About this Author
Gwen Smith Ishmael, Sr. Vice President of Insights and Innovation at Decision Analyst in Arlington, TX, has led marketing and new product development activities in the CPG and technology industries since 1986. She also conceived and developed ground-breaking Web-based promotional vehicles, two of which are patent pending. Gwen holds an MBA in Marketing and is a featured speaker on insights and innovation around the world. Her writings have been featured in international text books, most recently in Managing 4 Ps of Marketing FMCG Sector, and Product Innovation: A Strategic Tool for Growth, by ICFAI Publications, 2006 and 2007, respectively.
Founding Author
Renee Hopkins Callahan started IdeaFlow and serves as chief blog-wrangler. She is
Director of Innovation Services at Decision Analyst in Arlington, Texas, is a former journalist who worked as an editor and reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the Nashville Tennessean, and was managing editor of D, the Dallas city magazine. She has a master's degree in rhetoric and has also taught college-level English and informal logic.
1. Jay Arthur on November 18, 2005 3:19 PM writes...
Businesses stay profitable by becoming operationally efficient. Lean Six Sigma is the key to operational efficiency.
But companies can also become out of date due to lack of innovation.
Innovation is about technological breakthrough while operational efficiency is about process breakthrough.
In today's economy, to survive and thrive you have to do both.
Permalink to Comment2. Eric Sohn on November 18, 2005 10:30 PM writes...
It's not an either/or situation. To not improve current processes is to ignore (relatively) low-hanging fruit. But quality processes have limits - neither costs nor cycle times can go to zero, which implies that competitors can (and will) catch up over time.
Also, think of it this way: process management processes are about today - today's products, today's technologies, today's environment. Innovation (disruptive, not incremental) is about peering into the future and trying to grab it by the throat. You ignore either at your peril.
Permalink to Comment3. DS on November 19, 2005 4:57 PM writes...
TRIZ is one of the inventive tools adopted by six sigma people. To say six sigma impede innovation is not true.
But, we have to accept innovative ideas can be flashed out in our mind when we are in the toilet or any place. Innovation is nothing to do with any improvement tools.
Many new products in the market are created through evoluation process, adding new features on the existing products. They are not new products with new ideas through innovation.
Permalink to Comment4. Joe M on November 21, 2005 2:51 AM writes...
At Innovaxin Consulting we categorise innovation in three segements, Quantum, Industry-Led and Incremental. We regret to say that in most 'innovation' circles focus is on one particular area usually Quantum. According to our research as much as 40% of innovation (depends how you define it) is done by ordinary people like you and me and will remain un-noticed becasue we shroud it as a 'business-secret'. In this area the process remains relatively uncharted in mainstream innovation management circles but in most cases this is the area wher eyou can get the highest ROI. Consider how u have been innovative in the last week. What 'business secrets' did you 'innovate'??? Chances are you will be doing incremenal and Industry-Led innovation without knowing if you buy an iPOD and dispose of your mini-discman or u switch from a petrol driven car to a diesel one! Or how about a new pricing regime fo ryour services??? If you an SME, SOHO or managing a SBU Industry-Led, and Incremental Innovation should be your focus.
Best Regards
Joe
Permalink to Comment5. John Hunter on November 21, 2005 9:45 PM writes...
I don't think the idea that innovation is needed was not understood decades ago. The organizations that actually manage process well also normally innovate well - they are well managed. See Toyota, for example.
It seems to be one of the typical refrains when people want to seem as though they are leading change: oh that old idea of managing well was only about old stuff and now we need to focus on this new thing, that those outdated people never thought of.
I commented on this before: Fast Company Interview: Jeff Immelt
As to focusing only on measurable items: yes that has been recognized as bad, again for decades. You shouldn't have been doing it before, so if you are going to stop now, good.
I do a bit frustrated with the idea that we need to go to some new way of thinking. Most any company could benefit more from implementing ideas from Deming, Ackoff and Ohno than most anyone else. There are a few truly new concepts that could be useful, for example Christensen has some worthwhile ideas (and getting some ideas from internet pioneers would be a good idea: Bezos, O'Reily, Google...).
Managers mainly need to practice the great ideas that have been around for decades.
Permalink to Comment6. Brian S on November 29, 2005 8:45 PM writes...
Six Sigma does not oppose innovation. In my opinion, it actually promotes it.
One facet of Six Sigma combines process improvement with a strong focus on the voice of the consumer (VOC). As you dig deeper and listen to your customers, your creativity can be focused on the best available opportunity. This is what makes Six Sigma such a powerful tool. It helps teams concentrate their creative energy to bring about the most good.
Yes, Six Sigma, if applied too rigidly, could stifle creativity. This does not speak to the philosophy, but to the student.
Permalink to Comment7. Keith on June 13, 2006 7:18 AM writes...
Why have it at all? Humans have been doing business on this planet for thousands of years without goofy "cults". Have a good product (or service), sell it at a good price, make a fair profit, take care of your customers and your employees. Done.
Permalink to Comment8. Richard Tabor Greene on June 30, 2006 1:50 AM writes...
Six Sigma is a creativity process where the ideas appear to groups of persons rather than individual minds. Epstein and Axtel in revolutionary simulations ten years ago showed the invention of banking behaviors among software agents none of which had a mind that could "invent".
Permalink to CommentThat means new human institutions can arise in history without particular humans thinking them,
intending them, inventing them. Six Sigma is a Mass Solving type of creativity, one of 6 Group types out of a total of 60 types. Each individual worker and team may feel uncreative and have no big insights themselves while the overall organization has insights and changes greatly key systems in creative ways, no single implementation step of which appears/feels creative to those doing the work. This paradox is not unlike Edison--trying light bulb material 9998, failure, 9999, failure, 10,000 success.