Marketing !

Sparks to fire up your innovation combustion

This coaching session discusses the difference between Marketing and Innovation.

Starring: Inna (Innovation Leader in a large Pharma corporation) and Wim (coach for Innovation Leaders). [Transcription far below]

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Are you looking for a personal innovation coach?

• Do you want a soundboard, a sparring partner?
• Do you want to run an idea by a passionate outsider?
• Did you just start an innovation program or want to improve it?
• Do you need practical ideas to stimulate innovation?
• Do you want tips on how to manage an innovation portfolio?

If yes, I’m ready to help you!

• I believe in KISS: Keeping Innovation Super Simple. High focus on passion, low focus on processes.
• I have coached more than 50 innovation leaders across the globe in Pharma/healthcare.
• I work as independent coach: per hour or as long as you consider valuable.
• I can be reached (Wim Vandenhouweele) at wimvand@outlook.com

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Transcript

Inna:

⁃ Hi Wim, what is the difference between marketing and commercial innovation?

Wim:

⁃ Hi Inna, As Innovation Leader, I indeed saw many colleagues who labeled their idea as an innovation, while I considered it more as a traditional marketing project. Ultimately and practically, the difference is not that important. As I mentioned in earlier blogs, the crucial issue is to solve a relevant problem. It is not that critical if one calls that solution an innovation project or a marketing project.

Inna:

⁃ Where would you draw the line?

Wim:

⁃ I would label a solution as an innovation if it is something that has never been done before. There are many gradations: never done in the company, never in the industry or never ever. When I started in my job, I wanted to stimulate an innovation mindset in the company. I wanted employees to feel comfortable to innovate. For that reason, I took a rather broad interpretation and also encouraged employees who came up with ideas that were not “super-innovative”. Once employees felt comfortable experimenting with these “minor” innovations, they then often pursued more innovative solutions.

Inna:

⁃ Great. How would you approach the development of marketing vs innovation projects?

Wim:

⁃ Typically, marketing programs are based on existing, previously proven models. So good marketing is more about effective, efficient, flawless execution. For marketing programs, one may decide to do a pilot before rolling out the program to all geographies. For example: pilot 2 advertising campaigns in 2 different regions. Then roll out the most successful one.

⁃ Innovations are new projects. They are more uncertain and thus carry a high risk for failure. Therefore, to develop innovation programs, there is an extra step, being an “experiment or feasibility phase”, before the pilot. In that phase, the innovator tests a few assumptions, typically on a very small scale, often using a MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This test will help validate a few key assumptions fast and at low cost. If the experiment does not confirm the assumptions, the MVP can be adapted, based on the learnings or the project can be terminated. As there has been only limited investment in the experiment phase, a failure does not have a big impact and can generate useful learnings for future innovations. So Innovation is more about totally new solutions.

⁃ A few additional comments: Often, innovators are marketers, who go off the beaten track. Also, Marketing is much broader than the execution of solutions. Marketing is also responsible to create the business strategy and to define the priority problems that need to be addressed. Marketing and Innovation are complementary. One needs the other. Marketers need innovative ideas and innovators need great marketers for a successful outcome.

Inna:

⁃ Thanks. Related to solutions: Marketing: executing of solutions. Innovation: generating new solutions.

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