Keeping the central innovation team lean Creating a large team generates the need for processes, meetings, coordination, etc. This relates to my earlier blog “Process kills innovation”. In many corporations where innovation needs to be stimulated, there is a need for a central accountability to provide focus, increase communication, alleviate barriers and track innovation efforts across the organization. There are several benefits of keeping this HQ team very small, e.g. 1-2 people: Simplicity: innovators don’t need to go through several levels to get input or ask for support; business teams know where to share new business needs that need innovative solutions Speed: decisions are made fast as there is no need…
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On investments
The use of a Reverse Income Statement Experiments, e.g. in medical research and development, are based on inspiration, developed ideas and targeted investments. Many do not deliver a successful outcome or solution. This is also the case for commercial innovation experiments. An innovation-championing senior business leader asked me to help his teams identify those commercial innovation experiments that would potentially provide the highest positive return. He was looking for an easy to use tool to help innovators, a tool simple enough not to discourage his passionate innovators. Based on the Discovery-Driven Growth* work from Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan, we developed a simplified “Reverse Income Statement” template. It’s a tool…
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Where are they?
How to identify bright innovation stars in the corporation Of course, they are everywhere! But how to find those stars within the corporation? I believe there are 3 simple steps to approach this: Problem awareness. The potential innovators need to be aware of what problem the organization is trying to solve. The Innovation Leader can play an important role by creating awareness across the organization of the problem the leadership wants to focus on. It takes never ending time and effort to make sure that every employee has a deep insight in the business and customer challenges that need an innovative solution. Ceativity. Creative colleagues need to be identified, supported…
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Law & Order
When innovators should engage Legal/Compliance In highly regulated industries like healthcare, adherence to specific laws and regulations is critical, but may slow down or even inhibit innovation. It doesn’t have to: many highly regulated industries have been extremely innovative, think finance or aviation. Often, compliance implementation creates a risk averse environment and is perceived by business teams as a reason not to innovate. Innovation leaders can address this barrier to innovation by engaging with their legal/compliance partners, explain what the specific innovation is about, create trust and discuss collaboration. Timing is essential. Ideally, Compliance should be part of the earliest innovation phases. If it is not possible to engage Compliance…
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Building networks
Connecting innovation leaders to stimulate innovation The impact of innovation leaders within a corporation increases if they can share learnings and challenges with colleagues who are also excited to create change. One of the most practical ways to create an innovation mindset in a large organization is to establish a network of passionate innovation leaders, especially if those leaders are embedded in the business teams and supported by their leadership. These catalysts can create small “flames of innovation”, which, taken together, can over time generate a major “innovation fire” across the company. I have seen it happen. I also learned how not to do it. When I started in my…
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ROI = KING*
Why not to ask for ROI at the front end of innovation. *In French The best way to destroy an innovative idea – and the motivation of an innovator – is to ask for the Return On Investment (ROI) if someone comes up with a new solution. How can someone who doesn’t even know if the idea will work understand what it’s costs and returns will be. It’s tempting for business leaders, always looking for efficiencies, to evaluate business proposals based on their ROI. Innovations should also be looked at in this way. But not in the early stages, when the idea needs to be nurtured, to be given a chance to…
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The catalyst
Based on a real story of an innovation leader in a large corporation There are as many definitions of Innovation Leader as there are innovation leaders. This is about my experience. The position of Innovation Leader in the company I was working for, was created 5 years ago, because the commercial leadership identified a major challenge. Many innovative experiments were happening across the company, but successful ones from one country were not reproduced in other relevant countries. The reason was that there was often no awareness of the innovation beyond the local entity and no good understanding of the business value of the innovation. So my assignment from the leadership…
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Mingle!
Good ideas can come from everywhere Steve Jobs combined his passion for design with his expertise in technology to innovate. Few of us have this kind of double talent or skill. But every large organization has! Corporations have an amazing number of in-house experts. They might work in Marketing, IT, technical/medical, legal, compliance, finance, HR, manufacturing, etc. Many of these colleagues also have links to external partners. Innovation Leaders can engage with these experts and connect them to each other, to stimulate innovation and create networks. I recall a situation in which a marketing innovator in Latin America wanted to solve a market development challenge. He came up with a…
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Align
Focus innovation on business priorities Innovation is not an objective. It’s a way to reach an objective. This objective can vary from specific, short term business and customer needs to broad, visionary strategic goals. Within large corporations, it is relatively easy to define the short term, tactical challenges. The operational business teams and leaders surely have a list ready. This is where innovation leaders can generate quick results by simply issuing innovation challenges. Throughout the organization or even externally, individuals or small teams can come up with innovative ideas. Selected ideas are then quickly tested. Note: it’s critical that the business team provides a very specific problem statement or a…
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Climate change!
Giving innovators a chance Who in the company should innovate? Every employee or only those who are passionate about innovation? I’m making the case here for the latter. This means creating “a climate that stimulates innovation”, in contrast to creating “an innovation culture”. Let me explain. A corporate culture means that every employee should believe and behave in alignment with it. Think e.g. of a company with a strong ethical culture that successfully creates trust with customers and stakeholders: all employees, without exception, demonstrate this ethical behavior – and likely the company wants to keep it this way. A corporate “innovation” culture thus implies that every employee should innovate, be…