The thoughts put forth in booz&co.’s recent white paper Billion Dollar Ideas:Finding Tomorrow’s Growth Engine’s Today are good ones. Yes, we need to rethink how we grow business. Yes, we need to collect as many innovative and new ideas as possible and yes, we definitely need a framework to process, filter, and implement the very best ideas as quickly as possible.

Their methodology is well thought-out. It delivers five “lenses” designed to expand a company’s perspective on growth during Idea Generation. It explains the skills and resources required. But I would pose this question: how can a company expect to implement a new methodology— to foster radical new ideas, without a fundamental shift in their business culture?

When they discuss the Business Model Lens, defined as modifying the very way a company does business, I couldn’t help but wonder how there could be business model innovation, without a shift in values?

How do you create the responsive and innovative business model needed to support such an idea-generation framework?

I suggest this: Internet Integration. When you integrate the Internet effectively with your organization, you create flexibility, dynamic and responsive agility within your company. This allows you to make alterations to your business model, which can then create an environment conducive to new methods of Idea Generation. Without it, you may foster a few new ideas, but the spirit of innovation will not be ingrained, and the process will eventually fall flat.

If you want to learn more about any of the concepts I mention in this post, including Internet Integration and innovation frameworks, please write to us at info@makebuzz.com, and we’ll send you a free white paper.

I don’t want to pick on any one publication in particular— suffice to say I receive emails from a few chosen journals and research publications with selected headlines designed to catch my attention. Well, it worked; my attention has been grabbed, but for all the wrong reasons. As I scroll through the list of Titles provided for my reading pleasure, I can’t help but think “What is all this crap?” It’s 2010 and I’m still seeing “Top Ten listings for Optimizing [Insert Siloed eCommerce Segment of Marketing Effort]”

Listen — the Internet is not eCommerce. Optimizing your online efforts, or any effort, for that matter to achieve eCommerce growth alone is not going to greatly effect your bottom line- unless of course you’re Amazon. Instead, I’d like to see some headlines championing a strong economic framework for all efforts.

Now THAT would really get my attention.

The new Nielsen Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Retail forecast for 2015 predicts the largest dollar share gains in mass supercenters and ecommerce, growing by a combined 5 share points between 2009 and 2015. They suggest that this gain will be fueled by the rise in mobile Internet use, with smartphones becoming the primary engagement channel for shoppers (http://tiny.cc/dps0g).

The accelerated rate of growth for ecommerce seems especially challenging, considering it would need to double the rate of growth from the last 10 years in the next 5 to achieve the 10% share prediction. In order to achieve this kind of growth, I think two things need to happen: one, the idea of ecommerce needs to change, from online purchase only, to partial attribution for online-influenced purchase; and two, a shift in the way that brands connect their efforts across online and offline channels, to integrate Internet capability into their business and marketing frameworks.

Fig. 1.1: MakeBuzz Dual Customer Journey

For companies to leverage the Internet as a sales and marketing channel, as well as for geo-targeting, they must have a framework in place that can facilitate this shift in buying behavior. The current user experience for most websites on smartphones is still lacking, and most brands still need to install other basic efforts to close the gaps in the dual online-offline customer journey. As the smartphone device will continues to evolve, CPG brands need to have this framework in place to support and respond to external innovation, while fostering their own internal innovation.

Neilson is predicting big numbers ahead for ecommerce but in order for this to happen, brands will need to update their business frameworks to be as agile as the consumers they propose to reach, and as innovative as the devices they plan to use.