Creating New Options for Growth
Innovation is a tool to achieve a vision.
It’s a process that leads to a new strategy - a new and improved way of solving a problem and creating value. If you embark on strategic planning and aren’t uncovering something new and innovative, what’s the point of the strategy? If it doesn’t lead to something your customers or prospects will love, it’s a missed opportunity.
Innovation leads to sustainable growth:
New features and benefits
New revenue streams
New audiences and/or channels
New value propositions
New models for operating and creating value
An effective process will generate:
Unfiltered insights about what clients and prospects really think and want
Collection of creative new ideas that solve relevant customer problems
Collaborative, cross-functional team that implements change
Sales plan that produces measurable impact
Two types of leaders have the greatest need for innovation expertise.
Solid but Stuck
This type of leader has a growing concern about business as usual. They tend to be strong managers and mentors, focused on execution. Their attention to performance and internal cohesion might limit their ability to explore and understand new trends or audiences in the market. The organization may lack the energy, capacity, curiosity, or creativity to discover new opportunities. If things are going well, team members might think innovation is an unnecessary distraction because things are ‘fine’ as they are. However, if there aren’t new opportunities in the pipeline, this organization can be caught flatfooted when the market severely shifts or a competitor starts gaining traction with something new. In this organization, there’s a need for unfiltered and unexpected customer insights that inform internal stakeholders of what prospective customers really want. And, there’s a need for an innovation process that sparks creative ideas for addressing the market needs.
Fast, Fierce or unFocused
This type of leader is all about innovation and change… maybe a little too much. This leader tends to be visionary, optimistic and loves to live in the big picture. In this case, often what’s missing is structure. If you’ve hit on a plethora of strategic opportunities, the biggest hurdle might be figuring out which opportunities are worthy of resources and who can shepherd new projects into existence. When ideas abound, they need to be prioritized based on market desirability, technical feasibility, and financial viability.
If you’re on a change agenda, you might be creating too much of a ‘good thing.’ You need to pay extra close attention to discerning symptoms and shiny objects from the things that are market-driven and aligned with your capabilities. Customer insights matter. Implementation matters. In this case, it’s extremely helpful to use the voice of the customer as a source of objective truth and as a much-needed compass for strategic planning. Insights and concept testing can be used to narrow the focus and create internal traction. This helps people get on board with initiatives that are worthy of the effort. Traction metrics to create accountability and determine if a strategy is playing out as intended are also necessary.
What about you?
Which scenario better describes your circumstances? Does your organization need help uncovering new opportunities and generating relevant ideas? Or do you need help prioritizing, organizing your team and getting through the messy middle of implementation?
Here’s how you could get started:
Construct a creative exercise to see who can spark some energy and ideas
Select collaborative, open-minded folks who are committed to professional growth
Invite these people into an innovation team (they should come from all over the org.)
Set a growth-oriented goal
Give your new innovation team the structure and professional support for a solid start
Align can help you organize your team around an innovation process that leads to impact.
We facilitate innovation activities from small workshops to major strategic planning initiatives.
Reach out to learn more.