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Here are some of our top tools and techniques for successful innovation.
- We define innovation as "the process of envisioning and successfully implementing new ways of doing anything that creates value for an enterprise and its customers." It’s not about brainstorming a bunch of new ideas and hoping they stick. But, it is about much more than just new products and new services. This expanded definition of innovation requires both sophisticated internal management skills and stimulating, external focus.
- Innovation is about much more than just new products and new services. And, it is too often treated as a project; with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is usually focused solely on the development of new products and/or new services. And, most destructive of all, is the belief that any organization can relax after the launch of a successful, new innovation. In the long run, the ultimate goal of any healthy organization must be to develop the skills, business practices, and organizational mindset to constantly innovate and reinvent itself, ahead of the marketplace and competition. Unfortunately, without senior management foresight and sponsorship, the tools to accomplish this tend to reside within individuals or small teams, rather than within cultures; and they always erode over time.
- As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice in Wonderland: "If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there." It’s true—innovation that makes a difference needs an anchoring strategy and agenda that provides direction to everyone in the organization. This requires the identification of every enterprise’s "Innovation Sweet Spot," where the organization’s strategic intent (Corporate Will) intersects with perceived, un-exploited marketplace opportunities and its unique capabilities (strategic competencies), to capitalize on their markets of the future before their competitors do. Only by discovering the intersection of these three domains will any enterprise recognize its "Innovation Sweet Spot."
- Organizations tend to resist the need to constantly innovate. We only change when something forces us to. In fact, there really are only four things that motivate any organization to change. We call them The Four Uncontrollable Marketplace Drivers of Innovation. They are: 1) Customers & consumers, 2) Technology advances, 3) Competitive activity, and 4) Government regulation. A thorough exploration of these four key drivers of innovation is absolutely critical to the success of any innovation initiative.
- Wrong! There is no single, formal, repeatable process for creating and successfully launching innovations. Since innovation is messy and unpredictable, it can’t be subjected to a cookie-cutter approach. You’re bound to miss something, some step that could improve an okay concept into one that’s brilliant. Off-the-wall perspectives and seemingly incongruous steps in the process are where greatness incubates. When your mental feet are firmly planted in mid-air you’re in a prime position to stretch your thinking to find a new, potentially breakthrough solution.
- Speed and agility are the hallmarks of truly innovative cultures, particularly those who embrace a "fast follower" competitive strategy. This also helps reinforce the difference between being creative and being innovative. An organization that is aligned behind a shared vision of its future will have a far better chance of identifying the potential impact of these uncontrollable, unanticipated threats when they appear on the horizon, and will be better prepared to galvanize the organization behind critical change initiatives.
- Whatever it is that you do, there’s a customer and/or a consumer in your life who needs to be satisfied. But, if your definition of being customer-driven means reacting to everything your customer tells you, you’ll always be playing catch-up. True innovators actively embrace "The Gretzky Paradigm," meaning that, like ice hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky, they "don’t skate to where the puck is", "they skate to where the puck is going to be."
- Why do companies bring the best and the brightest inside their walls and then silo those minds into non-communicating divisions? Transferring knowledge between departments/divisions is one of the best ways to stimulate growth across the organization, and sometimes it takes an outsider to make that happen. Silos are also a sign that the organization’s innovation agenda hasn’t been bought into across divisions. The organization’s challenge is to leverage the accumulated knowledge of their workforce; for the only sustainable source of competitive advantage is the rate at which the organization learns.
- Innovation is the strategic accelerator of change and growth. It leads an enterprise into the future. To be successful it cannot be haphazard. Yet, 83% of innovative ideas fail to be successfully implemented, primarily because the people in most organizations resist making the changes and advances required to implement those innovations. This happens because of two primary reasons: 1) too often, they weren’t involved in the creation of those innovations and, therefore, they don’t "own" them, and 2) they know how to ideate, but they don’t know how to innovate.
- Most innovation initiatives fail because the three decision-influencing constituencies (top management, middle management, project management) are not aligned behind one unified innovation agenda. Because we are specialists in group process, we work as our clients’ innovation advisors, coaches, and facilitators. Some even view us as their innovation agency. As their process partner, we work with every level of the organization to create and implement inspiring, profitable changes in the way they do business. And, because it’s their vision, their ideas, and their passion, working with us significantly improves the odds that something good will be implemented.
- Innovation is messy. When you’re trying to go to new places and do things you’ve never done before, you’re bound to mess up. Failure and embracing an element of risk--fundamental aspects of innovating--should be rewarded by the organization, not discouraged. As Albert Einstein once observed, "If at first the idea doesn’t seem totally absurd, there’s no hope for it."
- The commitment to implementation and shared ownership are only developed when people within an organization are the primary participants in shaping the innovation initiative-at all levels. When it’s your work and your thinking, there is no "Not Invented Here Syndrome." Instead, there is passion, commitment and shared ownership. And, by involving people from every level of the enterprise in our programs, the "not-invented-here" syndrome tends to be eliminated. But, even the best cross-functional team needs to be stretched beyond its "comfort zone." To do this, Creative Realities often encourages the client to invite selected outside thought leaders and content experts (technologies specialists from unusual "worlds", consumer trend analysts, futurists, trade association representatives), who always help the clients to see the world through different eyes.
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