Check out this article in the latest edition of South African Innovator

1. the Speed of Innovation!
This is an actual photograph of what So the real question is: What are you doing to
competitiveness looks like in today's market become more innovative? Are you a leader or
economy. Stephen Covey once used the term a follower in the market? If you are a follower
‘white water’ world to describe the state of than the image above probably makes more
constant change and everything moving at sense to you. Leaders in innovation under-
such a rapid rate. My contributing analogy is stand that innovation can sometimes be cha-
that innovation is like traveling at light speed os. However they also understand that it is
that's on a winding road. You really have no better to create the chaos than be left in the
idea what is coming next. There is an dust of another organizations innovation ini-
explosion of new businesses literally every- tiative. The challenge is to be aware of what’s
where and innovation has literally become the out there, to test many prototypes quickly and
name of the business game. to understand your differentiation value.

2. Innovation is about living in a world filled with
uncertainty and chaos. Customer research is
no longer enough to figure out what people
want anymore. There are certainly some fun-
damental principles which need to be adhered
to that really come down to building good
relationships with customers. However, at the
rate of Innovation in the world today it is still
not good enough. The message is that you have
to become a fashion business and be remark-
able as Seth Godin puts it in his wonderful
book, Purple Cow. Consider for a moment that
story of Yahoo and Google. Yahoo was all the
rage just a few years ago and although Yahoo
is still certainly very relevant it has taken a
side seat to Google. What happened? How
could this happen? Surely users of the Yahoo
technology were satisfied with the service ex-
perience etc ...How did Google just become the
next best thing? Another story is that of
MySpace and Facebook. MySpace was around
for awhile before Facebook even appeared. It
was an original concept that attracted millions
of users to it. Then Facebook shows up and not
only hijacks but overtakes the number of users
that MySpace had.
So what’s the point here?
Innovation is now the name of the game and it is a
never ending initiative. Experts would suggest that
organizations circulate through cycles of innovation
and optimization. Meaning that once a certain innova-
tion is out there the focus is really just on optimization
until that technology, product, service life cycle comes
to an end and then we move back into the cycle of
innovation. I suggest that product and efficiency life
cycles have become far shorter. The nature of compet-
itiveness nowadays is ‘The Next Big Thing’ and what
may be considered to be an efficiency cycle is shortly
eliminated by a new and even better proposition. So
businesses can not afford to shut their eyes to trends,
competitors and new entrants in the market. Cer-
tainly the focus of any business should be to become
and continue to remain remarkable. But that remark-
ability is defined by the customer and not by yourself.
You may be the flavor of the month today but who
knows about tomorrow?
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3. Keeping up with Innovation Checklist
Dedicated R&D
Constant focus on the market
Constant focus on new entrants and experimental technologies
Constant prototype development
Development of quick and dirty testing
Collaboration and information sharing across your organization
Changing attitude towards failure
Encourage a culture of constant learning & training
Get fast, flexible, fun and free
Make efficiency and innovation work hand in hand
Reward Innovation in your organization
Create partnerships outside the organization
Make your customers your innovation partners
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4. About CEXINO
CEXINO consulting offers a wide range of products and services in the fields of:
Customer Experience strategy, design & management
Innovation leadership, management, strategy & enablement
Creativity in business, strategy & enablement
team Building, Coaching, Collaboration and transformation
CEXINO offers:
Workshops
Facilitation
Training
Coaching
Consulting
Customized Toolkits & Value propositions
Speaking interventions
Please feel free to contact CEXINO consulting to help you improve your customer
experience innovation.
Contact Details
Zwi Fainberg
CEO
084 555 9581
zwif@cexino.com
http://www.cexino.com
Contact CEXINO1 on SKYPE
About Zwi
Born in Israel in 1980. Immigrated to South Africa in 1989. Studied at Rand Afrikaans University and graduated
with Honors in Information Science with majors in Strategic Management, Knowledge Management,
Information Management, Web and Intranet Management. Worked at First National Bank as an Innovation,
Customer Experience, Strategy, Project and Change Manager and subsequently moved to Absa Barclays
Bank where I worked in the fields of Business Intelligence and Innovation Management. During my experi-
ences I attended many seminars, workshops and courses in the fields of innovation, creativity, coaching,
leadership, facilitation, strategy, change, communications and project management. I am a qualified personal
and life coach and love to work with people and help them solve problems and overcome challenges.
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