Return on Ideas: A Practical Guide to Making Innovation Pay

About the Author xiii

Acknowledgements xv

1. This is getting us nowhere 1

What is the problem? The Funnel 1

2. How to navigate this book 5

Segmenting users 7

PART I: The Case Study 11

3. The Calippo Shots story 13

Headlines 13

The Ice Cream scene 14

Starting with a clear vision 15

Generate lots of high quality ideas 16

Quickly getting down to the best ideas 18

Building the best ideas into winning mixes 19

After launch 20

Key takeouts 20

Handover 21

PART II: The Challenge 23

4. Innovation isn't working 25

Headlines 25

Innovation's the thing 25

Innovation isn't 28

Funnels Don't Work 29

Ten ways funnels stifle innovation 32

A dizzying conclusion 46

Key takeouts 53

Checklist: Is innovation being stifled by your funnel? 53

Handover 54

PART III: The Core Idea 55

5. A new innovation paradigm: The Rocket Motor 57

Headlines 57

Innovation is, in fact, Rocket science 58

Key takeouts 66

Handover 67

6. Rocketing: Destination 69

Headlines 69

Being clear 69

Hamster-wheeling 73

Begin with the end in mind 74

Key takeouts 91

Checklist : Destination 91

Handover 92

7. Rocketing: Combustion 93

Headlines 93

Not enough good ideas 93

7.1 Continuous Insight Fuel 95

From insight to fuel 95

360-degree Insight 96

360-degree Insight Sources 97

7.2 Multiple Ignition In Parallel 110

Igniting the insight fuel 110

Parallel processing 110

Lisa and Mac 114

Practical Ignition Tools 115

7.3 3 Bucket Principle 128

What it is 128

Grave-robbing 131

7.4 Coda: A whole year view of Innovation 134

The 15% rule 134

Your typical year 134

Key takeouts 136

Checklist: Combustion 137

Handover 137

8. Rocketing: Nozzle 139

Headlines 139

From Whittle to 'Wow' 139

Picking winners is a lottery 140

Show business: Theatre Rules 143

Poor external screening 150

Show business: Idea Power 150

Key takeouts 157

Checklist: Nozzle 157

Handover 158

9. Rocketing: Expander 159

Headlines 159

Keeping positive 159

Innovation Antibodies 160

Expand not evaluate 161

Be a builder not a knocker 162

Execution is everything 170

Get real feedback 170

Launch then tweak 176

Key Takeouts 177

Checklist: Combustion 177

Handover 178

PART IV: The Entertainment 179

10. Ten innovations that make it look easy 181

Innovation shortcuts 181

New brands are innovations too 182

The 10 Innovations 183

PART V: The Practicalities 205

11. Doing it faster 207

Headlines 207

It always takes longer than you want it to 208

Case Study: Project Blues for Unilever Foods 209

The Approach 209

Plan in decisions 210

Smaller teams 212

Parallel Ideation 214

Real-time insight 216

Fast agencies 217

Blues: The result 218

Key takeouts 218

Checklist: Doing it faster 218

Handover 219

12. Avoiding the pitfalls 221

Headlines 221

Pitfalls and Pratfalls 222

Nine innovation pitfalls 223

No. 1: Oops, the product is useless 223

No. 2: 'Not invented here' syndrome 226

No. 3: The 'could it be. . . ?' killer 229

No. 4: Over-testing 231

No. 5: Killing by proxy 233

No. 6: The off-guard boss 235

No. 7: 'Yes, but. . .' 237

No. 8: Poor casting 238

No. 9: Giving up 240

Handover 242

Appendix: Rocketing toolkit 243

Index 255