Open Innovation in Lifestyle Brands

Globalization has not only introduced global brands with their
respective products and services, but also modified an individual’s
lifestyle pattern. The modern day consumers are conscious about every
product they choose and analyze whether it would cater to their taste
and preferences. More than a product or service, it’s the brand image
that decides how a consumer will to relate to it. As a result Lifestyle
brands are becoming increasingly cautious about the ways in which they
connect to their audience. To strengthen this connection they are
resorting to idea management and open innovation techniques.

Lifestyle is individual and unique to a person and
holds a distinguishing factor to it. Swarovski, the famous luxury
product retailer resorted to open innovation with its Lifestyle
Electronics Competition 2011. This competition encouraged consumers to
incorporate Swarovski gems into lifestyle electronic such as earphones,
e-books, mobiles, notebooks and the like. Innovative designs created by
the public were asked to be uploaded on the company website and later
were judged by a team of Swarovski executives. The end result of the
competition of was 2,000 configured and 600 freely created designs. The
designs attained through this open idea capture gained prominence and
got added to the brand’s product/service portfolio. The idea that got
promoted was irrespective of the electronic device you carry, it becomes
unique with a Swarovski in it!

The term “Lifestyle” essentially
means a way of life, that is never static and forever changing for
betterment. New and creative ideas help lifestyle brands create product
awareness and also in product development. Philips, the global leader in
lifestyle, healthcare and lighting has frequently adopted open
innovation strategies to bring greater innovations to the market,
quickly and efficiently. In the year 2005, Philips established its One
Philips Innovation Campus in Shanghai, by investing 40 million Euros
annually. The aim was twofold. First, the brand aimed to promote
internal collaboration and increase efficiency in bringing multiple
R&D centers in one campus. The second objective was to open up the
campus to external teams, facilitating R&D cooperation and open
innovation. The main objective of this open innovation to set up an
environment that promotes networking, interactions and
knowledge-sharing, resulting in joint projects and ventures amongst the
HTCE organizations.

Thus
we see that the procedure of idea management has stretched beyond the
confines of a seminal hall or corporate meeting room. Today,
entrepreneurs are aware of the fact that every individual is capable of
“out of the box thinking”. It has been proved time and again that the
best of the ideas come in from a mixed, unidentified and unorganized
section! However, there lies its uniqueness, that the crowd to whom
brands sell their products can well be contributors to their success.

Seven Ways to Promote Innovation

Creating
a culture of innovation is perhaps one of the most important goals that
any business in Australia is looking for. Why not? Innovative people
are the key to the success of a company. The ideas they come up with,
the unique solutions to their problems, as well as the creativity used
to do it, can make all the difference to your business. And it can have a
huge impact on your lead generation campaign, since each business
prospect will present your telemarketing team various issues that will
need solutions. You want to get better sales leads? Then get innovative.
But how do you foster a culture of innovation in your attempts to more
sales leads?

Below are just a few steps:

1.Fan
the flames of passion – passionate employees feel that they must do
something great for the company. The passion to change the world, or
maybe the company they work with, is one of the most powerful drivers
for them to seek great solutions.

2.Reward creativity – we have
seen it in a lot of companies, how they want to innovate, but actually
punish those who do things differently. It is good to remember that
being innovative will require changes in what one usually does. Reward
creativity, either through public or private praise, perks, or maybe
that occasional bonus check and you will get better results for your
firm.

3.Encourage autonomy – just imagine what we will get if
Michaelangelo bowed down and followed the Pope’s idea on what to paint
on the Sistine Chapel, and you might get something too bland for your
taste. It is the same thing with your company. If you want to get good
B2B leads, then you have to give your team free reign on how to
effectively generate them.

4.Approve courage – one reason
creative ideas land up in the dumpster is because the people who thought
them up were discouraged by setbacks. Let your employees feel that you
will not judge them harshly. Instead, encourage them to take smart
risks, and whatever happens, be there to support them.

5.Fail
positively – sometimes, failing can put a damper in the creative and
innovative spirit of your employees. Once that happens, let them know
that you can do better, and whatever bad results you get could be
chalked up as a lesson to be learned. The point here is to keep going
until you succeed in reaching your goals.

6.Go to the basics –
why did you go into business? it is to succeed, right? Keep that mindset
and you will keep things going well. If a part of your business is
generating a lot of business leads, then try splitting them into two.
You can keep your people thinking of various ways to keep improving and
reaching the numbers again.

7.Promote diversity – you might be
surprised at the ideas that you might pick up in a diversified work
environment. People of different mindsets, cultures, color, gender, and
even sports teams can work together to come up with great solutions for
you business problems.

The only thing that remains is for you to put these steps into a reality.

HARMAN launches Innovation Hub platform

HARMAN has announced the launch of its new Innovation Hub platform where customers, partners and other stakeholders can learn about how Harman’s innovations are leading the industry. The site features a variety of multimedia content such as articles, interviews, videos, info graphics and white papers on the key technologies of infotainment, branded audio, connectivity, cloud services, user experience and much more.

As technologies quickly evolve, there is a need for a platform that can act as an easily accessible, one-stop source for insights into the new trends and developments shaping these areas in the auto industry and beyond.

The new HARMAN Innovation Hub invites active participation from visitors and serves as a forum where engineers, analysts and other specialists can enter into a dialogue about trends and opportunities in the field of infotainment and connectivity. It offers content written by experts for experts, and is designed to provide first-hand perspective and technical insights on current and future innovations.

The HARMAN Innovation Hub is freely accessible and no registration is required. The Hub offers content in several languages, including Chinese and Russian, with more languages and content selection options planned over time.

Innovation Funnel and Creativity in Business

Proper channeling of management and innovation is one of the
highly analyzed topics in business management. Most of the companies
today have adopted the strategy of open innovation that uses a
methodology that allows companies to co-innovate with their suppliers,
partners and customers. When it comes to managing innovation, it is a
multifaceted answer and unique to all businesses. Specific innovation
management strategy enables services and products to differentiate
themselves from the competition in the market. Companies must
appropriate sufficient resources and time into the innovation funnel.
Business innovators bring surprising changes in business operations as
well as customer retention, development and product design.

Creativity in business refers to identification of
customer friendly solutions to ensure distinguishing them from the
competition. When companies land on a specific strategy with the use of
the innovation funnel, they are seen by outsiders as innovators in realm
of customer service and customer relationship management. Businesses
adopt different approaches to ensure an environment that is suitable for
innovation and encourages a more expressive thought. Some companies
enlist use of creativity exercises for businesses. The strategies range
from engaging complex exercises to simple variants as well. For example,
a company utilized their market experience and adopted exercise for
their employees to eliminate negative or non creative thought patterns.
This was done by removing negative statements from the vocabulary. This
involved elimination of sentences such as “I can’t think creatively”,
“my job does not create a creative environment” and so on. These are
some patterns of negative thinking that creates a negative environment
and pushes creativity and innovation to the back seat.

Creative
exercises for business and adequate implementation of imaginative funnel
help a business reassess the question of ways to manage innovation. It
is important to create an environment that encourages free thought and
generates free ideas. The innovation funnel ensures that ideas and
thoughts are nurtured and directed well.


Large corporations use creative exercises for businesses in conjunction
with innovation and creative funnels. When businesses seek to implement
an innovation funnel or look for other methods on ways to manage
innovation, they can make use of the following tips that have proved to
be successful in other industries.

Creative exercises
in business and proper utilization of innovation funnel creates a
dramatic effect on the entire organization. So, now that you have read
the entire article, you must be clear about the importance of creativity
in business.

Nokia Phones- Innovation is the strategy mobile phones

Nokia Phones move at great speed towards development. In the year 1992, Nokia diversified themselves in the telecommunication market. This was the high time that took them to think for the step they were taking. The market condition were as usual not positive as its always the same but the company broke all the records and formed strategic decision, entered the telecom industry. In the history of the company this step was proven to super profitable and now they are the world leaders.With the motto of connecting people they have created trust in the heart of the customer, and now they can purchase the handset without any second thought or doubt in their mind. The Nokia aims to serve the masses and have not left the classes too.

The company has designed the handset such that they get the sure value of money. The Quality is the major aspect of the company and finally delivers it to the end user. The Research and development team works really hard on the innovation line which leads the company at a good pace. Cheap Nokia Phones are very much available in the market with the lucrative deals. These deals are comparison of the handset on the basis of the price, the network and calling plan. Now the user can log in through the internet can check the deals online. Just by typing Nokia mobile phone deals in google you can check out the deals portal.

The deals are of three types i.e. contract deals, sim free and pay as you go deals. In the sim free deals the customer is free to choose any of the networks and have to pay in advance to make call or avail any of the service. Just opposite is with case with contract deals where the user sign an agreement with specified network for the duration not less than 12 months and not more than 24 months. The pay as go deals are almost similar to sim free deals. With such deals it becomes very easy for the seller to sell and buyer to buy. So from now buy only Nokia. for more information about Nokia Phones and phones with free gifts visit our mobile shop.