How to make innovation work for you
Most companies forget about these 10 things
Innovation has become essential
I’ve been in a few innovation roles for a good part of my career. In a world rapidly disrupted by AI and other technologies, almost every company, however big or small, is either actively innovating, or coming up with solutions that can help it ride the disruption wave. Or at least, hedge itself against it. It is a make or break time for all of us.
Below some crucial learnings from my own career
1. Be as clear as you can with your strategy and goals
Why are you innovating? Are you trying to keep up with the competition? Are you trying to expand into new areas? Where will your new product / new service fit into the market 2 years and 5 years from now? What direction will this take the company to?
2. Be realistic with your chance of success
Make sure you do your competitive intelligence and forecast your best and worst scenario in terms of financial success. The most common mistake here is inventing products that had no chance of making it in the market in the first place, and wasting money in the process.
3. Be realistic with your timetable
It’s not what you think its going to be. Add at least a year. I once created a product in light speed, only for it to get stuck for a year with the Executive Board who just went around in circles fighting over one another. Clearly they had also skipped point (1) above
4. Be ready for failure. Again. And again
By definition, 95% of your innovation work will go straight in the bin. It is a trial and error process. So gather up all your determination, focus, persistence and diligence because trust me, you’ll need it.
5. Have a dedicated team
Many companies try to get innovation done under their current headcount. Wrong. You risk getting nowhere, involving people who are not really passionate, and burning out your staff. Create an innovation team now if you want to make this a success
6. Do not subcontract innovation
Both in order to safeguard your Intellectual Property, as well as to ensure the innovation team has a vested interest and has something to loose, like you. At the same time, make that team accountable and independent so that they own what they are doing, and they own their own failure as well. Innovation teams that get “too comfortable” always fail
7. Anticipate disagreements
Innovation is like art. It is a creative process, and as it is in the creative arts, be ready for plenty of debate and disagreement. The key is to allow everyone to have their say, all the way from the start. Otherwise you will be in for some nasty surprises when you have already wasted a lot of time and money.
8. Follow the Scientific Process
One of the most common mistakes companies make is to assume everything will go well and smoothly. They don’t understand innovation is about going two steps forward one step back. This is the basis of the scientific process of discovery: you make a hypothesis, it is proven wrong, you go back to the drawing board and make another hypothesis, and hopefully this time it is right. This is the process, there are no shortcuts.
9. Re-evaluate the Market environment every 2 months
Innovation functions right at the fault lines of the tectonic plates of the market. Be constantly aware of developments: new technologies, what your competitors are doing, how much things cost. You may need to ditch your plans immediately and change course for another destination.
10. Keep your IP secure and your staff paid well
There are lots of competitors that would love to know what you are doing. Even better if they can poach your innovation team and reap all the benefits from your innovation for free. It happens a lot.
Stay tuned for more insights as this list gets longer :)
