Creating a Culture of Innovation
Under CEO Bob Iger, the Walt Disney Company was ranked eighth in the 2007 BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting ranking of the "World's Most Innovative Companies." Yet there is always more to learn about innovation. David Yudis, director of training and development for Disney Consumer Products in Glendale, California, came to Wharton recently for the Full-Spectrum Innovation program.
"Part of my responsibility is to make sure that we are supporting innovation across the segment," he said. He is helping to build "a culture of innovation" for the Disney company using tools, programs, and classes to encourage it. "There is an understanding here that all employees can be creative. We offer many classes that nurture innovation and provide opportunities for business as well as personal development."
There is no shortage of interest in innovation. "It's a hot topic for organizations today. There seems to be an explosion of offerings in the domain," Yudis said. "I looked at a number of programs and chose Wharton because of the cutting-edge tools and thinking in the area of innovation."
"Consumers can be much more demanding given the intense competition out there. They want safe, interesting, creative, and involving products." —David Yudis, Director of Training and Development, Disney Consumer Products
Focusing on the Periphery
The Wharton program "offers a broad exposure to innovation with useful tools that can be applied at work," Yudis said. He was impressed by the work of Wharton Professor of Marketing George Day and Paul Schoemaker on "peripheral vision." He recalled the quote by Andy Grove regarding the way in which ice melts from the edges first. There is a need to pay attention to the periphery to observe the first signs of change. Day, who is co-director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation, serves as academic director of this intensive 3-day workshop.
Yudis also points to the sessions with Larry Huston, who developed the Connect & Develop program at Procter & Gamble, as an example of a company that has been able to tap into a network of global innovators. This initiative helped the company move beyond reliance upon its own laboratories to develop new products. Yudis said Huston's sessions offered valuable insights for internal collaboration across a set of global businesses. "Connect & Develop gives a method or trajectory for embracing collaboration," he said. And he appreciated the entrepreneurial insights of Wharton Professor Karl Ulrich. "He described a process for innovation that was very prescriptive for putting some structure around innovation to help drive it forward."
© 2007 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
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