Keys to Innovation

To me, it sounds a little like Monty Python and the search for the Holy Grail. Nevertheless, IBM and the University of Georgia have launched a research initiative to find the answer to the question of what is key to innovation -- great inventions, business models, technology and profit.

IBM has donated $80,000 in systems and software to the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Businesswhere students will work together with IBM Research and Market Intelligence to delve into the topic of innovation. Under the direction of Dr. Srinivas Reddy, who directs the University of Georgia’s Terry College’s Coca-Cola Center for Marketing Studies, students will be provided with case studies from IBM and examine IBM accomplishments in the form of patents, awards, and products that have made an impact by either increasing revenue, saving money or by gaining brand name recognition. The students will also research the steps that have been taken to turn innovations into successful sellers.

Besides studying innovations that have led to actual products, the team will also study a wide range statistics and data from industries other than technology -- such as pharmaceuticals. They will analyze a company’s successes and attempts at marketing certain innovations. The findings will help researchers develop their guidelines and will help them figure out how innovations can affect a company’s profits.

Students will provide IBM with a set of guidelines on how it has come to develop innovation that matters to both the company and its clients. The team will develop the "roadmap" by researching how IBM has found creative, cost-efficient, and convenient solutions and inventions for customers in the past. In addition, a published report will document how certain business practices can turn into profitable innovations

I look forward to reading how products like, say, IBM's PCjr, fit into the "innovation roadmap." Now that really will be an accomplishment.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:45 AM  Permalink