Business

Innovation applied to all dimensions of business including but not limited to: growing, expanding, managing, and maintaining a business.

CPS Practices for Innovation: An experiential evening

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Barbara Kivowitz, Innovation/Measurement 21st Century

The Creative Problem Solving (CPS) method has been in use for over sixty years. It was developed as a response to the question, “So, how do you actually do innovation?” CPS provides a process discipline to the action of creative thinking in order to progress systematically (and creatively) from challenge to ideas to solution development to implementation.

In this session, Barbara Kivowitz of Innovation/Measurement 21st Century will lead us as we explore the principles that underlie CPS and learn the four stage CPS method. We will also put the CPS method into practice.

We invite you to bring a real challenge you are dealing with. The ideal challenge is a problem that requires an innovative solution, one that you are prepared to work on with a group and about which you have some concrete information. The challenge could be about your professional work, or even your personal life. You will need to be able to describe your challenge to a small group in 3 minutes. Do not come with answers — just with an interesting problem! Some example might be:
How can I decrease travel expenses for my business?
In what ways might my company go green?
How can I build up my consulting practice during this economic downturn?
In what ways might I help my daughter deal with the college application experience?
How can we increase fundraising for our nonprofit organization?

Execution Excellence – Predictably Turning Ideas into Profit

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Kimberly Wiefling, Wiefling Consulting
with James Connor, Sand Hill Angels

Creativity, superior technology and brilliant people are insufficient for success. A great idea doesn’t guarantee a great product or service, and those in turn don’t guarantee a profit. It takes execution with excellence to ensure that an innovative idea becomes a successful and profitable product or service.

What is execution with excellence? It’s a sensible framework and the discipline to follow it, and depart from it thoughtfully when and where appropriate. It’s common sense, but not common practice. This interactive program will grapple with the biggest barriers to execution and how you can overcome them — starting right now.

Kimberly Wiefling is the author of Scrappy Project Management, founder of Wiefling Consulting and a member of the SVII Innovation Leadership Development team. Kimberly will lead the discussion and activity, and will be joined by Jim Connor, a Board Director of the Sand Hill Angels. Kimberly, together with Jim, will shine a light on the predictable pitfalls of innovation execution, and drive the discussion on what causes them and how to overcome them. Participatory activities will help us experience the gap between “knowing what to do” and “doing it.”

When Innovation Goes Social: CSR in Action

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Rossella Derickson and Krista Henley, Corporate-Wisdom and CSR in Action
with Cecily Joseph, Symantec

Our inspiring feature presentation will guide us to integrate corporate social responsiveness (CSR) into the fabric of our work and our organizations. Our speakers, authors Rossella Derickson and Krista Henley will ask us to think out of the box about our products and services, to find ways to become responsive local and global citizens.

Studies show that professionals are more engaged when involved in purpose-driven initiatives that connect product and service to the greater needs of society. This engagement translates to our competitive advantage, inspiring us and driving solutions to global problems. This session will offer inspiration from Silicon Valley leaders, from the collaborative book and consulting practice CSR in Action. One of those Silicon Valley leaders, Cecily Joseph, will share with us her corporate journey to create Symantec’s successful CSR initiative.

This program is sure to help you shape your own thinking
about how to be an awakened and socially responsive professional and leader.

Social Software for Innovation and Collaboration

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featuring Dreamfish and BrightIdea

Join us for an up-close look at two social software platforms designed to increase the success of your organization’s innovation and collaboration initiatives.

Dreamfish is a a new social networking platform, optimized specifically for effective organizational and personal collaboration. Loni Davis, Dreamfish’ Director of Client Success Services, will show us how Dreamfish goes beyond photo sharing and online conversation to support the further essentials of true collaboration.

BrightIdea is an innovation pipeline management platform, optimized to manage the generation, evaluation, and prototyping of your organization’s best ideas. BrightIdea’s Michelle Fairbanks will describe the BrightIdea platform and show us what’s possible beyond the initial “WebStorm”.