It works! What now? The Back End of Innovation (BEI) is about implementing successful innovations. A unique benefit of large corporations is that innovations that reach success in one part of the organization, e.g. in one country can be copied, adapted and executed across the rest of the organization. There are many barriers to overcome of course, especially the “not invented here” syndrome: “this will not work here, as our country, customer, environment is very different”. I learned, after a couple of failures, how those barriers can be addressed. A business team in Asia had developed an innovative solution to help patients take their diabetes medication appropriately and consistently. They…

Why Commercial Innovation in a Corporation? Business is going well. Profits are growing. The stock price is increasing. Why innovate now? There are many books written about this. Here is my experience with the value of innovation and different “corporate innovation engines”. Innovative Pharma companies’ growth is fueled by R&D. As patents in practice only last for about a decade, the researchers must invent and develop major new medicines frequently. Or the company dissapears. There is a very appealing case for commercial innovation in addition to the R&D invention. Let’s start with the core business: “the pill”. One example: even the best medicines are not being used by everyone who…

Should we measure innovation? An innovation is something that has never been done before. How do you measure something you don’t know yet? On the other hand, it’s unlikely that corporate leaders would pay us if we don’t accomplish anything. I decided to put innovation metrics in place, but wanted to avoid measuring too much and rather invest most of my time in stimulating innovation. So I needed to find something in the middle. The logical way was to go back to the two specific goals I got when I started in my Innovation Leader role: Across the organization, identify commercial innovations appropriate for global scaling Stimulate an innovation mindset,…

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…

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…