TOTAL INNOVATION MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION
David Williams
EFFECTIVE INNOVATION
– Meeting or exceeding measurable innovation objectives
– Successful, capable and valuable
SUSTAINED INNOVATION
– A permanent core business function
– Steady, mature and constant
Could you think of any organization that would not want effective and sustained innovation?
Many people would suggest that this cannot be achieved and may not even be realistic…..We don’t think so.
How many organizations do you know who have made innovation a core business function that’s fully integrated into their operations, not engineering, design, product development or R&D…..Innovation?
Go back 50 or so years ago, the IT function in organizations for the most part did not exist. With the advancements over the years in computers, software, networks and communications the IT function gradually became a necessity. HR, marketing and quality functions have similar stories.
Is innovation the next business function that will grow and mature out of necessity….We think so? I also think we can agree that today’s innovation is all over the map, similar to the way the quality function was 30+ years ago.
There is too much emphasis on the single parts of innovation, such as ideas, creativity and culture, etc., typically at the expense of all the other parts which results in a dis-functional system.
A lot of this single-mindedness comes from the consultants and software developers that are pushing their agenda for the one or two things they may be good at. Perhaps they should collaborate with each other and collectively provide a bigger picture and stop suggesting they alone have the solution.
In order to have a functional innovation management system that is effective and sustained you must address all the interacting and interrelated parts from a holistic point of view.
see more… Chart
Similar to quality management there is an innovation management standard that specifies all the parts and the requirements to develop and implement an innovation management system. Think of it as an instruction to build something, it takes the guess-work out of it so you don’t have to make it up as you go along.
It should be noted that the standard provides the minimum requirements and does not attempt to specify how to develop or implement the innovation management system. It does not attempt to standardize innovation and suggests that each innovation management system will be unique to each organization and will share common elements.
Stop treating innovation as a part-time experiment, don’t worry about creativity and your culture. Stop talking about innovation and asking for ideas. It’s all about establishing a capability to innovate first. You can’t measure and improve on something you don’t have.
Develop the innovation base discovery (front-end), development (middle) and deployment (back-end). You can take the Innovation-Lite approach to get started.
See more…INNOVATION-LITE APPROACH
Add to, enhance and continually improve your base innovation management system, integrate it into the business operations and over time your innovation capability will mature and become a core function as planned from the onset.
Not having an innovation management system and resulting capability is not an option for effective and sustained innovation.
http://www.timfoundation.org
