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Richard Gottlieb

Rethinking innovation

August 25, 2009

Should toy manufacturers and product developers rethink how they go about creating new toys? It might be a good idea to consider that notion during this time when the Internet and costs of doing business make rethinking existing paradigms mandatory.

This question occurred to me as I read an article about how big corporate research and development labs are being impacted by the rise of the Internet and the lack of funding. The piece describes these labs as “…having their roots and rationale in the industrial era, when communication was costly, information traveled slowly and social networks were fostered at conferences and lunchrooms instead of over the Web.”

The article says that web based services like crowdsourcing and other open models are making it possible to bypass costly R&D centers and use a more populist method of innovating new products. In other words, use the Internet to let consumers, geeks and the thousands if not millions of other Internet denizens help you create innovative new products for free or close to free.

It seems to me that this type of approach is not only good for the big guys like Hasbro and Mattel but works particularly well for the small manufacturer who has little or no money to spend on R&D.

Here is how the article describes the concept in terms of high tech R&D but you can change a few of the words and see how it might apply to toy companies:

The best bet for corporate R. & D. labs…is to adopt a “federated” model that leverages all the innovative work by outsiders in universities, start-ups, business partners and government labs. The corporate lab’s role, then, is to be more of a coordinator and integrator of innovation, from both outside and inside the company walls.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to reach out to the Internet masses for assistance in innovating existing products or developing new ones? If you are in R&D or product development let us know what you think.

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on August 25, 2009 | Comments (10)

November 27, 2011

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Kelli commented:

Haahhaha. I'm not too bright today. Great post!

November 25, 2011

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Kelli commented:

Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and undneaible importance!

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
steve rehkemper commented:

Bruce i agree that toy inventors need to be more innovative than ever to be successful in the toy business but i do not agree with the notion that a corporate strategy for obtaining innovation is to rely on anybody and everybody. First of all the task of wading through a literal mountain of information would require more manpower than all the remaining functions of the corporation and certainly would be the same as looking for a needle in a haystack. In fact a few years ago a banker that got lucky with his first toy invention created a company called Haystack that literally scoured our nation of individuals with ideas (much like American Idol looks for singers) with the media in tow and the result of that massive effort was nothing significant. I personally participated in a similar endeavor when Amazon.com sponsored a toy inventing contest and I along with a few others looked at thousands of toy idea submissions from kids and again nothing significant emerged. The best way for marketing corporatations of any size to obtain innovation to make and market is to utilize the budgets, time and efforts of full time professional inventors that walk the walk and talk the talk and live eat and breathe creativity and innovation and prototyping and presenting with the same focus and financing and persistance and professionalism that is required of any other creative carreer. This is the most efficient path and most other strategies if sucessful would be just "getting lucky".

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
bruce lund commented:

Change is good. While the toy industry has long used outside inventors, I think it is time for the toy industry to try new ways of sourcing innovation. I think you are right on the Money, Richard. And toy inventors like Lund and Company Invention and others, should be looking to innovate their own innovation processes.

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Mary Couzin commented:

My pleasure. What I didn't know off the top of my head, I pulled from Tim Walsh's book, The Playmakers/Timeless Toys. An amazing book recounting the inventor's stories! theplaymakers.com

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Kim Vandenbroucke commented:

Hey Mary - thanks for backing up my response with such an amazing list!

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Mary Couzin commented:

One 'outsider' inventor product, TMX Elmo, holds the record as the fastest selling toy of all time in Guinness. The inventor, Bruce Lund, talks about the process of innovating as well as the importance of play on his website lundandcompany.com Great stuff, great guy!

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Mary Couzin commented:

I agree with Kim. Think of a major toy or game brand and it probably originated with an outside inventor and most mid to large toy and game companies have Inventor Relations people to work with outside inventors as their only function. Outside inventors invented Transformers, GI Joe, Lego, Ants in the Pants, Raggety Ann, Apples to Apples, Teddy Bear, Crayola, Monopoly, Twister, Nerf, Bakugan, Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, Pictureka, Cranium, Mr. Potato Head, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, Uno, Shrinky Dinks, Slinky, Play-Doh, Scrabble, Scene-It, Tonka, Baby-Alive, Clue, Candy Land, Cootie, View-Master, Ant Farm, Wiffle Ball, Yahtzee, Sea Monkeys, Silly Putty, Magic 8 Ball, Pez, Matchbox, Slip-n-Slide, Super-Ball, Hula-Hoop, Blokus, TriBond, Imaginiff, Mad-Gab, 1-2-3 Roller Skates, Frisbee, Beanie Babies, MoonSand, American Girl, Mystery Date, Operation, Mouse Trap, Rock-em Sock'sm Robots, Magic - the Gathering, Lite-Brite, Toss Across, Simon, Game of Life, Spirograph, Trolls, Etch-A-Sketch, KerPlunk, Big Wheel, Crayola 3-D, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Battling Tops, Big Wheel, Rubik's Cube, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Super Soaker, Jenga.... and the list goes on and on and on! If this were a book or movie list, people would know who wrote it or starred in it. Many of these products outsold top movies and books.

August 26, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Dr. Redomoresame commented:

There's that, and then there's kicking it old school. As reported on this site, Hasbro is re-releasing all of the original Jurassic Park toys at Toys R Us. Take a look at the line up, then google the first wave of movie toys from 1993. Same! Electronic T-Rex with Dino Damage and all. Some say toys were better back in the day so why not bring it all back. When you can't innovate... repaint!

August 25, 2009

In response to: Rethinking innovation
Kim Vandenbroucke commented:

In a way, doesn't the toy and game industry already do this by utilizing the inventory community? Inventors come up with product all the time that doesn't fit any mandate by a particular company's R&D department. They create new technologies to use in toys, new product forms, new product categories, etc. and then the toy/game companies act as the "coordinator" to bring the new product from the inventor(s) to the masses. So in a way, we've been doing it since the days of Marvin Glass & Associates.