The following reports are a reflection on business at large with Innovation on the agenda, but a true lack of understanding as to what the word actually means.
We associate novelty as "Innovation" when in true fact to innovate is to create something new. Innovation is at times a meaningless buzz word around ideas. To be a true innovator you must subscribe to the "shake the tree" method! the more you shake the more ideas fall out, one of these will be so bizarre and so ground breaking that you will bypass it and choose one of the low hanging fruits that are still attached because of cost or disruption to your business or life.
So are you a farmer or a gatherer of ideas?
Innovation: - Technically, "innovation" is defined merely as "introducing something new."
There are no qualifiers of how ground-breaking or world-shattering that
something needs to be; only that it needs to be better than what was there
before.
The term innovation can be defined as something original and new that "breaks in
to" the market or into society.
But: Innovation is significant positive change!
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Are you failing to
innovate?
August 23, 2013
The following report is a reflection on business at large with Innovation on the agenda but a true lack of understanding as to what the word actually means.
Recent research conducted by
Accenture has revealed that only 18 percent of senior executives believe that
their organisation’s innovation efforts are providing them with a competitive
advantage. Yet, 93 percent of the surveyed executives said that the long term
success of their company depended on their ability to innovate.
For an organisation to achieve a true
competitive advantage through innovation, there needs to be a split focus on both
incremental and disruptive innovation – innovation relating to improving the
core of the business, and innovation efforts focused on non-core areas.
However, 64 percent of respondents admitted to their organisation’s innovation
strategy primarily being focused simply on line extensions. This low risk
approach to innovation was identified as the key reason why executives felt
that their innovation efforts were not differentiating their organisation from
competitors.
Having a formal innovation management
system was seen as one of the key differences between companies that were very
satisfied with their return on innovation efforts, and those that were not.
This involved having an end-to-end process that specifically designed to
generate, nurture, scale and launch innovations. Indeed, organisations that had
taken a formal approach to innovation were twice as likely to be very happy
with their return on innovation efforts.
The likelihood of having a formal
approach to innovation varied significantly across industries. Consumer Goods
and Services, Electronics and High Tech, and Health Providers were most likely
to have a formal innovation program in place, with approximately 70% of those
surveyed admitting to having this. In contrast, only 40% of organisations in
the Travel and Transportation industry had a formal approach to innovation.
In order to ramp up your
organisation’s innovation efforts, start by ensuring that your company has a
clear and well communicated process so that employees know what business challenges
are important to solve, have an outlet for their ideas and a transparent method
for making decisions. Ensure that ideas are prototyped leanly and rapidly so
that you can learn and iterate faster than your competitors.
Organisations also need to invest in
training staff to become skilled at identifying opportunities for innovation,
such as teaching methods for finding current customer frustrations, and how to
generate unique and effective solutions in how to solve these challenges and to
rapidly prototype solutions.
Finally, ensure that your innovation
efforts are split between incremental and disruptive, as a low risk,
incrementally-focused approach to innovation will fail to provide your company
with the competitive advantage you are looking for.
Written by Dr. Amantha Imber
Why You Need to be Self
Destructive!
August 23rd, 2013
Harvard Business School professor,
John Wells, has recently coined the term: Destructive Innovation. Wells argues
that in the modern business environment, it is not enough to be looking at
incrementally improving what exists (incremental innovation) and attempting to
predict what might significantly change or disrupt the marketplace
(breakthrough and disruptive innovation). Rather, Wells believes that
organisations need to take a destructive approach to their own business models,
products and services.
Destructive innovation is actively
engaging in an innovation process, the objective of which is to take on your
own product, service or business model and perhaps, disrupt your own market. It
is disruptive or breakthrough innovation with an inward focus.
Destructive innovation might seem
counter-instinctive but it does make sense. Competitors are trying to
cannibalise what you are doing right now anyway so you may as well be the one
to tear market share away from yourself! The added bonus is that if you are
taking your own organisation on, you have a unique advantage in terms of
competitor intelligence.
To get started, it might be helpful
to follow these steps:
1. Ask yourself what areas of your
business are under the biggest threat from competitor, technological or
regulatory (or other!) disruptive or breakthrough innovations? (Don’t forget it
might be a process or business model you currently have, rather than a product
or service offering)
2. If you were a competitor, trying to ‘change the landscape’ by using that area of business to put you out of business, where would you focus your innovation efforts?
3. Now, focus some time and resources on destructive innovations that are aimed towards that area of your business. Imagine you are a competitor so be ruthless in your approach. Competitors won’t worry about what is being cannibalised, so throughout this process, so neither should you!
4. If you have uncovered something that is likely to change the future in this area, have the courage to implement a management plan for integration.
Even though there might be some cannibalisation, it will be on your terms and you will stay ahead of your competitors!
2. If you were a competitor, trying to ‘change the landscape’ by using that area of business to put you out of business, where would you focus your innovation efforts?
3. Now, focus some time and resources on destructive innovations that are aimed towards that area of your business. Imagine you are a competitor so be ruthless in your approach. Competitors won’t worry about what is being cannibalised, so throughout this process, so neither should you!
4. If you have uncovered something that is likely to change the future in this area, have the courage to implement a management plan for integration.
Even though there might be some cannibalisation, it will be on your terms and you will stay ahead of your competitors!
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