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I recently listened to a Harvard Business Review podcast interview with Muhtar Kent the CEO of Coca-Cola.

Now, I have mixed feelings about the value to our society of the products that they produce. However this is not the forum for that discussion.

What did fascinate me was the insight that an organisation the size of Coca-Cola recognises that inside the company is not always the best place for embryonic ideas to flourish. To counter this the company has “incubation projects” outside the company.

This says some good things about Coca-Cola. Firstly, that it acknowledges the need for innovation, and secondly that innovation needs the right environment to thrive. In other words keep it away from the accountants, lawyers, and managers that live quarter-by-quarter.

Harvard Business Review Podcast – Featured Guest: Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola

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I have to admit it, I am a fan if high tech and innovative design. BUT – don’t you just love a low tech low cost solution?

The image below shows an empty cash register tray and a very simple sign saying “No Cash Here”.

Forget the fancy motion detectors, wireless video recorders, RFID keyless entry. How about showing that there is nothing of value to steal.

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Some interesting insights into the rising demand for innovation practitioners from the New York Times article

Jump, Ideo and Kotter International, are companies with offices and payrolls. But many are solo practitioners, brains for hire who lecture at corporations or consult with them regularly. Each has a catechism and a theory about why good ideas can be so hard to come by and what can be done to remedy the situation.

I particularly like this model by Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and co-author of “The Other Side of Innovation:

In Box 1, he puts everything a company now does to manage and improve performance.

Box 2 is labeled “selectively forgetting the past,” his way of urging clients to avoid fighting competitors and following trends that are no longer relevant.

Box 3 is strategic thinking about the future.

“Companies spend all of their time in Box 1, and think they are doing strategy,” he says. “But strategy is really about Box 2 and 3 — the challenge to create the future that will exist in 2020″.

via In Pursuit of the Perfect Brainstorm – NYTimes.com.

If you’re interested in how the brain works and finding ways to improved your brain power try taking a quick look at this brain optimindation program.

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