The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

Creating a social innovation to impact the social problems and opportunities our society faces is incredibly rewarding. Most (but not all) organizations working to address the social challenges are stuck in a rut. They are running their programs the same way they've always done them. In today's world, getting caught in the rut will dome any organization – including charities.

This week, we discuss the challenges, opportunities and considerations to radically improve the innovations being created and applied to social/charity organizations.

Social innovation topics covered include:

* The role of charities to have social impact

* Social innovation: Innovative solutions to a social problem

* Social entrepreneurship: A start-up that has a social objective as its priority

* Social enterprise: A large organization that has as part of its mission to address a social objective

* Ways to help charities including fundraising and supporter engagement

* Examples of highly creative charities:

* Community Voice Mail (Homelessness)

* Kira Microfinance

* List of 10 innovative charities

* Having a social mission as part of your business is good business

* Normal companies have an obligation to put charge holders above any social mission

* B Corp and Benefit corporations allow you to put the social mission on equal footing of shareholders

* Investors who are supported of social objectives are referred to as impact investors

* You don't need to have large amount of money. You can have social impact by using SRI (socially responsible investing)

* 4 tips for charity innovation

* Trusted Recommendations: We've become accomsted to checking Yelp for “trusted recommendations”. How could your charity secure trusted recomendations from entities beyond the ones most charities secure.

* Customers For Life: In the business world, its more cost effective to keep a customer than get a new one. Same applies to charities. Do you think about your supporters as “customers”? What best practices could you borrow from the business world?

* Relevant and Personalized Content: Content marketing is one of the key ways to secure a deeper relationship with your customers – as long as you recognize that a “one size fits all” model will not work. The same for your supporters.

* Trust: We've all seen the headlines when business and charity leaders go astray and the organization looses its trust with its supporters. What can you do to increase trust? What do you have in place to ensure you don't squander the trust you've earned?

Show Links

* Global Impact Investing Network

* Socially Responsible Investing

* B Corp

* Benefit corporations

* 10 Innovative Charities

 

Winning innovation competitions or innovation awards can be a major achievement and proof of you and your teams ability to innovate. Which innovation competitions or awards should you submit to? Are there any downsides to submitting and winning a competiton or an award? In this weeks show, we discuss the structures and thinking behind innovation competitions and […]

Winning innovation competitions or innovation awards can be a major achievement and proof of you and your teams ability to innovate. Which innovation competitions or awards should you submit to? Are there any downsides to submitting and winning a competiton or an award?

In this weeks show, we discuss the structures and thinking behind innovation competitions and innovations awards and I share the 5 most common mistakes I've experienced as a judge.

Innovation Awards

* A special guest, Tom Kuczmarski, shared an update on the Chicago Innovation Awards.

* This award is now in its 15th year.

* Of the ~200 awards given in the past, 100% of the companies and organizations are still around.

* This year they will give out 10 awards including some new ones such as; Social Innovation, Peoples Choice Awards and Neighborhood Awards.

* Criteria they use to select the winner of the Chicago Innovation Award?

* What was the customer need the innovation addressed?

* What was the impact from the innovation?

* Was their a competitive response? (indication of impact since others attempt to copy)

* Did the innovation create a new category?

Innovation Competitions

* What are the different type of innovation competitions?

* Solution search like Idea Connection

* Broad new ideas

* Narrow/focused new ideas

* Approaches to applying to a competition

* Forward approach: Read the competition and solve for the ask proposed in competition material

* Backward approach: Take an idea you already have and find a competition where it can be applied

5 Most Common Mistakes

* Not doing sufficient research on the space to fully understand the problem/ask beyond what was presented in the competition material.

* Not fully reading/understand the ask. Make sure you don't inject assumptions and bias into crafting your solution to a misunderstood ask.

* Not following the guidelines on submissions. Understand what/how/format of the submission.

* Submitting an weak/shallow submission. Apply some deep thinking (go beyond the obvious) and create a killer presentation/pitch. Don't short change it.

* Not understanding the IP (intellectual property) rules for the competition.

Show Links:

* Idea Connection

* Chicago Innovation Awards

* Tom Kuczmarski interview on a previous episode of Killer Innovation

Leading innovation is one of the hardest roles I've ever had in my career. With that said, it is also one of the most exciting and satisfying which is what keeps me in the game. So what does it take succeed in an innovation leadership role? In this weeks show, I share some real-world experiences […]

Leading innovation is one of the hardest roles I've ever had in my career. With that said, it is also one of the most exciting and satisfying which is what keeps me in the game. So what does it take succeed in an innovation leadership role?

In this weeks show, I share some real-world experiences in what it takes to lead innovation inside an organization that may or may-not be that well aligned on innovation.

So what does it take? To succeed, either in the role you have or the role you want in the future, you need to have the foundational behaviors of an innovative leader. The following list is from a recent blog post on innovation leadership.

9 Leadership Behaviors for Leading Innovation

Simply stating you are want an innovative culture, accepting forward-thinking employees and creating procedures focused on innovation is a great starting point for innovation, but it is not enough to establish it at an institutional level. To get there, leadership has to take a more active role. What are the behaviors that innovation leaders must live each day?

* Innovative Leaders Have a Vision of the Future

* Innovative Leaders Establish Trust

* Innovative Leaders Challenge the Status Quo

* Innovative Leaders Possess Expertise

* Innovative Leaders Set Aspirational Goals

* Innovative Leaders Move Quickly

* Innovative Leaders Crave Information

* Innovative Leaders Excel at Teamwork

* Innovative Leaders Value Diversity and Inclusion

Behaviors are not enough. We need to constantly challenge ourselves to avoid falling into a rut. How? By constantly asking ourselves questions that force us to take a hard look at ourselves as current or potential innovation leaders.

7 Questions Innovation Leaders Should Ask Themselves

Are you ready to lead innovation in your organization? There  are several questions you can should yourself to see where you stand and what you should work on.

These questions include:

* Am I involved at the ground level with my team?

* Do I protect my organization’s innovation resources?

* Have I clearly laid out my goals?

* Am I encouraging teamwork throughout my organization?

* How’s my attitude?

* Do I understand my team members’ strengths?

* How much confidence do I have in myself and the members of my team?

Show Links:

* The Importance of Leadership in Fostering Organizational Innovation

* Developing Leadership Skills for Innovation: The Questions Strong Leaders Ask

* What Kind Of Culture Leads To Innovation Success?

 

While many may link innovation with technology, innovation can be applied to any job in any industry in any geography. If that is the case, what are the innovation career opportunities for those who want to be innovators but who don't have a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) background? This week, I received an email […]

While many may link innovation with technology, innovation can be applied to any job in any industry in any geography. If that is the case, what are the innovation career opportunities for those who want to be innovators but who don't have a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) background?

This week, I received an email from a listener (Chris) that asked a number of career advice questions. I began writing a reply and then realized that many of the listeners may be asking themselves the same question(s).

So this week, I dedicated the show to answer Chris' career advice questions in the hopes of dispelling the thought that the only career opportunities for innovators such as you are in the technology fields.

Q) What opportunities (careers and fields) are available in the “innovation space”, for those of us who are not STEM grads or lawyers.

* While many think innovation = tech  (STEM), there are many innovation career opportunities outside of tech.

*  A simple search of LinkedIn for jobs under the word “innovation” returns 1000's of responses across a wide range of industries. For example:

* Innovation for Online Community

* Innovation Project Management

* Supply Chain Innovation

* Innovation for customer experience

* .. and many more.

* What companies are looking for are people who can invent/create new processes, methods, markets, customers, etc.

* When you see the word “innovation” in a job title or job description, they are looking for people who can “invent” and “create”.

* In some cases, companies don't use the word “innovation” in the job description even when what they need is an innovator.

* If you are looking for an innovation career, search for words such as:

* “Highly creative”

* “Innovative person to”

* “Can thinks outside the box” (I personally hate this one. It's a cliche that people say but don't really understand)

* “Willing to take risks”

* “Willing to experiment”

* “No afraid to”

*  Don't give up. If you want to succeed in the innovation economy – you need to find/create the job yourself.

Q) It seems to me, that we are still largely in an ecosystem where credentialism and hard skills reign; where innovative/creative skills are ancillary. What are your thoughts?

* While there are a few college degrees in “innovation”, we as an industry “lack” any form of a ‘certification'

* Should we as an industry/career have a certification in “innovation”?  Maybe

* In some cases, people who have graduated from my Innovation Boot Camp course have used that as a “credential” to justify creating an innovation team inside their organization

* I've been approached to create an “innovation credential” which has caused to step back and consider creating a “credential” for innovation.

* Would love to hear your thoughts if you would find that useful.

* Given that doesn't exist a certification, what are you to do?

* Prove to your current or future employers that you are the innovation person they need

* So what should you do to get ready for a career in innovation?

* Continuous skills development.

* 15 Ways To Feed Your Creative Mind S12 Ep23

* The Top 5 Skills Every Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) Needs 

There is a mystique about Silicon Valley. Some think its this magical place where the breakthrough innovation is done. Others talk about it in hushed terms reserved for spiritual experiences. In reality, Silicon is much more complex and harder to grasp than with some simple labels. To understand it, you need to understand the answers to these […]

There is a mystique about Silicon Valley. Some think its this magical place where the breakthrough innovation is done. Others talk about it in hushed terms reserved for spiritual experiences. In reality, Silicon is much more complex and harder to grasp than with some simple labels. To understand it, you need to understand the answers to these questions; What is it? Why has it been so successful? How do you take Silicon Valley best practices  and apply them to your business?

In the book Decoding Silicon Valley: The Insiders Guide, Michelle Messina and Jonathan Baer take on the task of peeling back the facade of Silicon Valley and help you understand it.

In this weeks show, Phil, Michelle and Jonathan discuss their experiences of Silicon Valley and what entrepreneurs can learn from what works – and more importantly what doesn't work.

Topics included:

* The history of Silicon Valley and how it came to be

* How should you experience Silicon Valley

* What are the most common mistakes entreprenrus make when coming to Silicon Valley?

* They parachute in rather than commit

* Looking to have discussions at the wrong executive levels within a company

* Thinking that a simple introduction to “any” VC will result in funding

* Not being well prepared to present

* Believing that what worked at home will work in Silicon Valley

* Focusing too much on the technology and features and not enough on the business

* What are two Silicon Valley best practices that any entrepreneur can apply to their business?

* Taking a 360 degree view (beyond tech to include business model, team, etc)

* Really understating product market fit

About The Guests:

Michelle E. Messina is a serial entrepreneur who brings strong sales, marketing, and business development skills to startups everywhere. She pioneered the Silicon Valley best practices training of startups in 2004 and has worked in more than 35 countries. Michelle has worked with leading corporate, university and government acceleration programs around the world. Today, she helps companies get clear and focused so they translate their vision into reality. Michelle believes that being an entrepreneur is the hardest thing you’ll ever enjoy doing.

Jon Baer is a recovering venture capitalist who loves working with early stage companies around the world. He was the founder and CEO of two venture-backed companies, one of which was a spinout from SRI International. Jon now spends his time teaching, mentoring, and advising early stage companies with leading accelerators and investors around the world. He believes that startups require tough love; and need to focus on money, metrics, and milestones. Jon teaches startup CEOs to say less, because less is more.

Show Links:

* Decoding Silicon Valley: The Insiders Guide by Michelle Messina and Jonathan Baer

* Michelle Messina on LinkedIn

* Michelle Messina on Twitter

* Jonathan Baer on LinkedIn

* Jonathan Baer on Twitter

* More information on the book visit DecodingSiliconValley.com

Many have the dream of making it into the CxO (CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO, etc) suite. What skills and abilities does it take to be in position to become a world-class CTO? During the time I was CTO at Hewlett-Packard, what where the skills and abilities I had – and which are the ones I […]