BlueWave Media Inc.

Ideas To Profits

Posted on 08. Mar, 2008 by Kimberly in Blog, business

Creating an Innovation Culture : Generating Good Ideas

There has been a lot said about the need to encourage the innovation process in all organizations. Unfortunately the reality is that many companies only pay lip service to this valuable concept for the simple reason that the pressure of day to day activities gets in the way.

The first essential is that there has to be a commitment to the innovation process, from the very top, to the rank and file. The next essential is that the organization is prepared to allocate the appropriate time and resources to ensure that innovation is a vital component of the organization’s culture.

What then do we mean by innovation? The text book tells us that innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas that results in a new product or service. Thomas Edison put it more succinctly stating that “invention is taking old ideas that can be used in new places.” Even though it was many years ago, the Edison Menlo Park Research facility was a shining example of what an innovation culture is all about. For example, picture a large area where all the staff worked without walls and without secrecy, where the technicians were encouraged to contribute to any project that was under way. The results in terms of new ideas, new products and improved processes were staggering even when viewed by today’s standards.

In other words, an innovative culture recognizes that human resources are an organization’s greatest asset. No less an authority than Tom Peters has stated that “the chief reason for failure in world class competition is our failure to tap our work force’s potential.”

So what do we have to do to get the innovation process off the ground?

1. How To Generate Good Ideas

When an organization demonstrates a commitment to an innovation culture and has been able to convince its employees to buy into the concept, good ideas will start to flow. Like all beginnings this process needs careful handling. Not all the ideas will be good or applicable to the organization. Ideally a set of criteria needs to be established in order to evaluate each idea and facilitate the selection of the most worthwhile.

A vital part of this process is to be able to identify an application for the idea that has been created. In creating an innovative idea, the team must know that they will not be criticized for trying because to get people to take calculated risks, the inevitable failures must be accepted and persistence in trying again, encouraged. Eventual success should be rewarded with enthusiasm backed up by the provision of whatever resources and ideas are needed to proceed further.

Progressive organizations establish a set of business values that serves as a compass for seeking new ideas. These ideas are the instrument panel that will help determine which innovative opportunities are real and relevant to the advancement of the organization.

2. Idea Selection Criteria

This is best illustrated by a “real world” example.

Sir Richard Branson has established the following criteria for a product or service to bear the Virgin brand:

Virgin products and services must have high quality.

Virgin ventures must be innovative.

Virgin businesses must provide good value for the money.

Virgin services must be challenging to existing alternatives.

The Virgin staff and customer must have a sense of fun.

Organizations with motivated, enthusiastic and goal oriented staff move faster and become industry leaders. Look at South West Airlines versus United Airlines. Look at FedEx where the people philosophy is Motivated people move faster and have fewer problems and make more money. The result is that FedEx has set the standard for the courier business time and time again.

Organizational goals and problems must be openly discussed and the value of creating solutions for these problems clearly understood.

3. Presenting the Idea

It is now time to focus on the package because no good idea will ever get off the ground, without a convincing presentation.

It is important to provide an introductory leading phrase framework. This must be very simple and clearly focused as follows:

“This project will increase our value to our customers and improve our market leadership.”

OR

“This is an opportunity to improve our product or service excellence and deliver improved profits”

OR

” By doing this we will improve our team commitment, increase our value to our stakeholders and our profitability.”

Staff should be allowed to talk about ideas. In Japan the Quality Circle concept took this one step further with the recognition that process improvement not only benefited external customers, but in fact was necessary to satisfy internal customers (for example fellow workers further down the production line).

The team should be encouraged to look outside and benchmark against other companies, particularly those that exemplify the values that would increase your company’s stake in the eyes of your customers.

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• Wish it – Dream it – Do it
• Finding the right road
• Wear the Right Pants
• There is always room to grow

Tags: business, ideas, teamwork