Featured Case Study: Nintendo’s Revolution

This case study from MIT Sloan describes the development of the groundbreaking “Wii” game system, and explores how Nintendo was able to create the this innovative product through an ideation process that encouraged innovation at the top levels of the company, consideration of underserved customer segments, and a rapid product development process. Download Case Study

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Innovation to Win Competitive Advantage - NEW!
Technology-Enabled Innovation: A Weapon to Win the Battle for Competitive Advantage
Boston Consulting Group paper about how to become more innovative as a company, and how technology – specifically, information technology – can help you excel against the competition.

Open Innovation Research from Gartner – NEW!
Tapping External Social Processes and the Collective to Enhance Innovation
Gartner research on the challenges and potential of opening up an organization’s innovation process to external participants through open innovation.

How Play Improves Innovation and Ideation
The Science Behind the Lego Serious Play Method
This special report explains the scientific principles behind the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY methodology, including the importance of play and exploration to creativity in adults. It also addresses how people learn better through storytelling and metaphor, and how building objects in the physical world (the hand-mind connection) supports innovative idea generation and problem solving.

Business Model Design for Social Innovation
Developing Inclusive Business Models
This report from IFC and Harvard Kennedy School takes an in-depth look at Coca-Cola’s Manual Distribution Centers in Ethiopia and Tanzania as an example of an inclusive business model designed to enable low income entrepreneurs, and promote collaboration between public and private organizations and individuals.

Innovation in Government
Innovation in Government: Indonesia and Colombia
To become more responsive and effective, governments are experimenting with the way they monitor services and
work with the private sector to expand the economy. This McKinsey Quarterly report includes case studies from Indonesia and Columbia.

Innovation Strategy and Management
3M: Rethinking Innovation
This case study presents an overview of the innovation program at 3M, including the organization’s innovation strategy and leadership, how it manages the innovation process and key components of building an innovation culture.

Open Innovation
Leveraging the Global Innovation Community
Open Innovation case study briefs from NineSigma that provide numerous examples of innovation challenges and how open innovation contributed to solutions. Contains examples from many different industries including aerospace, automotive, chemical, consumer products, electronics, engineering, materials science, medical devices and packaged foods.

Innovation Technology Predictions
2020 Innovation: Pulling the Future Toward US
A detailed 250-page report from CLSA that looks at the state of innovation across different industries, including inhibitors to innovation as well as areas ripe for innovation. Technological innovation enablers are discussed along with the Top 20 innovation technologies predicted for 2020. Plus, in a special interview section featuring more than a dozen innovation experts, Innovation 360 CEO Kamal Hassan discusses innovation barriers and opportunities specific to the Middle East.

Innovation in Service Industries
Case Studies in Service Innovation
This in-depth study of service innovation in the UK includes examples of several approaches to innovation used by service organizations, including process, technology and business model innovation, as well as open innovation and methods to improve internal idea generation.

Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Beyond Capital: How Khalifa Fund Enables Economic and Social Change through Entrepreneurship 
Through innovative programs targeted at specific groups, Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Fund demonstrates that both economic and social development can co-exist in any organization’s strategic vision. In this interview with Innovation 360, Khalifa Fund’s DCEO, Ibrahim Ahmed Al Mansoori, explains how the values that differentiate his organization contribute to the success of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the UAE.

Examples of Government Support for Technology Innovation
Case Studies in American Innovation
This collection of ten case studies depict how government support was a critical component of many American technological innovations from railroads and commercial aviation to personal computing and clean energy development.

Overcoming Legislative Barriers to Innovation
Capitalizing on Innovation: The Case of Japan
How could Japan become more innovative? The authors argue that the country needs to address a number of barriers to innovation including weak antitrust and intellectual property rights enforcement, and high barriers to entry for foreign investment and venture capital investment.

Business Model Innovation to Meet Growth Demands
Changing Tides: DP World Achieves Market Leadership through Business Model Innovation
Dubai Port World is one of the largest marine terminal operators in the world. In this interview with Innovation 360, Mohammed Al Muallem, DP World’s SVP & Managing Director for the UAE, discusses how the company has evolved its business model over the years to become a market leader, and how it has innovated to meet the demands of growth.

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Using Game Mechanics to Improve Idea Generation and Innovation Outcomes
Innovation Squared: The Department for Work and Pensions Turns Innovation into a Game
This case study examines how the U.K.’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has used game mechanics to create a system for innovation that enables people from across the department to develop innovative ideas and make meaningful contributions to organizational change.

Open Innovation for Product Development
Succeeding at Open Source Innovation
Few organizations have as much experience harnessing the talents of people outside their corporate walls as Mozilla Corporation, the developer of the open-source Firefox Web browser. In this McKinsey interview, former chairman and CEO of Mozilla Mitchell Baker talks about the balance between maintaining control and letting motivated people run with their passions.

Business Model Innovation in an Established Industry
Duplicating Success: Xerox Reinvents Itself
The company whose very name defined an industry almost half a century ago is using Lean Six Sigma and Design for Lean Six Sigma (DFLSS) as a way to stay in the forefront of document technology, and provide better ways for customers to improve business results.

Innovation Methodologies Used by R&D Teams
Good Chemistry: Dow Pairs Six Sigma and Innovation
R&D specialists at The Dow Chemical Company have learned to combine Six Sigma, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and the innovation method known as TRIZ. The result is a systematic approach to innovation that enables the company to respond quickly to changing market conditions.