| Deciding Innovation Strategy |
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| Written by James A Gardner |
| Tuesday, 02 March 2010 18:49 |
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An innovation programme has, on average, 18 months between the time it's started and its cancellation. Most such programmes are cancelled because the innovators involved haven't connected themselves to results quickly enough. Why do innovation teams fail so often? The main reason is that they've neglected to define their overall vision of what innovation should mean in their organisations. I've lost count of the number of times I've discovered a group of innovators who don't have any idea what their organisation's innovation strategy is. Usually, you can tell this is the case because the innovators are unable to answer the question "why do you have an innovation programme?". Determining the end-goal for an innovation team is the most important decision innovators or their stakeholders will ever make. The decision, though, needn't be especially complicated, as there are really only three strategic options available from which to choose. Option one is simple: don't bother with innovation at all. Instead, continue doing what has traditionally worked well, and accept that "back to basics" - meaning eliminating things which are not core - is very reasonable. Continuing the business practices appropriate two decades ago can, in many cases, work well. Actively choosing not to innovate is a reasonable strategic choice, assuming everyone agrees at the start. Another innovation strategy is Play-2-Win. This is the strategy you're adopting when you can say, without any doubt in your mind, that innovation will the centre of competitive advantage for your organisation in the future. Play-2-Win will usually require a relatively large investment at the start, but can deliver handsome rewards over time. The third kind of innovation strategy is Play-Not-2-Lose. Play-Not-2-Lose accepts that doing new things to maintain parity with competitors is the primary reason to have an innovation function. You may not get the market windfalls that accompany a big breakthrough, but you do get relatively good returns in the short term. Choosing which of these strategies to follow is actually a matter of evaluating your organisation's risk appetite. In conclusion, then, it is essential to make a decision on which course to follow before you start an innovation programme, because everything that follows this decision will be different depending on the strategy adopted. About the Author: If you want to find out more about Innovation for your organisation, then visit James A Gardner's free online book which contains a chapter on Innovation Strategy. |