Eureka! Ranch Blog
Only 17% of Manufacturers Launched a New Product Innovation
Innovation Research Only 17% of Manufacturers Launched a New Product. Three Questions to Ask If You Want to Be One of Them. Between 2021 and 2023, only 17.4% of U.S. manufacturing companies introduced a new or improved product. That’s according to the National Science...
Where organizations are investing to improve innovation, problem solving, or work systems
From the Leadership Study Everyone’s Betting on AI. The Data Says It’s Not Paying Off. Yet. Q4 budget season is here. Money is about to get spent. And I’ve got some data that might impact how you spend it. As part of our ongoing leadership study, we asked leaders a...
When You’re Excited About an Idea, Start with a Blue Card
Project Alignment When You're Excited About Your Idea, That's Exactly When You Need a Blue Card Most of the time, when working with clients, we start by coaching leadership on communicating their strategy. We capture that strategy using a one page format called a Blue...
Is Your Idea Any Good? Evaluating Ideas in the age of AI
Idea Evaluation Is Your Idea Any Good? Trusting Research in the Age of AI You have an idea. Maybe it's a new product, a new service, or a new way of doing something at your company. The next question is always the same: is it any good? Most people answer that question...
Paired Comparison Surveys for Informed Decision Making
Consumer Research Paired Comparison Tests: A System for Informed Decision Making Have you ever been in a meeting where teams members completely disagree on what to do next? Do you think this happens because one person is super smart and totally knows the future while...
People vs Process
Research · Creativity People vs. Process Does it matter how your people think? I've heard leaders say that they don't think their people are creative enough to solve the challenge they are up against. And given the opportunity we prove them wrong everytime. Follow the...
The Uniqueness Penalty on Word of Mouth Marketing
Marketing · Word of Mouth The Uniqueness Penalty Word of mouth is the most trusted growth engine there is, and meaningful uniqueness is what lights it. But communicating truly unique ideas is easier said than done. Some History How We Know Word of Mouth Works Back...
Build the Operating System for Future Growth
Most organizations have built real, working systems for improving efficiency, cutting waste, managing quality, and delivering what they already sell. But where will next year’s growth come from and how do you get there?
Training People How To Think With AI
Eureka! Ranch · 2026 Greater Cincinnati Vistage Executive Summit Only 11% of Leaders Are Training People How To Think With AI. Here's Why That's the Whole Ballgame. We surveyed 18 organizations at our recent AI event about how they're actually using AI and one...
The Math Is Working Against You.
Systems Leadership The Math That is Working Against You and Your Idea We love inventing bigger and bolder ideas. But having helped organizations do it for decades, we know that leaders with great ideas and passion still face an uphill battle to implementation. Here...
Leadership Research Study
Flawed Systems Don’t Just Waste Time. They Undermine Whatever You’re Trying to Build.
Failing is Fun
Failing Can Be Fun?I was recently asked what someone should expect walking into Blue Belt at the Eureka! Ranch. The honest answer comes down to two things.1. Expect to fail. It's key to your success.Our patented Cycles to Mastery approach doesn't expect students to...
Why your AI rollout is about to make things worse
Systems Leadership If You Don't Fix the System First, AI Will Create More Chaos Than Value I know there are all kinds of views on AI. But let me just tell you what we are seeing. And what Deming would tell you to do first. If you take AI and deploy it into broken...
Every Generation Is Disengaged at Work and It is a Systems Problem
Systems Leadership Every Generation Is Disengaged at Work. Here Is Why That Is a Systems Problem. It is not the young people. It is not the old people. The data shows every generation is disengaged right now. And the reason is not who they are. It is the systems they...
The 4 questions every leader should ask
Systems Leadership Four Questions Every Leader Should Be Asking Most leaders know something is off. These four questions tend to make it clear where the problem actually lives. And it is probably not where you think. We work with leaders at every level — companies,...
sending your team to a training class won’t change anything
Systems Leadership Why Sending Your Team to a Training Class Won't Change Anything It took years to build the habits your organization runs on today. One class will not change them. Here is what actually does. We have a tendency to think that if we take the class, a...
From $5M to $50M in pipeline in 6 months
Systems Leadership We Thought It Would Be Incremental. The System Was Just That Broken. A B2B company came to us with $5 million in their sales pipeline. Six months later it was $50 million. Same team. Same product. Here is what actually happened. The company did not...
The World Moved Did Your Inventing
You remember what it felt like. The timer counting down. The stacks of yellow cards piling up. Someone across the table building on an idea you threw out two minutes ago, taking it somewhere you never would have gone alone. The excitement of thinking up something new and the pride of ownership when pitching to the room.
Want AI-Driven ROI? Redesign Work
The AI budgets are approved. The licenses are purchased. The demos were impressive. So why does it feel like nothing has fundamentally changed? Why are teams still drowning in the same processes, the same bottlenecks, the same manual hand-offs they had before the “AI transformation” began?
Cost Estimation and AI
Why Your Best Innovation Idea Is Probably Going to Cost Twice as Much and Take Three Times as Long.
Optimism bias is baked into how innovators think. New AI estimation tools can help, but they bring their own blind spots.
Why we are talking to more HR leaders than R&D
What does it actually take for people to be innovative at work? Most companies answer that by creating an innovation team. Or putting it in R&D. Or marketing. Or strategy. But almost never HR. And yet…when you look at what actually prevents people from being...
Want to Improve Employee Engagement? Try Inventing New Ideas With Your Team
Eureka! Ranch + Innovation Intelligence + Inventing Sessions Facilitation + Team Engagement Rethink What an Inventing Session Produces The ideas are valuable. But the engagement those sessions generate may be worth even more. By Eureka! Ranch The main purpose of an...
How Not to Lose Momentum After an Inventing Session
At the end of a good inventing session, the energy in the room is high. The team has generated new ideas, people feel engaged, and there is plenty of optimism about the future. But after the session, everyone returns to their silos and gets back to their normal roles...
The Billion Dollars Hiding Inside Established Companies
How disciplined innovation and problem-solving can unlock untapped growth Don't underestimate the growth already inside your own walls. Instead, unlock new revenue and cost savings with a system that engages people, manages risk, and turns ideas into measurable...
Less Companies are Innovating
New data was released just a few weeks ago from the 2023 Annual Business Survey (Data Year 2022). The survey tracks innovation activity across U.S. industries and provides great insights as to what companies are actually doing when it comes to innovation. The numbers...
First Steps for a New Innovation Leaders
If you are stepping into a new innovation leadership role, chances are you are ambitious and eager to create results quickly. That is a good instinct. Organizations hire innovation leaders because they want change. At the same time, it helps to understand the reality...
Your Company Has Innovation Projects… So Why Isn’t Innovation Actually Happening?
If you clicked this blog post, odds are you want to see more change and innovation at your organization, so I’m going to get right to it. I spend most of my time looking at data, not opinions. One of the most useful data sets we have comes from innovation culture...
How to 4x Cost Savings with the People You Already Have
How to 4X Your Cost Savings With The People You Already Have Doug Hall The pressure on everyone to find ways to cut costs and increase productivity is immense. If you’re like most organizations you have leveraged the fundamentals – you have trained some experts in...
ISO Innovation Management Standards
ISO Innovation Management Standards - What You Need to Know! What are the ISO Innovation Management standards? ISO Innovation Management standards (ISO 56000) are a set of internationally recognized guidelines and recommendations for organizations to follow in...
Mentorship Programs
Are Corporate Mentorships Bad for Innovation? First, let me start with a disclaimer. We are not opposed to mentorship programs. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that they benefit both the participants and the company. However, they have some faults and I think...
5 Strategies for Getting More Word of Mouth Sales and What It Really Takes to Be Successful.
The Eureka! Ranch started measuring word of mouth diffusion and running experiments in 2010. Back then companies had concerns over growing advertising costs and were looking for alternative ways to drive awareness for their new offerings. Well, today is no different....
3 Must Do’s to Activate Your Strategy
Leaders and employees often express dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of their company’s strategic planning process. Clearly, it’s a problem if there is no strategy, but even when leadership has developed a strategy, too often it’s not properly “activated.”
Give the Gift of Innovation
This holiday season give the gift of innovation to those in your life who are lifelong learners. We have a few special offers to share this holiday season we don’t want you to miss
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