The condition of having an innovation strategy.

Let’s start with asking and answering a two-part question—what’s an innovation strategy and why should you have one? In the simplest terms, an innovation strategy specifies where your company will focus its innovation efforts. Having one enables an organization to devote its limited human and financial resources to the innovation initiatives that will have the most impact on its performance.

But this raises a further question. How do you determine which innovation initiatives will have the most impact on performance? The answer exists in your strategic plan. Or at least it should. To make sure it does, listen to what Harvard’s competitive strategy professor and author of “On Competition” Michael Porter has to say about strategy. In Porter’s view, corporate strategy is first and foremost about competitive strategy. All the other elements of strategy—growth strategy, value recapture strategy, innovation strategy—should be subordinate to, and driven by, a company’s competitive strategy.

Kevin Holt

Make Your Website Rock: 3 Tools
These three tools will help you get more more subscribers, better engagement, more useful content on your website.

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One of the core ingredients to any online business is a solid website. If you've been in business for very long, you may be able to relate to the fact that you'll never, ever be done optimizing and improving your site. We'll always be striving for more subscribers, better engagement, more useful content, better converting calls-to-action and so much more. Lucky for us there are some really useful, and wait for it...FREE, tools out there to help us on our quest.

Here's a breakdown of three I'm really into right now:

1. LaunchRock

Technology may draw you to an event and may help you with that first step, but it’s the face-to-face connection that seals the deal. The MPI Chicago Area Chapter realizes that, and TechCon was a great success because of the balance between technology and humanity.

Snow is on the ground. Strong wind is blowing. And I’m lost.

The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a large campus, and the MPI Chicago Area Chapter’s TechCon—held this past February—is in one of these buildings. After ducking into the student center to warm my fingers, I pull up the event app and determine that I’m about 100 yards away. Thankfully, I’m a speedy walker.

I see a lot of people climbing the steps as I approach the building. TechCon grows every year, attracting local and European meeting professionals, so the masses before me are no surprise.

One of the reasons for this growth is the great speaker selection.

Five Guaranteed Ways to Lose Customers
Mar 29, 13 | 12:07 am