Prepare Your Innovation Elevator Pitch

Yesterday, an article appeared on Blogging Innovation by Roy Luebke titled “What to Tell the CEO About Innovation.”  Roy goes on to posit what he would say to a CEO about innovation if given just a few moments of the CEO’s attention.

I suspect that Roy’s CEO will be taking a nap about 10 seconds into Roy’s monologue.   Like a lot of innovation practitioners, Roy has not adequately considered how to deliver that initial innovation message to the CEO. 

It strikes me as odd that this is such a common issue.  After all, you wouldn’t dream of introducing a new innovation to the market without understanding the opportunity space.  What is it that your customer actually wants and needs?  How will they feel the impact of your innovation?  Why will they choose your answer to their needs over other available options?  How do you communicate the value of your solution to the client in a way that will resonate with them?  Etc., etc., etc.

Yet time and time again, innovation champions forget that the CEO is an internal customer of innovation.  In the same way that they need to understand the customers who will use innovations, they need to understand the internal customers of innovation.  What’s important to the CEO?  What business imperatives are top of mind?  What are the corporate goals around attainment of revenue growth, market share, and profitability?  What board directives does he need to satisfy?  From where does the CEO perceive the greatest threats on the horizon to be coming?  Which markets look like they are waxing or waning? Etc., etc., etc.

Roy’s message will fail because it is too ethereal and the CEO isn’t going to make a connection to it.  Don’t squander your opportunity to make the innovation elevator pitch.  Plan for it.  Do you homework and understand what’s going to strike a chord with your CEO.  Frame your pitch around the CEO’s agenda and make clear and compelling statements that make it evident that innovation is a vital part of the solution the company needs. 

Even a pro-innovation CEO may not receive your message well if you fail to do this.  After all, the planning and execution of an innovation initiative requires time and money—the two most scarce and valuable resources the CEO has to work with.  You are competing for these resources, and it’s up to you to deliver the compelling value proposition that will allow the CEO to choose innovation over the other available strategies.

Comments

[Paul R. Williams]

Thanks for this stream of thought Jim! I was actually thinking the same thing yesterday.

I'd actually take this in a little different direction and you touch on it slightly...

If I only had a limited time with the CEO, instead of pitching our direction innovation, I'd rather be a listener of where he sees the market going, what keeps him up at night, what his growth strategy looks like, where he feels the organization falls short and/or has strengths in relation to the strategy, etc.

Without that foundational understanding, it doesn't really matter what I am planning on doing with the innovation management capability. And that's because my innovation management capability is (should be) defined by that strategic direction and understanding.

[James Todhunter]

Hi Paul,

You are absolutely spot on in your commentary! This is exactly what I mean when I talk about doing your homework. If you don't align your innovation program around what is strategically important to the company and then present the value proposition to the enterprise of that aligned program, your message will not gain any traction.

Thanks for the great contribution, Paul.

[Jsbelfiore]

I confess, I'm having a bit of a problem finding unique insight with Roy's comment that, "to create something new we need to start by finding opportunities which are discovered through a process that can be used to farm customer motivators".

Demand creation isn't new, or necessarily subject to the rules of process.

[Bruce Ridge]

Reading through some of the commentary above, the use of jargon is potentially a sign of the reason we may fail.

Jargon can be an efficient means of communication among peers, however the downside is, its often unconsciously used to isolate co-workers and form exclusive "clubs" and counter productive to open, communicative teams.

CEOs are smart people but dont assume their understanding of the jargon used, is the same as yours.

To emaphasize my point take some of the comments and put them into an advertisment, would the customer/consumer buy your product with that sales pitch, I think not?

Plain english may sound unsophisticated but it can be challenging to create a plain simple message. Highlighting that a simple effective statement, in this case, elevator pitch, is so powerful when its planned out into a clear concise message that the customer says YES to!

[Chris Frost]

An excellent post, thanks - for me what is most interesting is the dynamics of pitching the CEO, does the culture really make it easy to pitch and is the company setup to make the innovation strategy obvious and clear to all.

[James Todhunter]

Hi Bruce & Chris,

Thanks for your contributions.

Bruce, you are right. The language you choose makes a difference. This is why innovation champions need to learn the languages of their constituencies. Speak to the CEO in the language of business, and he will be more likely to lend you his ear.

Chris, absolutely the CEO must do his part to create a culture that promotes the innovation dialog. Communicating the vision and purpose of the company and the business context of innovation is a critical aspect of this.

Best regards,

Jim