Your team as an innovation and transformation engine
Maximising Succes
Innovating and transforming always takes a leap of faith. The future is unknown, customer preferences change faster and faster and the environment in which we operate has become volatile due to rapid technological evolution. Add to that unexpected (or expected) events like the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, and it has become painfully clear that change is the new normal.
This makes the need for maximising the chances of succes for innovation and transformation processes in your organisation al the more crucial. Your own team will be central to this succes, they are the engine of your return on innovation (ROI) and return on transformation (ROT).
The Entrepreneur and The Team
At THINK with people we have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the past years and we learned that succes in innovation starts and ends with the entrepreneur and the team.
Of course the product, the market, the financing and the commercialization are also important, but it is the people who make the right choices. The product strategy, strategic and tactical decisions must be made by those closest to your customers: your employees. That is why we are firmly convinced that the number of successful innovations in companies can be drastically increased if the people who work on them are properly framed and guided.
Innovation and transformation is only meaningful and successful if there is added value for the customer. It is therefore the employees, who are in daily contact with that customer, who are best placed to come up with good ideas for innovation and transformation.
But how do you organize yourself to pick up those ideas in a smart way?
Ideas must Grow and Evolve
Suggestions for change, innovation or innovative concepts must be evaluated for feasibility and financial value. It is also important to separate the wheat from the chaff without losing important opportunities and without slowing down the creative engine of your employees.
An idea is rarely right the first time, but it may carry the seeds for something that can make a difference. Therefore, ideas must grow and evolve as they are worked on. It is therefore important to give employees the opportunity to develop an idea and test it on the market. Some will show that there is no business model or that the customer has no appetite for it. That’s no problem. The organization learns throughout the process. In this way, it is the inventor himself who comes to that conclusion and can say goodbye to his or her devotion in peace. That increases the involvement of the team to the company.
Don’t rely on Anecdotal Knowledge
As a manager, are you ready to guide an enthousiastic intrapreneur? We notice that because of lack of experience with intrapreneurs, lack of time and resources and the daily buzz taking over, high potential concepts gather dust in corporate intranets.
Although a lot of knowledge about intrapreneurship, corporate venturing and entrepreneurship is already available, it’s not available those who have to guide the intrapreneurs. Therefore, managers rely to often on anecdotal knowledge. The comparison with the hippest startups (such as Uber or AirBnB) is quickly made, but the majority of the innovations do not lead to earth-shattering new concepts, and they do well. It is important to take a broader view and to choose a building model that maximizes the chances of success, based on the market, the type of product, but also based on the ambitions and talents in the company and with the intrapreneur.
Balancing Risk and Sustainability
To give innovation and transformation every opportunity, the culture in your company is also crucial. Giving people and ideas opportunities, trying things that you know can (and will) go wrong, looking for new markets and going outside the comfort zone of your company, is usually not consistent with what classic management books teach us. On the other hand, taking risks “like an entrepreneur” is glorified as the way to be as innovative as a startup, but this endangers the P&L of the company and by extension the future of the organization.
Is your company a warm nest for future-oriented ideas? Is the management team ready to guide intrapreneurs? Do you have the necessary tools and processes to grow ideas?
Innovation through entrepreneurship
Growing ideas
At THINK with people, we work with our customers to provide the support for employees so that their ideas have the opportunity to grow. For example, we developed the Personal Innovation Kit (literally a box) based on the Adobe Kickbox, which we adapted to the needs of European companies. We can fine-tune this concept for your company and offer the framework in the form of workshops and coaching to support or unburden your team leaders.
Hands On Growth Models
With our framework “The Rock” we determine for each relevant idea which construction model best suits the product, the market and the talents and motivation of the intrapreneur in question. Check the online test that gives an initial idea of which model fits best for your company.
Inspiration For Everyone
At every level, entrepreneurial thinking and the balance between risk and sustainability will have to be found. Entrepreneurial thinking is what drives us and we like to share that knowledge. Check out our entrepreneurial keynotes here.
