Innovation a Destination and a Journey - Voices 2015

March 2015

Innovation – A Destination and a JourneyValeria Mihalache

© Copyright 2015 Xilinx

Innovation Through the Ages

Innovation is Necessary

Creativity, Invention, Innovation

Fostering Innovation

Delivering Innovation

Overview

It all started because humans wanted to survive

Survival nowadays: not only as individual, but also as

organization / corporation

More than 300,000 issued by USPTO in 2014

We have been designed to innovate. It’s in our DNA


Today more than ever

Society has higher expectations nowadays

– Globalization is forcing invention at an unprecedented rate

– Modernization & access to technology and to higher living standards are

fueling more demand from customers

– Competition is a steadfast driver for innovation

Necessity is the mother of invention

Innovation has never been a luxury


Companies must invent to thrive

Companies must frame and reframe their business purpose, the

value they add to customers

Without Innovation

Innovation is Fun

Examples: Chindogu

Marketing Myopia, Ted Levitt, 1960

– Pointed out that companies had focused too much on making products &

too little on customer satisfaction

– “The reason [the railroads] defined their industry wrong was because they

were railroad-oriented instead of transportation-oriented; they were

product-oriented instead of customer-oriented”

– Companies should look towards the market & redefine themselves & their

products accordingly, rather than looking inwards, at their potential

“WHAT BUSINESS ARE YOU REALLY IN?”

Innovation for the Customer

“If I had asked people what they wanted,

they would have said faster horses.” - Henry Ford

Visionary Innovation

Creativity: the ability to make new things or think of new ideas

– Artists, chefs, improvisers, engineers

– Not constrained by reality

Invention: a product of the imagination

– Requires creativity, but it’s constrained by reality

– Patentable

Innovation: a new idea, device, or method

– Every invention is an innovation

– Implementation of an invention, or new process, method, business model

“We are all inventors of our own futures. And creativity is the heart of

invention.” -- Tina Seeling: inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity


Process innovation

Product innovation

Innovation Classification


DISRUPTIVE

BREAKTHROUGH

INCREMENTAL

Internet

Transistor

FPGA

OPEN

PROPRIETARY


An organization can’t just expect innovation. It has to allow for it.

It has to sponsor it.

Innovation is not just a destination. It’s a journey that employees

and companies have to make together.


Innovation Infrastructure

– Innovation Centers, Research Labs

– Innovation Catalysis Mentors

– Innovation sounding boards; ex. What If Board

– Startup-like groups, even in large company/organization

– Request new ideas as part of the review process

Time

– Unstructured Time

– Sponsor brainstorming

Award Innovation: Bonus, Award Dinner, Offsite, Time Off

Provide opportunities for learning, networking, getting inspired

Fostering Innovation: Examples

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible.” –

Audrey Hepburn

Innovation is a mindset

Be courageous

Make innovation your priority

Innovate with respect to the problem / scope

– Identify problems you want to solve. Identify the why’s and what if’s

– Brainstorm the problem relentlessly

– What’s stopping you from solving the problem? What do you need?


Know your customer!

Apply problem solving techniques

– Divide and Conquer

– Abstraction

– Analogies and symmetries

Improvise

– If you can’t solve the problem, change it

– Use approximations, probabilities, heuristics

– Brainstorming

Persevere

– When hitting a closed door, find a window







Summary

May 5, 1809: Mary Kies becomes the first woman to receive a U.S.

patent for her method of weaving straw with silk

1845: Sarah Mather patented a submarine telescope and lamp

that allowed submarines to survey the depths of the ocean

1984, patent no. 4,428,085 granted to France Gabe for self-

cleaning house

Marie Curie, 2 Nobel awards,

refused to file any patents

Patents by Women

1760: Declaration of Independence

1780: First U.S. President

1788: U.S. Constitution

Ratified

1790: The Patent Act

Q & A

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” – John Muir

Innovation a Destination and a Journey - Voices 2015

Technology

Transcript of Innovation a Destination and a Journey - Voices 2015