There are two key factors that
stand in the way of innovation – a company’s ability to execute
the innovation process and organizational barriers to success.
To create a culture of innovation, both must be addressed.
At a corporate level, we suggest the following approach be
taken. Select one person from each product group, division or
company – for a 1-year assignment as an innovation champion. At
the end of the year, each selected individual must report back
to management and submit for funding a flushed out concept that
has resulted from a product, service or operational innovation
initiative aimed at organic growth. The key here though, is that
the innovation champions are trained to use the outcome-driven
innovation methodology and use it to execute their initiatives.
To give the company of broad range of growth opportunities,
these initiatives may be aimed at core or related market growth,
new market creation or disrupting an existing market. The
innovation champions support their recommendations with an
outcome-driven market study that reveals the customers unmet
needs, solutions that address them, a prototype that validates
the design and a business case that quantifies the idea’s
financial viability.
If 25 people are selected for such a program, then management
will have the opportunity to review 25 new product ideas each
year that have been through the rigor of the outcome-driven
innovation process. If the program is executed every 6 months,
then 50 high-potential ideas will be presented to management
each year.
This influx of ideas, which are known to address unmet customer
needs, will fill a company’s product portfolio with a plethora
of winning products – enabling companies to successfully
generate organic growth through innovation.
What we have learned is that it is not necessary to change
everyone in the organization to succeed at innovation. With a
management team that supports such an initiative and innovation
champions that learn how to be outcome-driven – a company can
build and leverage a core competency in innovation.
