"Technologies of Thinking" Seen Key to Accelerated Radical Innovation

Abstract

radical innovation just doesn't happen, Mark Papermaster, vice president for microprocessor technology development at IBM, told a workshop at The University of Toledo in March. In virtually all cases, Papermaster explained, it requires an to be successful--an ecosystem formed by strong leadership that empowers a real-time innovation management methodology catalyzed by appropriate information and telecommunications tools. Some 40 industrial and academic leaders and students from Ohio and around the United States attended the three-day International Workshop on Accelerated Radical Innovation, sponsored by The University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Regional Growth Partnership of Northwest Ohio, and Toledo Lucas County Port Authority. Attendees represented universities, companies, consulting organizations, and government agencies. The companies, from a cross-section of manufacturing and information technology-based industries, included Konarka Technologies, Bieber Enterprises, Plastic Technologies, Microsoft, Recombinant Innovation, IBM, DuPont, Washington CORE, Ashford Group, Pilkington, General Electric, MHI, International Environmental Technologies, Warwick Manufacturing Group, and Imaginatik. The principal objective of the Workshop (IWARI2005) was to go beyond the conceptual vision of Accelerated Radical Innovation (ARI) formulated at a May 2004 conference on the topic (1). Specific goals of that conference were to define a general set of principles and an operational methodology that could overcome the many hurdles to achieving ARI (see Figure 1). These goals anticipated the recommendations of the Dec. 2004 Innovate America report from the Council on Competitiveness, which identified an urgent need to develop and apply new breakthrough innovation methodologies capable of transcending the incremental methodologies applied in the late 20th Century for continuous improvement and cost reduction (2). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The approach that IWARI2005 attendees adopted to accomplish this was to hold brainstorming sessions, twice each day, to explore the grand challenges of accelerated radical innovation and the hurdles that must be overcome to achieve rapid breakthrough innovation in today's global, virtually-connected economy. Ten invited tutorial lectures provided background for the brainstorming exercises. Aiming for a 10X Improvement A key proposition evaluated and confirmed was the value of real-time application of information technology tools and methodologies to enhance the rate and effectiveness of each step of the sequential phases of discovery, commercialization and diffusion that define the typical industrial life cycle for an individual technology. Workshop discussions also confirmed and clarified the principles conceived earlier as underpinning the new ARI paradigm: namely, a factor of 10X improvement in breakthrough innovation effectiveness, measured by improved selectivity and reduced time, cost and risk. These principles include: * Clear vision and mission * Systems orientation * Scientific technology base * Information technology-enabled * Collaboration across disciplines and organizations * Adaptive and renewable * Innovation culture-centered The discussions further confirmed a world view that, throughout the discovery-commercialization-diffusion cycle, innovation is driven by of thinking at each innovation operation or stage. These technologies involve a planned activity followed by a decision step validating or refuting successful completion of the operation's milestone goal. This approach, first envisioned at the 2004 conference, focuses the efforts of a multidisciplinary, cross-functional team to accelerate progress in real time, catalyzed by the application of generic information technology and telecommunications tools, including: * Information assessment * Pattern recognition * Innovation management * New knowledge generation Pattern recognition employs a neural network or some similar technique to recognize necessary components of a system. …