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Business Innovation & New Product, Service, Process & Technology Introduction

8 Key Issues that disrupt the introduction of new product, service, process or technology in practice

No Formal Innovation Process or Governance Exists

Innovation should be embedded into the culture of the entire organisation. A formalised innovation process should be implemented to encourage ideas from all members of staff, facilitating review of the idea and supporting implementation if deemed viable. Staff should be encouraged to put forward ideas on:

- new and improved products and services,

- new markets and new target segments to exploit

- new processes or improvements to processes

- new controls or improvements to controls

- new technologies to leverage

Where ideas are selected and successfully introduced to deliver value to the business through improved efficiency, effectiveness, economy or growth, make sure people are rewarded and celebrated accordingly to encourage more staff to think creatively and go the extra mile to put forward and develop a viable idea.

Silo based approach to innovation

Many organisations fail to see innovation as a formalised process driven across the breadth of the organisation. These organisations fail to encourage and motivate staff to step up and demonstrate their promise and creativity. As a result, innovation is often looked at disjointedly within individual teams and is seen as the domain of the chosen few rather than formally controlled and managed across the breadth of the organisation to leverage the full creative potential of the organisation. Every member of staff can make a difference if they chose too and are given the support and means to do so.

Building an Innovation Culture

By providing a consistent governance mechanism and formalising the innovation process as suggested above, the approach can be socialised and promoted to encourage contribution from all staff. Equally critical to developing an innovation culture is the need to ensure that a transparent and open view of progress is provided with quick feedback to the team or individuals concerned key to building momentum and encouraging input. Many organisations try to implement innovation processes but fail to communicate back to staff quickly and effectively on the progress of their idea through the review and selection process.

Bridging the Organisation and Technology Divide

The organisation often expects the IT function to be innovative but frequently views IT as failing to deliver the technology innovation required to help drive growth and deliver value to customers. The political differences and lack of understanding and appreciation of each other’s perspectives need to be put aside in the spirit of the bigger picture. This will then allow the organisation to benefit from the advantages that technology innovation can generate. Both parties need to develop a much closer understanding of each-others perspectives and needs. A collaborative relationship needs to be developed that promotes the sharing of ideas and development of collaborative joint technology initiatives to take advantage of technology developments and deliver tangible value to the organisation.

Failure to understand customers’ needs

Many organisations do not invest enough time, effort and money in developing a close working relationship with their customers. They fail to really understand their pain points, problems and challenges. Only by intimately understanding the customer’s need scan you creatively innovate and develop products, processes, and services that clients want to buy.  Time and time again sales executives assume that they have exactly what the client needs but they can’t position the solution because they can’t articulate the real practical value to the customer. The ID8 diagnostic approach and models provided can be used to develop closer working relationships with both existing customers and new prospects. One of the primary purposes of the CXO series of books is to help Sales Executives understand the breadth of requirements that key organisational points of contact are wrestling with so they are better able to understand their needs and articulate how they can help the target organisation.

Failure to invest in innovation

Growth will not happen without investment in innovation. The organisation needs to encourage employees to be creative and invest accordingly to take advantage of the ideas generated. Organisations that fail to innovate will get left behind by their competition. So if you don’t innovate you can guarantee that your business will eventually decline. If you instead continually focus on cost cutting and redundancy programs you will quickly find that you have ripped out the heart of the business to leave nothing but an empty shell behind that is designed for one outcome only, namely failure.

Use Multi-Stakeholder Focus Groups& Agree the IP Sharing Model Up-front

Many companies fall into the trap of believing that they need to innovate in isolation via small but dedicated research and development teams or innovation teams. Smart companies use multi-stakeholder innovation focus groups to get key customers and suppliers engaged in collaboratively working together to generate commercially viable ideas together. Intellectual property matters often get in the way of discussion so the handling of shared IP needs to be worked through and agreed up front to avoid problems further down the line. Developing a simple model for engaging together can save a lot of negative time, energy and effort later.

Avoid Over-engineering

Many organisations fall into the trap of over-engineering or overcomplicating their products, services, processes and use of technology solutions resulting in added complexity throughout the entire supply chain both internally and externally. Smart companies focus on what the customers(internal and/or external) want and need. They seek to reduce variation through simplification and standardisation to help control cost and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operating model.

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If any of these points sound familiar and resonate with you and you want to discuss how our ID8 diagnostics can help you to overcome your current issues and challenges then do contact us by email at contactus@aspirepi.com or call us on +44 (0)203 908 4346.