Now is the time for all Innovators to come to the aid of their company!

I might subtitle this:
Doing something about Innovation is in the news.

If you'll pardon the co-opting of the title to suit my
purposes, let me just simply say there has been a flurry of surveys and
thinkers getting on board a message I've been pushing for quite a while. It has three parts:

OK, point One: Of
course, easier said than done. Recently
at Fastcompany Aaron Shapiro noted in this blog
entry: 'But here's the truth: most companies can't innovate because
everyone is paid to maintain the status quo.'
Companies are so caught up in their 'day jobs' they fail to dedicate any
time to innovation. The author's point,
which I echo, is:

Companies must embrace Innovation if they have any chance to
succeed.

Point Two: At
Forbes, staff writer Frederick
E. Allen, wrote this week Most Chief Innovation Officers Are Just Window
Dressing. He points out that
although an ever larger number of companies have executives in charge of innovation,
Chief Innovation Officers, a much smaller percentage have clear Innovation
Strategies. Executives at any given
company may have accountability for growth, but unless they can gather support
from the entire organization, they're bound to fail. The author's point, if I may
paraphrase:

Companies must encourage a bottom up approach to sustainable
innovation. Get everyone empowered.

The third point: Perhaps
the most significant perspective this past week is the survey
report released from Cap Gemini. Even when a company makes the decision to
embrace innovation, they still must take the next step of doing something about
it. Employees need to be encouraged to
easily make contributions toward the innovation strategy. A framework must exist, one that's easily
accessible.

To take action companies must indicate openness to others' ideas;
they must make it clear innovation is a core value of the company. To be successful companies must do more than
say they embrace innovation; they need to provide a knowledge management
system, an idea management system, in fact a social network to support
innovation. A place for all their smart
people to assemble and share information.

Companies must architect a framework for innovation; a place
where sharing information, ideas and results take place.

As I said earlier, it is apparent that now is the time for
your organization to take very pragmatic steps toward embracing
innovation. If you'd like to see best of breed innovation system leaders in the innovation space, consider attending the FEI
Conference on May 15 &16 in Orlando.
Come see CogniStreamer in booth 17.

Ron Shulkin is Vice President of the Americas for
CogniStreamer', an innovation ecosystem.
CogniStreamer serves as a Knowledge Management System, Idea Management
System and Social Network for Innovation.
You can learn more about CogniStreamer here http://bit.ly/ac3x60

Ron manages The Idea Management Group on LinkedIn (Join
Here) http://bit.ly/ideamg .

CogniStreamer' is a Knowledge Management system, an idea
management software tool'in fact a social network dedicated to innovation. It is an open innovation and collaboration
platform where internal colleagues and external partner companies or knowledge
centers join forces to create, develop and assess innovative ideas within
strategically selected areas. The CogniStreamer' portal is an ideal
collaborative platform that invites users to actively build a strong innovation
portfolio. In addition it provides a powerful resource for internal and
external knowledge sharing.
The CogniStreamer' framework is used by industry leaders such as
Atlas Copco, Bekaert, Case New Holland, Cytec, Imec, Phillip Morris, Picanol
and ThyssenKrupp. CogniStreamer' represents the best use of adaptive collaborative
technology to harness human skill, ingenuity and intelligence.