Quick innovation insights you can use from Apple, Google, P&G, and Starbucks

Innovation can be spelled with a capital "I" – culturally embedded across well-known companies such as Apple, P&G, Google and Starbucks – or with a small "i" – going on every day in many less-recognized companies and myriad teams across the country. So what can we learn from the big innovation players?

Apple – Be very clear on your innovation philosophy. Apple has a clear focus on the customer experience; design takes priority. Whenever I ask audiences to share what comes to mind when they hear the word "innovation", Apple is always named. We can also see Apple as a cautionary tale – if innovation is too wrapped up in one person. You saw the stock price dip (not only for Apple, but for the tech sector in general) when the world learned Steve Jobs had cancer – because he is seen as the creative genius behind all their new product development. With his death, I believe that Apple is having a hard time remaining the icon of innovation that they used to be.

Google – Make time for employee innovation. Very different than the perceived “lone creative genius model” of Apple, Google believes in making innovation everyone's responsibility. You have likely heard they allow their employees to spend 20% of their time away from their “real jobs” to focus on their pet projects. You might have just marked that up to their being one of those "weird, California, bring-your-dog-to-work and get-a-back-massage" kind of companies. But you want to know the real reason Google does it? The founders tracked the progress of ideas they had backed versus ones executed in the ranks without support from above. What did they find? There is a higher success rate with ideas that came from lower in the ranks. Maybe the ideas were better or maybe it's just because the commitment to execute was higher. As I understand it, Google has pulled back on this creative practice. What will be the short-term and long-term consequences of that?

Proctor & Gamble – High-tech companies aren't the only innovators. Very different from these other companies, P&G is an old company with (in many cases) "old" brands and products. This company has to find new ways to make money in mature markets. They have an incredible success rate for their new product introductions – but it wasn't always that way. It went from 1 in every 6 new product introductions having a positive ROI when AG Lafley took over as CEO in 2000 (about standard for the consumer packaged goods industry) to 1 out of every 2 new product introductions today. How? Like Jobs, Lafley had a laser-sharp focus on understanding the consumer needs & he established disciplined, repeatable, and scalable innovation processes. He also moved the responsibility and source for innovation outside the walls of R&D, and even outside the walls of their own company. Innovation is now completely embedded in their organization. It is the way they do business. He's no longer there - who will be the indisputable innovation leader at P&G now?

Starbucks – There is room in the innovation tent for both left-brain and right-brain thinking. CEO Howard Shultz had always run the business based on intuition. Now with the tougher marketplace, he’s having to gather more data. During one such deep dive into the data, he discovered they were wasting millions in milk since they don't resteam milk for product safety reasons. Did they go with a high-tech solution? No - one of the employees suggested they simply etch a line on the inside of measuring pitchers versus having the barista's wing it. According to an interview with Shultz, this became an incredible internal success story - and led to more small changes with huge impacts.

Summary:

• Be very clear on your innovation philosophy.
• Make time for employee innovation.
• High-tech companies aren't the only innovators.
• There is room in the innovation tent for both left-brain and right-brain thinking.