Take a look in an unexpected direction and discover non-obvious innovation. One entrepreneur is building solutions to meet basic needs in rural and urban slums of India. Hasit Ganatra is founder of ReMaterials. His company designs and produces the ModRoof, roofing for the developing world. ReMaterials solves a serious problem in a non-obvious location.

Microchips to Roofing

Hasit could have made a comfortable living in L.A. He held an Engineering degree from the University of Southern California. He worked in microchip design. But far from the tech hub, inspiration sprung from a non-obvious location. A trip to the vegetable market in India with his mother sparked the idea for his first startup.

His second startup is a non-obvious innovation in roofing. Hasit's scope and vision for Re-Materials is far-reaching. His roofing solves issues of leaks, excessive heat, toxicity, and roof deterioration. Beyond that, Hasit and his team are designing solar panels to attach to the roofing. The solar panels will provide power for lighting. Lighting is a major need throughout the developing world. Meeting this basic need allows a better life and future to an underserved population.

Seeing Things in a Different Light

What drove Hasit to leave L.A. for the non-obvious location of rural and slum areas of India? In his words: "Always wanting to solve real problems on the ground. Be in the action." Seeing the problems of India's rural and urban poor communities, Hasit bypassed a high tech career.

Hasit credits C.K. Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid with helping to see things in a different light. Prahalad's book was an inspiration to my wife and me as well, prompting us to invest in developing countries. The book dispels the myth that rural and low-income communities are not a starting point for investment. What we consider a non-obvious location for investment may soon become obvious to many.

Hasit's for-profit business model combines social impact and profit. ReMaterials produces the ModRoof using biodegradable, recycled materials. Hasit states, "Our goal was not to be cheapest in market, but the best in the market." For customers who cannot afford the outright expense, microfinancing is available.

Advice on Non-Obvious Innovation in a Non-Obvious Location

• You have to be passionate about living and working in the non-obvious location.

• There are going to be issues.

• • You can't give up in these situations.
• Test the waters.
• • Experience the location on a trial basis (i.e., internship).
  • This will help you determine if you're willing to give your life to it.
• Once you get involved, it will require 100% commitment.
• • It's no longer a hobby.

Learn more about ReMaterials and how Hasit is making an impact in India. Contact Hasit through the website re-materials.com.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Could offering an unfinished product increase the value of your product? There are companies successful in offering such products. Some advantages to this model allow companies to

1. reduce risks by minimizing inventory and
2. charge a premium for the pleasure of assembling the product.

It's a fine line. If assembling the product is too easy, it feels like cheating. If it's too complex, the consumer sees no value in the supposed convenience. The right balance gives the customer the satisfying feeling of "I did this."

Consider the possibility of creating an on-demand service for your product.

The Killer Innovations podcast is produced by The Innovators Network.

Keywords: (1) Copycat Innovation and (2) Ethical Innovator

Copycat Innovation and the Ethical Innovator

This year at South by Southwest (SXSW), I facilitated a discussion on neurodiversity hiring. This is part of my work with Hacking Autism. SXSW is a multi-week event, part music festival, part innovation reveal. It's where big names like Twitter first launched. However, I noticed at this year's SXSW, as with CES, a shocking lack of originality. The trend towards identical look, feel, and function is unsettling. This prompted me to ponder the copycat innovation and the ethical innovator.

First or So They Claim…

As I observed hundreds of nearly identical products, the degree of copycat innovation was mind-boggling. Everyone is copying everyone else. I am bothered by the claims made on copycat innovation. Companies claim to be the originator or the first in their category even when they clearly are not. There is a dearth of acknowledgment for those that came before.

Is all copycat innovation bad? No. There's nothing wrong with taking a product or service and improving on it. There are many cases of borrowing an idea from another source to create an innovation. Biomimicry is a good example of copycat innovation. Innovators look to nature and replicate its creative solutions. The very name biomimicry indicates the source of inspiration.

The problem comes when the innovator lays claims to being the first to create or innovate when that is not the case. Being first doesn't always mean being the best. The ethical innovator would steer clear of making such claims. Innovations and innovative ideas are process of building on what you observe and know. Innovation is not creating in isolation. Great innovators make unique connections from inspirations. They may look to others and improve on existing products or services. Be an ethical innovator. Don't get caught up on staking a claim as the "first."

Credit: Is it Better to Give or Take?

Another issue is the failure to acknowledge or give credit to the true originator of an idea. Rather than making shaky claims, the innovator who improves on someone else's idea should give credit where it's due. Giving credit to others will not discredit your product or service if it's a worthwhile innovation. Strive to be an ethical innovator, giving credit for the source of your inspiration.

Innovators should consider a way to acknowledge their inspiration. Just as academics provide detailed footnotes in their papers, innovators could create a means to credit those who've come before. On that note, I'd like to credit Earl Nightingale with being the inspiration for this podcast. I've been on air now for fourteen years. My inspiration for the Killer Innovations show was the Nightingale-Conant audio series Insight, which I subscribed to in the 80s.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic of copycat innovation and the ethical innovator. Drop me a note. Share your thoughts, contributions, and experiences in acknowledging others or being acknowledged.

Continue this and other conversations around innovation. Join The Innovators Community on Slack. This is a private community of vetted innovators helping each other succeed.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Understanding the life cycle of your industry is essential to continued success. A big part of business is responding to life cycles of industry and its customers. By challenging yourself and your team to think about your customer's future, you stand a great chance of staying ahead of those inevitable changes.

Listen to this week's Five Minutes to New Ideas to learn more about staying connected to your customer through the life cycle.

The Killer Innovations podcast is produced by The Innovators Network.

Being content may be a positive emotion in some senses. Not so with innovation. If you are ready to rest on your laurels after a triumph or a stressful circumstance, get ready. Major change could be looming around the corner. Let me explain why I believe being content can be the enemy of innovation.

First, consider what being content means. Feelings of peace, calm, acceptance of where we are in life, happiness, satisfaction. Doesn't sound too bad. The problem comes when we embrace contentment to the point of giving up. We don't want to let go of being content. Therefore, we avoid conflict, stress or anything that may rock the boat and shake up the status quo.

Innovation is the antithesis of stasis. It's about being tuned in to what's wrong with the picture. Not just seeing the problems but seeking ways to improve on things. When we are fixed on being content, we develop a false sense that change is slowing down. It's at this time that we will miss the weak signals, subtle signs that major change is coming down the pike.

A false sense of satisfaction is its own form of an innovation antibody. This state of being content will cause you to shy away from change and avoid risk. You will trade off the challenges of innovation, going against the grain, for that easy feeling. Being content becomes the enemy of innovation. True innovators are not content.

Three or four times across my life I've slipped into this state of being content. That is, I felt satisfied and turned on autopilot. Rather than being active, engaged and looking for new ways and new directions to move, I put blinders on and checked out. The content feelings were short lived. I was taken off guard. Some major change in the world around me took me by surprise. The contentment quickly dissolved.

Don't get caught off guard. Here's what you can do to keep the enemy of innovation at bay.

1. Challenge yourself to do something uncomfortable.

• Do something you've never done before.

• Learn something new, something outside your skill set.
• It opens your eyes to new things and energizes you.

1. Change up how you do things.
2. • Take a different route to work.
   • Get off the beaten path. Break from routine.

1. Do daily creative muscle exercises
2. • Challenge yourself to come up with 5 problems that need to be solved.
   • These can be

• personally
• in your community
• at your job or school
• for a non-profit

There are always problems to be solved. Find a problem. Then go innovate a way to fix it.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

Some products or services evoke strong emotional responses. They are either loved by devoted fans or hated by others. Plenty of companies trade on the fact that mainstream culture will find their product offensive or questionable.

Is there any benefit or purpose to being strategically disliked by some and adored by select devotees? Listen to Five Minutes to New Ideas to hear why you might consider this approach.

• If you have comments or suggestions, drop me a note.

• Read about my experiences in the innovation game at PhilMckinney.com.

• You can also find out information about my book, Beyond the Obvious, at beyondtheobvious.com. Get a copy through Amazon or wherever you get your books.

• Pay it forward. When I wanted to repay my mentor for his investment in my career, he told me to pay it forward. Help me pay it forward. Give us a rating where you get your podcast. Help spread the word. Tell others about the show.

• Be part of the conversation between the shows. I hang out at The Innovators Community on Slack. This private community of vetted innovators helps each other succeed.

The Killer Innovations podcast is produced by The Innovators Network.

Ever wish you could travel the world discovering better ways of doing things? The next best thing - read the book. Author Mark Stevenson is an innovation explorer. He's visited remote parts and populous cities worldwide. This 'reluctant futurist' searches for people whose innovations are making a positive impact. In the process, he's discovering the roadmap to a better future. His book, We Do Things Differently: The Outsiders Rebooting Our World imparts the stories of those paving the way.

The rapid pace of change in today's world leaves many behind. Advances in technology can create a wake of unintended consequences. Mark isn't here to paint a doomsday picture, but to illuminate the roadmap to a better future. His book tells the story of innovators, inventors and creatives who are making major impacts on communities.

Technology has often led to job losses as new processes replace old ways. It is a certain fact read out in headlines throughout history. Loss of jobs due to tech advances is a transition from an old economy to a new one. A better future demands that education, government, and other systems swiftly adapt to these changes. While some countries such as Estonia address this need, many do not. The catalyst for his book is those who have successfully affected systemic changes. They are the ones plotting the roadmap to a better future.

Mark lays out the good, the bad, and the ugly. The next twenty years are critical in developing the roadmap to a better future. Major changes are necessary in our systems of education, government, healthcare, and businesses.

• Bad news first: everything's broken.
• Good news: it's fixable.
• It's going to get ugly.

Mark wants to "make the transition less messy for less people and make it a little bit shorter."

A systemic approach to tech advances is essential for a better future. Mark dislikes the moniker "futurist". The term suggests one who sees technology as the answer to all problems. For Mark, technology is the question. Technology development should not be done in isolation. People must evaluate factors beyond the technology itself. Policy makers and innovators alike have to step back and look at the big picture. What are the far-reaching, future results of the technology? How will it affect society? Developing the correct measure for success is just as important as developing the innovation.

In the quest for discovering systemic changes that work, Mark has found common threads:

• They come from the bottom up – grassroots people who make a change to fix what's broken.
• The catalyst is a new technology or way of thinking.
• In the service of a different social contract - decisions and choices for reasons other than money.
• The catalyst is outside the system
• The actors have herculean levels of perseverance and powerful motivation.

To find out more about Mark and his books track him on Twitter @optimistontour or via his website: markstevenson.org.

Five Minutes to New Ideas

How do you design a product the customer will prefer or crave over the competition?

You need to determine

• how your business environments are evolving.
• how your customers are changing.
• what you need to modify to keep the product relevant and desirable.

Go beyond the competition. Look at industries that are distinctly different but share similar key elements with your business. By asking the right questions and looking at non-obvious businesses, you may find that one inspiration that can transform you and your ideas.

• If you have comments or suggestions, drop me a note.

• Read about my experiences in the innovation game at PhilMckinney.com.

• You can also find out information about my book, Beyond the Obvious, at beyondtheobvious.com. Get a copy through Amazon or wherever you get your books.

• Pay it forward. When I wanted to repay my mentor for his investment in my career, he told me to pay it forward. Help me pay it forward. Rate the show where you get your podcast. Help spread the word. Tell others about the show.

• Be part of the conversation between the shows. I hang out at The Innovators Community on Slack. This private community of vetted innovators helps each other succeed.

The Killer Innovations podcast is produced by The Innovators Network.

When civic and business leaders have a meeting of the minds, amazing things can happen.  Cincinnati is home to several major corporations and health care organizations. The demand is high for tech innovation.  This midwestern city has created a unique approach to draw in the best talent.  Cintrifuse is the confluence of innovation in Cincinnati.

Cintrifuse exists through public private partnership.  Its purpose is threefold. It’s a startup accelerator and venture capital fund.   It’s also the go to source for large companies seeking innovative solutions to their tech problems.  CEO Wendy Lea comes to Cincinnati from Silicon Valley as an expert in digital innovation.

West Coast to Midwest

Arriving in the Cincinnati area, it surprised Wendy to find six major healthcare systems in the region.  In addition, there are 140 major companies including Proctor & Gamble that call this area home.  The local government sought economic growth.  The need for cutting edge tech innovation and economic growth brought all these players together.  The perspective from the various communities is distinct from what Wendy’s observed in Silicon Valley.  These communities work closely together to tackle regional issues. Their collaborative effort formed Cintrifuse.  

Startup versus BigCo

Contrary to what one might think, this is not a face off between startup and big companies.  Large companies seek to draw the entrepreneurs, ideas and talent. They are the customers to the startups product or service offering.  

Growing the Startup Community

Wendy has seen Cintrifuse’s portfolio of startups grow 40% year over year.  What started with eleven startups on the Cintrifuse books has grown to 470 startups in the region.  Some startups that come through Cintrifuse’s doors are located within the Cincinnati area. Others located elsewhere benefit from Cintrifuse venture capital funds.  The benefits are mutual. The relationships developed allow Cintrifuse to connect startups with large companies seeking tech innovation.

To learn more about Cintrifuse, check out cintrifuse.com.

Check out The Innovators Network where you can listen to podcasts with Kym McNicholas on Innovation and Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney.

When civic and business leaders have a meeting of the minds, amazing things can happen. Cincinnati is home to several major corporations and health care organizations. The demand is high for tech innovation. This midwestern city has created a unique approach to draw in the best talent. Cintrifuse is the confluence of innovation in Cincinnati.

Cintrifuse exists through public private partnership. Its purpose is threefold. It's a startup accelerator and venture capital fund. It's also the go to source for large companies seeking innovative solutions to their tech problems. CEO Wendy Lea comes to Cincinnati from Silicon Valley as an expert in digital innovation.

[shareable cite="Wendy Lea, CEO Cintrifuse"]To build a sustainable economy, you have to have supply and demand. We're unique in that we have two portfolios of supply for startups and we have an amazing set of large companies with strong appetite for technology innovation.[/shareable]

West Coast to Midwest

Arriving in the Cincinnati area, it surprised Wendy to find six major healthcare systems in the region. In addition, there are 140 major companies including Proctor & Gamble that call this area home. The local government sought economic growth. The need for cutting edge tech innovation and economic growth brought all these players together. The perspective from the various communities is distinct from what Wendy's observed in Silicon Valley. These communities work closely together to tackle regional issues. Their collaborative effort formed Cintrifuse.

Startup versus BigCo

Contrary to what one might think, this is not a face off between startup and big companies. Large companies seek to draw the entrepreneurs, ideas and talent. They are the customers to the startups product or service offering.

Growing the Startup Community

Wendy has seen Cintrifuse's portfolio of startups grow 40% year over year. What started with eleven startups on the Cintrifuse books has grown to 470 startups in the region. Some startups that come through Cintrifuse's doors are located within the Cincinnati area. Others located elsewhere benefit from Cintrifuse venture capital funds. The benefits are mutual. The relationships developed allow Cintrifuse to connect startups with large companies seeking tech innovation.

To learn more about Cintrifuse, check out cintrifuse.com.

Check out The Innovators Network where you can listen to podcasts with Kym McNicholas on Innovation and Killer Innovations with Phil McKinney.

Exploring rural innovation, I stopped in Paducah, Kentucky. Drs. Lula Luu and John Crilly, founders of FIn Gourmet Foods, joined the mobile studio. Word got around town. Monica Bilak contacted me through The Innovator's Community. I'm pleased to welcome Monica and Jimi Gwinn. They share how Sprocket is inspiring student innovation in Paducah.

Sprocket is a makerspace for students and the local community to learn and create with access to technology. Three years ago, the idea emerged. Today, Monica is the Development Director with a background in education and design. Jimi Gwinn, the Director, brings engineering, woodworking and metal artistry skills to the table. A boiler room and coal closet transforms into an 840 square foot space to design, build, innovate.

The Creative Drivers

What brought Monica from East Africa to Paducah 17 years ago was a spirit of creativity. For a dollar, she bought a house under the Artist Relocation program. In her words, Paducah was "a little town that had something going." She opened a fair trade and coffee shop and worked in downtown development. Eventually she returned to her roots in education.

Life brought new challenges for Jimi Gwinn when he was in a car accident. One challenge was the awkward fit of his legs and wheelchair at the desks in college. He designed his own desk. Starting with basic materials, he finished with a mahogany, teak and burled cherry desk. He found his passion for woodworking.

Another life changing moment came with spinal fusion. The relief from constant pain freed his mind to think in new directions. He began designing a wheelchair controlled by body lean. A retired engineer pointed him towards University of Kentucky. Jimi jumped into the engineering program. His experience and training made him a prime candidate for inspiring student innovation. Monica recruited him to lead Sprocket.

The Perfect Storm

Monica was working with homeless 6th graders in an afterschool program. She introduced technologies and programming. Highly motivated, the kids loved learning in this non-traditional environment. Inspiring student innovation this way was one element of a perfect storm.

Local business, Computer Services Incorporated, reached out to educators. They valued their local employees and wanted to continue hiring locally. The problem – how to find the local talent. The next generation of skilled employees needed to build those skills now. The community went to work.

Monica took time off from her design degree pursuit. She focused on students' needs.

[shareable cite="Monica Bilak"]The district has the profound awareness that the world is changing really fast…the system of education is not aligned with how we think and need to work in this age.[/shareable]

They needed to develop highly valuable skills, build social networks and connect to local business and industry. The idea of a makerspace struck a chord. Sprocket launched with grants from the Kentucky Workforce and Education Cabinet, fundraising, and donations from companies like Toyota.

Lessons to Share

What Monica and Jimi learned along the way…

• Start – even if it's small and imperfect.
• Keep going – don't let failure be the end game.
• Cast the vision wide -take time to meet everybody.
• Don't stop building the culture of innovation.

Keep up with Sprocket or support their effort at [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also contact them through Paducah Innovation on Facebook.

Is there a guest you think should be on the show? Is your community doing interesting things? Drop me note at Killer Innovations or The Innovators Studio on Facebook.

Every so often we should pause and reflect. On the way to the airport after hosting a South by Southwest meet up on neural diversity hiring, traffic was slow. This allowed an engaging conversation with the taxi driver. He asked me what led to success in my life. This prompted me to write down my 7 rules to live by. I hope these will help you in creating personal and professional success.

My 7 Rules to Live By

1. Stay connected to the people who matter most.
   • I learned from my early mentor to regularly get in touch with those who matter to me.
   • Make personal contact (phone call/meet up). Electronic contact (Facebook, email, etc.) doesn't qualify.
   • I have an in-depth, personal relationship with the people who matter to me.
2. Listen more, talk less.
   • Listen actively, ask questions. Have genuine interest in others.
   • Conclude conversation by asking how you can help.
3. Make commitments you are truly committed to follow through on.
   • Don't make false promises.
   • If you can't deliver, admit it. Then ask if there's something else you could do.
   • Don't swing the pendulum the other way and never commit to anything.
4. Don't get hung up on credit.
   • Credit will always find its natural owner.
   • Innovation's a team sport.
   • If you grab credit, it could kill others' interest to participate and contribute.
5. Acknowledge others – give out words of encouragement.
   • I didn't get to CEO position by myself. Others played a critical role.
   • Mentoring and reverse mentoring - great ways to acknowledge and encourage.
6. Hug the haters.
   • With success, there are always those who are critical.
   • I pause before I respond. Count to ten or wait a day.
   • Sometimes it's better not to respond at all.
   • Ask others to hear the criticism and your response before delivering it.
   • Respond with compassion, not harshness, rudeness, or name calling.
   • Never, ever burn the bridge.
7. Set priorities.
   • When demands come, you can filter what needs to be done.
   • For me it's "the 5 Fs"
     1. Faith – I don't get involved if it doesn't align with my faith.
     2. Family – My wife, kids and grandkids.
     3. Friends – ties into my Rule #1 Stay Connected
     4. Fitness – Don't overwork, burnout, and suffer health issues.
     5. Finance – Takes care of itself, if put finances at the bottom and follow other rules, it

Now that you have my 7 rules to live by, define your own set of rules to creating personal and professional success in your life.

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Five Minutes to New Ideas

Weak signals are all around us. How can you stay attuned and take advantage of emerging trends or fads? Tune in to Segment 4 of today's podcast to learn more.

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Thanks for taking the time to join us. We'd love to hear your comments. You can add your comments at http://killerinnovations.com/.

Better yet, join us at The Innovators Community (http://theinnovators.network/community), an online Slack community where you can be a part of the conversation with leading innovators from around the world.

Creating safe transportation on the African continent takes a unique approach. The solutions of the Western world and Silicon Valley simply won't work. Colonial cities have grown into major urban environments. The infrastructure doesn't sustain the growth. Traffic jams, broken-down vehicles, bad road conditions are endemic. But there are individuals making a difference in creating safe transportation.

As our guest Barrett Nash says, "The best way to make a solution is to solve a problem you yourself experience."

A death defying motorcycle ride through a crowded city and a question of safety. Barrett Nash, Co-Founder and CEO of SafeMotos recalls the day. He took a ride on a motorcycle taxi through Kigali, Rwanda to meet roommate Peter Kariuki for a beer. The two men talked about the dangers of motorcycle taxi rides. This prompted them to imagine ways to make the motorcycle taxi ride safer. That's what it took to start the journey for SafeMotos.

Safety: An Obvious Assumption

Vehicle travel across an urban setting in Africa can be fraught with risk. Sometimes the choice is waiting hours for a bus, sitting in traffic in a vehicle, or hopping on the back of a motorcycle taxi for a more convenient ride. While the motorcycle taxi might get you there quicker, the risk is high. In fact, the #2 killer in the emerging world is vehicle accidents. Eighty percent of accidents in Rwanda involve motorcycle taxis.

You would think people would jump at the option for safer urban travel. Not so. Creating safe transportation has its challenges. Selling it even more so. Initially, SafeMotos followed the Uber business model. Customers could locate a safe ride via smartphone. SafeMotos vetted and rated the motorcycle taxi drivers on driving practices and experience. For a higher price, people would get a safer option.

What the Customer Really Wants

What they quickly realized is price and convenience outweighed safety in Kigali. To make their product offering viable, they had to consider the product/market fit and the pain points. Their focus shifted. Creating safe transportation became the by-product.

Blind Luck and Help from Unusual Places

Barrett and Co-founder Peter have been at it since 2014. Doing business in Africa has challenges. While there is a spirit of entrepreneurship, few startups succeed. As Barrett puts it, blind luck put them in touch with an accelerator in Cork, Ireland. This helped jumpstart SafeMotos.

[shareable cite="Barrett Nash, SafeMotos"]Technology needs to disconnect from a Silicon Valley style problem solving format. We're not trying to solve middle class problems. We're trying to enable a middle class. That's where technology can really disrupt the arc of the story of Africa.[/shareable] Barrett's advice for startups, especially in Africa:

• Make sure you are solving a pain point
• Have a profit-making business model from unit economic perspective day one
• Don't launch too soon - get finance and story figured out
• You have to go through the journey

Barrett welcomes you to reach out at [email protected].

If you've got a guest you think should be on the show, drop me a note.

We're continuing trips across the country, talking to rural entrepreneurs. If you'd like us to stop by your town to meet your entrepreneurs, drop a note at The Innovators Studio on Facebook.

Today's show addresses questions from listeners on innovation KPIs. I'm back in Colorado after clocking 12,000 miles in the mobile Innovators Studio. On the road, I talked with interesting innovators and analysts. Taking a break from interviews, I'd like to answer your questions on measuring innovation success.

There are hundreds of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure innovation success. What are the right innovation KPIs to use? What KPIs will give insight into the innovation process? KPIs should be unique to your organization. Think through what KPIs will measure and how that can guide innovations and your organization.

KPI Building Blocks

I've broken innovation KPIs into categories, like building blocks. Build up the blocks to get a complete perspective on your innovation effort.

Six categories for Innovation KPIs:

1. Idea process/managing the idea funnel
   • What's done to get ideas, put them in a funnel, review, manage and analyze them?
     • Raw ideas
     • Raw ideas validated
     • Ideas prototyped
     • Age of ideas
2. Idea commercialization
   • Innovation idea brought to market.
     • Innovations that became a product
     • Innovations that make a profit
     • Are early customers willing to pay a margin premium?
     • Innovations purchased
     • Are resources in organization aligning to make product a reality?
3. Financial impact
   • Tough to measure - long lag from time of investment to product launch in market
     • Revenue from new innovations
     • Profit from innovations
     • Revenue protected by patents
     • Revenue from patent licensing
4. Customer impact

   • Customer success compared from old product to new innovation

     • What has new product allowed customers to achieve?
     • How many customers have shifted to new?
     • Market share trend for innovation - grabbing from competitors?
5. Organizational impact
   • New products/services have an impact
   • Can pull organization into new category or focus
     • Ratio of sales from old versus new - sales ramping up for new/declining for old?
     • Ratio of profit from old versus new
     • Investments – is investment shifting from old to new?
     • Rate of return on innovation investment
     • Has it driven brand awareness?
6. Pure Innovation KPIs
   • Catch-all
     • Staff trained for innovation
     • Use of formal creativity tools
     • Implementation and use of Idea Management System
     • Structured problem-solving tools
     • Committed resources to innovation
     • Patents/year

[callout]

Guidance

1. Pick three to five KPIs from each category that work for your organization.
2. Ensure you have the ability to measure them.
3. Validate KPIs drive the right behavior and achieve the desired outcome.
4. Test/adjust KPIs as needed.
5. Share with the community.

[/callout]

We'd love your feedback. What do you think about the five-minute focus in the last segment of today's show?

Like what you hear? Leave us a comment or review where you listen to the show.

Check out the show notes on Killerinnovations.com. We post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Follow us on your favorite social media site.