InnovatorsDigest

You Can Relate-to-Innovate: Join Over 100,000 People in the LinkedIn Innovators Group that’s Ranked #13 Among 644,000 Linkedin Groups

Innovators like to connect and network with other innovators. LinkedIn has over 65 million members who belong to over 640,000 Groups. Over 100,000 innovative people have joined the Marketing, PR, & Sales Innovators Group which is now ranked as 13^th LARGEST Group on LinkedIn.

Request to join the valuable Group by clicking HERE. Once your membership is approved, your LinkedIn profile can show the following distinctive group logo to show millions of people you belong to this valuable and growing group.

Looking for more Innovation Groups on Linkedin? Check out LinkedinGroups.comfor a list Innovators Digest's Top 20 Innovation Groups including a new one for App Innovators who use or develop Apps for the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry or Android smartphones.

The 30 Most Innovation-Friendly Countries (BusinessWeek Article)

Which countries provide the most innovation-friendly climates for companies? That's the question the Boston Consulting Group, working with the National Association of Manufacturers' Manufacturing Institute, set out to answer in its recent survey. BCG consultants, led by James P. Andrew, looked at both "inputs"—government policies supporting education, workforce quality, infrastructure, and trade—and "performance"—R&D results, business performance, employment growth, and other impacts of innovation.

At a time when countries around the world are struggling because of the global recession, it's all the more important for them to make themselves more attractive to potential investment from multinationals looking for environments that are innovation-friendly, says Andrew. "Countries aren't innovative, companies are," he says. "The choices that countries make can have a profound impact on the ability of companies to be innovative, to attract and retain people and other inputs that go into making innovation successful."

So which countries have the right mix of pro-innovation policies and superior results? Despite the recession—and talk of decline in American manufacturing—the U.S. does well, ranking in the top 10. It's not No. 1, though. To learn more about the 30 countries on BCG's list, and the grades that BCG's consultants gave them for overall ranking as well as inputs and performance, read on.

The 12 Most Innovative Countries (The Daily Beast Article)

Which nations have the best capacity to solve problems? The Daily Beast surveys the world’s “innovation czars” to rank the best of the best.

The world’s problems have never been more complex, which means the importance of solving them has never been more paramount. Thus, innovation has become a national priority, often the central economic priority, for most of the developed world.

For a ranking of the world’s most innovative countries,
click here.

Which brings us to a question.While the entire world primes itself for the World Cup, which will determine superiority on the soccer field, which countries are the global leaders in a more competitive, lucrative battle: fostering innovation?

For the answer, we turned to the most elite panel of judges ever assembled to measure global problem-solving capabilities: a group called the I-20, comprised of the top “innovations czars” in most of the world’s economically vibrant countries. Supported by The Institute for Large Scale Innovation, the brainchild of Daily Beast contributing editor John Kao, the I-20 has swelled from its original members to national “chief innovations officers” in 25 countries. These cabinet or near-cabinet-level officials, in governments from all six inhabited continents, from South Korea to Australia to Germany to Rwanda, are charged with peering around the world, gauging what’s working, and making their countries more forward-looking and competitive.

We asked this panel to rate the most innovative countries in the world—those that foster and harness ideas and problem-solving. Their responses, and comments, were kept anonymous, to ensure honesty; voting for your own country was disallowed.

From almost 200, a dozen countries stood out among voters. Which nations get bragging rights in a contest vital to addressing the world’s top issues? Click here.

My Thinkubator Innovation Experience - Review by "Experience Economy Expert" Bill Gibeault

Gerald Haman loves questions. In fact, his favorite question is "What is your favorite question?"

So here was my question. How did he and his company, SolutionPeople, get me to travel half way across the country to attend his Accelerated Innovation & Creativity Workshop in Chicago?

 

Throughout my years in corporate America, I have experienced learning and training encounters in virtually every shape or form you can think of – leadership, selling, negotiating, public speaking and streaming media. Why was this going to be any different?

In their bestselling book, The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre and Every Business a Stage, Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore ask a series of great questions. In a world where most products and services have little differentiation, what would customers really value? Better yet, for what would they pay a premium?

The answer is experiences—how companies engage customers in an inherently personal and memorable way. The buzz on Haman's Accelerated Innovation Workshop was that it wasn't the traditional lecture and 3-ring binder snore, but a real EXPERIENCE.

This was a big lure for me. I had just became was certified by Pine & Gilmore in the theories and models of The Experience Economy. I wanted to discover if the Thinkubator "experience" lived up to its impressive word-of-mouth billing.

Located in a spacious loft in Chicago's West Loop, the Thinkubator is a truly innovative venue. Festooned with tools, toys, games, large-screen TVs, Aeron chairs, light bulbs in various shapes and forms, bean bags, sofas and sculptures, it invites you into a world that definitely isn't business as usual.

Haman's opening act is literally transforming. It's called the "Know Your Brain Game Experience." It's a quick, but amazingly accurate "brain scan." I won't spoil the surprise, but attendees gain some insight into how their brain works and how they can use this knowledge to become more consistently innovative. The game is a highly interactive experience and sets the stage for the introduction of SolutionPeople's 4-quadrant brain model and 4-stage Accelerated Innovation Process. (Investigate, Create, Evaluate and Activate). At this point, every participant gets a KnowBrainer® Innovation & Creativity tool. The brainchild of Haman, it's an innovative hand-held tool that uses a combination of questions, words, quotes and images to help people think through all the stages of his proven creative problem solving process.

Cool fact: Tests by students at Northwestern University and Wayne State University found that the KnowBrainer tool increased creativity levels by over 500% versus traditional brainstorming with flip charts. In just the first 3 hours of the Innovation Workshop, SolutionPeople delivered a memorable experience – engaging clients with entertainment, education and a dynamic venue.

A great experience? Most definitely. One of the most remarkable accomplishments of SolutionPeople is that the "experience" has fueled the growth of the organization. Haman hasn't relied on traditional advertising to get clients; growth was a result of word of mouth and the continuing story amazing Thinkubator experiences.

Author's Footnote: SolutionPeople's Gerald Haman recently invested an entire week with Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore to become a Certified Experience Economy Expert. He is already making plans to enhance the Thinkubator Experience by applying new ideas inspired by his interaction and discussions with Pine & Gilmore. Haman has organized a new LinkedIn Experience Economy Networking Group for fans and practitioners of The Experience Economy.