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YOUR OBJECTIVES

One of the most common opening questions we hear from clients is “how can we be more innovative?” Most often, companies that say they need to be more innovative are facing a set of larger challenges within the organization. They may have realized that growth has flattened or is threatening to flatten, their revenues have steadied, and the growth business that carried them through the last decade is being threatened by newcomers or has lost its luster.

The issue is that many are seeking a quick fix to these challenges. They simply want to find that one new blockbuster that can carry them forward for another 10 years. We believe that being innovative requires going beyond winning once. Companies must develop deep innovation capabilities that allow them to repeat this new growth cycle again and again. Borrowing a metaphor from the sports (or geopolitical) world, it requires creating an “Innovation Dynasty.”

Innovation must therefore be a key component of a company’s strategic planning cycle. Even if a company decides manage the innovation program through an autonomous unit (an approach we frequently advocate), innovation will still play a role in the overall strategic plan for the organization. In many cases, the company's future success may well be dependent on the innovation efforts. It will require resources and talent, its performance will need to be measured, and its fit within the broader brand and offering portfolios will have to be determined.

Defining an innovation strategy therefore requires a balance of approaches deployed to ensure efficient allocations of resources and behavioral shifts among the leaders, to allow the innovation program to develop and thrive without succumbing to the corporate “antibodies” that can often cripple an emerging opportunity.

Specific projects we may undertake to assist our clients in defining their innovation strategy include:

  • Innovation Capabilities Audit — a consulting effort that explores specific dimensions of performance, identifies gaps versus best practices, and provides an architecture for new processes and organizational forms to close gaps.
  • Identify Areas of New Growth — a consulting effort designed to find and capture the “white space,” those areas of untapped potential and non-consumption that can be converted to lucrative growth sectors with the application of a new business model (e.g. revenue model, profit structure, channel strategy).
  • Balance Innovation Portfolios — a consulting effort aimed at helping companies first evaluate their current pipeline of ideas and innovations to ensure those with truly disruptive potential are given the resources required to succeed, and then second, formalize the evaluation models to maintain a healthy portfolio mix going forward.
  • Measure Progress and Performance on Innovation — a consulting effort in which we work with the leadership team to identify appropriate leading indicators that can be applied to monitor innovation initiatives, and development programs to minimize risk and maximize the yield from such explorations.