Innovating is easier said than done. Without proper preparation and a clear innovation process, chances of success are minimal.

Preparation is everything

Without knowing what is going on in the world and what role you want to play in those developments, don’t even start thinking about innovation. At the very least you need to have in place:

Company strategy

Most companies have a strategy, but few are very specific. To be able to innovate effectively, it is necessary to know who you want to be in the coming years, and what role you want to play in which markets.

Market scan

Here, also, most companies some concept of market developments, including mega-trends and consumer trends. However, translating this into the best innovative concepts requires a level of expertise that is often lacking.

Technology scan

This is where most companies fail. Having a clear idea future scientific developments and how you should utilize them to fulfill your strategy will give you an edge over the competition.

We can contribute to one particular aspect, or lead you through the whole process so you get the most out of your innovation. Contact us!

Organizing for success

Innovation should not be dominated by any one discipline. Often, product innovation is mistakenly assigned solely to marketing or research. Innovation will only be successful if it is organized as an integral multidisciplinary process from idea to product launch. The innovation process, and its governance, must be structured in such a way that all disciplines are continuously involved in each project (without creating inefficiencies), and can play a passive or active role, as needed, at each stage of the project.

Innovative ideas can and should be generated by every discipline in the company. They can come from market trends, but also from technological developments in production, from scientific developments, from new insights in purchasing, etc. etc. All these ideas need to be captured and ranked in terms of what they can contribute to your business.

Running the innovation program

This should be the easy part from a management perspective. Everything in place and now the enthusiastic and clever scientists do their work and surprise us with their amazing results. Unfortunately, reality is different…
In most companies many things go wrong here, timelines and/or budgets are not met, projects turn into hobby horses and drag on forever, management has no idea where the projects really stand, etc. etc.

Innovation should be structured, but structure does not mean suffocating creative exploits. The key is to make sure that creativity and serendipity are given room to germinate but are fed into the normal innovation process as soon as possible. Creating an environment where energy levels are high, people are having fun and build on each other, is the best way to boost innovation in your company.

We have a lot of experience in setting up innovation processes and running innovation programs. Let us help you optimize your innovation efforts, increase speed, and increase added value delivered. Contact us!

Monitoring the results

Innovation is an iterative process. Continuous monitoring of the (often commercial) results of a completed project is an integral, but frequently overlooked, part of the innovation process. If the result does not live up to expectations why not? There are many causes of deviations, and correctly identifying them and taking appropriate action is required. Some of the things you may encounter: