Diversity in the workplace: fact or myth?
If you believe what you read on most firms' Web sites, we shouldn't really be worrying too much about innovation, as most firms are already very innovative. This assertion always amazes me, especially since most firms don't even have a clear definition of innovation from which they can work.
Another thing you often read on firms' Web sites is the claim that the firm "values diversity." Really? When we think of diversity, we often imagine all these different people from different backgrounds coming together to create "added value from their differences" as a result of all the "creative friction" that diversity produces. Cirque du Soleil meets Boeing, in other words. Yet many firms never manage to break out of the old, traditional mindset, which, incidently, makes most firms clones of one another.
It's pretty much a given that some of the best insights, ideas and solutions to a firm's problems can be found outside the industry in which the firm normally operates. Eric von Hippel is a big advocate of looking outside the industry, specifically at "lead users" (users whose needs often foreshadow the needs of the mass market) in the development of breakthrough products. Here's a little video about how Unipart, a manufacturer and marketer of car parts, used criminals to solve a couple of their own product development problems. Now that's what I call "valuing diversity".
innovation management in Asia
Another thing you often read on firms' Web sites is the claim that the firm "values diversity." Really? When we think of diversity, we often imagine all these different people from different backgrounds coming together to create "added value from their differences" as a result of all the "creative friction" that diversity produces. Cirque du Soleil meets Boeing, in other words. Yet many firms never manage to break out of the old, traditional mindset, which, incidently, makes most firms clones of one another.
It's pretty much a given that some of the best insights, ideas and solutions to a firm's problems can be found outside the industry in which the firm normally operates. Eric von Hippel is a big advocate of looking outside the industry, specifically at "lead users" (users whose needs often foreshadow the needs of the mass market) in the development of breakthrough products. Here's a little video about how Unipart, a manufacturer and marketer of car parts, used criminals to solve a couple of their own product development problems. Now that's what I call "valuing diversity".
innovation management in Asia
Labels: innovation
posted by Gordon Graham at 10:10 PM
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