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... you'll find that you'll be more successful at building product -- or extracting, refining and selling petroleum based products in BP's case -- if you follow these philosophically simple, albeit operationally challenging steps:

1. Management Leadership
2. Respect for People (employees, customers, suppliers, stakeholders, communities)
3. A Scientific Approach to Continuous Improvement (e.g., Plan-Do-Check-Act, Standardized Methods)
4. Cross-Functional Cooperation and Teamwork
5. Training, Knowledge and Skill Development
6. Responsibility and Accountability (throughout the organization)

These characteristics are the makings of any effective, sustainable world-class organization. We could add a few things to the list, but these are the basic essential ingredients. If one or more of these features goes missing, the organization will certainly underperform, or worse, find itself in a position like BP.

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Notes from The Marketing Leadership Roundtable webinar “Employee-Driven Innovation: BT's Innovation Central”

http://tinyurl.com/mbso3r

“As marketers struggle to improve their innovation pipelines with fewer dedicated resources, many are experimenting with employee-driven innovation strategies. Unfortunately, most marketers find that few employees have the combination of skills, context, and motivation needed to make meaningful contributions to their innovation agendas.”

Key points

Why innovate? In soft economic conditions, companies that don't invest in innovation don't rebound as much as companies who do. "Starving investments in down markets sets us up to fail when markets rebound."

How do we balance the expertise and experience of dedicated innovation teams with the scale and customer proximity of employee-driven innovation initiatives?

BT created an innovation central team with the objective to get greater participation and higher quality input from employees

BT’s process has two guiding principles:

· Open the door to innovation: Create an environment where employees are encouraged to participate in innovation

· Franchise the innovation expertise: dedicate experts to boosting the organization's ability to innovate

Tools to open the door - employees are encouraged to participate, provided with enough context to contribute meaningful ideas and are rewarded for contributions:

New idea scheme

Innovation charters

Global scouting program

Recognition and reward systems

Tools to franchise innovation experience - Proven innovators act facilitate the process so that innovation is available to all employees and provide coaching when an employee has a great idea.

Innovation central team

Coaching network

Innovation toolkit

In this Advertising Age article Al Ries muses on the difficulty of weeding out good creative ideas from bad and observes that "most people tend to make their judgments against a background of 'accepted standards,'or conventional wisdom."

As an example, he contrasts the classic Doyle Dane Bernbach "think small" campaign for the VW Beetle with other automobile advertising of the 1950's. Existing automobile ads contained people, used artwork rather than photographs, included mutiple illustrations and used color.

The Beetle add was simple, black and white and included a realistic photograph. This ad is credited as the start of modern advertising. The new form of ad worked because it stood out from the crowd. It said what needed to be said simply, and in a way that reflected the brand values of a small, simple car.

Ries concludes with this statement "People don't want to be different. They want to be better. Clients want advertising à la mode. And most creative directors want the same thing. They want advertising "in the fashion" of the times, only better.That's why it's hard to recognize a great advertising idea. It doesn't look right because it goes against accepted wisdom. "

Interaction designers have the same problem. People often ask them to create something "out of the box" or "really innovative." When they see the wireframes/concepts they react from the context of what they already know. When presenting an idea that's really revolutionary, it's important to explain who it's for, and why it will be efffective.

 

Heineken to Agencies Outside NYC: You Need Not Apply

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Heineken USA's creative review has an unusual qualification for agencies: Non-New York shops aren't welcome.

In a statement confirming the review this afternoon, the White Plains, N.Y.-based importer explained that it was planning a Manhattan marketing headquarters and "is pursuing a New York-based agency in conjunction with the office move."

As a result, it's taken creative duties on its flagship Heineken and Heineken Premium Light brands, previously handled by Wieden & Kennedy's Portland, Ore., office, and placed them up for grabs between Wieden's New York office and Manhattan hubs of three agencies it has worked with previously: StrawberryFrog, TBWA/Chiat/Day and Euro RSCG.

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Of course, in these cost-conscious times, marketers may be increasingly wary of paying for their agencies to travel to them. A Heineken spokeswoman said the decision was driven by a desire to collaborate better with agencies, not to save money.