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According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than half of all Australian businesses (52%) are active in innovation – trying to embed a culture of innovation and build it into their business. However, innovation can also be a daunting task, notorious for its challenges and pitfalls. Agnes Misiurny, consulting director of innovation at UST, outlines three key success factors for starting and sustaining innovation.
It is clear that the key to success in the coming years lies in the ability of any organization to rapidly innovate and adapt to the changing winds.
To achieve innovation agility, organizations must consider key factors, including validating ideas, collaborating and ensuring the right minds are focused on the project.
Idea Validation Process: From Idea to Realization
One of the biggest misconceptions about innovation is that it’s about having the big idea that a “eureka” moment when you instinctively know what it is will change the game. But in reality, innovation is much more incremental and methodical, fueled by a great deal of sweat rather than inspiration.
It is essential to have a process for capturing and recognizing ideas, as well as a mechanism for evaluation, prioritization and validation in which to invest. The organization must determine the pros and cons of each idea, as well as the path to its implementation. even how to kill or back out of a project if it doesn’t take off as planned.
Collaboration: Diversity of thought
Contrary to popular belief, innovation is not about disruptive technologies. Innovation is not about great customer-oriented designs either. Viewing an idea through only one of these lenses can be seriously detrimental and may even cause you to prioritize the wrong ideas or miss out on much more valuable opportunities.
Instead, the approach to innovation must embrace diverse perspectives and bring together people with the right expertise to openly collaborate and share ideas. At a minimum, there must be a customer advocate, a business analyst, and someone to consider the feasibility of implementation.
Having different people with different perspectives working towards the same goal, collaborating openly and with equal input… that’s when magic can happen.
Partnerships: Getting an outside perspective
People in an organization may be experts in their particular field or industry, but innovation requires everyone to think outside the box. When organizations focus only on daily or routine tasks, it is difficult to inspire innovation due to a lack of subjective or creative thinking.
Therefore, companies that attempt to create an innovation ecosystem internally are more likely to struggle because they are limited to hierarchical frameworks. The very problems that limit a company’s ability to be more innovative can also limit its ability to make the necessary changes.
In a large enterprise, failed innovations can amount to millions of dollars. There’s time and resources invested in projects that don’t make it to market—or don’t live up to expectations if they do. And there’s also the opportunity cost of not investing in these ideas that could have brought much more value to the customer and the business.
In this regard, organizations can benefit from an external partner who can challenge their broader vision and guide them through an effective innovation approach.
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