If you want to innovate, ban ‘innovation’

Do any of the following ring a bell? Destructive innovation, incremental innovation, revolutional and evolution innovation? How about time horizon or design thinking? Or the Ansoff 2x2 growth matrix for help with product and marketing development strategy? You probably know them. If you are, stop using them.

In my experience, such terms may help explain a goal to innovation experts — after all, it’s what they work with every day — but they don’t do much to clarify anything to anyone else in the organisation. In fact, they may even do the opposite, triggering endless debates that stifle progress before it even gets started.

So what I want to do here, instead of using the word innovation — and all its attendant terminology — is to offer a list of fundamental questions intended to help you clarify your ideas to all your stakeholders.

1. WHAT are the challenges and opportunities?

Does your board share its challenges and opportunities? Does it communicate them fully throughout the organisation? If it doesn’t, then the rest of the organisation won’t be able to plan effectively, because nobody in it will know what lies within their capabilities and what doesn’t.

This, for me, is the fundamental starting point: a clear list of challenges and opportunities. (And if you’re not on the board, then help its members to describe what they want as clearly, and as simply, as possible. Because it may well be that what sounds innovative on a high, conceptual level, isn’t anything of the sort when placed under the microscope of practicality.)

2. WHY are you doing this?

Every company sets short and long-term strategies. The primary goal is growth (top line, EBITA, etc.) — from both existing and new business. Some companies may even possess a tactical plan: a plan detailing specific new business areas and target markets; perhaps even a fresh approach to its own supply chain.

If your company does have such a plan, then it will more than likely contain all the answers to my next question.

3. HOW do you achieve the wishes of the board, and your own particular goals? (And can you explain the actions you would take?)

Here is a list of some typical actions.

· Improve existing product and service offers — or make new ones.

· Extend/complete your current offer’s ‘ecosystem’.

· Enter new markets.

· Access new customer segments.

· Create new distribution channels.

· Introduce a new brand.

· Introduce new business models.

· Improve or rebuild your supply chain.

(These are all examples of actions intended to have an immediate effect. I’m not ruling out others that will make long-term contributions to your company’s strategy. For example, installing and applying new technology.)

4. WHAT are the acceptable consequences?

Every action you take will have an impact on your organisation. You should consider them all when deciding HOW to set about achieving your goals. For example, if your plan is to ‘make/improve new offers,’ are you prepared to change or introduce new:

· Business models

· Distribution channels

· Customer approaches

· Logistics

· Supply chains

· Brands

· Markets.

One tip when deciding this: Choose consequences that reflect and mesh with the particular abilities of your company, group or team. Don’t go into action saying, “We can do anything!” or “I don’t want to limit/kill creativity.” Such statements are open-ended, unfocussed, and more often than not totally impractical. They also waste company resources and time. (And they are, I believe, the common fallback for people who can’t make decisions.)

Three points of focus

If you know the answers to these four questions, then you should have a clear picture of what you want to do, and all its possible consequences. You’re ready to start. But when you start, do you want to focus on people, technology or business? Let me walk you through each possible starting point, while also asking you to remember that whichever one you choose as your main focus, you’re also going to need to make use of the other two.

People

The most well-known approach to innovation is to start by collecting insights into the people you want to use your innovations. Determining the unmet needs of potential customers is one of the most suitable and established approaches to innovation. It gives you something to aim for.

Technology

Most innovation has been driven by breakthroughs in technology. However, I’m not talking here about such inventions as 5G or Blue LED, new technology that did not exist before. Rather, I’m thinking of innovations that come from applying new — or emerging — technologies, but which nobody had explicitly set out to produce. Such as the Post-it note.

Researchers at 3M had been trying to come up with an extremely strong glue. One of the by-products of their research was a re-usable adhesive. But for a long time, nobody knew what to do with it. It was only when someone applied it to small squares of paper that the Post-it was born, and became a wildly successful product.

There are many new technologies that might offer undiscovered advantages to your business. What, for instance, could robotics, AI, or autonomous drive vehicles offer you? Such questions are well worth considering.

Business

If you want to innovate in emerging markets, product categories or business models, look for improvements to your own business. For example, it might be worth examining the way you manage your inventory and your logistics. Consider Apple.

Apple didn’t just innovate withwhat it sold. It also made its supply chain a model of efficiency. Working for Steve Jobs, Tim Cook cut storage locations, reduced critical suppliers and synchronised data between warehouses and stores. The result was a vastly improved behind-the-scenes process, one that got the company’s much desired products to its customers. Tim Cook’s innovations were the perfect support for Steve Jobs’ breakthroughs.

Use all three

I said earlier that one of these would be your main focus but that you’d also need the other two. This is because whatever action you do take, it will end up touching all three points.

For example, your main focus may be your customers, but anything you plan for them will need to be feasible given the technology you’re using, and it will have to be viable within the constraints of your business. Or you may decide to focus on a specific technology. In which case you’ll need to check whether what you’re planning is something your customers will want and, again, whether it’s a viable move for your business.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on one method, such as Design Thinking, as a multi-purpose approach. It isn’t. While it most definitely helps in your approach to people, it does little for technology or business, both of which demand very different processes, methods and tools.

Sharpen your vision

So how do I sum up? By saying that if you’re in a position to direct innovation, then two things are vital.

Before you start any project, know its precise WHAT, WHY and HOW. The chances of success fade rapidly when plans are too broad in scope, unclear or open-ended.

In short: begin with a specific brief; be honest with yourself about what you can control; and don’t think that open-ended ideas are an aid to creativity. Or, to put it another way, remember the Five P Principle from a 1970s Hollywood action movie:

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

This article was first published on Medium in 2021