Time

Timeto
to
Innovate
Innovate

Managing
Managingthe
theinnovation
innovationprocess
process

AA
Mannaz
Mannaz
research-based
research-based
series
series
into
into
Leadership
Leadership
inin
Fostering
Fostering
Innovation
Innovation

www.mannaz.com
www.mannaz.com

Not everything that counts can be

counted, and not everything that
can be counted counts.

12

- Albert Einstein

1
2
3
4

Contents
Introduction: Managing the innovation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Learning from successes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
01. Innovate with your clients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
02. Innovate with your partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
03. Trust your own people. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
04. To manage the innovation process, focus on people. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
05. Avoid gas plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
06. Solving the organisation structure/culture dilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
07. A look at the content of these papers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Identifying where to find the potential for innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
08. Exploring and scanning trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
09. Broadening our perspectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10. Using the value chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11. Exploring opportunities the Opportunity Matrix 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Selecting promising ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
12. Screening ideas the Opportunity Matrix 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
13. Refining an idea the Egmont approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
14. Assessing capabilities and go/no-go decisions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Developing ideas for innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
15.Bringing innovation teams to a high level ofperformance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
16.Protecting your idea to make innovation happen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
17. Seeking and getting feedback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
18. Dealing with setbacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
19. Securing executive and managerial support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
20. Learning from your competitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Supporting innovators and innovations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
21. Marketing and promoting your idea a story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
22. Widening the market for your innovation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
23. Leadership development and HR initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
24. Key insights on managing the innovation process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Copyright 2013 by Mannaz A/S
All rights reserved. Printed in Denmark

Suggested reading and references. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Managing
the innovation
process
Introduction

We at Mannaz are delighted to publish the third

paper of our research-based series into Leadership
in Fostering Innovation Managing the innovation
process.
Our research shows the critical role innovation plays in
surviving intense market competition and generating
growth within an organisation. In order to foster
innovation in the first place, an almost intrinsic criterion
is creating a supportive culture, which is not as easy
as might be assumed (see our previous paper: Creating
a culture of innovation). Fundamental as it is, creating
a culture of innovation only lays the foundation as
the innovation process continues, various challenges
arise. Only through effectively managing the innovation
process can successful innovations be launched and
eventually contribute to the overall performance of
the organisation. In 2012, Mannaz conducted a global
research study on innovation. We interviewed over 80
senior executives, experts and experienced practitioners
from around the world. These individuals are involved
in innovation and innovative practices as well as the
design, development, implementation and facilitation of
leadership development initiatives, both in-house and
across a wide range of industries. As the survey shows,
general human resource practices have been widely
adopted to encourage innovation, especially in R&D
departments, but few organisations reported that they
have a systematic methodology for organising innovation.

In this report, we suggest companies start by learning

from successes: from their clients, partners and their
own people. With a better understanding of themselves
and the wider environment, companies are in a
powerful position to start the formal innovation journey:
identifying potential ideas and practices for innovation,
selecting and developing promising ideas, and making
sure they gain both practical and moral support all the
way through.
Depending on what the main hindrances and obstacles
are, readers of this third paper will hopefully gain insight
and find illuminating and practical ideas, as well as
methods to assist them in mitigating the challenges to
managing the innovation process.
As always, we are very grateful to all our interviewees
and respondents to our survey who have contributed to
our research by sharing their experience and views, by
giving their time and their idea without you this white
paper series would not be possible. Special thanks to
Didier Gronin, who has compiled and edited the series,
and Shiyuan Rao for additional input.
This third paper will be complemented by our final paper,
to be published in early 2014: The role of executives and
leaders in fostering innovation. Enjoy!
The Mannaz research team

Learning from successes

We will start exploring what it takes to manage the
innovation process by referring to several of the
innovations cited by survey respondents, (originally
outlined in our first report in this white paper series). In
other words, let us start by learning from our successes!

01. INNOVATE WITH YOUR CLIENTS

When asked how close their organisation is to its
customers, the majority of survey respondents said they
were quite close, and that they were eager to understand
their customers needs and expectations with respect
to new products, services or approaches. Nevertheless,
not all organisations are able to develop this customer
intimacy.
One respondent recognises that he is just doing repeat
business with existing clients, but notes that,Some of
our client organisations are very good at using things like
DataAnalytics, who have software to look at customer
patterns of purchasing. In this way they are getting close
to their customers, and even doing co-design and cofunding. Some clients bring their customers into their
innovation units.
Speaking about one of his clients (a biotech company)
one respondent says that They needed to recognise and
understand their target market, as they were themselves
all PhDs or techies with little understanding of their
customers. So they set up a new outward-facing unit to
address those customer issues. Their CEO said, This work
is now central to our strategy moving forward.
Another interviewee describes a new product that has
been on the market for one year: an invisible deodorant
that does not mark clothing and explains that, It was
developed as a result of customer complaints. We were
able to create a solid link between R&D and Marketing
who worked regularly together to conquer the problem.
We created a project team that looked at what competitors
were doing. Feasibility checks were done. The time it
took was fast for the organisation five years whereas
normally it takes eight years for a new product to get to
market.
One respondent, after having explained that in his
company the capacity for new products is full, explains
that Our loyalty approach to customers is whats

innovative: we pay them with knowledge and they reward

us with knowledge. We exchange. They tell us. The
exchange is knowledge-based, not money-based.
A respondent from the legal field describes the creation
of a new online global facility which enables clients to
use the legislation and regulations around specific areas
no one had yet done this. This was a bold move, as we
created something that is faster, quicker and cheaper for
the clients. This has very positively affected our brand.
Understanding our customers is not as easy as it may
seem though, and requires thinking beyond the obvious
the obvious being A customer is someone who buys from
us or who uses our services. This way of perceiving our
customers is quickly becoming obsolete.
In the field of innovation, we need to learn to think of our
customer as a partner; someone we form a relationship
with. And, as in all relationships, we need to care about,
listen to and grasp this persons concerns and challenges,
as well as his or her successes, in order to fully
understand them. This is more than enhancing customer
loyalty. Its about asking What can I offer that will make
our relationship unique and difficult to sever?
Knowing the preferences and potential needs of
customers helps to reveal business opportunities. Some
customers, who are early adopters and early adapters of a
product, are called lead users' (von Hippel, 1986). They
are very keen on the product and have expertise in their
own wide-ranging fields, which means that they are very
likely to offer original ideas about how to use and improve
the product and may even be willing to cooperate with
the organisations to make things happen. Consider Lego:
by involving its lead customers in a user panel for a year,
they co-designed the extremely popular next-generation
Mindstorms series.
The closer your organisation gets to developing such
cooperative relationships with your customers, the

more naturally and easily they will work with you as

partners in co-creating, co-designing and co-developing
innovative solutions. Therefore, the core question here
is how to develop a close tie between your organisation
and your customers. Some of the respondents claimed
that they do this by offering extended value, some by
data mining and some by giving better responses to
customer complaints. We believe that there are even more
approaches to be explored. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
mobile apps and other state-of-the-art platforms, as well
as traditional networking organisations and membership
communities, are all possible options which can help you
to interact more with your customers and create a sense
of belonging. For instance, the official page of Microsoft
on Facebook has over 2,870,000 likes (as of September
2013) and it updates almost every day, with each message
wining thousands of likes; for more customer-facing
companies, such as Disneyland (over 17,250,000 likes
as of September 2013) and Lego (over 5,900,000 likes as
of September 2013), online interactions are on a more
frequent basis: the official page turns into an online
community. Worldwide, people check Facebook every
day and some even spend hours on social networking
websites, making it a desirable channel to get your
message to potential end-users.

02. INNOVATE WITH YOUR PARTNERS

Let us look at cases where the partners were not directly
the clients but other organisations.
A respondent describes a situation in which no tool was
available to solve a problem in a space station. As they
told us, An industrial company had a similar need in
their production plant, but it took three years to start a
concept study to get the initiative accepted (because of
confidentiality, etc.), and passing from one funding source
to the other became a challenge. Finally co-financing was
agreed. We then worked on the prototypes and ended up
with a breakthrough revolution for the space sector. This
happened because of the motivation on both sides and of
the confidence that was built between the two parties. My
role is to support these kinds of initiatives.

Another respondent talks about a different type of

co-creation. We have been working with Moller PSFG to
design the Value Partner Programme (VPP) to increase
the client management skills of our fee earners, which
includes a highly attractive training programme; but the
innovation is in what they are doing next, as they are
trained in client teams to deliver exceptional service. We
hope to roll it out globally.
One respondent was enthusiastic about the successful
broadband Direct-Air-to-Ground Communications
demonstration between a passenger aircraft and a
ground-based LTE network. This new solution for inflight connectivity, developed by Deutsche Telecom and
Alcatel-Lucent, was presented in this successful demo
event to convince representatives of major airlines as
well as regulatory authorities of the DA2GC performance.
Furthermore, the event was dedicated to boosting the next
steps towards the designation of a dedicated frequency for
unique in-flight connectivity in continental Europe.
Another respondent speaks about their wide-ranging
collaborative processes: We are engaged in an innovation
journey process with an agency partner, holding
workshops in representative markets for each of the
clusters/markets for the brand, collecting a portfolio of
ideas, consolidating them and defining new requirements
for new products or new approaches. In this process, we
invite production, finance and sales representatives as
well as the brewmaster and consumers.
For us, says another respondent, some large, unexpected
acquisitions that initially seemed to go against our brand
have been successful for all: new, disruptive business
models that initially caused backlash from competitors
were eventually initiated, changing our mind-set from the
idea that innovation and new products need to come from
headquarters to the approach that they can come from
anywhere, and can be exported to the US!

All of the above cases effectively illustrate that instead of

fighting the battle alone, working with your partners is a
strategically better choice. As mentioned in the previous
paper (Creating a Culture of Innovation), these outsiders
are best placed to view your situation from a different
perspective. With their distinct resources, partners may
have the complementary technology or skills that you
have been looking for. According to recent research, this
new knowledge and capabilities can boost organisational
innovation and financial performance in the business-tobusiness service sector (Wagner, 2013). Collaboration is
often the key!
What stands out from the research is how people in these
organisations dared to break the invisible wall between
insiders and outsiders to establish long-term, trusting
relationships with other companies and/or valued
partners, enabling them to make innovation happen.
This is closely related to the extent of the innovation
culture within the organisation. Empirical studies have
addressed the fact that, in an open-minded organisation,
external knowledge is appreciated and integrated into
organisational knowledge system, facilitating (for
example) new product design processes (Brettel and
Cleven, 2011). In industries producing highly complex
products, where complementary components are
produced by a set of specialist organisations innovating
with upside and/or downside partners together as if the
innovation process takes place on a platform (called
platform innovation), innovation efficiency and quality
are enhanced through knowledge sharing.
A critical issue in collaborating with partners is partner
selection. Who are our partners? They could be your
supplier, your contractor, other organisations within
the industrial sector and even the crowd (Boudreau and
Lakhani, 2013). Who to trust? Friends, acquaintances or
strangers? In a cooperation context, knowledge flows. For
some R&D-intense organisations, IP protection is a critical
issue. Research suggests that in terms of trust, partnering
with acquaintances creates a serious situation for
organisations concerned about opportunism, because it
is more likely that acquaintances can succeed in stealing
their partners core technologies, if they choose to do so
(Li et al., 2008).

03. TRUST YOUR OWN PEOPLE

Innovation is a tough and challenging process;
nevertheless, like most business activities, the ultimate
determining factor in whether or not it leads to business
success is the people carrying out these procedures.
Therefore, we argue that your people are of strategic
importance: trust them and they will prove their value.
When thinking about the process of turning a creative
idea into an actual product, we can easily imagine how

many challenges must have been encountered and

overcome. How can an organisation ever conquer all the
unknowns and win the battle? Not through the use of
established routines, but by involving your most valuable
resource your own people!
Based on our survey, the following table effectively
summarises how some tough issues are solved by tapping
into the wisdom of employees.

Issue

Solution

Value/Result

Time wasted in the workplace.

Workshops and projects set up and driven

by employees and frontline staff.

Increased collaboration and

motivation.

Cutting down the time spent

interviewing people and the money
spent on recruitment agencies.

HR brainstorming session: a simple

website where candidates could upload
videos of themselves maximum five
minutes long answering a series of
predetermined questions.

Hiring managers were very happy with

the process, feeling they had made a
good selection and that they had gained
more insight into the candidates.

To bring to life a new online

Masters in Management programme.

A framework was built:

different leaders built the content of
their areas, which took time as people
were given free rein to decide what
would be appropriate to include
materials were put together to produce
a draft version of the programme
we sought approval of the external
qualification team (content, assessment
and awarding processes)
it was finally launched in the market
place.

The programme has been reviewed

and continually improved to provide
the best experience for our
students, and we have tried many
ideas during the development process.

A client request for something we

have never delivered before.

We set up a cross-functional working

group to develop the solution for the
client.

This is cost-efficient for us, adds

value for the client and our people
feel happy and inspired, as the result is
a new product that can be re-used.

A client request for something we

have never delivered before.

To innovate around the basic programme

principles and bring something more
suitable for our audience.

The global leadership development

programme designed by global
headquarters does not fit in with
our regional needs.

It was not easy to convince our global

headquarters that we had good reasons to
change the design, and we also had a
tough time with the external vendor who
found it difficult to accept that we needed
something different; yet we succeeded in
including some significantly innovative
elements.

This programme has been extremely

successful and I am proud to have
been a driving force behind the change.
Success factors certainly included
factual arguments and persistence, but
also the trust of my manager who
empowered me to be creative. Without
his support and him defending our
innovative approach, I dont think we
would have succeeded.

04. TO MANAGE THE INNOVATION PROCESS, FOCUS

ON PEOPLE
An overwhelming outcome from our research was to
involve your people in the innovation process, involve
them early, and trust them.
It is estimated that some 70 per cent of major change
projects initiated by companies fail. Examining
how companies manage the change, we found that
traditionally most emphasis has been placed on the
project processes and the expected results at each
stage, almost completely ignoring the human factor.
Paradoxically, when it comes to examining why projects
failed, people are almost always blamed, as if the people
themselves wanted them to fail! But is that the real
reason? As Chris Argyris would suggest, if we do not
question the variables that affect our actions, we can
end up failing again and again, getting more and more
impatient with the incompetents or idiots who ruin our
plans, our strategies and our ideas.
There are three stages in the innovation process, namely:
ideation; selection; and retention, just like there are
steps in project management or in change management
initiatives. However, this is not a reason to focus only on
these steps of the process and forget the people who are
actually making things happen! After all, the purpose
of the stage-view of the innovation process is to offer
a big picture, not to set strict controls. As the widely
accepted 8020 rule suggests, in order to fulfil our goals,
we should invest 80 per cent of our time focusing on how
we achieve the results we want, and 20 per cent on the
results themselves. Unfortunately and in many cases,
unfortunately this is not widely understood by those
who manage innovation. As a result, when introducing
innovation programmes, many organisations focus on
getting the steps right rather than focusing on getting
the right people, successfully managing the productive
interactions between them, encouraging the positive
attitudes and desired behaviours and on the leadership
and team building skills all of which account for at least
80 per cent of the actual success of project teams.
Unlike in manufacturing plants where logical, left-braindesigned processes prevail, people are at the heart of
innovation, just as the anecdotal evidence shows in the
previous section. Some of our respondents have realised
this, telling us that There isnt a full talent pipeline across
the organisation yet, but that really needs to be fixed. The
point we are making here in light of the impressive and

almost paralysing list of blocks to innovation identified

by survey respondents, and the fact several of them
continued to talk about blocks when asked how they
overcome them is that the first thing to do when you
want to manage innovation is to pay attention to the
people.
As one of our respondents said, When you dont
encourage innovation, you are actually hindering it. The
very first step towards showing your encouragement of
innovation is to get to know your people, understand
them, listen to them, engage in dialogues with them, seek
input from them, give them support, acknowledge and
encourage them and act as a leader of innovation. Never
use your powers whatever they may be; personality,
position, organisation, resources or funding powers
against your own people. Use your powers to work with
them to achieve breakthroughs and innovation. The
number one enemy you could have in managing the
innovation process could be yourself!
Create a culture of innovation. Create an environment in
which innovation will flourish, blossom and bear fruit.
Trust the people and the results will follow.

10

05. AVOID GAS PLANTS

As suggested previously, traditional business models
and left-brain step-by-step models are not innovationfriendly. This obviously does not mean that there arent
any stages in the innovation process, but that its people
who make managing and leading innovation such a
fascinating adventure and journey. Creativity is the
generator of innovation; it is a blessing we human beings
possess. There is simply no example of real innovations
brought to the world new products, services or novel
approaches to work without a series of incredible
human stories. Anyone who has been involved in
making innovation happen will confirm this statement.
Innovating is one of the most exciting and noblest human
adventures there is.

A TYPICAL GAS PLANT

Presentation style
'We have a process for managing the beast!'
PPT: highly colourful PowerPoint charts with lots of arrows showing the way to successful innovation
Figures: lots of figures, beautifully and impressively presented, preaching to the converted
Stressing that innovation is a matter of survival

Style of suggestions
You have to measure and assess at the beginning, and then at each step
Huge and complete organisation audits of innovation capabilities Of course, we can do this for R&D,
but it is so much more powerful if you do it for the whole company
Not investing your capital in this could jeopardise the survival of your organisation
. You have to think about it and by the way, this other company (your competitor) just bought our
complete audit

We are strongly suggesting here that you, as a leader,

sponsor and supporter should put people first, to be
partners in the adventure. Avoid those who keep
advocating a step-by-step model. If you wish to create
a culture of innovation, why not trust your people, be
patient, and see the marvellous ideas blind variation
may bring to you.

11

06. SOLVING THE ORGANISATION STRUCTURE/

CULTURE DILEMMA
Solving dilemmas is the daily bread of executives.
Yet, once again, analysing and reflecting on the wideranging answers given by respondents to this survey,
we acknowledge that there is no consensus and no clear
universal answer regarding organisational structure. To
make a synthesis and draw some tentative conclusions
is even more difficult when you realise that this variety
of viewpoints isnt attributable to the fact that different
'It is a shame are
that at
wedifferent
only take stages with respect to
organisations
innovation management seriously in
where they stand in creating a culture of innovation.
our R&D department. I believe that
Actually,
the only areas
in which there is some consensus
other departments
could benefit
andfrom
consistency
innovation across
as well' respondents answers can be
summarised in the following statements:
'This is certainly
'I am satisified that
not
the way to go'
have a seniorshould be addressed at senior
we
Innovation

innovation
executive level.
officer'
'Some years is
ago,
an
It often comes from the top, i.e. innovation
clearly
innovation
officer
was
hired
part of the strategy.
to entralise the innovation
A person on the executive committee is responsible
efforts, but only lasted a year!'
for regularly bringing up the subject provided she
is the right person.

YES

NO

WHAT ABOUT HAVING AN INNOVATION OFFICER?

Some others say that everyone on the executive team

should act as mentors for innovation, which raises the
following questions: Realistically, how prepared are they
for assuming that role, even if they believe or claim that
they already are? How effectively will they do it? How
do you ensure that they will not send mixed signals to
managers and employees?
The trickiest part for executives to get right when
managing innovation is to balance between the
exploratory, future star products and the current cash
cow. Explore or exploit? Efficiency or flexibility? Do we
have to choose one, or can they be reconciled? Studies
suggest a balanced view, with evidence that business
units employing ambidextrous organisational structures
the capacity to simultaneously achieve alignment and
adaptability at a business unit level compared with
those employing (for example) traditional functionbased structures show better performance and higher
innovation streams (Tushman et al., 2010). Three major
organisational structures for achieving ambidexterity are
shown in the following figure.

'I am satisified that we have a

senior innovation officer'

YES

'It is a shame that we only take

innovation management seriously
in our R&D department. I believe
that other departments could
benefit from innovation as well'

'This is certainly not the

way to go'
'Some years ago, an innovation
officer was hired to entralise
the innovation efforts,
but only lasted a year!'

NO

To face radical environmental change, sequential

separation is suggested, but the shift itself is risky
and can incur potential administrative costs as well
as psychological adjustment costs to employees.
To create new business, especially to invest in
a relatively distinct business with high growth
potential, structure separation is the most
appropriate option as it gives a higher degree of
autonomy, enabling control of almost all of the value
chain, while at the same time creating benefits from
sharing assets with operating units.
To cultivate existing knowledge and expertise to
upgrade products, parallel structure is a good choice
as it facilitates both supply side exploitation and
demand side exploration through close integration
with the primary organisation and a dedicated sales
and marketing team.

12

It is worth pointing out that these three structures are

not mutually exclusive. Organisations can customise
their own structure design according to their strategic
focus (Raisch and Birkinshaw, 2008). However, it is not
just structures that matter; a supportive organisational
context boosts individual engagement in exploitationoriented actions, which contributes to the ambidexterity
of organisations and this subsequently enhances
organisational performance (Gibson and Birkinshaw,
2004).

Making innovation the responsibility of everyone in

the organisation is, of course, a beautiful statement.
How would one dare challenge it? This is about creative
deviance (Mainemelis, 2010). How tolerant is your culture
towards deviant behaviour? Well, let us try: what does
this concretely mean? How can and will each of your
employees act differently as a result of what you do to
create such a mind-set, such a culture? (A number of
ideas were proposed in our second report, Creating a
culture of innovation. Others will be offered in our fourth
report, The role of executives and managers in fostering
innovation.)

TREE TYPES OF BALANCED DESIGN SOLUTIONS

Temporal separation

Structural separation

Parallel structures

CEO

Exploitation

CEO

Exploration
t

Organisations change back and forth

between different corporate structures.
Decentralisation is used to ignite
innovation and change; centralisation
to increase coordination and efficiency.
Exploitation and exploration are
emphasised sequentially rather than
simultaneously.

Exploitation

Exploration

Exploitation

Exploration

Organisations are divided into two

(or more) separate units with different
structures.

Organisations create supplemental

network structures to complement the
formal primary structure.

Flexible innovative units explore new

areas for growth; more formal
operational units ensure efficient
operations in the existing business.

Employees switch between the two

types of structures depending on their
respective tasks.

Exploitation and exploration are

addressed by different employees and
organisational units.

Exploitation and exploration are

addressed by the same employees, but
in different structural environments.

13

07. A LOOK AT THE CONTENT OF THESE PAPERS

IDEA GENERATION
IN-HOUSE

KEY PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS

KEY
QUESTIONS

Creation
within the
unit

CROSSPOLLINATION
Collaboration
across units

CONVERSION

DIFFUSION

EXTERNAL

SELECTION

DEVELOPMENT

SPREAD

Collaboration with
parties outside the
firm

Screening and
initial funding

Movement from
idea to first result

Dissemination
across the
organisation

Do people in
our unit create
good ideas on
their own?

Do we create
good ideas by
working across
the company?

Do we source
enough good
ideas from
outside the firm?

Are we good at
screening and
funding new
ideas?

Are we good at
turning ideas into
viable products,
businesses, and
best practices?

Are we good
at diffusing
developed
ideas across
the company?

Number of
high-quality
ideas generate
within the unit.

Number of
high-quality
ideas generated
across units.

Number of
high-quality ideas
generated from
outside the firm.

Percentage of all
ideas generated
that end up
being selected
and funded.

Percentage
of funded ideas
that lead to
revenues; number
of months to
first sale.

Percentage of
penetration in
desired markets,
channels, customer
groups, number of
months to full
diffusion.

People who have been involved in making innovation

happen, as well as experts who specialise in analysing
how innovation happens and supporting organisations
in fostering it, agree in saying that there are clearly
some distinct steps in the innovation process. The most
prevailing one is the BVSR model (Campbell, 1960a). The
innovation process starts with blind variation, which is
followed by the selection of promising ideas and ends
with idea retention. A more practice-oriented analogue
was also put forward in 2007 as the following figure
shows: internal ideas generated within a unit, refined
by cross-unit/party collaboration, followed by screening

and initial development before being disseminated

across the organisation (Hansen and Birkinshaw, 2007).
In addition, as the innovation regime in most industries
shifts from traditional, closed innovation towards a more
open culture, information and knowledge flows in and
out during the whole process through purposed exchange
and implicit transfer.

14

In other words, the experience of how a large number of

innovations have materialised shows us that these are
the steps followed by people in making them happen. We
should not forget, though, that the vision and energy of a
single person can strongly influence this process picture.
Would iPods, iPhones and iPads exist without Steve Jobs?
In this paper, we will follow these steps:

Ideation

The identification of ideas that have potential for becoming innovations, i.e. strategic
approaches that can lead to innovations.

Idea selection

Screening and selecting promising ideas a critical step in the innovation process

Idea retention

How novel and promising ideas can be nurtured and developed to make innovation happen.
Ensure that innovation is supported along the way.
Materialise ideas into working environments so the ideas blend into the organisational
memory, (eg. a Post-it wall or some showcases).

15

Identifying where to find the potential for innovation

One of the challenges in managing the innovation
process comes from the confusion between creativity
and innovation. Creativity is more of a psychological
concept indicating the production of novel and useful
ideas in any domain; while innovation is the successful
implementation of creative ideas within an organisation
(Amabile, 1996). It is, of course, important to generate
novel ideas in order to find the few magic ones that
will lead to a new product, service, process or business
model; however, we will not focus here on some very
powerful creativity techniques (such as brainstorming,
lateral thinking, mind mapping, Metaplan or the use of
metaphors as these were already outlined in our second
report). This is definitely not because these techniques
are of no use. They certainly are, and organisations that
offer support to use these tools to their managers and
employees do help create a culture of innovation. Instead,
wed rather address the following question:
Among all the ideas we can generate, how do we go
about strategically identifying the promising ones?
We start here by looking at how you explore trends, how
you can consider broadening your perspectives and how
you identify sources of opportunity.

08. EXPLORING AND SCANNING TRENDS

The future will be determined in part by happenings that
it is impossible to foresee; and it will also be influenced by
trends that are now existent and observable.
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Emily Greene Balch
In answer to the questions: How does your organisation
study and analyse trends? We repeatedly heard responses
along the lines of: Well, we have our market research
department and they are responsible for that
Market research has a place and benefit in the business
world, however we want to look at something larger here:
at an awareness of global economic, political, financial,
social, demographic and technological trends that may
or will have an impact, both in the short- or long-term,
on your business and/or on the way you conduct your
business. Why? Think about Skype; originally initiated
as a money-saving application, it gradually developed and
changed the image of the telecommunications industry.
Think about Kodak, the leading camera and Film
Company. How well do you think they read and adapted
to the digital image era? Did they anticipate enough? Did
they proactively act when revenues declined? And so
on. Many survey respondents explicitly stated that they
missed some critical opportunities; however, the reasons
are unclear. Some suggest that it is due to resource
allocation decisions and risk aversion that they had to
give up a certain opportunity. Research suggests that
the inability of some successful organisations to allocate
sufficient resources to technologies that initially cannot
find an application in mainstream markets (but which
later invade them) lies at the root of the failure of many
once-successful organisations (Christensen and Bower,
1996). Hence, deciding on and identifying which idea(s)
to invest in should rely not only on market research but
also on detailed trend scanning.
As John Naisbitt the author of Megatrends tells us,
Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction
they are going. This can prove to be very difficult for
all of us, as one of the major obstacles to innovation is
our natural tendency even when it is not consciously
realised to do what we are accustomed to doing, what
we already know and what has worked well or served us
well till now.

16

Paradoxically, but in a very real and dangerous way, the

amount of information we are bombarded with on a daily
basis constitutes another obstacle to exploring trends.
Naisbitt observes that, We are drowning in information,
but starved for knowledge and, Intuition becomes
increasingly valuable in the new information society
precisely because there is so much data. We dont want
to amass great quantities of data about trends rather than
listening to our most intuitive people.
As Sun-Tzu summarised in his famous book The Art
of War, Only the one who has deep understanding of
oneself and the external environment can win each
battle. For an organisation to survive in this competitive
and ever-changing environment, it is critical that it takes
a retrospective view of itself and an introspective view
of the world, and that it does this regularly as part of the
organisational routine.

Know the
trend

What precious knowledge should we not miss in current trends?

What are the latest basic science/technology developments that will significantly
influence our society?

Know our
partners

Who are the people who can help us detect and understand key trends relevant to our organisation?
How can we leverage our suppliers, business partners and customers to help us know the trends
better?

Know
ourselves

How do we study and analyse the trends that will impact on our future?
How could we benefit more from the interest some of our managers and employees have in
trends analysis?
How could we reap the benefit of trends analyses performed by people outside of our organisation?

17

09. BROADENING OUR PERSPECTIVES

Problem statement

The company was dissatisfied with the cost and complexity of inspections and repairs of oil
and gas pipelines, particularly in valuable but harsh climates such as the Arctic or deserts.

Process

The netted process: a cross-functional team including apparently unrelated experts to break the
mould of pattern-centred thinking about the issue, i.e. not being constrained by conventional wisdom
on the impossibility of what they were trying to do. Subject matter experts from unrelated areas (e.g.
fibre optics, lenses, magnifiers, and other non-oil and gas industries) were brought in as resources to aid
the process of transforming ideas into actual machinery.
Additionally, people skilled in areas such as cultural anthropology, organisational psychology, and small
and large group communication were assigned.

Key success factor

Through the marriage of unrelated areas of expertise, guided by strong innovation facilitators,
the possibility of an idea was embraced.

Result

A very concrete innovation that deals with the remote inspections and repairs of oil and gas pipelines
was launched.

Comments

Bringing together seemingly unrelated people from unconnected disciplines to really question,
observe, listen, experiment and network with the goal of associating and linking ideas in a strongly
facilitated team process takes the creativity of ideas and turns them into the products, processes and
structures that we call innovation, and delivers a business outcome.

To illustrate how we can broaden our perspectives when

trying to identify a promising idea and to find novel
ways to bring about innovation, lets take the example
of a case study provided by Lenny Shine, a Mannaz
associate experienced in fostering innovation with
client organisations.
Innovation experts all suggest that the approach
shared above can lead to success and in different
areas than the concrete challenges outlined above.
The underlying reason comes from the wisdom of the

crowd (Surowiecki, 2004) and brokerage returns (Burt,

2005). By engaging people from a variety of backgrounds,
companies not only cultivate a wider knowledge pool, but
more importantly when these previously isolated experts
meet and discuss ideas with one another, it is very likely
that common sense in one field combined with expertise
from another is the perfect remedy for a problem in a
different field. In this way, our often limited perspectives
on the complex business or organisational challenges that
we are facing can be broadened.

18

10. USING THE VALUE CHAIN

The basic tool for diagnosing competitive advantage
and finding ways to enhance it is the value chain, which
divides a firm into the discrete activities it performs in
designing, producing, marketing and distributing its
product.
- Michael Porter, author of Competitive Advantage
It is true that using the value chain can prove to be both
an occasion to bring kaizen continuous improvements
to the functioning of your organisation and a powerful
way to identify sources of opportunity that may have been
ignored or neglected by your organisation as a whole,
or by specific functions or departments within your
company.
Value chain analysis is an inward-looking process
requiring examination in great depth of how your
organisation or your department performs. It is based
on the belief that there must be a better way of doing
the things we do, and opportunities for innovation
based on process systems can be found in abundance
if you apply a systematic approach to the analysis.
In his book Competitive Advantage, Michael Porter
offers a tool for doing this examination. He divides
the activities of a typical organisation into five areas
as shown in the following vertical diagram.

Goods/services
in input

Anything that comes in your

organisation: products,
services, inquiries, orders

Operations

How you process the input:

interactions with other
departments

Goods/services
out output

How you deliver your

products and/or services

Advertising
and marketing

The image you project both

externally and internally

After-sales
service

Development Advice
Follow-up After sales
back-up

The three first activities input, operations and output

are logical and self-explanatory. Everything that comes
in the organisation or the department forms the input.
Operations represents everything that we do to deal with
the input. Output covers the solution to the problem or
request and the delivery of products and/or services.
The two others are different, as they relate to the image
of your organisation or department, the way you are
perceived by customers, other departments, the media,
competitors and suppliers and after-sales considers what
your department does once it has delivered the product
and/or the service to the customer. Finding ways to
improve processes in these five areas leads to competitive
advantage and to finding sources of opportunities and
possible innovations.
It is a pity that most respondents keep their innovation
work within the boundaries of R&D departments rather
than reconsidering the value chain of the organisation.

19

A simple and powerful way to get started is to get your

management team together for a full-day workshop
and perform the analysis, possibly starting with a
brainstorming session based on questions such as:

How could we improve the way we receive inquiries?

How could we welcome our customers better?

After having collected ideas for improving performance

in each of the five steps, you can ask the members of
your team to select two ideas for each step which would
make the most impact on your performance or help you
to deliver better customer value. Then ask for volunteers
to implement these changes, with an action plan and
agreed deadlines. Review with the team as you progress
according to plan.

How could design and develop more effectively?

How could we project a better image?
In what way could we improve the delivery of raw
materials or of our service?

A FULL DAY WORK SHOP OF THE MANAGEMENT TEAM

Brainstorm

Analyse
and select

The brain storm section can be based on questions such as; How could we improve the way
we receive inquiries?, How could we welcome our customers better?, How could design
and develop more effectively?, How could we project a better image? and In what way
could we improve the delivery of raw materials (service)?

Use the value chain analysis.

Each member of the team needs to select two ideas for each step which would make the
most impact on your performance or help you deliver better customer value.

Ask for volunteers to implement the selected changes, with an action plan and agreed
deadlines. Review with the team as you progress according to plan.

Test

20

11. EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES THE

OPPORTUNITY MATRIX 1

The challenge is to identify all the ideas which will

occupy the upper right corner of the matrix, and that
are as close as possible to the vertical line on the axis
of Possibility-Impossibility: the line of impossibility.

Like the value chain analysis, the Opportunity

Matrix 1 can also be used to explore opportunities. As
illustrated in the diagram, it has two axes: Opportunity
and Possibility. The vertical axis is the Opportunity
axis and runs from the most negative (or perilous)
possibilities at the bottom to the most positive (or
desirable) opportunities at the top. The horizontal axis
is the Possibility axis and runs from impossibility
(0% probable) at the extreme left to 100% improbable
(actuality) on the right.

Most positive/desirable

Opportunity

OPPORTUNITY MATRIX 1

The objective is to allow the people who participate in

the exercise to consider highly unlikely opportunities
and to invite them to push the envelope, think outof-the-box and allow themselves to explore rather
than to censor ideas. The goal is not to predict the
future, but rather to reveal possible opportunities
whose significance may be difficult to determine
at present, but whose consideration may contribute
to the development of patterns of opportunities.
We are also aiming to establish, in the minds of the
management team or project team members, the need
to regularly exercise their potential capacities and to
share prospective ideas.

Almost
impossible

Opportunities

Possibility

Most negative/perilous

Highly
probable

21

Other approaches may be taken to generate desirable

opportunities: using metaphors and conducting a
Metaphor Survey and using Appreciative Inquiry have
already been described in our second report, Creating a
Culture of Innovation.
Another way to generate and identify possibilities, and
opportunities as a result, is to use Post-it adhesive notes
with a management team or a project team. Here is the
process:

Define the ideas in

the upper right of the
Opportunity Matrix

Reflect on all the notes

collected and identify
the most possbile one

Identify the
'almost impossible
to achieve' ones

List of
opportunities
Brainstorm the best
imaginable outcomes

Identify the 'can

reasonably possibly
happen' opportunities

You first define the upper right of the Opportunity Matrix

on a chart, a wall or any large surface on which Postit notes may be affixed. You then brainstorm the best
imaginable outcomes of your search for opportunities,
write each response on a Post-it note and post them in
the most appropriate location. You then reflect on all the
notes collected, identifying first those which are likely
to happen before you turn to the remaining ones. You
then identify, among the remaining ones, those which
you believe can reasonably possibly happen. Finally, you
identify those which are almost impossible to achieve.
Be careful, this is a critical step. Here, one is close to
having identified true breakthrough or innovative
opportunities, dont dismiss it. You have the beginning
of a comprehensive list of possible breakthrough
opportunities. If you perform this simple exercise
regularly, you can add new outcomes and influences and
review the already identified ones.

22

Selecting promising ideas

12. SCREENING IDEAS THE OPPORTUNITY MATRIX 2
A crucial step in the previous stage is the prioritisation
of ideas; however, before looking at ways of selecting
promising ideas for innovation, lets first look at the
method, presented by Kathryn Redway in her book, Make
it Happen! The Opportunity Matrix 2 helps to form an
initial screening of ideas that does not give undue weight
to excessive quantification too soon. Although it does not
include a customer focus which is its weakness it can
be helpful in prioritising ideas and in taking resources
into account early on.
You need to have a broad focus during the screening
stage. An evaluation that would be purely financial or
only people-oriented is not likely to be successful. The
following matrix shows two axes: one addresses the
question of strategic fit and benefit to the department, the
other the question of ease and cost of implementation.
When we evaluate a promising idea, our aim is to find the
best possible match between the two.

The strategic fit and benefit axis questions whether

the idea is in line with your strategy and business
objectives. Does it tie in with the nature and direction
of your business? What will be the benefits in terms of
productivity, market share, the quality of your service
or product and your profitability? If your answers are
definitely Good (where the scale goes from Good to OK
to Bad), go to the top of the line in this first axis.
Ease and cost of implementation measures the idea
against four resources: People, Time, Systems and overall
Cost.

People: Do you have enough skilled resources? Who

will it affect? Will you meet resistance? If so, who
from?
Time: How long will it take to develop and implement
this idea?
Systems: Do you need to change your systems and
procedures? Do you have the technology?
Cost: What will it cost to market and promote this
idea? Will you need to retrain or recruit? Will you
need to upgrade your technology?

Strategic fit and benefit

OPPORTUNITY MATRIX 2

GOOD

Possible

Highly
probable

Best

OK

Remote

Possible

Highly
probable

BAD

No

Ok

Good

BAD

OK

GOOD

Ease and cost of implementation

Possibility

23

If the answers to these questions are Good, go the

right-hand side of the matrix.
After answering these questions, four types of
opportunities can be recognised, they are:

Best oportunities

A close strategic fit, high benefits, ease of

implementation and low costs.
Go for it!

Highly probable
opportunities

Good strategic benefits and reasonable costs, or

Reasonable strategic benefits and low costs.
Try to improve the weaker factor.

Possible opportunities

Both strategic fit and implementation could do with improvement.

Work on the idea.

Remote opportunities

Both strategic fit and costs are poor.

Not a good idea.

No

Forget about it?

For the remote and no ideas, should you just forget

about them all at once or maybe keep an eye on them?
Here is a word of caution: some disruptive innovations
incubated in distant, emerging markets may have the
potential to take over mainstream incumbents in an
unexpected manner. Moreover, this opportunity matrix
does not include a customer focus. Therefore in case
the customer market changes, and the strategy of your
organisation needs to be adjusted, these previously
remote and no ideas may turn out to be of great value.
In short, you need to be very clear and sure about your
strategy or business objectives. Involve other colleagues
or team members to get a balanced and objective
evaluation. Good luck!

24

13. REFINING AN IDEA THE EGMONT APPROACH

One of the respondents to our survey, Dawn Cordy,
Innovation Director, HR partner and strategy director at
Egmont UK, shared with us the approach her company is
using to refine new ideas after they have been submitted
in a virtual innovation box. There is a process: when an
idea is proposed, an idea manager is alerted and comes
to see the person who proposed it, guiding her and
encouraging her. The company uses three tools to refine
original ideas: the COSTAR method; the Pitch tool; and
the Rapid idea improvement session (RISS). These three
tools were inspired by the Enterprise Development Group
who Egmont Kids Media UK worked with initially on
their innovation process1. Lets briefly describe each of
these three tools:

The idea manager is not there to do all the work on the

idea, but to facilitate the process and support the person
who generated it. The combination of the above three
tools clearly helps a person who has an idea to quickly
refine it and reflect on what has to be done to further
develop it.

The COSTAR

Helps you to think through ideas by looking at six dimensions:

(brought to Egmont by
Herman-Gyr)

Pitch tool

An elevator speech which consists in telling a memorable story about your idea and what you want
from people in your audience in order to improve your idea. Its a three-to-five minute speech
that ends with a request.

Rapid idea
improvement session
(RIISS)

Helps the culture change in the organisation as it helps to open minds and to make people think
differently.
Construct and organise feedbacks collected using COSTAR and the Pitch tool in two parts:
gold and green feedback.
Gold feedback: What is great about your idea? What is compelling in the way you present and
champion it? What you must keep as you progress?
Green feedback: What is less convincing? How could the idea improve, with respect to both
content and presentation?
Other feedback: specific actions that the person could consider, who can one to talk to?
What to do next based on feedback?

Consumer: Putting the customer first, what is the unmet need that the consumer has?
Opportunity: How big could the innovation be?
Solution: What is the end product or service envisaged?
Team: What will you need? Who needs to be involved?
Advantage/alternative: What else is out there? Has your idea got legs?
Results: What will happen? What will be the result for consumers and for the business?

1. For further details, see Creating value with CO-STAR by Laszlo Gyorffy and Lisa Friedman ( Produced with help from Egmont).

25

14. ASSESSING CAPABILITIES AND GO/NO-GO

DECISIONS
When an idea is presented to senior executives for
assessment and for a go/no-go decision that will result in
funding and resources given to an innovation, there are a
number of dangerous traps to avoid.

Dismiss
too quickly

Path
dependency

Rush to
market

dismiss the idea, one of the decisive ones being that the
company had simply no capability in this area. And yet a
few months after the board had replaced the IBM CEO, the
new one announced that the company would move to IT
consulting, and took the necessary measures to develop
the necessary skills. The rest is history. The critical
judgment to make is whether the innovation is one that
requires only investment in skills and technologies, or
one that calls for strategic change (Tripsas and Gavetti,
2000).
Yet another trap relates to the time it takes to fully
develop and test new technologies often an eight-toten year cycle being too hurried; not going through the
initial testing carefully may run a substantially high risk,
especially in some industries. The recent grounding of
all Boeing 787s provides a dramatic example of such a
situation, as a new lithium-ion battery that was in its fifth
year of development was included in the plane. The driver
for the go decision here also seemed to be the relentless
pursuit of market share, combined with the desire to
become number one again, not to mention the pressure
to deliver a totally new plane requiring extremely
complex integrations. Overlooking such complexities and
going too fast either in the rush to be first or beat the
competition can have serious consequences.
Go/no go reviews are also, clearly, a chance to fully
assess ideas a number of other key factors can be taken
into account at the same time. Examples might include:

The first is to dismiss an idea too quickly. As many

respondents have said, really novel ideas need time to
incubate. It is better to give new ideas a chance to be
nurtured and developed to reach a stage when they can be
fully assessed.
Another concept, is often linked to an assessment of
the industrial environment in which the organisation
is operating. In an era of change, it is crucial to keep an
eye on the external environment and not be held back
by individual decision makers cognitive biases and
path dependency on existing ways of operating. With
hindsight like in so many case studies it is very easy
to judge that the decision made by executives was not
the best one. There was a time at IBM, for example, when
the idea that the future of the company should move to
IT consulting was totally blocked by the members of the
executive committee. Lots of arguments were used to

Customer needs and expectations

Strategic fit
Competitors standing
Funds and resources required

These constitute unique opportunities for innovators to

present the potential impact of what is being proposed
to develop and at the same time to make an in-depth
assessment of what it will take to make innovation
happen.

26

Developing ideas for innovation

15. BRINGING INNOVATION TEAMS TO A HIGH LEVEL
OF PERFORMANCE
Innovation is often brought about by well-integrated
and highly effective teams. Bringing people together in
a team enables the integration of a range of expertise,
skills and attitudes to focus on a common objective. There
are several excellent tools for assessing the strengths
individuals brings to a team and for helping them to
better understand, appreciate and leverage the strengths
brought by others.
Myer-Briggs Type Indicator:
For a better appreciation of each other
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a
psychometric questionnaire designed to measure
psychological preferences in how people perceive the
world and make decisions (Myers and Myers, 1980, 1995).
Proposing a team MBTI workshop in which people use
and apply the Type in Organisations and Type in Teams
MBTI booklets, or using the Team Management Profile
(TMP), also based on MBTI dimensions, can help team
members gain a better appreciation of each other.
FIRO-B questionnaire: For synergetic action
The fundamental interpersonal relations orientation
(FIRO-B) questionnaire focuses on the needs of each team
member with respect to interpersonal relations. It can
also help team members to understand their own and
others preferences in order to build synergy.
Belbin Team Inventory: For optimising team efficacy
The Belbin Team Inventory is based on Meredith Belbins
research on the roles people play when they work in a
team and is presented in his book, Management Teams:
Why they succeed or fail. The techniques can significantly
help team members appreciate their respective strengths
and allowable weaknesses, and optimise their
effectiveness as a team.
Research has shown that, regardless of the organisational
size, high-performance teams display the following
characteristics:

A shared sense of purpose. There is a sense of
clarity and clear common goals and priorities about
decisions.
Open communication. People feel free to express
their thoughts and feelings; conflicts are brought in
the open and resolved.

Trust and mutual respect. People value and respect

each other in the team. They provide honest,
constructive developmental feedback.
Shared leadership. Depending on the tasks, different
team members assume leadership. The formal team
leader acts as a coach and facilitator.
Effective working methods. Team members know
how to gather, organise and evaluate information and
are ready to improve the way they work together.
Building on differences. The team optimises the
skills, knowledge and strengths of its members and
seeks the viewpoint of outsiders.
Flexibility and adaptability. Team members view
changes and setbacks as opportunities, reframing the
objectives and responding quickly.
Continuous learning. The team learns from both
mistakes and successes, encouraging the growth and
development of all its members.

Using a team assessment questionnaire based on the

above eight characteristics will enable the innovation
team to build further on its strengths and to make
swift action plans to improve in lower scoring areas.
A facilitated workshop in which the team have the
opportunity to use some of the techniques described
above can considerably help the team to reach a level of
high performance. However, the above discussions are
based on the assumption that the team has already been
set up but what about creating an innovative team in the
first place? A number of empirical studies have pointed
out the relationship between team diversity and team
creativity. The main argument is that as long as there is
the precondition of sharing the same ethos, more open
and effective communication among team members will
boost creativity.

27

16. PROTECTING YOUR IDEA TO MAKE INNOVATION HAPPEN

Clarify your objective

Main goal: Get an objective picture of your idea.
Approach: Discuss it with members of your team and/or experts in the area. Be as specific as you can
with respect to the product, the service and the process, as well as the expected outcomes.

Plan your action

Main goal: Get practical.
Approach: Draw up a plan show what you hope to accomplish and timeline your objectives.
This plan could include a marketing plan, a summary of risks and costs, and the expected benefits.

Assess resources needed

Main goal: Actual feasibiltiy test.
Approach: Ask yourself, what do you need, what do you have, and how could you get support?

Anticipate possible difficulties

Main goal: Be prepared for dangers and traps ahead.
Approach: Scenario analysis recognise various obstacles you may encounter, such as competition,
negative customer feedback and loss of resources.

Set timeline
Main goal: Detail key milestones.
Approaches: List key constraints, and considering these factors, what will you and your team
have accomplished by when?

In order to preserve the life of your idea, to protect and

nurture it, it is important to do certain things. The first
step is to clarify your objective as much as you can,
which may not be that easy in certain cases. One way
to do this is to discuss it with members of your team
and/or experts in the area, so you can be as specific as
you can with respect to the product, the service and
the process, as well as the expected outcomes. Why is
this so important? Because innovators often become so
passionate about their idea that they do not take enough
time to step back in order to clarify the purpose, the
objectives and the expected outcomes of the innovation
involving, whenever possible, future clients.

The second step is to create a plan of action that will

show both what you hope to accomplish and when you
plan to have achieved your objective. This plan could
include a marketing plan (possibly with the help of
experienced marketing people), a summary of risks and
costs involved as well as the expected benefits. Why is
this important? Simply because some innovators often
tend to overlook the importance of planning and tend to
dislike strict and rigorous plans, as they think and feel
they restrict their natural creativity and spontaneity.
The third step is to assess what resources will be needed
to help the idea to become an innovation: do you have

28

or how could you get management sponsorship and

support? Do you have or how could you get funding
and financial support? Who can support you at different
stages, either within your innovation project team or
outside? Who can you go to, at different stages, to ensure
you do not miss critical expertise?
Through the three step process outlined above, a
clearer picture of how to make it happen appears. Now
its time to reflect and anticipate the various obstacles
you may encounter during your journey (competition,
negative responses from customers, loss of management
enthusiasm and support, loss of resources, business
turndown, etc.), which can all be very useful. This
can be done using scenario analysis: What if your
competitors generate a similar prototype? What if during
the innovation process, support from senior management
cools off? It is essential in any innovation project to
anticipate difficulties and setbacks in order to preserve
the life of your project and your own fighting spirit.
Finally, based on all the information above, a provisional
timetable can be established to help you anchor key
milestones. What will you, and your team, have
accomplished by when? One of the major derailers of
innovation projects is the lack of awareness and/or
respect for important milestones. Why? Because the idea
is so fantastic almost anything can be tolerated. Can it
really?
The above steps are similar to project management
disciplines. The difference is that you gave birth to your
idea and wish to preserve its life and well-being, and that
your passion and enthusiasm may occasionally blind you.
The above ideas will also help you protect the members
of your innovation team along the way, ensuring the
maximisation potential for success.

29

17. SEEKING AND GETTING FEEDBACK

When we facilitate leadership development seminars
and introduce 360o feedback processes, at Mannaz, we
often say that feedback is the lifeblood of organisational
life. But why do we stress the importance of seeking and
getting feedback when exploring the management of the
innovation process?

Why don't innovators tend to

seek enough feedback from
others?

If they are willing to take

feedback...the question is,
from whom?

Will the process be embarrassing?

What is the best way of facilitating
feedback-gathering and boosting
interactions?

Innovators are 'in love with

their idea' persistent pursuits
lock them in their own world.

'Left-brain' thinkers offering

complementary ideas and
different views
Customers, experts, managers,
etc.

Feedback is important for simple and important reasons

Achieving goals is one of the engines of creativity,
and feedback is a facilitator of this process (Shalley
and Gilson, 2004). People who generate creative ideas
and who bring innovation are often highly intuitive,
forward-looking people who embrace change easily. They
are enthusiastic, passionate, curious and open to new
concepts and ideas. They are willing to take risks, are
daring and display courage and persistence in the pursuit
of innovation. In other words, they share many of the
leadership attitudes and behaviours highlighted in the
executive summary report of this series, Time to Innovate
(sections 13.00 and 14.00). All these great traits often
have their flipside any strength is often coupled with
allowable weaknesses, for example they pursue their
idea so strongly and are so persistent in their pursuit
that they often do not seek enough feedback from others.
Innovators are so much in love with their idea that
they often do not seek the feedback from people who are
different from them:

people who focus on facts, figures and realities.

people who are practical and pragmatic and who
can help them be more grounded and to take into
account facts that they may overlook.
people who are logical and can help them see the pros
as well as the cons.
people who can warn them and help them anticipate
setbacks.

Instead of one person fighting for

all, try to build an innovation team.
Team leaders are responsible for
building up trust and faciliating
open cmmunication.

We all learn from differences and complementarity in

viewpoints, and yet many innovators prefer to pursue
their vision and can either neglect to seek others
viewpoints or neglect the feedback when it is given it to
them.
By seeking more feedback from others existing or
future clients, experts in the field, trusted colleagues,
friends, and experienced managers innovators can
often improve the way they themselves manage the
innovation process. The saving grace for many of them is
that innovation is almost always managed by innovation
teams, and high-performance teams provide a climate and
a context in which feedback can be shared if there is open
communication and trust between their members.
If seeking 360o feedback is as useful for developing
leadership skills as it is for helping innovators, the most
important feedback to seek is that which may be the
most difficult to obtain: customer feedback. In terms of
innovation, however, it is not necessarily good to listen
to the general feedback from the entire customer base.
Innovation comes from two sources: one is market-leading
incremental innovation, where customer feedback may be
invaluable. Regarding these innovations, it is vital to:

keep lines of communication open with customers,

especially lead users, as it will show them that you
are tuning into their concerns.

30

monitor progress with them at each development stage

test their assumptions
ensure their needs are really taken into account
adapt and modify their original idea based on the
feedback received
keep their minds open and regularly present current
statuses in order to improve the synergies and the
final products or services that will be delivered.

For radical innovations, feedback usually comes from

business talents or experts, because the reluctant
attitude of the general public can be discouraging and
misleading. With the competitive need for pre-launch
knowledge protection, not much information will be
provided in generating customer feedback, because in
this circumstance customers with limited information
will probably show a different, conservative attitude
compared with when they are shown the actual product.
This may be the rationale for Steve Jobs famous
quotation, People dont know what they want until you
show it to them. Would the public have applauded the
advent of the iPhone if they had been told it would mean
abandoning keyboards on their cell phones... perhaps not?
As mentioned above, there are three main stages of
innovation: the last one is retention. Many of our survey
respondents mentioned organisational learning as a
fundamental way of storing knowledge created and
promoting knowledge renewal within the organisation.
Feedback and evaluation systems are an effective first
step, in the sense that they incorporate many more
people, often with distinct knowledge backgrounds
and ways of thinking. In this way, innovative ideas and
relevant knowledge are dispersed among more people,
and implicit knowledge is preserved in a way that
facilitates leverage effects.

18. DEALING WITH SETBACKS

Life is a process of becoming a combination of states we
have to go throughWhere people fail is that they wish to
choose a state and remain in it.
- Anas Nin
When you work on something novel, you dont expect to
meet with success all along the way; youre more or less
acutely aware of the possibility of coming across setbacks.
Anyone who has led innovation projects will recognise
that setbacks are part of the journey. And yet, their
managers, though recognising that innovation is risky,
often expect a trouble-free curve and seem surprised
when setbacks occur.
People who champion untested or yet unproven, but
promising ideas, often go through different stages:

Enthusiasm that gives the person, and the team, a lot

of energy and confidence in ultimate success. It is like
surfing a wave, and progress is fast.
Then things become more difficult than the
individual thought, but despite the struggle morale is
still high because obstacles were anticipated, even if
the efforts required were underestimated.
Then disaster strikes: something totally unexpected
happens and confidence is shaken. The moment has
come when trust and synergies will help win the
battle or impact the ability of the person or the team
to carry on, despite the setback.
People recover from setbacks often because advice
and support has been provided, and yet progress
is slower than anticipated and deadlines may
have lapsed. The person and the team may have to
negotiate: setbacks may have changed the original
idea, and it may be short of the initial hopes and
expectations, or it may even exceed them.

31

Things
become difficult

The team are

confident in
ultimate success

Enthusiastic

Morale is still
high because
difficulties are
anticipated

Recover

Unexpected,
confidence is
shaken

Disaster strikes

There are, clearly, important lessons for managers in

this short description of the five stages innovators, and
innovation teams, go through. We will come back to this
in our fourth report, The Role of Executives and Managers
in Fostering Innovation, and would like to focus here on
what innovators can do to anticipate the struggles and
setbacks that they will most certainly encounter. They
can reflect on previous experiences and ask themselves:
What was really unexpected? Did you overcome the
problem? Who helped you?
They can, more specifically, consider the following
questions: What are the manifestations of this setback?
How am I handling it? What effect does it have on me? On
the team? Can I identify a setback owner? How can I limit
the damage? Who should I talk openly with?

Trust and
synergies; advice
and support

May have
lapsed, may need
to negotiate

Facing deadlines

In her book Make it Happen! Kathryn Redway shares the

following story:
I once attended a very high-powered meeting in a
multinational firm, and asked the question What will
happen to your idea? There was a silence, during which
someone entered the room. Dont mind me, he said as
he spotted an empty chair, just carry on. What were you
saying? I repeated the question. He got up, went to the
flipchart, drew a perfect curve plotted against the axis
of time and effort, and punctuated his contribution with
the satisfied remark, This is how things are done here. I
noted, You must be a senior manager. Yes, he replied,
I am the managing director. And no one tells you when
things go wrong? I said. There was a silence. He looked
around the room. People were avoiding his gaze. I think
you may be right, he admitted. We need to discuss this.
We did, and soon discovered why this world-famous
company did not score highly for its innovative powers:
the most senior person inspired fear rather than respect.
Accordingly, setbacks were not reported. As a result he
was convinced that every new project succeeded and
could not see why experimentation was necessary.

32

19. SECURING EXECUTIVE AND MANAGERIAL SUPPORT

Survey respondents have stressed the importance
of executive sponsorship and support in fostering
innovation and in managing the innovation process. We
will come back to the critical role of senior executives in
our fourth report, The Role of Executives and Managers
in Fostering Innovation, and would like here to take the
perspective of innovators to focus on how they can secure
executive support for their innovation.
Indeed, innovators are often full of enthusiasm, passion
and energy, are raring to go, and with a strong belief in
the power of their idea. This beautiful passion can blind
some of them to the importance of having friends in high

places people who will marshal needed resources,

help them overcome unexpected hurdles, remove
bureaucratic barriers that may inhibit progress and shield
them from organisational noise. A general managers
shift of strategic emphasis from explorative activities
to exploitative ones shows a significant influence on
organisational innovation performance. The personal
support and aspiration from innovation managers,
ambidextrous managers and from other exploitative
units not only facilitates the innovator to go through trial
and error, but also to leverage common resources across
innovation types and thereby benefit the organisation as a
whole. This is the beginning of a virtuous circle:

Supportive

Better innovation
performance

More supportive

Better
organisational
performance

33

Thus, finding a sponsor and securing his or her support

is important not only to protect the innovation team, but
also because the sponsor will often temper the natural
enthusiasm and idealism of innovators by his or her
realistic approach.
Innovators and innovation teams need to keep
clarifying and clarifying again what they are trying to
achieve, what they need at different steps and what the
expected outcomes are. We are talking here about short,
one-page executive summaries regularly shared with the
executives. They also need to demonstrate how their idea
will benefit the organisation (which they often fail to do,
because it seems obvious to them and that they believe
that, it goes without saying). They need to start small
for example with just one customer to demonstrate
the potential impact and value of the innovation they
are working on, and resist promising too much, or the
impossible. They also need to build an effective and very
diverse team, building support alliances with experts
from various areas within the organisation and beyond.
In reality, innovators are often not quite sure who
their sponsor really is, and who they are dealing with.
Sometimes it is within the business unit, sometimes it is
within the local branch, and sometimes it may involve
the global headquarters. Lets examine two scenarios
here: a best case one and a worse case one.
In the best case scenario, what can you learn about your
sponsor and/or your boss? What are their aims and
values, what do they want for themselves and for others?
Do they have a track record of innovation, sponsoring
or initiating new projects? What are their strengths and
weaknesses? What do they like or not like to do? Check
your perceptions with others. How do they like to work
and communicate with others? Informal chats? Emails?
Reports? Do they talk things through with peers? What
pressures do they have at present? What objectives have
they been given?

You can now reflect on what motivates you and on

the match that may exist with your boss, on how your
own profile of strengths and weaknesses balances or
replicates your bosss ones, on what are the best ways to
communicate with your sponsor on solutions you could
offer to your sponsor and on useful proposals you could
make. Seek complementarities, and avoid surprises!
In the worst case scenario, your boss and/or your
sponsor may not be that sympathetic. Why? Because
they are inaccessible? Then send them emails with
short summaries of what you need or want to talk about:
use the old adage It is better to ask for forgiveness
than permission without abusing it! Simply tell
him or her: they may not realise that you need regular
communication. Or is it that they dont keep you
informed? In this case, tell them: think of wider
ramifications as they may actually be doing this to protect
you. Set the example by keeping them informed yourself;
show that you are reliable and respect deadlines. Or is
it something different? Has he or she got a closed mind
regarding anything new? Then show them whats in it
for them and demonstrate they will benefit from your
idea. Dont give up, as persistence does pay off. If your
organisation offers appeal channels, consider using
them, and always start with your bosss boss or ask for
a transfer!

34

20. LEARNING FROM YOUR COMPETITORS

It is important to know your competitors in order to
operate successfully in your business area in the long
term: however, benchmarking should not be done for its
own sake. Inspecting competitors should be combined
with introspection of yourself. What are the strengths
for both sides? What about weaknesses? How can we
maximise our strengths and mitigate our weaknesses?
Are there any practices that our competitors have already
performed that we can adopt as well? Rather than quickly
responding that we do know our competitors, we may be
well advised to consider the following six traps:

Complacency

Idea: 'Our products are absolutely unique, state of the art!'

Solution: To cultivate humility, to anticipate competition and to focus on trends,
scenarios and future developments.

Myopia

Idea: Rush to win in competition but neglect other underlying issues.

Solution: To clearly define problems, listen and respond to customer needs and
bear in mind the strategic focus.

The uninformed

Idea: Precious data is locked within certain groups while others in need of this
Solution: Regular meet-ups, both within top management and/or with experts,
within/across departments, within managerial staff and/or with representatives
from all levels.

The know-all

Idea: 'We know our competitors extremely well'.

Solution: Ask yourself more questions about your competitors, do more research,
experience your competitor's product.You can never know your competitor too much.

Internal tension

Idea: 'Competition is the ultimate drive for productivity and creativity.'

Solution: Recognise the role of cooperation. Initial ideas need to be refined again and
again; cooperration is key. Use culture and performance appraisal systems to make
your organisational culture a competitive and cooperative one!

The outsider?

Solution: Build open, mutually beneficial relationships with your clients. Knowing the
reason they chose you rather than your competitors reveals your competitive
advantage.

35

Trap 1 How well do you avoid complacency? Do you

believe or are you tempted to think and to
declare that your products and/or services are
absolutely unique, ahead of the competition and
simply unrivalled? IBM used to behave with such
arrogance and this time in its history has become
an almost archetypal story in complacency.
Rather than defending the great merits of your
products and services, it may be useful to
cultivate humility, to think that there is and/or
will be competition for them, and to focus your
energies on thinking about trends, scenarios,
the next possible improvement to your offering,
the next gap in the market and emerging themes,
approaches and needs.
Trap 2 How well do you avoid short-termism and quick
fixes? In a rush to beat competition, how many
organisations have simply precipitated the
decline of their company: Kodak, the demise
of the GEC/Marconi empire and the collapse
of Barings Bank are just a few examples. When
taken in the short-term vicious circle, people
define their problems badly, insist on blocking
procedures and focus on the bottom line rather
than responding to customer needs and as a
result people disengage and are demotivated.
How well do you keep your focus on the long
term and on the factors that will guarantee your
long-term survival, especially in tough times?
Trap 3 How well do you inform your people about
competition? You gather data about your
competitors through benchmarking and
other competitive analyses. But who looks
at those? Senior executives? Members of the
board? Analysts? And beyond that? Is this
precious information shared with your people
in marketing, production, R&D and other
departments? If not, why not? And how can you
then expect them to improve and to believe as
strongly as you do that innovation is critical?

Trap 4 Have you experienced your competitors

offerings? We all have heard stories about how
Japanese have disassembled Western products
to then create their own. We now start hearing
similar stories about the Chinese. You may think
you know your competitors products or services,
but have you used them yourself? What prevents
you from experiencing them? What could you
learn by using them?
Trap 5 Do you over-encourage internal competition?
Within some large organisations, comparisons
between units (such as plants) are often made,
highlighting performance and productivity
levels. Is internal competition over-encouraged?
Is the competition hindering inter-unit
cooperation? Regarding structural holes which
we have already talked a lot about, is the
competition impeding innovation? How could
a collaborative culture mitigate the tensions?
Are there any other methods, for example, from
reward and/or performance appraisal systems?
Wouldnt it be more useful, whenever possible, to
inform people about competitive results to boost
innovation?
Trap 6 Have you talked with your clients about your
competitors? There is a lot to discover in
asking clients about their perceptions of your
competitors. It presumes you have good and open
relationships, and your commercial people may
already do it. Yet, understanding how and why
these clients or potential clients go elsewhere
or envisage doing it is precious information: Is
it pricing? Location? After-sales care? Followup? Quality? Presence or lack of innovation?
Responsiveness? Ignorance of similar products or
services? Etc.
Knowing your competitors is critical: learning from them
leads to innovation.

36

Supporting innovators and innovations

21. MARKETING AND PROMOTING YOUR IDEA
A STORY
In her book Make things happen! Kathryn Redway shares
the following story about the importance of marketing,
selling and presenting the idea and innovation that you
champion. The context is a blue-chip, well-known IT
company. Lets hear what happened to her.
I had been involved with them for several years, helping
to make their managers in Europe more aware of how
crucial their roles in fostering innovation were. One day,
I was asked by one of their directors to coach an English
manager. This person we will call him Frank had
an idea. He had found a way of taking the companys
technology to schools in the UK and the rest of Europe. His
company was very keen to do this at minimum cost but
with maximum exposure. Frank had found a way.
His career had been in marketing, primarily in Europe. He
had lots of contacts and a large network. He was 58 years
old and did not fit the stereotype of the marketing person.
Modest and a good listener, he was quiet, organised and
exuded solidity. I asked him to present his idea to me.
At first, I could not follow him. He avoided my eyes,
scribbled obscure graphs on a flip chart, embarked on a
monologue which I did not understand, and then stopped.
That was his presentation. I asked him to work on it. Could
he prepare the graphs in advance and draft a written
presentation that summed up in succinct terms the
benefits to his firm and to the schools?
A couple of weeks later, we met again. This time, he was
a lot clearer and I followed the approach. The technical
problems had been identified and solved. But I was still
worried by Franks lack of openness. He still avoided
my eyes. So I tackled this. How can I put my trust in
you if you seem unsure of yourself? There is something
else, Frank, that is what I am not grasping. After a short
silence, he confided at last, Well, I am fifty-eight and
could retire at sixty. If I get the green light for this project,
it is a commitment for three years, perhaps more. I am
not sure I want to do this. I am not sure what my family
thinks.
So we uncovered the real issue from Franks point of view.
There was a personal problem in addition to the technical
one the lack of a personal commitment on his part. We
discussed the pros and cons of retirement and agreed
that he had to resolve it by the time we next met. He

decided, after talking it over with his family that he would

stay on and, if allowed, take the project all over Europe.
Accordingly, the personal problem was solved. He made
his presentation to the board and it was approved.
I met him four years later, a happy man. He was about to
retire. The project had been successfully implemented.
He was leaving with a better pension, and his name was
known across Europe, linked to a unique project.
In the arena of innovation, some people are more creative;
however everyone, thanks to their distinct knowledge
and experience, can generate the most valuable ideas
for organisations. The most brilliant idea may not be
feasible at the moment, and some others, though sounding
plain, can result in miracles, as Campbell argued: We
should not expect marvellous consequences to have
equally marvellous antecedents (Campbell, 1960b).
This story reminds us that the exchange of ideas should
not stop at presentation and that we need to make sure
ideas are thoroughly understood; and the support for
innovators should not follow one single rule but needs
to be perceived from the innovators point of view. In
this way, a virtuous cycle can be built: firm support for
innovators boosts personal commitment and thereby
enhances clarity of thought in idea presentation. Clear
idea expression is helpful in gaining both actual and
emotional support for innovators along the innovation
journey, which in return ensures a relatively high level of
commitment throughout.

37

22. WIDENING THE MARKET FOR YOUR INNOVATION

Innovators often are not very good at marketing,
promoting and selling to customers. Fortunately, at that
stage, they are often supported by their executive sponsor
and by their colleagues in marketing and sales. There
are nevertheless some traps to avoid. One of them is an
excessive focus on gaining market share. Why? Because
the relentless pursuit of augmenting market share may
prevent the organisation from focusing on the customers
that may bring most value and overlooks the fact that
some of your customers may actually be or become the
best promoters of the innovation.
The customers who bring you the highest value are not
automatically the ones who buy most from you. They
may very well be the ones who are the most loyal, the
ones who know you well and trust you, who like your
products and services, the ones who help you in getting
a greater focus on what your innovation brings to them.
Often, with such customers, you can test out new ideas,
experiment with them and, ultimately, co-develop.
Such customers are often ready to recommend you, your
products, your services and your approach to their own
clients.
In other words, innovation happens best when there is
a match between what your customers need and expect
and the value you add with your innovation. To put
it differently, your most precious customers are the
customers you learn both with and from. This is what
brings innovation and partnership. The ideal scenario is
to reach a point where your customer who already uses
your innovative product, service or approach will be
ready, during an open-day with other clients or potential
clients, to describe the benefits they have enjoyed. You
may be surprised with how many of them are willing and
prepared to do it. A convinced customer who promotes
your innovation is better than your very best account
manager!

It is also important to clearly show and explain how

customers can and will benefit from your innovation.
We are not speaking here about over-selling or overpromising, but about taking into account the undeclared
need many clients have to overcome doubts and fears they
may have with respect to these benefits, or regarding how
they will go about proposing it in their own organisations.
Helping them to overcome cultural obstacles to
introducing innovation may be part of this journey. The
more clearly customers will see how different what you
offer is from what your competitors offer, the more ready
they will become to adopt your innovations and to work
in partnership with you.

38

23. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND HR INITIATIVES

Rewards

Job level

Many survey respondents whose organisations are

successful in creating a culture of innovation have
highlighted the important role leadership development
and human resources initiatives have in better managing
the innovation process. Here, leadership development and
HR are really executive partners in shaping and forging
the strategy. If we categorise these responses according to
the framework put forward by Shalley and Gilson (2004),
the table of initiatives can be drawn as follows:

Job characteristics

A number of possible leadership development initiatives

were also mentioned at the end our second report,
Creating a culture of innovation.

Listen more to customers, they are at the heart of it all. Think about how you can be
closer to your customers in everything you do.
For positions requiring a higher inventiveness level, let the creatives take over.

Role expectations
and goals

Set a very specific challenge, as often there are too many or they are too broad.

Sufficient resources

Have innovation resources in each country and have them working together.

Supervisory support

The support of senior management is essential. Without it, innovation starts and then dies.
Initially, there is resistance, then people realise it is for real.
Practise 360 feedback process for all managers across the globe: that includes
expectations about behaviours that support innovation.

External evaluation

Engage in dialogue sessions with top management about surface blocks and look at
ways to overcome them. It needs a joint effort.

Organisational level

Team/
group
level

We built a CEO platform where innovative ideas are publicly praised and we are open
to suggestions.
Social context

Have idea managers to facilitate discussion and help share ideas.

Group composition

Look in unusual places, mix the teams, invite outsiders and experts in other fields
and/or people who are not usually asked to contribute.

Organisational
climate (culture,
organisational
structure, conflict,
justice, fairness)

HR practice (selection,
placement, training,
appraisal system,
consistency)

Set up an innovation process, with common tools and language across divisions:
these are essential tools to develop ideas.
Set the themes for innovation with senior management in light of the strategy and of
the growth agenda.
Stop people playing by the rules. This is about breaking the rules and doing things
differently. Allowing intelligent rule breaking.
Make our managers capacity to encourage innovation part of their appraisal and
assessment.
Monetary prizes and compliments are our common practices for rewarding innovators.
We set an innovation award for our R&D staff, but didnt restrict it to this department.
Innovation needs to be part of everyday activity, but it does not change that way; it
needs constant prodding and reshaping.

39

24. KEY INSIGHTS ON MANAGING THE INNOVATION

PROCESS
Let us summarise some of the key insights from this
Mannaz research into leadership in the management of
the innovation process. You can use the following as a
checklist, and get started by going through it step by step.
At some point you will master all the points and, not
surprisingly, find all of them to be closely integrated.

1. L
 earn from our successes. There is lot we can learn
from our successes in managing the innovation
process: from our clients, our partners and our own
people. How could we learn more from them? How
could we share them more? How could we leverage
them better?
2. Focus on people. At the heart of the innovation
process are the people who propose ideas and make
innovation happen. How can we get to know them
better, care for them, support and encourage them
more along the way?
3. 
Get ideas from all our constituents. Potentially
everyone in our organisation can be a source and a
vector of innovation. How can we tap into their ideas
more effectively?
4. 
Broaden our perspectives. Experts from very
different areas often bring novel perspectives that
can help innovations. How many, how often and how
well do we involve them in the process?
5. 
Identify opportunities. Several methods are available
to regularly identify new opportunities for our
future. How well and how regularly do we explore
them?
6. 
Use new tools to select and develop promising ideas.
How do we identify, select and use new tools across
our organisation to select and then to support the
development of promising ideas?
7. Build high-performance innovation project
teams. It is almost always a team of people that
make innovation happen. How do we support our
innovation teams to become high-performance
teams?

8. S
 eek 360 feedback along the way. Creating a culture
of feedback is a sure way to foster innovation. How
do we give feedback to innovators and how do
encourage them to seek feedback along the way?
9. 
A nticipate and prepare to deal with setbacks.
Setbacks are part of all innovation journeys. How
do we anticipate them and help our innovators and
innovation teams to deal with them?
10. 
Involve our customers in the innovation process.
Customers can play a major role in focusing our
innovations. How well do we involve them along the
way?
11. 
Widen our outlook by promoting our innovation
creatively. How do we avoid the relentless pursuit of
market share to selectively work with customers who
will become our partners in innovating?
12. Launch leadership development and HR initiatives
that support the innovation process. How will
we find the ones that fit the stage our organisation
is currently at in its journey towards fostering
innovation, launch them and monitor progress?

40

Managing
the innovation
process

41

Conclusion
In this report, we argued that to manage the innovation
process, it is necessary to first acknowledge your
suppliers, your clients and other business partners and
learn from them. Through brokerage returns you will
discover new potential innovation opportunities which
you may have neglected for a long time. Then start your
innovation journey: select and develop ideas, tackling
challenges in each process. Instead of a normal linear
process, you may find it more like a time machine: it
wont function in a single direction but may move back
and forth because of the changing market environment
and organisational resource base. This does not mean
that the processes are not important. In fact, the basic
approach helps to identify where your weakest link is,
which stage your innovation project has gone through
and where it will possibly end up. In short, you are able
to see the big picture and know the details, enabling you
to arrive at an influential place to manage innovation in
a changing environment. Complicated managerial tools,
models, strategies and structure designs that have been
elaborated on in this paper are all helpful in achieving
the ultimate goal: to balance explorative and exploitative
activities.
Just like in our second report, Creating a culture of
innovation, we are advocating becoming the type of
organisation which shows aspirational and behavioural
support towards innovators and innovation throughout
the process. Only by building a supportive organisational
context can we incubate contextual ambidexterity,
therefore enhancing organisational performance.
Remember that it is your people who are generating
innovative ideas and making wonders happen. The
efficacy of the approaches outlined in this report will be
greatly diminished without a motivated employee pool,
as emphasised in the first report.
One subject whose importance has been revealed but
has been deliberately put aside in this exploration of
the factors is the role of leaders. Senior management, as
recognised by all respondents, are clearly critical both
in creating a culture of innovation and in leading the
innovation process, and are so important that they will
constitute the sole subject of our fourth paper in this
Mannaz series: The role of executives and managers in
fostering innovation.
We hope that the four perspectives offered in this report
will contribute to supporting your organisation in its
leadership journey into fostering innovation!

42

Suggested reading and references

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organizations. Havard Business School.
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Crowd as an Innovation Partner. Harvard Business
Review, 91, 6069.
BRETTEL, M. & CLEVEN, N. J. 2011. Innovation
Culture, Collaboration with External Partners
and NPD Performance. Creativity and Innovation
Managemet, 20, 253272.
BURT, R. S. 2005. Brokerage and Closure: an
Introduction to Social Capital. New York, Oxford
University Press.
CAMPBELL, D. T. 1960a. Blind variation and
selective retention in creative thought as in other
knowledge processes. Psychological review, 67.
CAMPBELL, D. T. 1960b. Blind variation and
selective retentions in creative thought as in other
knowledge processes. Psychological Review, 67,
380400.
CHRISTENSEN, C. M. & BOWER, J. L. 1996. Customer
Power, Strategic Investment, and the Failure of
Leading Firms. Strategic Management Journal, 17,
197218.
GIBSON, C. B. & BIRKINSHAW, J. 2004. The
Antecedents, Consequences, and Mediating Role
of Organizational Ambidexterity. The Academy of
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HANSEN, M. T. & BIRKINSHAW, J. 2007. The
innovation value chain. Harvard Business Review, 85.
LI, D., EDEN, L., HITT, M. A. & IRELAND, R. D.
2008. Friends, Acquaintances, or Strangers? Partner
Selection in R&D Alliances. Academy of Management
Journal, 51, 315334.

MAINEMELIS, C. 2010. Stealing Fire: Creative

Deviance in the Evolution of New ideas. Academy of
Management Journal, 35, 558578.
MYERS, I. B. & MYERS, P. B. 1980,1995. Gifts
differing: Understanding personality type. CA,
Davies-Black Publishing.
RAISCH, S. & BIRKINSHAW, J. 2008. Organizational
Ambidexterity: Antecedents, Outcomes, and
Moderators. Journal of Management, 34, 375409.
SHALLEY, C. E. & GILSON, L. L. 2004. What leaders
need to know: A review of social and contextual
factors that can foster or hinder creativity. The
Leadership Quarterly, 15, 33-53.
SUROWIECKI, J. 2004. The Wisdom of Crowds: why
the many are smarter than the few and how collective
wisdom shapes business, economies, societies, and
nations. London, Little, Brown.
TRIPSAS, M. & GAVETTI, G. 2000. Capabilities,
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TUSHMAN, M., SMITH, W. K., WOOD, R.
C., WESTERMAN, G. & O'REILLY, C. 2010.
Organizational designs and innovation streams.
Industrial and Corporate Change, 19, 13311366.
VON HIPPEL, E. 1986. Lead Users: A Source of Novel
Product Concepts. Management Science, 32, 791805.
WAGNER, S. M. 2013. Partners for Businessto-Business Service Innovation. Engineering
Management, IEEE, 60, 113123.

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