Innovation: beyond initial phase

Most of new India development centers do good on innovation in first year. The new pair of eyes get adjusted to the environment and innovation dies. Most of the innovation is technology driven innovation. With less information about customers, customer driven innovation is rare. To go beyond "fresh pair of eyes" based innovation to more "disciplined" (conscious, regular) is a challenge.

Here is an article, "Key To High-Impact Innovation", that has few ideas on how to do it. Here are 4 principles mentioned there.

1• A clear challenge statement that expresses aspirations to a worthy goal without prescribing the means. This should be expressed in terms of a customer need, not a business need.

2• A well-designed, well-facilitated process that includes multidisciplinary participation and sources of cutting-edge ideas.

3• Emphasis on developing concepts that combine multiple elements of innovation (e.g., business model, IT platform, and channel) to increase impact and distinctiveness.

4• Techniques and structures that counterbalance the forces of risk aversion.


Here are some techniques to help with point 4.

Hold a high-stakes competition. In 1989, Mazda had two teams, one from the U.S. and one from Japan, compete to come up with a design for what was to become the Miata. This winner-take-all approach introduced a great amount of stress and unleashed the breakthrough thinking that resulted in one of the world's most popular sports car.

Fund exploration. Fluke Corp. creates new business opportunities through the use of "Phoenix teams," which are empowered to spend "$100k and 100 days," as they see fit, to develop and prototype a disruptive innovation. Senior executives have green-lighted enough projects to double Fluke's revenues in five years.

Remove the naysayers. Every organization has powerful people who immediately know three reasons why any new concept won't work. One company we studied simply removed two such execs from the leadership group that governs service innovation. The atmosphere changed immediately to focus on how to make unfamiliar concepts succeed.

Change your risk-analysis mindset. In lieu of a risk-adjusted return-on-investment approach, one company evaluates high-potential concepts by defining the worst-case outcome and asking the leadership team, "Can we survive it?" If the consensus is "yes," they charge ahead and work to make the successful outcome occur. This conversation often occurs at the board level.

Form a special petri-dish environment where new concepts can grow. Pitney Bowes (PBI) has a concept studio designed to explore opportunities far afield from its existing lines of business. IBM (IBM) has a similar unit, called "EBO" for Emerging Business Opportunities. This approach minimizes distraction to the ongoing business and permits concentration of special innovation skills. Successful projects are then sold back to the business units.