Innovation Management – Eliciting Dominant Ideas



Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Innovation Management – Eliciting Dominant Ideas article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

eliciting Dominant Ideas

One of the most useful methods of generating ideas is to elicit the dominant ideas or assumptions of an endeavour. Each dominant idea in turn then acts as the root to a pathway from which other ideas can be elicited. This is akin to creating a custom framework for the task.

For example, Ferrari may not be selling enough cars and the sales team may “brainstorm” to discover why?

Individual managers will identify varying problems, such as: the price is too high, the price is too low, the colour is wrong, the marketing is flawed etc. Each of these is in itself a pathway to idea generation.

Moving slightly higher, they may ask why clients are buying their cars at all. And answers could include: demonstrate wealth, pick up chicks, demonstrate success etc. Again, these are pathways to different ideas.

Then the managers may move onto higher concepts. Why are the clients buying their cars: to raise their status. What other value adding options help to raise the client’s status.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.



How To Win A High School Election. - Advice and ideas from over 1,000 high school Seniors about How To Win A High School Election.
Restaurant Templates And Forms. - Restaurant management forms, restaurant software, business plan templates, marketing & promotions to help grow your profit.

My colleagues and I get asked a lot about licensing. Frankly, Microsoft doesn’t have a great reputation for keeping it simple. And to be totally transparent – I, like many of my colleagues, would usually rather stick a fork in my eye that talk about it because it can get complicated. And confusing. And just…ugh.

So you can imagine my joy when I was asked to write a newsletter editorial about simplifying licensing. Exactly.

Then I had a very enlightening conversation with Terry Choquette, Licensing Marketing Manager at Microsoft and she pointed me to a few resources that got back to the basics and laid it all out very simply. I like simple. And I decided that this simple information was as blog worthy as it was newsletter worthy. While details about software licensing is not everybody’s favourite reading material, stick with me on this.

Ways to buy a license

First of all, there are 3 ways to buy a license as illustrated in the slide below: a full packaged product from a retail store, an OEM product on a new computer or a volume agreement from a reseller.

Ways to buy a license

Volume licensing agreements

While you could simply walk into the nearest Best Buy or Future Shop and make your purchase, most organizations that need 5 or more licenses can benefit best from volume licensing agreements. Why? Well, there are some pricing advantages, there are more flexible options based on size and type of business, payment structure, ownership of software, etc., there are additional use rights for cross-language and reimaging machines, and there are use rights to new product versions, support, training, tools, etc., with Software Assurance (more about this below). 

For this post, I’m going to limit my discourse to those organizations who want to license less than 250 devices or users, which I would hazard a guess applies to most of you reading this blog. If you need help with licensing options for 250 devices/users or more, lemme know and I’ll put you in touch with people who can help you or you can check out these online resources.

Below is a great 3.5 minute video that lays out the volume licensing options that are part of the Microsoft Open License program for small and medium sized businesses:

(Please visit the site to view this video)

 

Basically, there are 3 volume licensing agreement options: Open License, Open Value and Open Value Subscription. Now if you want more detail than the video gives (you did watch it right? C’mon it’s only 3.5 minutes long and it’s pretty entertaining!), you’ll want to take a look at the Open License Program Guide. It has a very useful chart on page 8 which compares what you get with an Open License agreement compared to an Open Value agreement.

Software Assurance

Software Assurance is something that can be added to your volume license agreement which provides 24x7 support, deployment planning services, training, and the latest software releases. Although once viewed as simply an insurance policy for free software upgrades, Software Assurance has now been recognized by analysts as an essential tool for getting the most out of your licensing purchase.

Below is a screen shot from an interactive PDF listing the benefits of Software Assurance with each type of licensing agreement.

benefits of software assurance

For more information about Software Assurance and what it can do for your organization, check out the Software Assurance site.

Let me know if this was helpful!

signature2 (100x78)



Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81


More Articles:


1. Great Hires: Avoid Costly Mistakes By Marcia Zidle
Picking people for a job is like going to the store to buy apples. Before you go, you ought to know whether the apples are to be eaten fresh, make into applesauce, baked into a pie or made into juice. Then, you can make the appropriate choices. This is also true for hiring winners. The goal of selection interviews, buying apples, is to make the most appropriate choices...to hire the right people for the job. The goal is to match applicants with openings. More specifically to match applic…
Baby & Kids' Furniture
Rhodes vs Alvarez

2. Delegation and empowerment: levels of freedom
When you delegate tasks or processes, you transfer a certain level of freedom in how the tasks are to be handled. These levels range from simply giving instructions to be followed right through to handing over a complete project that then becomes part of the person's job description. But how do you decide? Here are three measures you can use: 1. The level of experience of the person to whom you are delegating. How much experience does this person have with the company? With the department? How f…

3. The Dog That Didn't Bark By Robert F. Abbott
A few weeks ago, after consultations with others in an association I represent, I made a partnership pitch to another organization with similar interests. If the idea comes to fruition, it will radically change our organization.So, you can imagine my impatience when I didn't hear back from the person to whom I'd made the proposal. She had welcomed the idea, but a decision would be made by a council within her organization.Given the dynamics of an important decision about the future of their or…

4. Getting Software Developed for Your Business By David Berube
At some point, your business is going to need to have some software development. Maybe your business is small, but existing software doesn't fit your needs. Maybe your company is larger, with significant technology resources already, but you need an outside perspective. Whatever the reason, it can be difficult to choose an software developer, especially if you aren't a technical person.I've heard stories about selecting developers from all sorts of people. Quite a few have told me heard horror…