Hotel Helps Guests Connect Online

Springwise Newsletter, October 7, 2008 — Most hotels today give guests a way to connect with them online before their stay, whether for making simple room requests or to shop ahead for items from the hotel's retail offerings. New York City's Pod Hotel, however, is now using an online forum to let guests make advance connections with each other as well.

The hotel's PodCulture forum is designed to let visitors swap stories, trade itineraries and ideas, and get to know their fellow guests before they arrive. Once they've booked their reservations, guests are sent an email that includes a link to the PodCulture blog and a unique user ID code. That code allows them to create a profile for the blog and begin communicating with other guests.

Owned and operated by BD Hotels, the Pod Hotel provides... continue reading

Design Is More Than Packaging

New York Times, October 5, 2008 — THE word “design” tends to conjure up images of crisp graphics, nicely arranged interiors or pleasing packaging. But a growing cadre of advocates say the world of design has much more to offer corporate America.

They are proponents of “design thinking,” which focuses on people’s actual needs rather than trying to persuade them to buy into what businesses are selling. It revolves around field research followed by freewheeling idea generation that often leads to unexpected results.

Sorcerers' apprentices concoct new adventures

Disney interns peek behind the magic and help brainstorm

Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2008 — Every childhood visit to Disneyland provoked the same argument between Patricia L. Caplette and her brother over which ride to hit first. He wanted to head straight for the Haunted Mansion; she insisted on Pirates of the Caribbean. So they bargained: If she could start the day with her favorite scurvy crew, he could end it getting spooked.

Staring You in the Face†

The path to new products might start with the customer data you've already collected. You just don't realize it.

Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2008 — In the quest for innovation, companies continuously collect and analyze ever-increasing amounts of customer data. But what if a company has already collected the most valuable information and doesn't realize it?

Sometimes the answer to the innovation challenge lies not in collecting new customer data but rather in finding creative ways to share and repurpose customer information that's already in-house.

Best Buy Taps 'Prediction Market'†

Imaginary Stocks Let Workers Forecast Whether Retailer's Plans Will Meet Goals

Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2008 — When executives at electronics retailer Best Buy Co. want to know if a new product or idea is likely to succeed, they can seek the opinion of rank-and-file employees by turning to the company's "prediction market."

The market, called TagTrade, allows Best Buy's workers to trade imaginary stocks based on answers to managers' questions. The market's judgment has often proved to be more accurate than the company's official forecasts.

Manny Ramirez: Baseball's Most Innovative Player

Why the Dodgers' dreadlocked bad-boy is the best thing to happen to L.A. since skateboarding and margaritas

BusinessWeek, September 8, 2008 — Manny Ramirez and his dreadlocks have a lock on L.A. Dodgers' fans' hearts and minds, and are a shoo-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame. But I'd like to nominate him for one more honor: Baseball's MIP—Most Innovative Player.

No joke. I take quite seriously the meaning of innovation in its truest form—something that fundamentally changes the way people live, work, and play. For example, adding a button to a cell phone isn't innovation. But if that button turns the cell phone into a camera and that camera changes the way people record their lives and communicate with each other, then that extra button becomes innovation.

So I'm not talking about Manny's batting average or home run tally when I say he's an innovator. It's much deeper than that.

Creative designs, ideas get chance to stand out at CrowdSpring

Open, online competition a new version of help-wanted site

Chicago Tribune, September 1, 2008 — Trying to begin a career as a graphic designer and build a portfolio, Evan Stremke joined CrowdSpring, a Chicago-based online marketplace for creative services.

No conventional help-wanted Web site, CrowdSpring is part of a trend sweeping the Web, sometimes called crowd sourcing. The idea is to set up an open, online competition among talent who bid for jobs doing everything from creating a corporate logo to writing blog entries.

Coke's New Design Direction

Five years ago, Coca-Cola's design chief was told: "We need to do more with design. Go figure it out." Now his labors are bearing fruit

BusinessWeek, August 25, 2008 — When David Butler joined Coca-Cola (KO) almost five years ago, he was given, as he tells it, "the Post-it Note mandate: We need to do more with design. Go figure it out." Butler, who had come from a gig as director of brand strategy at the interactive marketing and consulting firm Sapient, had soon written up a 30-page manifesto laying out a design strategy for the company. But if Butler, who's now vice-president for design, has made an impact at the beverage giant, it's not because of some heady proclamation. Instead it's because he has learned the most effective way to implement design strategy at a company as large and complex as Coca-Cola: avoid the word "design" as much as possible.

Designing the iPhone of diapers

Innovation isn't just for Google and Apple. How Kimberly-Clark gave birth to a lucrative new product.

FORTUNE, August 25, 2008 — In a windowless room at Kimberly-Clark's research offices in Neenah, Wis., a mother hoists her baby girl onto a table painted on its side to look like a school bus. Photos of puppies and kittens decorate the walls, and a mobile with Sesame Street characters hangs overhead.

P&G Takes Laundry Brands In New Directions†

Dry Cleaning, Youth-Oriented Products and Tim Gunn Figure in Latest Initiatives

Advertising Age, August 25, 2008 — Procter & Gamble Co.'s Tide is branching into dry cleaning, fashion and more as it looks to innovate in new areas amid an economic downturn and changing consumer demands regarding laundry. Tide has launched a three-store test of a dry cleaner under its brand name in Kansas City, Mo. The test includes construction of a new company-owned store and partnership in two other stores with a local dry cleaner, GreenEarth Cleaning, which uses a dry-cleaning solvent it says is environmentally safer than traditional chemicals.