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The Innovation Blog

Jay Terwilliger

Recent Posts

Yogi Berra's sage advice for companies on Vision, Mission & Strategy

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on December 5, 2024


“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”

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Topics: Jay Terwilliger, Future, Future Pull, strategic innovation, strategy, Strategic Goals, Vision

Let's not confuse good brainstorming with the new "Groupthink".

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on November 30, 2024

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Topics: creativity, Jay Terwilliger, Ideas, groupthink, Collaboration, brainstorming

Don't just "Think Outside the Box"... Think in New Dimensions

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on November 30, 2024

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Topics: creative, innovative, out-of-the-box, thinking, think different, creative thinking skills

3 Keys to Avoiding Groupthink When Collaborating (2024)

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on November 30, 2024

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Topics: Jay Terwilliger, groupthink, creative thinking, Collaboration, Championed Teamwork, brainstorming

Corporate Will Trumps Corporate Strategy

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on November 30, 2024

The other day I was having a conversation with the Division President of a large company about innovation. I mentioned to him that in our 30 years in the innovation space, we have noticed that innovation initiatives tend to have a 3-5 year life. The pursuit of breakthrough innovation – “Big Bet” innovation that expands the opportunity for significant growth through expanding markets or creating new ones, takes time. The unfortunate result of changes in Corporate Will is that too often, just when investments begin to pay off with new platforms, new technologies, etc., the efforts are often abandoned.

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Topics: Innovative Culture, Communication, executive sponsor, Alignment, Success Factors, breakthrough innovation, leadership, strategy, Strategic Goals, decision-making, breakthrough, Transformational Innovation, changing the game, innovation decision-making

The Three Levels of Innovation

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on September 30, 2015

There are three ascending tiers of innovation that you can pursue.  The level you choose will dictate the simplicity or complexity of the journey you will undertake.  Unfortunately, far too many companies expect to achieve the highest levels of innovation while only providing the strategy, tools, and support for lower-level success, at best.  The three levels are:

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Topics: breakthrough innovation, Incremental Innovation, Transformational Innovation, innovation portfolio

The Power of an External Mindset

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on August 6, 2015


When you think of innovative cultures, think of an ice cube:

Change happens at the edges where the ice cube, or the organization, meets the world around it.

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Success Factors for Breakthrough Innovation

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on December 20, 2011

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Topics: Jay Terwilliger, bizinovationist, Success Factors, breakthrough innovation

Two models for evaluating early innovation: SNIFF and NOMMAR

Posted by Jay Terwilliger on April 5, 2011

Last week on this blog I posted "The "SNIFF" test - criteria for early innovation decision making".  This is a simple, but effective five criteria model for evaluating concepts early in the innovation process. Recently I had the pleasure of attending a workshop led by Jay Paap.  Dr. Paap is the founder of Paap Associates, Inc (PAI), and has been consulting to major companies in the field of innovation for 40 years. In his work, he has also dealt with the issue of client companies seeking to apply metrics or find some other useful criteria for making early stage decisions in innovation, and has a slightly different, but intriguingly similar model to offer.

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Topics: Innovation criteria, Innovation, Innovation Metrics, criteria for innovation, decision-making, technical innovation, criteria, innovation decision-making