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What innovation is and how to
foster it.
Click here
for five approaches to innovation generation (below)
Innovation is, 'something new' ..
in a given context. Most businesses need
to innovate, to do something which gives them a competitive edge
in their marketplace, to build value. When they fail
to innovate (Apple's iPod took over from the Walkman) or innovate
in the wrong way (Betamax video losing out to VHS) they tend
to lose value. Note however, that highly innovative businesses
such as Sony, even if they have taken their eye off the ball in
some areas, will always prevail. In Sony's case it is still
doing well or building market share through innovation in many
markets.
Even the smallest business needs
to innovate, to come up with good ideas that can save money and or
build revenues, to bolster value.
Businesses have to apply
themselves to their need to innovate, both culturally and by
applying tools and processes which help spark innovative ideas.
They also need to be able to prioritise ideas and then put
resources in behind the best, so as to harvest added value through
innovation.
A great deal has been written
about the culture and structure of successful innovative
companies, such as 3M, Canon, Sony, the Virgin Group, etc., as
organisational culture and structure are key. These big,
innovative companies provide plenty of useful organisational and
cultural pointers, and they also have much of the infrastructure
they need to foster an ongoing stream of innovation, in house.
For others, there are many
specialist innovation management service providers and patent and
licensing specialists offering support to businesses for the
maintenance, development and harvesting of ideas.
Maintenance = making sure that
generated ideas are captured appropriately and not lost to the
collective business knowledge pool. Many businesses suffer because
brilliant ideas stay trapped in functional 'silos' and never make
their way to the authority that can champion them to the point
they realise added value for the business. Incentive schemes can
help, but still too many ideas walk out of the door or gate.
Disillusioned employees regularly take brilliant ideas with them
when they leave, straight to a competitor. One of the big failings
here is of misaligned reward schemes that do not recognise all
those that deserve to be rewarded in a business for bringing a
valuable idea to fruition. If people feel they have been
inadequately rewarded for burning the midnight oil on bringing
forth the last innovation they will not be motivated to champion
the next 'big idea' that passes their way.
Development = assistance with
business plans, projections, fundraising and outsourced research
and development. It can also mean building a complete commercial
support infrastructure around a university spin-off, or a
competent, balanced management team around scientists or
technicians that are buying out their part of a bigger business.
It is associated with everything that is required to get the spark
of an idea through a gamut of critical analysis and the ensuing
business case that justifies the development resources, to the
point of commercialisation and it is fraught with risk.
Harvesting = copyrights,
registered designs, patents, licenses, plus associated contractual
agreements. Everybody associated with this aspect of innovation
management has been through at least some painful, 'learning by
doing', as this area is such a minefield. So much so that many
high tech software companies actually shy-away from any attempt to
secure intellectual property through patents, preferring simply to
maintain hard-won technical know-how, by keeping it secret.
Regardless of the maintenance,
development and harvesting of innovations, all businesses have to
come up with ideas first. These are the seeds that either come to
nothing (most) are developed but prove failures (Sinclair C5?)
prove before their time (Transputers and the parallel processing
language OCCAM?) enjoy limited success (E-books?) or become
resounding successes underpinning the future corporation
(Wind-surfers, the Windows Operating System, etc.)
Not all good ideas generating
added value for a business lead to new products or services. Many
make existing work tasks easier, cheaper or more pleasant. Some
are as simple as nominating a person every week to do a desk by
desk recycling collection. Many require an intimate understanding
of the tasks affected, such as re-routing the path of a robot
welding arm, or the 'ski-jump' placed at the end of some aircraft
carriers. All however, require initiation; capture; evaluation;
championing and investment, if they are ever to deliver
value.
The best ideas, when properly
exploited offer businesses massive returns on investment.
Good idea capture and reward
schemes (suggestion boxes, quality circles, etc.) are common in
successful innovative companies, but workshops are also regularly
employed to foster innovative thinking across businesses so as to
help maintain competitiveness.
A lot of these workshops are
either focussed on tackling specific known problems
(fire-fighting) or to encourage long-range (blue-sky) thinking.
Between these, 'here and now' and 'over the horizon' type
sessions, there is a lot of practical added value that businesses
can harvest by focussing on, 'tomorrow and the day
after'.
Here are
five useful approaches to identifying practical innovations:
Appropriately applied as part of
wider analyses, or in well designed workshops, each of the above
concepts can help spark ideas that realise great value for either
a business, or a potential investor in one.
Note, in workshop settings, or
team planning groups, various dynamics at play can undermine
results. Examples include, other pressing agendas getting in the
way, lack of information and team dynamics (research for example,
'group think', 'Belbin's teams' and 'forming, storming, norming
and performing', in google for more insight). A good facilitator
will help resolve many of these issues by ensuring appropriate
commitment to an agreed workshop process, tailored to the
specifics of the client's situation and by using appropriate
support tools (such as DeBono's 6 thinking hats) when
justified.
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