BQF Innovation

In a downturn everyone is involved in sales.  I chaired the Successful Selling Conference in Birmingham last week and we had a fantastic line-up of speakers on sales and motivation.  The Sales Guru, Neil Rackham, who conceived the Spin method in the 1970s, was one of the presenters. He asked what are the three most common mistakes that sales people make in a recession.  His answers and a summary of his advice were:

1. Chasing too much business. Sales people tend to chase and bid for every piece of business but it is better with B to B sales to focus on the ones you can win and ignore those where your chances are slim. Qualify harder in tough times.

2. Negotiating too early in the sales cycle. Don’t start with special offers on price. Leave any price or terms negotiation until very late in the process.

3. Assuming price is the main decision criterion. In a recession safety is often the most important consideration - even though the prospect will say it is price. You must reassure the client that yours is a safe, dependable solution first.

There was plenty more great stuff including talks from Larry Winget, Marc Woods, Debra Searle, Allan Pease, Mike Southon and Tom Devine. You can see a review of the day on Modern Selling.

Paul Sloane

There is an interesting post on some research on Brainstorming here on the Innovation Tools site.  Josh Hyatt of the Sloan Management Review discusses some research by Karan Girotra, a professor at INSEAD, and Christian Terwiesh and Karl T. Ulrich, both professors at the University of Pennsylvania.

Two types of groups generated ideas. One followed a traditional model, assembling a group - in this case, students studying product design - and having them come up with appropriate product ideas for dorm rooms. They worked solely in a group. The other group took a hybrid approach: Those students worked on ideas by themselves before coming together to share their thinking.

Which technique yielded the best ideas?  Strictly speaking, the traditional brainstorming groups came up with the very best ideas. They also came up with the very worst ones. In other words, their results’ quality varied much more than did the hybrid group’s results. The hybrid group produced more ideas that were, on average, of higher quality.  But, as Girotra notes, “when it comes to innovation, the extremes are what matter - not the norm and not the average.”  So, if both groups work for the same amount of time, the traditional brainstorming team “significantly outperforms” the hybrid group when it comes to producing the best ideas, according to the authors.

This finding contradicts most existing literature on the subject, which tends to conclude that while working in teams is more satisfying, working alone generates the most effective ideas.  But “what we found makes sense, since the most successful creative firms do mostly use team processes for brainstorming,” Terwiesch says. “We just brought some new thinking to the subject.”

Full article on Innovation Tools.

Paul Sloane

The next meeting of the BQF Innovation Unit will take place on the morning of Tuesday December 2nd in London.  It is kindly hosted by MITIE and will be at their offices at 1st Floor, Counting House, London. SE1 2QN (nearest Tube is London Bridge).  It starts at 9.15 and finishes at 12 noon.

Keith Philips, Director at MITIE, will give a presentation on Managing Change and I will lead an interactive workshop session on Overcoming Resistance to Change.  MITIE is a £1.4B turnover company that provides facilities, property and engineering services to some of the largest private and public companies.

The agenda topics are of key interest to executives in all enterprises, especially in these challenging times.  There is a small charge to cover costs.  Places are limited so please book early on the BQF Events page.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Paul Sloane

 How’s the health of your innovation funnel? If new ideas are a primary driver of future growth, in today’s uncertain economic climate, it could become a survival issue for your organization.  Chuck Frey from InnovationTools.com and Hitendra Patel from the Center for Innovation Excellence & Leadership at the Hult International School of Business are conducting a survey to learn more about the innovation funnels of organizations around the globe.

Your input will help you and your peers to gain a better understanding of best practices in creating and managing innovation initiatives in your organization. The results will be shared by InnovationTools and Hult School of Business on their respective websites.

Please click on this link to participate in this important survey:

Please respond by Friday, October 10, 2008.