Innovating To Win

What’s It Mean?

Recently, there seem to have been a number of blogs trying to define innovation.  Of course, one only has to open up the dictionary to find a perfectly adequate definition.  From Merriam-Webster On-line, we find:

Innovation: \ˌi-nə-ˈvā-shən\ (noun ) 1 : the introduction of something new, 2 : a new idea, method, or device : Novelty

So why all the chatter?

The fact is that innovation has different means to different people, and the meaning can change based on the situational context.  This is why we see so many opinions and attempts to assign shades of nuance to the word.  But still, we are left to ask, “Does it really matter?”

Innovation is a very hot topic of discussion.  But, the meaning of the word doesn’t matter.  What is important about innovation is its effect.  Innovation changes things, innovation moves things forward, and innovation creates new possibilities and value.   This makes innovation very interesting.  Lest we get caught up in semantic debates, we need to remember that what is important is not the definition of the word innovation—what is important is the understanding of the process of innovation.

We have all seen examples of companies that come on to the scene with a new idea, an innovation, and then lose momentum and fade away because they didn’t have any ideas with which to follow up their original novelty.

This is why understanding the process of innovation is so important.  If you don’t have an understanding of how to innovate on demand, you won’t be able to build the repeatable and sustainable innovation engine that is needed to drive the long term success of your organization.  The innovation game is not for dabblers.  You must play the innovation game to win.

This means taking a hard and critical look at your current competencies and practices and evaluating how to integrate innovation best practices into the organizational fabric of your company.  The degree to which you are able to embrace repeatable innovation practice will determine how well you can compete in the global marketplace.

So go ahead, contemplate the meaning of the word, but don’t let such meaningless mental ruminations become a palliative substitute for actually acting to build your organization’s innovation capability.

Thoughts on Two Interesting Innovation Surveys

I just finished reading through two innovation surveys.  The first is a report from the Boston Consulting Group: Innovation 2007; the second is from Capgemini: The CEO Innovation Agenda.  Both surveys were targeted at management.  The BCG report is global in scope; the Capgemini focuses on a study of Swedish companies.  There are some interesting points of intersection in the reports.

Of course, it comes as no surprise that both reports find that innovation remains a top priority among CEOs and other executives.  Given that globally companies are looking at 70% of their products fading into obsolescence in the next few years, the focus on innovation is well deserved.  This is further reinforced by the observable correlation between success at innovation and long-term stock performance.

What is surprising is that many organizations still don’t feel the need to explicitly manage innovation.  In many organizations, there exists a disconnect between innovation ambition and innovation execution.  Too many companies are talking the talk, but not walking the walk of innovation.  As a result, employees often to do not share management’s view of innovation priority, and workers feel innovation is someone else’s job.

The assumption that innovation success will happen in the absence of strong top-level support and involvement is very dangerous.  The BCG report cites CEO commitment as the biggest driver of innovation in organization, and having a strongly positive CEO is probably a critical success factor to successfully creating a vital innovation culture.

It is also reported that many companies consider themselves to be good at specific types of innovation.  Yet most companies are dissatisfied with their innovation results.  They identify a lack of methods and tools for managing innovation.  Also mentioned is a difficulty in striking the right balance between driving innovation and focusing on core issues such as bottom line results.  Often companies see themselves as being weak at systematically screening market for new opportunities.  Many companies also consider their low risk tolerance as an impediment to innovation.

It is interesting to note however, that both reports analyze a set of top innovation companies, and some definite commonalities are readily observed.  Top innovation companies practice explicit and structured innovation management.  These companies are viewed as being able to reinvent themselves and able to predict what their customers will want.

It is no accident that these two observations about top innovation companies go hand in hand.  Companies that have an explicit focus on innovation and that actively implement the systems to support that focus will always come out on top.  It is just a simple example of the “you get what measure and reward” paradigm.  What may not be so obvious though is that these top innovators have not had to become more risk tolerant.  Rather, their innovation management systems have provided them with a much more robust risk management strategy.  The application of strong innovation tools and methods naturally yields higher value innovation with lower risk.

Sharing Innovation Insights From Corporate Experience – What Do You Want To Hear?

I enjoy the opportunity to work with the world’s innovation elite, both at the management and practitioner level.  It seems that some of these colleagues are willing to share their experience and insights.  So, I would like your feedback. Please take a moment to leave a comment answering the following questions.

Would you be interested in a Pod-cast series featuring discussions with innovation leaders?

What types of innovation related topics would you like to hear discussed?

What two questions would you want to ask of a world class innovation practitioner?

What two questions would you want to ask of an executive responsible for innovation deployment at a leading innovative company?

Thanks for your comments.