The big reason Japanese companies can’t innovate

Japanese enterprises are their own worst enemy when it comes to innovation. In this live panel discussion, I talk about my experience driving innovation at TEPCO, and Ion and Jensen share their experiences running innovation labs. This panel was part of the btrax Design for Innovation event in Tokyo last week. We talk about the specific challenges that Japanese companies are facing and the strategies we've used -- with varying degrees of success --  to help overcome them. Of course, like everyone else, I always remember the most important thing to say ten minutes too late, so I've added those thoughts to the outro at the end of the podcast. It's a great conversation with four people who really care about innovation in Japan, and I think you'll enjoy it. Links from the Panel Brandon Hill (moderator) Connect on LinkedIn Follow on Twitter @BrandonKHill the btrax homepage Tim Romero (me) You've already found me here, but we can connect on LinkedIn if you like. Or follow me on Twitter @timoth3y, but my Twitter game is pretty bad Jensen Barnes Connect on LinkedIn Ion Nedelcu  @frogdesign.com Check out Frog Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. I’ve got another live show for you today. I’ve gotten some great feedback on the past couple I’ve put out, so while I finish up the big solo show I’m working on about how to raise money in Japan, I thought I would bring you another live show today. But this one is a bit different. Last week, at the BTrax Design for Innovation conference, I was part of a panel where we talked about the challenges a lot of large companies face in driving innovation internally. I talk about some of the specifics from my work at TEPCO and my fellow panelists share their experience running innovation labs for Japanese enterprises. And, I’m sure you will not be surprised to learn that Japanese companies are pretty bad at innovating this way.  At least so far. Most have good intentions, of course, but almost all of them are making the same core mistakes in their innovation programs. We go over a few of the big ones in our conversation, and in my comments at the end of the show, I’ll give you my closing thoughts on the problem with what I call the "innovation market." But for now, lets get right to the discussion. Interview Brandon:          So let's see the topic innovation labs. So sounds really Silicon Valley, isn't it? So I like to start by getting a poll from the audience about Silicon Valley. So how many of you guys have visited Silicon Valley in the past, but few, one third maybe? I live in San Francisco and I see many Japanese companies visit Silicon Valley looking forward to some ideas or methods for innovation. And I feel like every single week there's one company visiting from Japan trying to find some ideas. However, I feel like result-wise and output wise, I haven't seen a clear results least. So I like to open up discussion here to ask your opinions about while we did some of the challenges that Japanese companies are facing when it comes to creating innovation, even though they do come to the second Valley very often. What's, what's wrong with it? What's, what, what do they need to do? Anybody JV, go ahead. Jensen:            Well hi, I'm Jensen Barns. I'm from California, lived in Japan for six years. Basically opened up, well co founded the innovation lab here in Japan. Been active in many institutions and I kind of brand myself as doing new things, always doing new. So I think the, the issue I see in this in California is Japanese key Japanese companies coming, but then not really setting with Tim has, both Ian and I have, we've talked about is like setting objectives, setting the right objectives and coming for the right reasons. As a,