California Business - Volume 3, Issue 1 - Northern California - 11

FEATURE

surprising finding was that it's not just creativity," says Jackie Fenn, vice president and
Gartner Fellow for Executive Leadership
and Innovation. "That helps, but the biggest contributor turns out to be expectations. Are the execs, leaders and managers
expecting people to innovate?"
Expecting innovation
Just telling employees to "go innovate"
could result in chaos - or no results at
all - because random ideas can be challenging to manage, let alone execute. The
more tightly you define your expectations,
the more likely your team will hit the mark.
"Generally, innovation tends to happen
better with a certain amount of constraint
- some focus or goal," Fenn says. "If
you can set specific expectations - 'The
new product idea is going to generate X
amount of revenue, versus just incremental
growth' - then you're more likely to get
valuable ideas."
Focused expectations strategically align
innovation with a company's capabilities,
rather than unleashing implausible suggestions. Up front, be clear about whether
you're seeking process improvements,
product ideas or something else. Think of
innovation as a portfolio, Fenn says, with
a healthy mix of high-risk, game-changing
ideas and safer, near-term improvements.
"The first thing you should do is step
back and say, 'Why are we innovating in
the first place?'" Anthony says. "Innovation
can be very exciting and empowering, but
it's best done to solve a specific problem."
The difficulty is that most companies
concentrate on idea generation, then
evaluate what can be executed to best
serve customers. By taking the opposite
approach - starting with a market segment's unmet needs rather than spending resources to examine which random
ideas happen to address needs - Tony
Ulwick developed a strategic process called
Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI).
"If innovation is the process of coming
up with solutions that address unmet needs,
there are two ways to approach the process,"
says Ulwick, founder and CEO of Strategyn,

"Innovation can be
very exciting and
empowering, but it's
best done to solve a
specific problem."
- Scott D. Anthony,
managing partner, Innosight

a San Francisco-based innovation consulting firm. "One is to come up with solutions
and see if they address unmet needs, and
that doesn't work because it's a gamble.
The other way is to come up with the unmet
needs, and then systematically create a solution that addresses those."
By identifying unmet needs in lucrative markets, ODI links value creation to
customer-defined outcomes after carefully
listening and observing to learn what
customers want. As Harvard Professor
Theodore Levitt famously said, "People
don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill; they
want a quarter-inch hole."
To get that insight, leave the office and
spend time with customers, and problemsolve with colleagues you don't normally
interact with, Anthony says.
"There is a moment where magic happens," Anthony says. "If you look at the
studies of where breakthroughs come from
the common element is that magic happens at intersections when different mindsets and different skills collide. If you're
trying to come up with a breakthrough
idea, get stimuli different than you normally get, because that's what allows the
innovation magic to happen."
Strategyn spent time with carpenters
while consulting Bosch on a new circular
saw, uncovering 14 needs that other saws
didn't satisfy. Once those needs were
sharply defined, it took Bosch just three
hours to develop a solution that addressed
them - the CS20 circular saw.

"Innovation is not about ideas; innovation is about defining problems," Ulwick
says. "Companies tend to overemphasize
the need for creativity, but people are
creative by nature. They don't need tools
to come up with solutions. What they need
is a great definition of the problem so the
solution becomes evident."
Making innovation happen
Employees won't embrace innovation unless they see that the company is invested
in the journey. Whether it's a specified
budget or a dedicated team, innovation
requires resources, and the more specific
your goals, the more concentrated your
resources should be to achieve them. If
you envision a companywide culture of
continuous improvement, encourage
everyone to streamline everyday processes.
But if you're seeking a revolutionary idea
to develop new business, streamline your
innovation efforts through a small, dedicated group of people.
Innovation doesn't guarantee success,
and some ideas will fail. If employees understand the ups and downs from the start,
they'll be more motivated throughout the
journey.
"Help employees understand that this
is going to take longer and be harder than
they think," Anthony says. "The first moment something doesn't work out can be
incredibly dispiriting for an organization
that isn't ready for it, but if you're prepared, it looks very different."
Whether ideas win or flop, the key to
sustaining momentum is addressing innovation. Incentives, awards and recognition
can highlight innovation, demonstrating
the value of innovative activity.
"When there's no time or budget
to take an idea forward, it can suck
the innovation life out of an organization," Anthony says. "Not surprisingly, in
environments like this, when managers
say, 'Bring me ideas,' no one ever does
because they know nothing will ever
happen. Make sure that innovation isn't
something you talk about but something
you actively do." *

California Business * 11

California Business - Volume 3, Issue 1 - Northern California

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of California Business - Volume 3, Issue 1 - Northern California