The Eureka Myth in Corporate Innovation
And which questions you might ask yourself to get rid of it
How many times did you hear the story of a broke and unemployed 20-something year-old person suddenly having THE brilliant idea and starting their own business in their parents’ garage?
The Eureka Myth, that idea that one day you will wake up with the revelation of the century and become a billionaire from one day to the other, is as common as it is misleading. Even though demystified in several occasions, the Eureka Myth does not only affect young wannabe startuppers, but also corporations. Big money and efforts are often put into place to pursue C-level “revelation ideas” in an excess of confidence in their visionary skills.
In this article, I try to prove that the Eureka! idea around which you can build an innovative product or service is only the last of the elements that make innovation successful. More than this, I try to show that you can actually standardize the innovation cycle to make it business as usual, instead of leaving it to the chance of waking up with that brilliant revelation that might never come.
During my studies in entrepreneurship and my work experiences with both startups and corporate innovation departments, I’ve always seen three elements that determined success beyond the initial idea: talent, discipline and motivation. When IBM Garage framework was first launched to help corporate clients innovate, I was happy to realize that its three key pillars for success were not far from my intuition: the right people, the right practices, and the right place. By complying with these three dimensions, IBM Garage Method was proven to help corporations generate 10x innovative ideas and slash the time-to-market by 67%, among other benefits (Forrester 2020).
I really believe that making a self assessment both at an individual and a team level around these three pillars helps to actually understand whether there is a good chance to innovate successfully. If you want to innovate in your company, rather than focusing on which idea to pursue, ask yourself: are you the right people? Are you using the right practices? Are you in the right place?
Question #1: Are you and your team the right people?
The idea that everybody can innovate if they really want to is true, but there is a trick. When you decide who should form part of your innovation team, or if you are the right person to be there, consider what really wanting to actually means.
Are you and your team willing to:
- Learn fast and continuously to nurture your creativity?
- Challenge the status quo with daily “what if…” questions ?
- Take risks, hear many “no” and “we tried that”, try anyway?
- Find uncommon paths, break hierarchies, get in some political trouble?
- Test, pivot, receive negative feedback, recognize when it’s time to give up?
- Keep out of your comfort zone 24/7 as everything is unknown?
- Make huge efforts with often little or no rewards?
The list can continue, but I guess the idea is quite clear.
Innovation is really seductive, but the truth is that it is highly frustrating. There is no shame in recognizing that you are not the risk-seeking type or that you have other strengths. But make sure that, if it’s not you, you pick intrapreneurs for the team. Especially in big corporations, innovation feels like climbing mountains one centimeter at a time. The bright side? One day you might jump to the top…and that feels great.
Question #2: Are you using the right practices?
Going back to the Eureka myth, even if one day you wake up with the greatest idea, that’s not enough.
The difference between idea and invention is the execution, and the difference between invention and innovation lies in the measurable added value that the product or service provides to the users.
Bringing an idea through the whole funnel of innovation, from the concept to the actual scale up, requires method, discipline and governance. Here are some questions for each step that might help:
- #1 — Research: do you investigate on the market, the users and the technology involved in your idea? Do you compare it with alternatives? Do you repeat this process constantly as the idea evolves?
- #2 — Ideation: Do you co-create with all relevant stakeholders and experts to explore all possible hypotheses, opportunities, risks and applications related to your initial idea?
- #3 — Build & Test: Do you test your idea through a prototype and MVP, getting real feedback from users and the market? Do you apply the lessons learned?
- #4 — Scaling: Do you sell and promote your idea to the right audience and at the right time? Do you adapt your pitch to the different stakeholders?
If you answered yes, think twice. It’s so easy to fall in love with your idea and to disregard all opposing signals, or to skip the user testing. Great innovators don’t pursue one idea, they pursue one successful business. Setting up the right funnel is more important than finding the right idea. There are different practices and tools that can help you with that. Design Thinking and Agile frameworks are just the start. Think about creating an Innovation-as-a-Service model to make innovation a habit rather than a one-shot investment.
Question #3: Are you in the right place?
This is in my opinion the hardest question of all. By place I do not only refer to the physical space and resources. Being in the right place is about culture, values and empowerment.
According to HBR, 80–90% of innovation centers fail due to lack of business alignment, team balance or correct metrics. It is not enough to put some post its on a wall, provide free snacks and a ping pong table. Are you actually committing to:
- Create an empowered, diverse and autonomous team with sufficient resources and little constraints, to allow creativity and visionary ideas?
- Measure results accordingly, knowing that it is a high-risk/high-reward business that cannot be judged by short-term ROI?
- Promote an inclusive and horizontal culture by overcoming hierarchies and fixed hours/fixed role schemes?
- Lead by the “yes and…” vs “yes but…” attitude to actually support and encourage employees to share their discoveries?
- Use the right tools to enhance collaboration, continuous feedback and continuous improvement?
These are just examples of questions that any innovation manager, CEO or aspiring startup builder should double check when setting up spaces and tools.
It can be your house garage or the coolest floor of the skyscraper — culture, relationships and values are what matters the most in an innovation place.
We have seen that people, practices and places are the three simple yet hard-to-find factors for successful innovation. This article does not reveal anything new, but it is still quite difficult to see companies that actually go all in in their bet for innovation.
In a fast-changing world where the “Innovate or Die” philosophy is more true than ever, no sector is avoiding a huge digital disruption with new players coming. You can keep waiting for the mythological Eureka moment to find your one-billion idea, or transform your workplace into an actual innovation garage, and deliver value on a daily basis.
If you want to know more about how we do it at IBM, check out the IBM Garage site here.
PS. I would love to connect with other people working in corporate innovation and to hear your thoughts and ideas. Please reach out to me here or on LinkedIn!
