Don’t trip over the innovation trap!
“Innovation” is one of today’s main buzzwords and business trends. We only need to observe the exponential growth of Facebook and LinkedIn innovation groups, blogs, conferences, workshops, and academies, for example. We furthermore witness(ed) the birth of several institutional or governmental organizations who’s task is/was to promote and disseminate the innovation knowledge towards a (social) business environment.
While attending several of these conferences, workshops and similar and participating in some of these platforms, we are getting a bit worried about several traps and misconceptions which have become part of today’s innovation lexicon as well as the “easiness” message which is being disseminated into the market through several of these communication channels.
We are specifically worried about the misconceptions in relation to innovation within the SME segment. Some of the current traps are for instance:
1- “Innovation must be part of every company’s DNA, and because of this all innovation efforts should executed using internal resources only”. Really? Can innovation be limited to a Statement? Just because it should become a part of the company’s DNA, can it be expected that this change is being made over night? In our view, innovation is about creating a culture, it’s about being systemic, and it’s about creating small wins step by step! The most important step being the initial “changing motion”. Companies differ, and each individual within an organization is different, therefore your first step towards becoming more innovative is the most important one. It is of primordial importance that it is based on “deep diagnostics”, on a good strategic vision and an effective operational plan. We could ask ourselves: If the company until present was not able to achieve being an ‘innovation driven organization’ based on a supportive organizational structure and leadership, and a highly motivated team of employees, how can the same people, the same structure “change by themselves”, without any external initial push and/or guidance? Companies, especially SME’s, need help from experience experts and knowledge workers….
2- “All knowledge, models and tools to support the development and implementation of innovation are available and free for everybody to use. Anybody is able to use these toolkits without any further guidance and as a result their companies will become immediately more innovative”. Really? Do you believe in secret innovation formulas? In itself, the concept is contradictory. With some formulas and some recipes you might probably achieve some fragmented results. In INNOKINETICS we developed a structure, a holistic and multidimensional system including some self-steering tools. However, these were developed in such a manner that the full system is completely flexible, adaptable and parameterizable to each company. In our vision, self –steering tools may work for the knowledge transfer goal as well as for the creative culture enhancer, which is part of our mission and DNA. We conceived them with the aim to create lean and affordable products and services for SME’s. However, we remain fully aware of the fact that they are just one component within a complex transformation as regards turning a regular company into a highly innovative one…
3- “Innovation is about brainstorming, having brilliant ideas for new products or services, creating prototypes and just going-to-the-market”. Really? In today’s complex world and markets? Can it be so simple that this process can be reduced to a 1–2–3 step approach to success? If you look at the numbers, the situation however does not look that bright! Most of the so called innovative products, services or new businesses fail. Of course we know that failure and experimenting is part of the innovation process, but it is also a costly exercise which for an SME could draw the line between either staying in or being thrown out of the market! At INNOKINETICS, we stand for refocussing the innovation effort within companies. The main focus must shift from new products, new services or new businesses to the process itself. This does not imply however that in the end one or more of the innovation process outcomes might just not be one or more of the dimensions as stated above.
4- “Innovation is about inventing new products or services”
In our innovation processes focus is not only being put on the outcome in terms of products and/or services, but also and perhaps even foremost on the system itself as well as on the ‘innovation culture’ aspect. By doing so, businesses shift their attention from the center point of the innovation process – the ideation and the implementation– towards the edges of the innovation process – the involvement and the interaction. The only way to create a creative and innovative culture as well as the right mindset within your organization is by stimulating the involvement of your employees and your consumers within your innovation process and system. Furthermore your organization needs to be opened up to the dialogue paradigm. Innovation is all about a continuous flow of dialogue, collaboration, sharing ideas and feedback narratives. To achieve this goal, companies, and especially SME’s need expertise, access to knowledge and the need to be part of some innovation network in order to gain scale and dimension…
To conclude, innovation is complex and cannot be simplified in easy, takeaway formulas and tools. On the other hand, bringing in tools and creative brainstorms can act as a sensibilisation trigger to ignite an innovation culture.
