but bad for creative thinkers and innovators. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

When Legislative Change Threatens Your Business
A major worry of CEOs is legislative change that could affect their businesses. We look at why this is a concern and how creativity can prepare businesses for legal change. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Importance of Day-to-Day Creativity in Business
Creativity in business is not only about inspiring innovation.It is also a way to continually improve the organisation as well as the quality of the working environment. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Define Your Strategic Vision and Innovation Comes Naturally
Many businesses desperately try to innovate and fail. They should pursure their strategic visions - or define their visions if they are unclear. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video: So You Want to Hire Creative People
A short video for managers, human resource professionals or anyone else wanting to hire creative thinkers and innovators By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

A Christmas Innovation Case Study
In the fourth century, Roman Christian leaders wondered how to sell their religion to the pagan populace. Innovators could learn from their approach. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Don't Let Innovation Spoil the Fun of Creativity
Creativity sessions are great fun. Implementing creative ideas can be a chore. This article suggests ways to make implementing innovative ideas more fun. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Learn Innovation from the Experts: Children
Children are unquestionably creative creatures. Business leaders should learn from them when it comes to developing innovative ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovate Your Innovation
If your company generates lots of ideas, but implements few of them, you need to innovate your innovation process. Here's how to do it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Unauthorised Innovation
When an innovative idea is unlikely to be approved, sometimes the best approach is to take a chance and simply do it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video - Nonverbal Idea Building
A short video on nonverbal idea generation, a visual alternative to brainstorming in which teams use toys or other materials to build creative ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Six Things That Suck the Life Out of Corporate Creativity
Although most companies employ lots of creative people, they also do things that suck the creativity out of their employees. We look at six examples of this and what you can do about it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

When Innovation Becomes Evil
Innovation without respect to values can lead companies to do seemingly evil things. Here's how to prevent that from happening. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Seven Reasons Why Businesses need more play
Businesses today are, well, too businesslike. They should incorporate more play in their operations in order to promote innovation, problem-solving, concept testing and stress reduction. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why Productivity Monitoring is Deadly for Innovation
Productivity monitoring technology is great for monitoring productivity, but lousy for innovation. Here's why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Don't Capture Ideas - Play With Them
Businesses tend to capture ideas and then shove them through a funnel for evaluation, approval and development. The results are not very creative. Artists, authors, composers and other creatives play with ideas and make them more creative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why You Should Pay Attention to Innovation in Developing Economies
It is easy to believe that innovation is the prerogative of North America, Europe and other developed countries. But the truth is, there is incredible innovation happening in developing economies as well. Business leaders in the west should take note. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Challenge Me With Your Problems, Goals and Questions
I've been writing about creativity and innovation for years and I'm starting to repeat myself. So, I would like you to challenge me with questions, suggestions and problems about which I might write. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How to Deliver Effective Incremental Innovation
Suggestion schemes, idea management and brainstorms result in lots of ideas that are never implemented. There is a better approach which leads to effective and efficient incremental innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovate Through Visionary Exploitation
The most successful product and service innovations over the years have not been invention, but visionary exploitation of other people's inventions. Learn what visionary exploitation is and how you can use it to innovate like a hero. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creative People Are Outsiders
True creative thinkers tend to be outsiders, non-conformists, rebels. This is clear. Unfortunately, many managers and innovation consultants fail to realise this and, as a result, miss out on potential breakthrough ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why Calls to Action are Great for Innovation
If you want to develop some great, innovative ideas, try using a Call to action rather than a problem statement. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation Has Feelings
Learn how acknowledging, understanding and using feelings in your innovation process is a successful stategy By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Celebrate Failure? Please Don�t!
The myth of failure and risk sounds good: celebrate failure, embrace failure, fail fast. But this is misleading at best. Dr Michael Ohler explains. By Michael Ohler -- Read the article...

Five Minute Innovation
Learn how you can become an innovator in just five minutes. All you need is an idea. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How Prospect Theory Predicts Innovation
Why is it that big, moderately profitable companies tend to be poor at innovating while small start-ups do it easily? Why do companies in financial trouble innovate? Prospect theory may answer some of these questions. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why You Should Take Your Innovation Off-Site
If your company is not innovating in spite your best efforts, consider taking the entire innovation process off-site. Not just the idea generation bit, but the entire process. It will encourage innovation while reducing unnecessary risk. Here's why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Magic of Multilevel Questions
Anticonventional thinking, brainstorming, ideas campaigns are based around a question or challenge. But why stop at one question? Multilevel questions can be incredibly effective. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creativity Is Seeing New Patterns
We humans are programmed to see and interpret patterns. In general, this is a good thing. But, it can stifle creativity. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Un-Innovation Consultant
After dreaming about becoming an uninnovation consultant, I contemplate the inefficiency of corporate innovation systems. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Too Many Ideas? Make a Plan Instead
Does your organisation generate too many ideas that never seem to go anywhere? If so, stop generating ideas and start generating creative plans. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation Is Dead. Long Live Innovation.
I am sorry to have to tell you this, but business innovation is dead. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Success = Value + Innovation
The mistake a lot of creative would-be entrepreneurs make is that they believe they only need to have a good idea and the ability to realise it in order to launch a successful business. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How To Make Your Big Company Super-Innovative in One Easy Step
If a company really wants to become an innovation powerhouse, there is one simple action they can take: fire the CEO and hire a new one with a focused vision. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Not Being Creative Boosts Creativity
In spite of all the noise about the importance of creativity, it is ridiculous to think you need to be creative all the time. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Break Three Rules to Innovate
If you are a good guy or gal, one who follows the rules and toes the line, you probably are not innovating very well. So, it's time to be less good, more naughty and break a few rules. Here are the three you should break. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why Innovation Must Respect Corporate Values
When innovation is not in line with corporate values, trouble is almost certain to ensue. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How to Define a Great Innovation Strategy
A great innovation strategy ensures people develop relevant ideas, facilitates implementation of those ideas and leads to true innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Collecting Ideas Is Killing Your Innovation
If your innovation process is about capturing lots of ideas, you are making a serious mistake. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Your Innovation To Do List
Six Things You Really Need to Do in Your Company This Year By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Seven Innovation Tips
Here are seven not-so-obvious things you can do to make your company more innovative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Do Not Think About Hamburgers
Do Not Think About Hamburgers and Other Essential Tips on Product Innovation By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creativity and the Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs need to be creative -- and not just in terms of having a great business idea. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Everyone Hates Your Brilliant Idea
Everyone Hates Your Brilliant Idea - at least at first. But persevere and one day everyone will adore it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Bosses in Brainstorms
It is the nightmare of every brainstorm facilitator: the boss joins in and then criticises an idea. When this happens, most facilitators do the wrong thing. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Five Things the CEO Can Do to Encourage Creativity
According to a survey by IBM, a vast majority of corporate CEOs say creativity is important to their companies. I suggest five actions those CEOs can take. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Don't Count on Customer Creativity
Asking your customers for ideas is a great way to catch up with your more innovative competitors. But it is a lousy way to innovate. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Saving Awesome Ideas from Death by Stagnation
Imagine one of your colleagues has a killer idea. What can she do with it? If you cannot answer, you should read this article! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovate What Your Customers Buy
What you think you sell and what your customers buy from you are two different things. Innovation should focus on what your customers buy. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Idea Management Heroes
The best reason to use idea management software is not to collect lots of ideas, but to identify your idea management heroes. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Be Boring to Be Creative
Stuck for creative ideas? Here's a new method for you: be creative by not being uncreative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Seven Deadly Consequences of Uncreativity
Creativity is promoted as a good thing for any organisation. In fact, it is much more than that. It is essential to any business's survival. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Got a Problem? Dance!
Dynamic problem solving is a new approach to understanding and solving problems, especially problems involving several individuals. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Glorious Mistakes
How does your company deal with mistakes? If continuous learning from your employees, innovation and even breakthrough innovation are important to you, it is critical you embrace mistakes � at least as sources for learning and invention. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

My anticonventional thinking talk at TEDx
I spoke about anticonventional thinking at TEDxULB. Here is the video. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Giving Your Business Personality Is Good Business
A quick, illustrated introduction to anthropomorphic analysis -- a new concept for giving personality to your business. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Humanise Your Business
Big data is the big thing in big business -- but at a cost of humanness. Learn why having a human face to your company is in your interests By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why Employees Often Despise Innovation
People say they love innovation, but they often hate the innovations themselves. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Innovation Manager's Dilemma
If you have been made innovation manager in your firm, you have to decide how you want to approach your job. Here are three suggestions. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Consultant, Innovate Thyself
Seven things every creativity & innovation consultant should do to innovate their businesses. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Podcast Interview
I Speak with Mukesh Gupta about Creativity, Innovation and Anticonventional Thinking By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

ACT 3.0 White Paper
A new, updated white paper on anticonventional thinking (ACT). Download link. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation by Visualisation
Most business idea generation initiatives use language. I suggest you visualise situations to be truly creative By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Realistic Expectation of Implementation
If you or one of your colleagues proposes a very creative, relevant and viable idea, can you reasonably expect the idea to be implemented in your organisation? If not, there is no hope for your innovation initiative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

ACT vs Brainstorming
A brief comparison between anticonventional thinking (ACT) and brainstorming. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Stop Talking Innovation
One way to boost innovation in your organisation might be to use the word innovation less. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Are You Being Taken Seriously?
The greatest danger to any corporate innovation initiative and the team in charge is not being taken seriously by colleagues and especially management. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

A Dangerous Obsession with Ideas
The world of innovation has an unhealthy love for large quantities of ideas and this is bad for innovation By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Why Your Colleagues Put Their Own Innovation First
Your more creative employees are continually looking for ideas relevant to their work. This distracts them from corporate innovation initiatives. But you should still help them. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Rewards Headaches
Rewards in an innovation initiative are more complicated than many people realise. Worse, if you get them wrong, you discourage idea sharing. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creative Risk
How crazy can you and your colleagues safely go before you run the risk of being thought crazy, unbusinesslike or worse? The answer to this question is important to your innovation potential. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Your Most Dangerous Competitors
You probably think your most dangerous competitor is one of those companies producing products like yours. You are wrong. It is a start up with an idea for a disruptive innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Idealess Ideation
Most business innovation actions result in lots of ideas and little implementation. Try these techniques to generate visions that are ready to implement. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How to Get Great Ideas from Your Team
Brainstorms, ideas campaigns and other corporate ideation activities are artificial processes designed to induce creativity. There is a better way... By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

International & Multicultural Teams
Diverse teams are creative teams and since creativity feeds innovation, diverse teams are also great for innovation. Leading a team with people from other countries and cultures is a fantastic way to add diversity. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

To Be a Winner, You Need to Be Unconventional
This may seem obvious, but the problem with conventional thinking is that it does not lead to truly new ideas, creativity or innovation. For these, you need to flush conventional thinking down the toilet and be unconventional. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Pimp Your Suggestion Scheme
If your business has an idea management system in place, I have some suggestions on how to get better results with it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Packaging
Packaging innovation is an important part of product innovation. Find out why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Seven Things the Competent Innovation Manager Should Know
If you have been promoted (or perhaps demoted) to the position of Innovation Manager, do not panic! Read this article instead! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How to Implement Your Creative Vision
Having ideas is easy. Having creative visions is harder. Turning them into innovations is most challenging of all. But never fear, I have a method for you! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Danger of Voting for Ideas
Why voting in suggestion schemes does not successfully identify creative ideas By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Storycreation
Storycreation uses storytelling as a tool for visualising the implementation of an idea from conception to implementation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Buzzword Problem
Every business has its buzzwords -- and they serve a purpose. But they are bad for creativity. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Your Unlikable Creative Idea
If you want to generate really creative ideas, you need to stop trying to please and focus on maybe being stupid. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Don�t Be Surprised By Your Customers
Companies should stop being surprised by their customers, as often this is not good news. Rather they should understand their customer experience needs. By Jagan Nemani -- Read the article...

It's All About Profit
Ultimately, every business's goal is to make a profit. Innovation must contribute to that profit in order to be worth doing. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Too Much Talk -- Insufficient Action
Creativity and innovation can easily get bogged down in lots of talk and no action. Learn from children. Shut up and play! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video: Creativity & Beer: Innovation vs. Vision
Learn why the world's most innovative companies do not focus on innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Every Company Is Innovative
Just like everybody is creative, every company is innovative. But the good news is, there is unlimited scope to boost the innovativeness of your company. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovative Feelings
When it comes to feelings, business innovation gets it all wrong. It takes into account feelings when it should not and then ignore feelings when it should take them into serious consideration. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Strategy and Innovation
Leading innovators know that innovation is merely a tool for achieving strategic goals. Learn more! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creative Event Generates THREE Ideas!
Discover why Jeffrey is excited about generating three ideas when many brainstorms and crowdsourcing events generate 100s and 1000s of ideas. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Where Do You Put the Creativity?
If you want creative ideas, do not focus your creativity on the idea generation. Focus it on the goal statment By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Implement Big Ideas with Baby Steps
Personal development planning can teach innovators a thing or two about implementing creative ideas and change. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

When Brainstorming Works
Brainstorming has righly come under a lot of criticism lately. But it does have its uses... By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Optimism and Innovation
Optimism is a key ingredient to Innovation. Fernando de Sousa explains why. By de Sousa Fernando Cardosa -- Read the article...

Sell Your Idea Through Fear
Rather than sell your idea on its benefits, sell it on the consequences of doing nothing. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

How Status Quo Bias Can Kill Innovation
Status quo bias is an irrational cognitive bias to avoid change. We all have it. But it can be bad news for your innovation initiative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Hiring Creative Employees
Business leaders say they want more creative employees. This is not reflected in job advertising. Learn more about how to find and hire creative people. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Job Pressure, Priority and Innovation
Employees complain that they do not have time to innovate. This because they fail to prioritise innovation. Learn why in this article. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

7 Essential Characteristics of Innovative Companies
Learn what are the seven essential characteristics of innovative companies. Hint: none of them are directly about innovation! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

No UK companies in Top 100 Global Innovators List?
No UK companies in Top 100 Global Innovators List? Then, It Is Time to take a long look at your Innovation Eco-Systems By Simon Evans -- Read the article...

Training in CPS Without A Training Session?
Training in CPS Without A Training Session? The fourth in a series of articles by Fernando de Sousa on Creative Problem Solving. By de Sousa Fernando Cardosa -- Read the article...

The Fuzzy Back End of Innovation
Most companies have set up a fuzzy front end to their innovation process; but not a fuzzy back end. The result is detrimental to innovation. Learn why! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Anticonventional Thinking and Implementation
Anticonventional thinking (ACT) makes implementation easy, in part because it focuses on developing a big idea to achieve a goal. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Best Ideas Are Never Very Creative
A truly creative idea, the kind of idea that has the potential to become a breakthrough innovation is seldom the best solution to the problem or the best path to achieving a goal. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

A Mental Investment
State supported mental healthcare should be a priority for every country claiming it wants a creative and innovative population. Jeffrey Explains why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Making sure your IP is protected
You've created an amazing product and you are ready to introduce it to the world. One of the most important considerations for an entrepreneur bringing a new product to market is intellectual property protection. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creativity, Innovation and Cake
People are confusing the terms By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Going Against the Crowd
With the growing popularity of open innovation, crowdsourcing and web based suggestion schemes where the best ideas are decided by popular votes, many of us tend to forget a very simply truism: creative people do not follow the crowd By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Designing the Perfect Ideas Competition
If you want to run an innovation competition in your company, this is the way to do it. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Goals Are Sexier than Problems
Creativity is oftern perceived to be about problem solving. However, I believe that we should make it more about attaining gaols. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Has Innovation Lost Its Meaning?
Has the word innovation become so overused that it no longer has any real meaning? I believe so. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Defining Innovation
Looking at innovation with a new definition: Innovation = changing your world for the better By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

World's Best Approach to Innovation
Forming small, autonomous teams and teaching them to use anticonventional thinking is the best approach big companies can take to innovation By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Become the Problem Innovation
When you want real insight into problems that you are trying to solve through creativity, try becoming the problem. It's fun and effective! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Anti-Science Threatens America�s Innovation
The biggest threat facing America today is not the economy, it is not the growing divide between the rich and the poor. It is the growing anti-science movement. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Start From Scratch Conceptually
Government, business and people can easily become bogged down by procedures and processes that harm efficiency and kill innovation. The obvious solution is to start from scratch. Learn how. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Feel Good Pseudo-Innovation
Some innovation initiatives are more about making people feel good than they are about innovation. But that is ok! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Nine Rules of Creative Leadership
The nine principals rules of creative leadership: what every creative leader needs to know! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Threatstorming
Threatstorming is a creative approach to identifying potential threats and risks to your business. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Meeting and the Wrong Problem
A very short story about Jeffrey helping a client find the right problem By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video Interview: Innovation vs. Vision
Margaret Manson, Chief Inspirator of Innofuture, interviews Jeffrey Baumgartner about innovation vs. vision, his book and more. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video: Creativity and Leadership: The 3Cs
The 3Cs is a simple, yet powerful technique that you can use to motivate people on your team to share and develop creative ideas. Learn more by watching this video! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Interview with Jeffrey (in Portuguese)
Jeffrey Baumgartner is interviewed on National Portuguese radio on matters relating to creativity, innovation and improving the Algarve region. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation vs. Vision
Truly innovative companies do not focus on innovation, rather they focus on relentlessly chasing their strategy By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Your Future Depends on Creativity
The world is changing your future, and your children's future, depends on your creativity! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video: Jeffrey on Open Innovation
A short video of Jeffrey Baumgartner talking about open innovation for small and medium sized businesses. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Open Innovation for Small Companies
Open innovation is not just for big companies with massive research budgets. Even small companies can benefit from open innovation. Learn how! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Beware the Cult of Ideas
The Cult of Ideas is a dangerous phenomenon in innovation, one that more and more companies fall prey to. What about your company? By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Motivate Your Team to Be More Creative with the Three Cs
Most organisations kill off new ideas before they have really been considered. Learn why and learn a simple technique you can use to encourage creative ideas! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Video - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
A video clip on "Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us" By Dan Pink -- Read the article...

10 Steps to Boost Corporate Innovation
Ten quick steps that will lead your firm to corporate innovation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Innovation Process
A description of the business innovation process complete with a cartoon illustration showing work flow in the process. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Metrics for Idea Generation
Metrics for Idea Generation discusses the selection of metrics for idea generation projects, and the management of the process given its� inputs and outputs. By Dr. Brian Glassman -- Read the article...

Cost cutting idea management
How to use idea management to identify innovative means of reducing operational costs. This article could save you millions! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation: Back to the Basics
A lack of common jargon is detrimental to the innovation business and the business of innovation! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

If at First You Don't Succeed, Learn!
Sometimes potentially great ideas do not work out. When this happens, it should not be seen as a failure. Rather it is an opportunity to learn and innovate! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

A Dozen Ingredients for a Culture of Innovation
A culture of innovation is very simply a workplace environment that constantly encourages people to think creatively and facilitates implementing creative ideas so that they may become innovations. Read about the key ingredients here. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Your Innovation Manifesto
If your firm is going to get serious about innovation, you probably need an innovation manifesto laying out changes. We've written one up for you. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation Process Management
Innovation Process Management is a comprehensive approach to running a sustainable innovation initiative in your organisation. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Innovation Strategies for a Recession
Learn about the innovation strategies your firm should adopt in order to grow during the current economic downturn By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Downsizing Workforce Downsizes Innovation
Learn why mass lay-offs are deadly dangerous to your firm's innovation potential. You may be surprised! By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Rewarding Innovation
A reward scheme can make or kill an innovation initiative. Learn more about the theory and practice of sensible innovation rewards practice and learn what mistakes to avoid. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Free idea evaluator
An easy to use on-line tool that allows you to evaluate an idea using an evaluation matrix. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Creative Idea Implementation Plan
Implementing creative ideas can be more challenging than implementing other projects. The creative idea implementation plan is a easy to follow framework specifically designed to help you implement creative ideas effectively and profitably. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

KISS: Keep Innovation Simple, Sweetheart
There is a tendency today to innovate in order to make products and processes more complex. Often this can be a mistake. Read about the benefits of innovating for simplicity. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Are Your Ideas Audacious Enough?
In most business ideas, there is a direct correlation between how audacious and risky an idea is and its innovativeness and reward potential. Learn why the most innovative ideas are usually the most audacious. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The Corporate Innovation Machine
The corporate innovation machine is a model for understanding how to implement an effective, idea management based innovation strategy in your firm. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Introduction to Idea Management (PDF file,475KB)
An eight page, heavily illustrated booklet that explains in simple language the basic principles about idea management and idea flow in enterprises. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Communication and Innovation
Good communication is critical to good organisational innovation. Learn why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

The risk of an idea
Why innovative people in your firm may not be sharing their best ideas By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Individual vs. organisational innovation
Organisational innovation is entirely different from individual innovation. It is important to understand why. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Big and little innovation
Why incremental innovation is just as important as radical innovation By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Four Kinds of Corporate Innovation
Learn about the four kinds of corporate innovation and how to promote each within your firm. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Idea Flow
Learn about the different kinds of idea flow in organisations and why four dimensional idea flow is best. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Destroy Your Assumptions
Learn why you may be making dangerous assumptions that limit your ability to innovate. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Evaluating ideas
Learn how to quickly determine whether an idea is likely to work By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Calculating the costs and returns on idea management
Find out how to calculate the costs of implementing idea management and what kind of return on investment you can expect. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Organisational creativity - the top ten enablers (PDF document: 212kb)
As part of a masters degree research project Wayne Morris surveyed a range of New Zealand organisations with the intention of identifying the factors that enable organisational creativity. These are his top ten. By Wayne Morris -- Read the article...

Review of the Main Principles of the Creative Process (PDF document: 202kb)
This article highlights the fundamental processes involved in creative thinking, including analysis, analogy, synthesis, and transition to initial causes or objectives, using clear illustrations and examples. By Dr. Stephen Sweid -- Read the article...

The Great Innovation Lie
A lot of expensive consultants are these days touting highly complicated innovation structures to firms like yours. However, highly structured innovation systems inevitably fail because they do not provide freedom to be creative. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Ideas: the Tip of the Iceberg (PDF document; 134kb)
Establishing a culture of innovation in a company results in so much more than just ideas. By Maren Baermann -- Read the article...

Decision Maker
The Zda Decision maker is a fun shockwave animation that can help you make decisions. Enjoy By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Idea management
A quick and dirty introduction to the basic principles idea management By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...

Team role-play
Team role-playing is a fun, but effective means of getting your staff to take a more creative approach to typical problems and situations. By Jeffrey Baumgartner -- Read the article...