innovation for the masses

Product Development and Management Association35th Product Innovation Management Annual Global ConferenceOctober 29 – November 2, 2011 | Arizona Biltmore | Phoenix, Arizona

Innovation for the Masses

Brian RomanskyDirector, New Business OpportunitiesPitney Bowes, Inc.

November 1, 2011

[email protected]

Product Development and Management Association35th Product Innovation Management Annual Global ConferenceOctober 29 – November 2, 2011 | Arizona Biltmore | Phoenix, Arizona35th Product Innovation Management Annual Global Conference

October 29 – November 2, 2011 | Phoenix, Arizona

Pitney Bowes Overview

• $5.6B Revenue

• 33,000 Employees in over 100 countries

• 5 Lines of Business

• Customer Communications Management:

– Document prep, print, and mailing

– Location intelligence

– Mail Processing

– On-Site Services (print, scan, copy, mail, records)

• 90 Year Anniversary in 20102



Employee Innovation Program

Launched in 2009

Goals– Engage employees in innovation

– Foster a culture of innovation

– Drive ideas to action to create organic growth

Formation– CEO mandate

– Web-based idea management system

– Spun-out of R&D and strategy organizations

3



Organizational Structure

4

Director – New Business Opportunities

Challenge Architect (Sr. Principle Engineer)

Innovation Champion

Finance

Innovation Champion

HR

Innovation Champion

IT

Innovation ChampionStrategy

Innovation Champion

Legal

Innovation Champion

Mgmt Services

Innovation ChampionSoftware

Innovation Champion

Mailing Sys.

Innovation ChampionProd. Mail

Innovation Champion

Mail Services

Fun

ctio

nal

Op

erat

ion

al



Challenge Process

– Challenge architect facilitates the process

– Innovation champion is responsible for results

– Actions and metrics continue to be tracked after the challenge has concluded

5



Challenge Results

• 4000+ ideas and 6000 comments

• 800+ actions

• Survived platform change

6

• 6600+ active participants 40% of wired population

World-wide participation

Functional and Operational Units

> $50M



Defining the Task

Employee Innovation is not about building a digital suggestion box

– Focus on results and metrics

– Two-way dialog, not anonymous

– Apply to real business problems

7



Setting Expectations

8

OperatingUnits

FunctionalUnits

“Big”Ideas

IncrementalIdeas

"Big" Ideas Incremental Innovation

"Big" Ideas Incremental Innovation

Relative Activity Relative Value



Incremental Innovation Pedigree

9



Make it Meaningful

• Connect innovation to unit objectives

• Target the right audience

• Make the process transparent

10



Managed Progression Over Time

• 2009: % of employees engaged

• 2010: All units doing challenges

• 2011: Challenges linked to unit objectives

• 2012: Transparent process to manage actions

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Connecting to Unit Objectives

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1 – Far Exceeds 2 – Exceeds 3 – Meets 4 – Threshold

• Identify and publish

Innovation Relevant

Objectives (IRO)1

• Run one IdeaNet

challenge that addresses

an IRO

• Run one IdeaNet

challenge that

addresses an IRO and

meets best practices2

• Demonstrate progress4 based

on one or more actions arising

from IdeaNet

• Retain an Innovation

Champion3 to facilitate employee

engagement

• Publish an innovation

dashboard5

• Document measurable

results6 based on one

or more actions arising

from IdeaNet

Demonstrate action on ideas for organic growth and/or process improvements and behaviors that foster a culture of innovation.



Mapping Challenges to Populations

13

All Employees

BusinessUnit

Special Interest Group

– Target a population that has insight to the challenge problem

– Provide background information

– Avoid saturation

– All challenges are “visible” to all employees, only the target group is “invited”



Mapping Challenges to Populations

14

All Employees

BusinessUnit

Special Interest Group

BusinessPartners

Customers

ExternalExperts



Relentless Pursuit of Results

• Respond to every idea submitted

• Look beyond the ideas for common themes

• Overcome common barriers to implementation

• Emphasize action over analysis

15



Making Sense of Employee Ideas

• Cluster ideas into themes

• Define actions that are based on multiple “ideas”

• Move from “review meetings” to “project team meetings”

• When possible, include idea submitters in the execution

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Idea Ranking and Selection



“We are already doing …”

Are we really?

– Often this means “Somebody said something like this before and maybe even put it on a project plan”

– Do we have valid metrics and results?

Can we better communicate ongoing actions?

– Well informed employees armed with a clear strategy are better innovators

– How do you effectively share the current portfolio?

17



Classic Implementation Barriers

Functional units are not designed for change

– Quick-fix is to simply define projects with accountable leaders – run them as an “exception”

– Rely on innovation champion to follow-through

– Longer-term solution: Create a program office

Operational units resist change

– Classic “innovator’s dilemma” problem

– Most new product concepts get stuck in analysis

– Advise learning through action in the market (lean startup)

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Emphasis on Action over Analysis

www.pbsalestrigger.com

19



Future Plans

• Each unit to implement a transparent process to follow-through on actions

• Further de-centralization of innovation process

• Corporate function to focus on implementing breakthrough concepts

Research

• Methods to communicate innovation activity

• Use challenges to identify unmet needs

20

innovation for the masses

Business

special interest

ideas incremental

innovation

product development

actions arising

transparent

ideanet challenge

mapping challenges