"Innovation comes from the producer - not from the customer." -- W. Edwards Deming

Enterprise 2.0 and Innovation, Front End of Innovation
A good presentation on communication and collaboration in the time of Enterprise 2.0.  "Social software = communication + participation".  A good quote clearly communicating a major problem in companies:

"If HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times as profitable." -- Lew Platt

IT is part of it, but other key factors are:

• Awareness
• Approach and strategy
• Ways of working
• Change Management

The One Big Thing ... for Innovation, Boris Pluskowski
A thought provoking blog entry about not missing the purpose behind innovation. A good quote from the entry:

Yet I still see companies running innovation programs without a clear set of goals or purpose. I see companies distributing social networking tools, without making it clear why, what for, or how it will benefit the end user. It is of course then, no surprise when I see these programs fail.

Special report now available: Innovation Strategies for the Global Recession, Innovation Weblog
Links to a 34 page report (you have to give an email address to get the download).  I haven't read the complete report but enough to realize I should read the whole thing. 

Communicating your innovation goals, Jeffrey Phillips
Jeffery writes about the drawbacks of how most people communicate their innovation goals. A good quote from the entry:

Most firms I work with do a poor job communicating their regular strategic goals to their employees, and do a spectacularly poor job of communicating the purpose and intent of innovation. What you face on one hand is the need to get people behind something that looks difficult and risky, and pulls them away from their "regular" jobs, and the lack of interest or willingness to tell people why they are innovating and to what purpose.

Just Do It..., Think For A Change
A good motivational entry and reminder of working in corporate America and a call to action.  A good quote from the entry:

In today's highly regimented corporate cultures, we are taking all the fun out of ideation, discovery and experimentation.  Every time we discover a simple process shortcut, or a promising new customer service approach, or even a potentially breakthrough product or service, we tend to stop the ideation and discovery process and revert back to a critical analysis that seems ingrained in most corporate cultures.  Just when the new idea or concept needs more free thinking and idea incubation, instead we set up a project, notify the leadership chain of command, have a number of meetings over the course of months, require detailed financial analysis and, in essence, manage the idea to death.