Ideas are about potential. Innovations are about results.
by Andre Laurin
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Wow!! Innovation is just about on everybody’s lips theses days. It’s a buzzword, a movement and a panacea to all corporate malaise. “I’ve got it Smithers, we will transform ourselves into a lean, mean, innovation machine”!!!
Okay Chief, now what?
Well in the real world, just because you say you want six-pack abs doesn’t do anything to move you towards that goal – you have to actually develop a diet plan along with an exercise program and follow them religiously in order to get there. It’s tough to stick with at first and easy to go back your old ways. Perseverance, support and measuring progress are key. Using quick-result gimmicks like meal-replacement shakes and the Ab-Cruncher are meant to entice those whose resolve is the easiest to break-down; the TV pitchmen know their market.
As funny as it may sound, these same truths apply to corporate innovation. To do it right, transformational, profitable and culturally entrenched innovation success requires careful planning, purposeful process design and proper execution; this starts with determining where you want to go, analyzing where you are starting from and setting a target – both for the process and the organization. Or instead, you can take the expeditious route. Enter the pitchmen with their Idea contests and predictive markets - the Thigh-Masters of corporate innovation, promising fast results with no effort. But like anything worthwhile and ultimately sustainable, meaningful innovation results takes work.
How that work is sourced and organized determines its value to the process.
It isn’t enough to open your doors to new participants if your old participants were underserved by a miss-aligned process. Moreover, the speed at which this must occur and the experience that your participants need to take away from it in order to promote your initiative dictate that the process must return information, progress and results. Or else your participants will quickly find other activities and organizations thru which to experience innovation engagement.