Events / News
CISA Launches Business Innovation Maturity Model
Perfecting Innovation an Interview with Moises Norena
Business Innovation Conference
News
Events and Speaking Engagements
The Center for Innovation Science and Applications Launches Business Innovation Maturity Model (BIMM™) based Innovation Assessment Services for Corporations
Corporations have been pursuing innovation for new products and solutions, and higher profitable growth. The Center for Innovation Science and Applications (CISA) has made the innovation deployment easier by offering Innovation Assessments to highlight strengths and opportunities for launching strategic innovation initiatives. Business Innovation Maturity Model (BIMM™) has been developed at the Center and now has been used to develop Innovation Assessment services for corporations and Certified Innovation Assessor training and certification program.
Professor Praveen Gupta, who teaches innovation and led development of the BIMM™ model says, “We are excited that we can help businesses with their first step in developing in-house innovation competency and culture for improved financials and new job opportunities.” The first Certified Innovation Assessor training and certification is scheduled for April 23–25, 2012 at IIT Rice Campus in Wheaton, IL.
According to Scott Pfeiffer, Director of Business Development for CISA, “We offer Innovation Assessments to businesses. If any business needs to understand inside sources of innovations and opportunities for more innovation, we can send our trained assessors to review the operations and prepare a comprehensive report that can be used for strategic planning.”
CISA runs under the leadership of Prof. C. Robert Carlson, Dean, IIT School of Applied Technology. Besides, the innovation assessment services, CISA is dedicated to advancing the field of innovation to make it a better understood and deployed business process.
For more information about innovation assessment services , to register for the Innovation Assessor training, or to download the event flyer.
To learn more about the Center’s Innovation Assessment services and training, please contact Scott Pfeiffer at pfeiffer@iit.edu or Praveen Gupta at gupta@iit.edu.
Interview: Perfecting Innovation
By Moises Norena and Praveen Gupta
International Journal of Innovation Science
Volume 4 · Number 1 · March 2012
Interview:
Perfecting Innovation
Praveen Gupta, Editor-at-Large, had an opportunity to speak with Moises Norena, Global Director of Innovation at Whirlpool Corporation about his role and strategy for driving innovation deeper throughout the organization. We would like to thank Mr. Norena for sharing his innovation experience with IJIS readers.
How is the innovation function organized at Whirlpool?
At Whirlpool, we are committed to our brand value-creation strategy in which innovation is essential to deliver the best consumer position. Within Whirlpool University, our competencies are innovation, cost, quality, and margin realization. I work with a team of three colleagues to build infrastructure and drive the strategy for innovation. This defines the corporate center for excellence. In addition, there is a small group of people within each region who are in charge of execution. Each group is different and consists of 2-3 people who are experts in tools and processes and help teams execute. Each division is responsible for driving its own projects. Sometimes a project does not fall into any specific category, and in that case it is built into the development group. Then there is a large engineering organization that is also involved in innovation but there is not a specific innovation function within that organization.
What is driving innovation at Whirlpool? Why are we so intently pursuing innovation as a corporation?
We pursue innovation as the engine of growth. It is a very intrinsic part of our strategy. Ten years ago Whirlpool decided to change focus from an engineering-driven company to a customer-focused company and the way to achieve that was though innovation. Innovation is a part of strategy in that sense and is also a capability. It is a part of our business process and is the way we increase profit margin and drive growth.
How well has innovation succeeded at Whirlpool?
Overall, Whirlpool has done well with innovation. There have been some ups and downs throughout the process. We measure our success by how many opportunities we have in the pipeline and how much innovation revenue we are generating. Ultimately that leads to business results. At Whirlpool we have a very specific innovation definition so we distinguish what is innovation and what is not. There are some things that we consider product leadership in order to continue being competitive and relevant. Innovation is defined in terms of unique and compelling solutions, sustainable competitive advantage, and shareholders’ value. Our innovation revenues equate to about twenty percent of our revenues.
How much of the pipeline is tapped every year?
We measure our innovation pipeline on a project-by-project basis. We understand steady state revenue of a given opportunity and that is the reflection of the future annual revenue for the organization. Different projects have different steady states depending on the nature of the project. When we are closer to the core category of innovation there is a much faster cycle of innovation than the other ones that take a longer time to innovate. The speed of innovation is determined on the project.
Business Innovation Conference
Top-tier Innovation Conference Features Thought Leaders from Business, Government and Academe
The fourth annual Business Innovation Conference brought together leading innovation experts and practitioners from business, academia and government to exchange experiences and explore and learn the science of innovation. Over three exciting days more than 100 attendees had the opportunity to attend workshops, presentations, and keynote speakers from diverse industries and domains. Attendees made invaluable new connections and had opportunities to share ideas and experiences with other accomplished innovators from around the world.
Keynote speakers included, Adam Hecktman, Director of Microsoft Innovation Center, Ann Kalayil, Regional Administrator of GSA Great Lakes Region, Braden Kelley, the author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, Margarita Quihuis, member of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and director of the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab, and Peter Kippes, President, Hegemony Consulting Group delivered great keynotes highlighting future trends, culture of innovation, green energy in government, technology for influencing human behavior, and innovation dynamics. Video clips of presentations are available at the 4th Business Innovation Conference.
In addition, the conference offered outstanding presentations by Tony Hylton of Verizon, Nathan Cho of Northrop Grumman, Chuck Vecoli of Baxter, Maria Thompson of Motorola, Chip Reeves of Dow Corning, Irena Suznjevic of Simbex, Professor William Bullock of University of Illinois, and Professor Helena Santos Rodriguez of Portugal. “The challenge for participants was choosing which presentation to attend as all of the speakers and topics were of great value,” according to Praveen Gupta, the conference co-chair. Visit the agenda web page to see the conference topics and speakers.
Sponsoring organizations included, Accelper Consulting, the Center for Innovation Science and Applications (CISA), Illinois Institute of Technology’s School of Applied Technology, and other key partners.
During the networking sessions, attendees enjoyed activities such as playing with Tinker Toys to foster creativity and innovation. See a video of the innovation fun.
The 5th Business Innovation Conference will be held October 15–17, 2012. To celebrate five years of bringing innovators together successfully, we are offering special discounted conference fee of only $100 for the first one hundred registrations. Register here.
For information about the opportunities for sponsorships and exhibits, please contact Scott Pfeiffer at pfeiffer@iit.edu or Praveen Gupta at gupta@iit.edu
About Accelper
Accelper offers education in innovation for industrializing and institutionalizing innovation, and making innovation profitable for organizations. In collaboration with Illinois Institute of Technology, Accelper offers the Certified Business Innovator programs along with other training programs for executives and managers to develop in-house competency and improve return on investment in innovation.
For more information, please visit http://www.accelper.com or contact us at info@accelper.com.