Innovation is the driving force behind all of mankind’s greatest achievements.
Business Innovation can create new products, revolutionise business processes and models, and make old ones obsolete. Today we compete on service, price or product and the expectations and metrics around each are tighter than ever.
J. Andre Teixeira, VP for the Campbell Soup Company, says: “I’ve never met a CEO who doesn’t like business innovation. I’ve never met a mother who doesn’t like to say her child is creative…” The fact is, not all children are, and leaders – unlike mothers – must be realistic.
How? Process and product innovation can be messy and disruptive. It’s hard to switch on at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning. But hard is not impossible (new strap line for Viagra, anyone?). They say surgical skills make a quantum leap in wartime, is our embattled economy having the same effect on innovation leaders?
One big challenge is how to deal with the unknown. Business innovation is something that people have grown to believe is beautiful. iPad-shaped and shiny. In reality business innovation, in most cases, leads to failure rather than success; and it’s very difficult to manage the expectation of 100 percent success with results, which are seldom the case. Perhaps that’s why many businesses have shifted towards more incremental process and product innovation approach: a innovation strategy that is lower risk, shorter term focused as opposed to the more breakthrough strategy innovation, long-term, higher risk.
Is that a big problem for companies today; that they feel forced to focus on more low-risk strategy of innovation? Does it compound the problem by creating an innovation catch-22? And exactly how can you break free like so many great brands have done? What are the proven business culture and process requirements to be successful in your process and product innovations?
You’ll find the answers to all of these questions and more here.
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