Idea Logistics

When I heard this phrase, I knew I had to write about it. I was speaking with a gentleman who is heading up innovation initiatives in his organization, and his concern was that ideas not simply get "collected" but have some "flow" associated with them. He wanted idea logistics.

That is probably one of the best, most prescient comments about innovation I've heard in a while. Far too often we get caught up in the "Creative" piece of the process - generating ideas, but then the logistics or executional portion fails to create excitement or process flow around the idea.

Often I think we view "logistics" as a relatively mundane, back office capability, but in our global economy logistics is the chain that keeps our economics engine humming. In the product world, toys, computers and cars can be made anywhere in the world, but aren't worth much until they arrive at a place where the customer can acquire and use them. Our trade with China and the Far east is completely dependent on a strong logistics capability. If the Chinese vendors made a toy for Christmas 2006 but the logistics supply chain failed, we'd have no new toys for Christmas.

In the same manner, we should think of logistics for ideas. Creating an idea is important - but what happens next? How do you keep the idea current, keep it in process and tie it to an important goal or milestone? What logistics capabilities exist for your ideas?

It should be no surprise that most strong logistics firms (think Fedex for a moment) have very strong processes and computer systems to coordinate the flow of goods and services. Ideas, like products, need to move, need to be presented to the right customers to have real value. Fedex could not support its operations with a spreadsheet and an adhoc process. Don't your valuable ideas deserve a logistical process and system to add value and reduce the cycle times?