OUR APPROACH

• How does my approach compare with best practices?
• How can I improve and formalize my approach without suppressing the efforts of teams which are already innovating effectively?

How we respond

We work with clients to create these capabilities by performing an innovation audit that explores specific elements of each of the key pillars of an innovation dynasty, identifies gaps, and provides an architecture for the new process and organizational form. The pillars include:

Pillar 1: Create a growth blueprint
Building the first key pillar of an innovation dynasty requires an organization to clearly articulate what it wants to be, and to allocate resources to achieve that vision. To build this growth blueprint, an organization’s senior management team must define strategic goals and bounds and create a balanced portfolio of growth opportunities that reflects its strategy.

Pillar 2: Construct an innovation engine
At the core of an innovation dynasty sits an innovation engine that powers the rapid creation of new growth businesses. In our experience, the two key components of this engine are separate screening and development processes that focus on rigorously reducing uncertainty, and a new growth board that helps to shepherd projects with high assumptions and low knowledge. Without these components, invisible corporate forces tend to systematically shape new ideas so they look like things the company has done in the past, denying the company the chance of following highly differentiated strategies.

Pillar 3: Support the new growth engine
A clearly defined strategy, allocated resources, and a humming new growth engine can still fail to drive innovation if leadership does not create a supportive climate and lead by example. Companies that successfully generate this environment share a common language of innovation, draw on substantial external input, create policies and incentives that encourage people to take managed risks on the path to innovative growth, and have senior management that is actively involved in the idea screening and development process. Once educational programs are added in, a culture of innovation results.

Once the gaps have been identified, we work side-by-side with a designated team of managers to develop and document the new ways of working, identify the organizational elements and communication plan, and implement this plan.

This process typically takes about three months. Once the company starts to implement, we provide follow-on coaching and advisory services.