If you want to innovate, stop ideating
Posted: November 4th, 2011 in Innovation Training
By Amy Larson
I spent two days last week with an industrial products company discussing Innovation Best Practices and how to build Innovation capabilities that would lead to sustained, profitable growth.
“We have a ton of ideas,” they said.
“Great!” I said, “What’s the problem?”
“We just don’t know how to move them forward.”
And what struck me about this conversation was that I’ve had it so many times, with so many different companies – from large consumer products companies to energy service providers to small chemical manufacturers.
It’s a classic innovation process problem. We need a systematic, stage-gate process with hurdles and forms and meetings. Perfect. Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
In order to pave a smooth road to innovation success, you have to start by understanding why all those ideas are stuck in the mud in the first place.
Problem #1: Lack of resources
The most common reason I hear that ideas don’t move through the innovation “funnel” is a lack of resources. And yet, most companies have sufficient resources to pursue the top organizational priorities, which means innovation (or at least this set of ideas) doesn’t make it to the top of the list. Why not? Especially when management is surely espousing the importance of innovation.
Answer: Develop an innovation strategy and get senior management buy-in
The problem usually resides in a lack of clearly defined and measurable goals for innovation. If “I’ll know it when I see it” is the de facto strategy, then it’s easy to say “No” to every idea that comes along. But if senior management has a clear view of what innovation will achieve – strategically and financially – then the resources should follow, commensurate with the magnitude of the goal.
Problem #2: Lack of Prioritization
Another oft cited reason for innovation stagnation is lack of prioritization. We have so many ideas, we know we can’t pursue all of them, and we just can’t decide where to focus. So we need screening criteria, right? And most companies do a good job of setting financial screening criteria, but they don’t know how to screen ideas in their infancy, before their revenue and profit potential can be measured.
Answer: Understand customer problems and needs
This again speaks to a missing step up front. The way to screen ideas early on is through understanding customer needs. If a problem is broadly, frequently and/or intensely felt, then it represents a significant business opportunity. These screens are a proxy for revenue potential before it can be measured. But in order to be able to use these screens, you must have in depth understanding of your customers.
So if you want to move innovation forward, stop ideating - get rid of the suggestion box, the web portal and the post-it notes. Instead, take two steps back to establish an innovation strategy and explore your customer’s unmet needs. Having these pieces in place generates fewer, stronger ideas that have the organizational buy-in and customer support necessary to become successful business ventures.