Nicholas J. Webb

Nicholas J. Webb: Program Outlines

Prepare to have your assumptions, strategies, and even the way you think about innovation challenged!

Nick Webb is one of the most sought-after and dynamic speakers in the innovation game. Why? Because he delivers his message with passion, and with a thought-provoking approach that will challenge your long-held assumptions and may just serve as a launch pad for transforming your organization into a world-beater in terms of delivering what your customers want and speeding those customer-driven innovations to market.

Here’s a quick look at just a fraction of what you’ll learn about:

• Building a systemic culture of innovation
• Fast-tracking innovation assessments with the Webb triangle
• How to automate innovation filtration
• Keys to developing world-class innovation platforms
• Replacing risk management with opportunity management
• Assuring maximum market penetration with customer-driven innovations
• How to “out-invent” the competition using innovation safaris
• Tools for value layering your innovations
• Introduction to the state-of-the-art RealOpen™ innovation management system

Plus, you’ll also hear case studies and lessons learned from world-leading innovators that you can adapt in your organization.

Speaking Topics:

Innovation

• Creating a culture of innovation
• RealOpen - Mastering open innovation
• Becoming an Innovation Superstar™
• Innovation superstar™ LI and LII Training
• The Innovation Playbook

Digital Media and Customer Experience

• Customer co-creating through digital media
• Mastering your market through digital media innovation
• Creating a transformative customer experience
• The digital dynamic - Build sales and profit fast

Customer Service

• Customer experience mastery
• Customer Mapping - Contact point innovation
• The role of innovation and customer experience
• Off the Hook - Telemarketing and innovation
• Patient centered healthcare

Programs Include:

RealOpen™ - Mastering Open Innovation
In a shrinking economy with rapidly emerging competition, innovation rules the day. The problem is most innovation systems are slow, inefficient and do not truly connect to the increased demands of the market. There is no question that the biggest movement in the area of business growth and profit is open innovation. The problem is the overwhelming majority of organizations have not succeeded in achieving true openness. This is no small problem as the market is moving too fast and product lifecycles are far too short to not take advantage of accessing both external and internal innovations. The primary cause of open innovation failure is the internal challenges of cultural adoption and ultimately deployment.

In this program Webb provides a step-by-step account of the common pitfalls in managing business innovation and more importantly what to do about them. This program has been presented to dozens of Fortune 500 companies and is widely considered to be the best practice in deploying open innovation in organizations. Workshop attendees will learn:

• The creation of a comprehensive innovation platform
• The development of a comprehensive internal and external submission portal
• The development of a digital strategy to solicit external innovation submissions
• The creation of custom innovation measurement tools
• Installation of fast-track methodologies to quickly move the innovation from filtration to the find/forget phase
• Fast-track innovation assessment through the Webb Triangle
• Creation of a multi-front innovation procurement plan
• The development of a digital command center

This program takes a nonlinear and configurable approach towards increasing sales, plan value, and ultimately, profit. You will learn from case examples based on some of the best organizations on the planet.

Innovation Superstar™ Certification Training Level I
The Innovation Superstar Training Program is designed to give participants the latest best practice in Innovation Management. Unlike competitive programs, our Innovation Superstar Certified Training Program (ICS) is a nonlinear and non-legalistic system. This allows anyone to configure it to their company’s unique needs. Innovation Superstar Certified (ISC) Level I was created using information gathered from the study of more than 200 of the most innovative companies in the world.

The program provides for dynamic and easy-to-understand tools that allow the student to leave with real world deliverables that can be applied immediately. Program case studies include service, product, and high technology industries. The training program also helps organizations increase their access to both external and internal innovations. It is based on fast-track methodologies that increase speed, and ultimately, profitability.

The program is also targeted to specific job functions. For instance, our ISC L1 certification is targeted for product managers and engineers. Our ISC L2 certification is specialized for executive managers including, CEO, CIO, VP of Innovation, Vice President of new business development, and research and development. The ISC L1 is available as an on-site workshop or as an online training program. Participants can also petition for certification online by completing a 50 question test with a passing score of 85 percent or better. The ISC L2, is only available as an on-site training program that includes on-site testing and oral interviews.

Program prerequisites include a minimum of two to four years of direct experience in the area of product and project management. Most participants have a bachelors degree or greater. The program textbook is The Innovation Playbook – A Revolution in Business Excellence (Wiley) by Nicholas J. Webb. ISC L1 is available as an online certification program or as an on-site workshop. A score of 85 percent or more on a 50 question multiple-choice test is required for certification. Program fees do not include certification.

Certification is issued to program participants that complete an on-site or online training program and has completed the test questions with an 85 percent or better score. The purpose of the certificate is to validate satisfactory course completion. No certification accreditation is expressed or implied.

Innovation Superstar and RealOpen™ are trademarks of Lassen Scientific Inc. a California corporation.

Innovation Superstar™ Certification Training Level II
The Innovation Superstar Training Program is designed to give participants the latest best practice in Innovation Management. Unlike competitive programs, our Innovation Superstar Certified Training Program (ICS) is a nonlinear and non-legalistic system. This allows anyone to configure it to their company’s unique needs.

The program provides for dynamic and easy-to-understand tools that allow the student to leave with real-world deliverables that they can apply in their business immediately. Program case studies include service, product, and high technology industries. The training program also helps organizations increase their access to both external and internal innovations. It is based on fast-track methodologies that increase speed, and ultimately, profitability.

The program is also targeted to specific job functions. For instance, our ISC L1 certification is targeted for product managers and engineers. Our ISC L2 certification is specialized for executive managers including, CEO, CIO, VP of Innovation, Vice President of new business development, and research and development. The ISC L1 is available as an on-site workshop or as an online training program. Participants can also petition for certification online by completing a 50 question test with a passing score of 85 percent or better. Level L2 is our strategic innovation level. This program is specifically designed for organizational leadership including CEOs, CIOs and Vice President of new business development and research development. The ISC L2, is only available as an on-site training program that includes on-site testing and oral interviews.

Program prerequisites include a minimum of four to six years of direct experience in the area of product and project management. Most participants have a graduate degree. The program textbook is The Innovation Playbook – A Revolution in Business Excellence (Wiley) by Nicholas J. Webb. ISC2 is only available as an on-site training program that includes on-site testing and oral interviews. A score of 85 percent or more on a 50 question multiple-choice test is required for certification. Program fees do not include certification. Certification is issued to program participants that complete an on-site training program and has completed the test questions with an 85 percent or better score.

The purpose of the certification is to validate satisfactory course completion. No certification accreditation is expressed or implied.

Innovation Superstar and RealOpen™ are trademarks of Lassen Scientific Inc. a California corporation.

Mastering the Customer Experience Through Digital Innovation
How to Become a Customer Service Superstar
There is no better way to build sales and profit than through the creation of world-class customer experience. Unfortunately, most organizations take a fractional and superficial approach towards their customer service initiatives. Customer service, real customer service is about providing an enterprise-wide culture that delivers exceptional customer experiences. This includes your digital presence.

Learn how to do this by studying companies such as In-N-Out Burger and Sierra Nevada Brewery, which systematically deliver A-plus customer service using layered approaches that provide net customer value. Webb explains how companies such as these not only provide a solid product, they utilize the five senses of their customers to present a full-spectrum experience for their most valuable resource – their customers.

In studying more than 500 companies researching The Innovation Playbook and The Digital Media Innovation Playbook, Webb found some that go above and beyond in the innovation industry. Webb calls such companies Innovation Superstars. These companies have found the “Soul of the Customer,” rather than the more superficial “Voice of the Customer” that gains the focus of many other, inept companies. And in understanding the “soul,” these superstars deliver above par products, service and more – in other words, a world class customer experience.

For example, Webb named Adobe and Hewlett-Packard Innovation Superstars due to their absolute devotion to an innovative culture centered on value rather than risk. Hewlett-Packard’s HP Garage initiative demonstrates even large companies can continue to create world-class innovations. Adobe practices innovative co-creation on a daily bases – fostering an entrepreneurial and highly customer connected environment.

These superstars come from a wide-range of industries, but still contain some common attributes that make them world-class customer experience innovators. Studying these attainable commonalities can teach any organization how to follow in these big footprints and become innovators as well.

In this program you will learn to significantly increased sales, while concurrently reducing internal costs. You will also develop an enterprise-wide customer value plan. As a hugely successful innovator, Webb will share the roles of open and other innovation methodologies that can be used as tools in delivering world-class customer service, a huge step forward in pursuit of the Innovation Superstar title. This program is targeted for management and leadership in the creation of customer relationship planning and provides the tools that can allow any organizations to lead their industry in customer satisfaction.

Mastering the Customer Experience
In a shrinking economic universe with fierce emerging competition, mastering the customer experience has become a mandate. There is simply no better way to build sales, brand value, customer loyalty and ultimately profit. Unfortunately however the old-fashioned customer service systems have failed.

In the good, old days when money was abundant and competition was slight, superficial customer service approaches worked. But those days are gone… and gone for good. Many naïve organizations are under the erroneous impression that their customer service initiative is adequate to compete in today’s market. This assumption is dead wrong.

Customer service has evolved into something entirely new: customer experience. Customer experiences aren’t created easily and can in fact only be found through truly innovative methods. In virtually all organizations customer service is a fractional solution that has been applied to a holistic problem. A common myth among customer service believers is that if you simply offer a good product, you will succeed. While I would argue a good product is an absolute necessity as well, there’s a lot more to a holistic customer experience that just serving up a good product. SERVING a customer is only one part of a total customer experience.

Another common issue many organization’s experience is a lack of follow through. There are more than 5,000 training and customer service programs available through a wide range of consultants and vendors. There’s no lack of resources out there, yet most organizations fail to take advantage of the wealth of information easily accessible to any and all. But if you do the math, it’s been found that 80 percent of organizations never sign up. Of those who do, 80 percent are no-shows. Of the remaining percent that get to work ultimately give up. True customer experience innovation isn’t easy, but it’s far less frightening than bankruptcy.

To provide truly meaningful net customer value, organizations must understand they are a system comprised of multiple departments all moving in the same direction – delivering net customer value. The key word here is system. Your organization is not just a front-line interface. It is an enterprise that must work in absolute synchronicity. The reason so many common customer service initiative fails is that they focus solely on the front line.

It’s certainly no coincidence that examples of great customer experiences can be found within those companies with an excellent culture – a life support system for innovation and great people. In researching The Customer Playbook, more than 200 organizations were studied – both good and bad. Companies with poor culture were littered with bad people who sucked the good out of organizations, or housed good people forced to deliver bad experiences by companies driven by innovation socialism – an environment based on fear, processes and strictly internal needs.

Innovation capitalism is at the other end of the spectrum and followers of this model understand an organization’s prosperity is based on an externally-focused business model, which also encourages and rewards employees for adding meaningful net customer value. The point is – the strong culture centers on the creation of an organization that rewards exceptional customer experiences.

In this powerful program you will learn how to master the customer experience and ultimately rule your market.

The 90-day Customer Relationship Makeover
How to Become a Customer Experience Superstar
In order to compete in today’s marketplace, it’s critical that organizations use innovation techniques to invent world class customer service. From John Deere to Harley-Davidson, an innovative customer experience is the driving force behind delivering net customer value and inspiring customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In today’s market there are several myths driving many organizations under. The first is the Customer Service Myth. In researching The Customer Playbook, author Nicholas J. Webb found of the hundreds of business managers interviewed, none gave the same answer twice when asked the definition of customer service. Most interview subjects gave job-centric answers. The finance manager saw customer service through the lens of finance. The marketing department saw marketing behind customer service.

You get the pattern. Virtually all customer service initiatives were centered on fractional approaches that were highly internalized. They didn’t account for the fact that customer service wasn’t about brand loyalty or making a better profit. A holistic approach is about providing a complete customer experience.

Another myth Webb saw was the Customer Relationship Management Myth, which states that customer relationships can and should be managed. Computers and spreadsheets do a lot of things extremely well. However, understanding what customers really care about isn’t one of those things. Customer innovation requires actions such as active observation, which can only be done by a live, breathing human being.

Then there’s the Customer Value Myth. In today’s hyper-competitive market, pseudo value will kill your business. Many organizations will say anything to get you to buy. But the real question should be, what will they do to get you to stay. In a world of digital media and social media; fake value will kill your organization faster than anything. The final myth is the Voice of the Customer Myth, which looks at why VOC programs such as focus groups, field studies and customer interviews completely miss finding what customers really want.

Also learn about the System Myth, which looks at the wide range of systems and methods used by companies to manage resources. We manage facilities, people, money, time, budgets productivity and more. Most of these things are easy to quantify using a spreadsheet. But innovation, that can’t easily be quantified. And it shouldn’t be. Innovation does not live well in captivity and is extremely difficult to measure. This is a significant problem because the long-term benefits of customer-driven innovation are immeasurable.

In researching companies for The Customer Playbook, Webb found some of the best companies didn’t try to quantify the benefits of enterprise wide innovation systems. Or if they did, it was done very simply. Take Sierra Nevada Brewing Company for example. When the organization set out to create the world’s best beer they had only one measurement of success: great beer. Sound too simple? It’s not. The brewing company has become one of the biggest successes in the beer industry thanks to that defining goal.

In this program you will learn how innovative ideas such as “carpet time” and “innovation safaris” can give you the real facts about what your customers need and want, as well as mistakes that could be killing your business. You’ll also learn the invaluable facts that can be gathered from “The Customer Service Strata” and find what Webb calls the “Soul of the Customer,” much better than the superficial “Voice of the Customer.” Organizations must connect with their customers, but carefully. Get on the street level with your customer. The bottom line is… knowing is out, and experience is in.

The 90-day Innovation Makeover
Master Enterprise Wide Innovation in Just 90 Days
This program addresses the important of developing innovation initiatives that are not cookie-cutter solutions. There are more 170 different innovation management systems. Which one’s right for you? Answer… none of them. The only innovation system that is right for your organization is the one that you configure to address the uniqueness of your culture, market and capabilities. This program shows you how to take a toolbox approach towards configuring a system that will build sales and long-term sustainable profit.

When it comes to innovation, a holistic philosophy of net customer value is needed. We will look at some specific tools that can be deployed in today’s fast moving, flexible environment in a prescribed way in order to address the issues that face current organizations. These tools will help you combine the best of your internal resources and those on the outside in the industry at large.

The first problem and a major pitfall in innovation today is the use of a cookie-cutter approach towards improving innovation. Some companies are excellent at accessing external innovation, yet extremely bad at taking those technologies to market. Some companies have a very good new product development function, but are very bad at deploying it. The problem is innovation requires a broad array of skill sets. But those skill sets can be easily built in as long as the right philosophy – and culture – of innovation exists.

Achieving “superstardom” in the innovation space is a matter of three things, and three things taken in balance: a customer focus and an effective process that keeps innovation moving along, all supported by a healthy innovation-focused culture.

In The Innovation Playbook, author Nicholas J. Webb uses organizational examples such as In-N-Out Burger and Sierra Nevada Brewery to show how a systemic culture can systematically deliver A-plus customer service using layered approaches that provide net customer value. Webb explains how companies such as these not only provide a solid product, they utilize all five senses of their customers to present a full-spectrum experience for their most valuable resource – their customers.

Webb also calls companies such as Adobe and Hewlett-Packard Innovation Superstars due to their absolute devotion to an innovative culture centered on value rather than risk. You will learn to significantly increased sales, while concurrently reducing internal costs. You will also develop an enterprise-wide customer value plan. As a hugely successful innovator, Webb will share the roles of open and other innovation methodologies that can be used as tools in delivering world-class customer service. This program is targeted for management and leadership in the creation of customer relationship planning.

Digital Innovation
Nicholas J. Webb has researched hundreds of companies while writing his book, The Digital Innovation Playbook. What he has discovered will astonish your audience. He learned how some of the best organizations in the world are using digital and social media to drive unprecedented levels of customer value.

His case studies include how the U.S. Army has solved its major problem through its digital presence. He’ll show how great innovators like Yamaha and Kodak are creating world-class innovations through digital connectivity. Digital Innovation is literally the next generation of innovation and best practice. This information is extremely fresh and updated prior to every presentation.

Innovation Leadership
The rules of successful innovation management have changed, and they have changed drastically. Our digitally connected world has mandated that leadership understands the role of social and digital media in innovation. Leaders today also need to understand new methods of driving speed to market while concurrently increasing efficiencies. In this keynote, Nicholas J. Webb literally creates a roadmap for innovation and leadership success.

Innovation Superstars®
Nicholas Webb has been involved in innovation for over a quarter of a century. His success as both an inventor and as an innovation strategist has taught him the key elements for innovation success. This real-world experience in combination with his research of hundreds of companies has given him the secret formula for innovation success.

In this powerful keynote, Nicholas Webb identifies the anatomy of innovation superstars. He provides real-world case studies and takeaways that allow you to apply this formula to your businesses immediately.

Custom Keynote Topics:
Nicholas Webb can provide custom keynotes that are surgically targeted to the specific needs of your organization and industry. Other topics include:

• The future of innovation in medical technology
• Innovation in the delivery of healthcare
• Managing change and the future
• The great news about the current economy
• The power of innovation in sales and marketing
• Contact point innovation and driving customer experiences
• How to achieve business excellence