I am diving with great delight into my good friend Scott Anthony's latest book, The Little Black Book of Innovation. It's a great book which distills a huge amount of what we know works into an approachable format that is direct, action-oriented and very sound. Here is some advice from me. If you are trying to launch an innovation program in a large corporation, run, do not walk, to your provider of choice and get this book.
A particular "aha" for me takes place on pages 207-245 in which Scott addresses the most common problems I see innovations running smack into in large organizations. How do I find the resources? How do I integrate (or not) with the parent company's core competences? How do I avoid the "sucking sound" of the core business? And, how do I generate some early validating results to protect myself from the ticking clock of some corporate problem somewhere that threatens the existence of our group?
I am so taken with this material that I plan to use it myself in a workshop next week.