The age-old question of what the source of new ideas is in business and other organizations can get even more complicated when a relatively new form of idea generation and innovation, called collaborative innovation, is factored in. Current thinking holds that manufacturers can accelerate and improve their innovation efforts by, so to speak, broadening the net — engaging larger numbers of people and a more diverse set of constituencies in ideation and innovation processes.
But the collaborative approach is still a developing idea in many manufacturing companies. One of the more interesting findings from Managing Automation’s annual reader poll on innovation is that for most manufacturers, the primary source of new ideas comes from only a few individuals, not teams set up for that purpose.
While this may be true today, the poll also shows that the idea of innovation teams is beginning to take hold. Already, 19% of survey respondents indicate that innovation teams in their companies are generating “future-oriented” ideas, compared with the 46% who say, as of late 2009, that only a few individuals are coming up with the key ideas. If the collaborative model has legs, these numbers should increase over time.
Meanwhile, the debate over where new and innovative ideas come from will continue. A good example of this discussion occurred yesterday in the Sunday New York Times. In an article titled, “The Apple in His Eye,” writer Steve Lohr describes the power that one individual, in this case Apple CEO Steve Jobs, has in innovation at Apple, particularly with the new iPad.