Large companies employ a variety of methods to develop new products, services, and processes that are critical to their future. We typically refer to these as “innovation,” but what we really mean is growth. Continuous and sustainable growth requires repeatable, scalable business models that create long-term competitive advantages. Every large company has a track record for innovation, that’s how they became large in the first place. “Innovation Capital” is the combination of a company’s talent, ideas, and culture, leveraged by their institutional knowledge, and fused with a capacity for rapid data acquisition. When combined with a system of real-time innovation metrics, innovation portfolio management is informed by data, maximizing returns and market position.
Launchpad Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Jim Hornthal will discuss the components of Innovation Capital, how to find and share your company's existing assets, and how to create a culture and process that maximizes use of Innovation Capital.
Talent – Through the 15,000 teams that we’ve seen pass through our platform, there are common characteristics amongst the most successful teams. Teams that are shaped by people of diverse backgrounds are critical. A diversity of opinions and capabilities ensure that teams can be as flexible and open minded to change as they need to be. Moreover, teams must be able to be resilient & tenacious to be successful. Lean innovation means failing fast and repetedly. Teams must bounce back time and time again, ready to meet the challenge.
Ideas – In lean innovation, your initial business idea is important, but your organization’s ability to continuously think of creative solutions to problems as you pivot are critical. Solving customer problems in a new way is the ultimate goal of any innovation.
Culture – Lean Innovation deviates from traditional business culture. Organizations must adopt a culture that not only removes the fear of failure, but encourages and rewards the behaviors that make lean innovators truly successful. This culture of fostering talent as well as a culture of shared learning and mentorship is how your company can be successful today and into the future in innovation.
Data – Data could be the most critical piece of your company’s innovation capital. Retaining the knowledge and insights your company collects empowers you to learn from pervious failures and successes, giving any new innovation initiative a head start. Just imagine how much more effective your company would be if you could avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.
Collecting data requires that you do this across the 3 critical areas of business model validation:
Inside the building – Understanding the capabilities and insights of your employees enables you the ability to understand the realm of the possible
Market Data & Reports – Trendspotting from experts as well as market research can help give you insights into the future
Outside the building – Speaking directly with customers is the cornerstone of lean innovation, and with good reason. You have to understand the people you ultimately expect to part ways with their time, money or effort to consume your product or service.
Another way to think about these are the scopes with which your business looks to the world
Feasibility - The internal view is like a microscope that helps you look deeper and deeper into your own organization
Desirability - The external customer centric view is like a telescope, helping you peer out into an endless universe of possibility and opportunity
Adaptability – The view into forward looking insights from experts is the periscope, giving you a detailed view into a specific area
Its only when all of these areas are factored into a business model that it can truly become VIABLE, but just like our own hearts, we need to constantly monitor their health, and the stethoscope helps us ensure that we maintain and continuously improve as all other factors change
Execution - Many companies are stuck here, making sure that the execute on existing business while maybe making incremental changes
Search – Of the companies that do take innovation seriously, most are still here. Search refers to starting with a solution and then searching for the problem. Many companies develop new technology or process improvements, then look for a use case that it will satisfy
Discovery – While this may not seem particularly different than search, in the context of innovation it is nearly the opposite. Discovery is the process of going out into the world, learning about problems, and then developing solutions to attempt to fix them. Attempt is key, as most solutions do not fix the problem as best as they can the first time around. Creating a loop of discovery, solution development, and further discovery is key.
In discovery, it is critical that we record the insights we gather. These insights are some of the most valuable components of the data that contribute to our innovation capital
This have changed dramatically since Edison’s time.. Today, the electronic lab notebook is enabling us to collect more datapoints than we could have ever imagined.
For example, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research built the Large Hadron Collider in France. This place was built to smash particles together at hyperspeed, in an attempt to best recreate the conditions of the big bang. CERN is currently generating 3GB of data every second. Over the past four years, they have generated over 100 Petabytes of data.
Ok, so your company isn't smashing together particles, but you are still generating and therefore need to retain all of your innovation data.
You’re collecting insights from everyone in the building, but if you’re like most large companies, you’ll need the insights across a number of geographies. And this is before you’ve even “left the building”
When you leave the building that means pulling in data and insights from customers as well as experts and market data from around the world.
And that gets us to the big data of innovation:
Imagine if you could:
Repurpose and Reanimate all your company’s Intellectual Exhaust
•Erased White Boards
•Discarded Post-It Notes
•Abandoned Docs and Sheets
Capture and Leverage Institutional Knowledge
•Dynamic Externalities (Regulation, Fx, Technologies)
•Suggestive Reasoning Optimization
•Develop and understand metrics
Aggregate Old Dots
• Internal Innovation Teams
• Corporate Resources
Collect New Dots
• New Initiatives and Activities
Connect all the Dots
• Discovery/Insight Engine
• Synthesize, Analyze and Visualize Opportunities
Synthesize
Trends, signals, discovery
A database of collective intelligence from previous projects
Analyze
Across teams, divisions & time
Visualize
Variance analysis to kill or fill
Reveal the unknown