1. THE FIRST STEP TOWARD
EDUCATING MORE
INNOVATIVE ENGINEERS IN
CORPORATE AMERICA
Understanding Innovation and Intrapreneurship in
Corporations and the Implications for Engineering Education
March 23, 2013
open
2013

2. I-ship Study Process
Phase I Phase II Phase III
3 years
open
2013

3. open
2013

4. I-ship Study Process
Phase I Phase II Phase III
3 years
open
2013

5. We asked over 100 innovation leaders:
“What behaviors and competencies do you want in
your new engineers that would make them more
effective innovators and intrapreneurs in your
company?”
and received 160 responses.
open
2013

6. Six Broad Areas of Competence
1. Technical competence
2. Innovation
a. Anthropologist
b. Cross-pollinator
c. Experimenter
3. Breadth (“T-shaped”)
4. Communication/value proposition
5. Teamwork
6. Confidence
open
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7. Go to this site to take a short survey
www.surveymonkey.com/s/6NKQNQ2
(note: when you rank the nine
competency areas they will move to
their rank)
The internet password for
“Renaissance Conf” is “nciia”
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2013

8. 100 innovation leaders said:
We want confident, competent, open minded
engineers who work effectively on teams that
employ experimentation, analysis and innovation
to create and “sell” products that are truly
responsive to customers around the globe.
open
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9. Frequency
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
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10. 1 – Technical Competence
• Systems Engineering
• Deep knowledge of product domain
“car guy” . . . “airplane guy”
• Optimize the whole product for the right problem
• apply an axe to chop the problem down to its essence, and
resist immediately using a drill to search for the nugget of
innovation – LM
• focus on the right problem and the value proposition before creating
the product – IBM
• keep the composites engineer from using composites for all “light-
weighting” challenges - Ford
open
2013

11. 2 - Innovation
Air Force Intellectual curiosity
BASF Inquisitive; brainstorming
Campbell Soup Curiosity – proactively curious
Comcast Design; many design courses (like IDEO)
DuPont Design/innovation: Can come up with strong IP
Ford Innovative
IBM Creative; able to come up with ideas;
architectural/innovation skills; experienced in innovation
IMDS We want the most innovative engineers
Lockheed Martin Product focused: innovation over invention; creating
open assumptions for ambiguous problems; identifying alternative
2013 approaches

12. Patents
are key
element of
IBM‟s
culture
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13. Three “Faces of Innovation”
1. Anthropologist
2. Cross-pollinator
3. Experimenter
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14. 2a - Anthropologist
• Listening and Empathy – Ford and IBM
• “observe and listen and document and clarify with
customer first; determining what is driving the client's
mission?” - IBM
• Concern regarding the lack of conversational skills
that are so valuable in seeking out customers’ wants
and needs - multiple
open
2013

15. Place in the world - Connectedness
“Connectedness implies certain responsibilities. If we are all
part of a larger picture, then we must not harm others
because we will be harming ourselves. We must not
exploit because we will be exploiting ourselves. Your
awareness of these responsibilities creates your value
system. You are considerate, caring, and accepting.
Certain of the unity of humankind, you are a bridge
builder for people of different cultures. Sensitive to the
invisible hand, you can give others comfort that there is a
purpose beyond our humdrum lives.”
- Gallup Business Journal
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2013

16. 2b - Cross-pollinator
• Look anywhere for solution – Air Force
• Open to seeing potential ideas in other areas – IBM
• People need to pick up the phone and call – Pankow
• BASF Innovation Space
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17. 2c - Experimenter
• strong experimental skills - DuPont
• learning from failure - BASF
• engineers need to “accept a failure and move on” -
Lockheed Martin
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2013

18. Prototyping
• Lockheed Martin - engineers who can “model, design, build
and test products”
• Ford emphasized the use of “experimental prototyping” such as
that employed at IDEO, for exploring a design space, rather
than proving out a design concept or product
• Campbell’s Soup
open
2013

19. 3 – Breadth
• Right brain capabilities (such as art) – Pink, Kelley, Brown
• “T-shaped people” – BASF, Ford, IBM
• “Need to read more than Aviation Week” - Lockheed Martin
open
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20. 4 – Communication and Value Proposition
• “How to propose; how to report; how to write; how to sell; how
to make a presentation.” – DuPont
• “articulating what the technology will mean to customers;
when presenting your concept or product to the customer,
stick to „small words and simple concepts.‟” - Lockheed Martin
• break down communication and selling skills into several
components including “document „use cases, articulate
technical skills to client, show relevance to client.” - IBM
• see how the parts fit together, including the market and the
consumer.” – Campbell Soup
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21. 5 - Teamwork
• value people with different skills and perspectives - BASF
• respect for all people, especially the people making the
products - IMDS
• understand people, especially different generations - Pankow
• ability to understand people; how to deal with people -
Comcast
• collaborative teamwork in cross generational groups;
understand the generational issues of team members -
Campbell Soup
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2013

22. 6 – Confidence (and attributes and behaviors
that depend directly on confidence)
• question the status quo enough to consider disruptive
solutions
• take risks and learn from failures
• be a self-starting seeker of opportunities
• have the pride and motivation to make a big difference
• have the integrity to tell the truth, even when its bad news
• live with and function well with ambiguity
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23. The ultimate goal: competence and
confidence leading to openness to “crit”
• Team based design/innovation require openness to
others‟ ideas
• The natural defensiveness of youth leads tends to close
their minds to criticism of their ideas
• An engineer with high levels of confidence and
competence is less threatened by criticism and ideas that
diverge from his/hers.
• Seeking competence/mastery is a powerful intrinsic
motivation (far more powerful than extrinsic motivators
such as grades, praise of others or pay) – Pink (Drive)
open
2013

24. Design Reviews:
balance learning and rigor
The design review process is one of the most important
operating mechanisms that we have in the engineering
community. Design reviews are led by technical specialist.
One of their jobs, in fact their most important job, is to lead
design reviews and make it a constructive learning
experience for all of the engineers. These meetings are
hard-nosed design reviews . . . , often run over digital
systems with people from around the world.
Derrick Kuzak
open
2013

25. Competencies that YOU say are most
important
open
2013