Posts tagged with 'innovation'
In yesterday's post, we took a quick top-down look at what innovation meant to some of the businesses who’ve made it onto the shortlist for our Innovation Awards this year.
While opinions differed greatly about what makes innovation, everyone we spoke to agreed that businesses need to push boundaries in order to grow and thrive in the current climate.
Our respondents work across a huge variety of sectors, from start-ups to multinational, but they’ve all managed to integrate practical, innovative ideas into their business.
We know you don’t read the Econsultancy blog for esoteric opinions, so today we’re looking more closely at how they managed this, by asking:
How do you build an innovative company, or foster innovation within your organisation?
Read more...
by Matt Owen
08 February 2012 10:31am
1 comment
Innovation has always been one of Econsultancy’s core brand values and we celebrate this every year with our Innovation Awards, shining a light on those companies and individuals who’ve helped to advance the digital marketing landscape over the past twelve months.
But what do we mean when we talk about innovation? It’s a deceptively simple word with a million interpretations. For some it can be about simple changes; incremental decisions and refinements that give big results.
For others it could be a radical overhaul of the entire company structure. Some businesses seem to naturally burst with ideas, while others require specific challenges to inspire them.
In the run up to this year’s awards we thought we’d ask those who’ve reached our awards shortlist to tell us what innovation means to them.
We’ll be publishing a series of posts throughout February, covering everything from building innovative companies to exploiting new technologies.
We hope they’ll give you an insight into how some of the market leaders work and help you develop your own innovative ideas (and dare we suggest, enter them for an award in 2013).
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by Matt Owen
07 February 2012 09:24am
0 comments
John Watton leads the global marketing team for Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN), which provides private label solutions to the travel industry.
He is also a member of the judging panel for Econsultancy's Innovation Awards, choosing from this shortlist.
I've been asking John about encouraging innovation within companies, and what he will be looking for from awards entries.
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by Graham Charlton
04 January 2012 13:31pm
0 comments
Econsultancy’s annual Innovation Awards shines a light on the finest creative thinking across the digital industry. This year more than 450 companies entered the awards, so we’ve been rather busy this past month or so.
After some intense reading we have shortlisted around 150 companies, across 19 categories. There were some very close calls, so commiserations if you didn’t make it through this year. The standard has been higher than ever.
Congratulations to all those who have been shortlisted. We know that innovation is a team game, so if you’ve played a part in any of these projects then you deserve a pat on the back. Or a pub lunch. It’s a Friday, after all.
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by Chris Lake
02 December 2011 12:41pm
1 comment
Ed Longley, Head of Onine at Hiscox, is a member of the judging panel for our Innovation Awards.
I've been talking to Ed about how Hiscox encourages forward thinking within the company, what he will be looking for from awards entrants, as well as examples of innovation from the last 12 months.
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by Graham Charlton
18 November 2011 11:03am
0 comments
Piers Jones, Group Product Manager at The Guardian, is a member of the judging panel for our Innovation Awards.
I've been asking Piers about creating a culture in which innovative ideas can flourish, his top innovations for 2011, and what he'll be looking for when judging this year's awards...
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by Graham Charlton
14 November 2011 12:41pm
0 comments
Innovation is close to our hearts here at Econsultancy. It can be difficult to kickstart new projects and to implement change, but dare to dream and amazing things can happen.
Like many companies we’re not short of good ideas, it’s just that executing them can sometimes be a challenge.
For us this is largely linked to resources and prioritisation, rather than our organisational culture. Other firms have the resources, but lack the gumption to try new things out.
So what can you do to foster a culture of innovation within your company? Last week I asked our Twitter followers to suggest some ideas, and here’s what they recommended…
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by Chris Lake
28 October 2011 12:44pm
3 comments
In
the not too distant past, creative agencies coined the term ‘the big idea’ as
the Holy Grail solution to a client brief.
There’s no question that great
creative concepts are worth their weight in gold, partly due to tighter than
ever budgets. And I’ve worked with agencies over the years where fantastic
amounts of resource were focused on coming up with the next big idea.
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by Rob McLeod
19 October 2011 12:59pm
5 comments
Econsultancy’s Innovation Awards deadline is fast approaching and I thought it would be useful to provide some guidelines on what judges typically look for in an awards entry.
Ultimately it’s about focus, and answering questions in a clear and concise way. It's about accuracy. And it's about standing out.
Here are 15 things to keep in mind when compiling your awards entries…
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by Chris Lake
17 October 2011 15:36pm
2 comments
Traditional media companies, like movie studios, are often criticized for their lack of innovation. But an experiment planned by Universal highlights just how tough progress can be.
Last week, it was revealed that the company planned a limited experiment in two mid-size cities in the United States. The experiment: for $59.99, consumers would be able to rent the movie Tower Heist while it was still in theatres and well before it became available as a traditional VOD rental.
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by Patricio Robles
13 October 2011 16:29pm
4 comments
