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Belbin Shaper-Plants on Innovation Teams: My Way or the Highway

An innovation project team approached me last week, well into the solution development phase of the program:

“We’ve run into a bit of a crossroads with respect to defining the scope of our project. We’ve come up with 2 outlines (full details attached)…The group thinks that both ideas have merit; although the main focus of each project is quite different. Given that we haven’t been able to come to a consensus as a group, we were hoping to talk through both ideas with you on Monday.”

Both ideas aimed to…

7 of 9 Projects From October Move Forward

Last October we wrapped up a five-month innovation/leadership development program for 50 participants at one of our financial services clients and we have just received the three-month status report on the projects.

Seven of the nine projects pitched to senior management at the closing session are now moving forward. These include an outsourcing solution in Brazil that has already garnered significant interest there and in other regions, a cross-border service for benefits payments (this came from one of the most geographically diverse teams representing Argentina, Italy, Dubai and the US…

Innovation and Talent Retention

At the beginning of this year when the markets were not being kind to our financial services clients, we admit we were concerned that the crisis would relegate spending on innovation programs for relatively junior employees to the long list of “necessary” cuts. It didn’t. In fact, our clients have expanded the number of programs they run. Their reasoning is sound though it may not be obvious.

Much has been written this year about the importance of innovation in a downturn. Those firms that continue to invest in strategic innovation…

Innovation as a Means to Understanding Strategy

Mike Harris, Chairman of Innovation at RBS lists five things a CEO of a large organization must do to execute on innovation:

1. Be visibly and vocally behind the innovation agenda
2. Make a strategic case for innovation
3. Put an innovation infrastructure in place with processes for education and customer insight
4. Create an environment that values prototypes and pilots
5. Establish a innovation funding source and decision authority separate from the normal funding process

All of these can exist in perception but not in practice. For example, making the strategic case…

9 of 10 Projects From July Move Forward

We just received an update on the projects delivered for a financial services innovation program that ran from April through July of this year. Already it is looking like one of our most successful programs. Nine out of the ten projects are moving forward in some form. Highlights include a $1-billion mandate for an offering in China, an innovative interest rate cap product for foreign currency credit card purchases that rolled out earlier this month, and the approval of $4 million in technology spending for three separate projects.

Innovation Program Wraps Up

One of my global financial services clients wrapped up its third annual VP development program focused on innovation at the end of July and I am thrilled with the results on a number of levels.

First,  the project teams met the challenge of seeking a problem to solve, delivering a proof of concept, and convincing senior execs to allocate resources. As an example, a global team of derivatives sales people and traders, focused on leveraging the consumer business as a channel for institutional products. In three months they were able to…

Innovation Program Launched for Transaction Services Client

This month Mohr Collaborative helped one of our major financial services clients launch a five-month innovation-focused development program for 48 high-potential VPs from across the globe. We ran a series of workshops in which the teams generated opportunities and vetted them with peers and internal experts. The teams are now hard at work doing client research. The nine teams will reconvene in October to pitch their solutions to senior management.

8 of 11 Projects from Spring 2008 Program Move Forward

Senior management of one of our financial services clients has completed its review of the 11 business plans delivered by global teams of Vice Presidents in our program concluded last July. They have recommended that 8 of the projects move forward to implementation. A few are already well on their way. Two of the remaining three projects have been put on hold pending stabilization of market conditions.

Innovation Prediction Market Results

The prediction market we ran as part of our innovation program for high potential young employees at a large financial services firm turned out a great success on a number of levels. Most important, it generated excitement around the proposals, motivating a high percentage of participants to actively trade and provide a new type of feedback to one another. And, though forecasting wasn’t the primary goal of this market, the market results served well to predict project outcomes.

We invited all 52 participants to invest in the “stocks” of…

Latest Innovation Projects Promise $727 Million in Revenue Over 3 Years

On Friday Mohr Collaborative wrapped up its second VP Development Program of 2008 for one of our major clients. Convening for the first time since June, nine teams pitched their projects, representing hundreds of hours of work, to ten members of the executive management team. In aggregate the projects represent $727 million in potential revenue over the next three years.