Forecasting Success in Innovation Teams

A 2012 study by the Harvard Business Review surfaced severa interesting

findings about the !ractice of innovation for the enter!rise" incuding the
innovation ambition matri#" which detais how $firms that e#ce at tota
innovation management simutaneousy invest at three eves of ambition"
carefuy managing the baance among them%&
To read more about the Harvard Business Review study please click here.
Those three levels are:
'ore: When organizations are refining their eisting offering
Ad(acent: When companies are epanding their offering into business that is
new for them.
Transformationa: When companies are developing offerings in markets
that don!t eist yet.
But beyond that" the article makes some very concrete recommendations for
organi)ationa onine earning innovation !rograms:
*uti+disci!inary innovation teams, #nnovation teams should be composed of a
varied skill set that can manage numerous challenges. $ftentimes innovation teams
function as a start%up within an established business.
-edicated Staff, $rganizations that are serious about innovation should not ask
their team members to divide their efforts. $ftentimes" we see innovation programs
layered on top of someone!s day%to%day duties and epectations. This is sometimes
successful" but it also risks diluting the potency of any innovation program.
Aocate Resources, &edicated budgets allow innovation teams to assign real
resources no matter where they are aligning their efforts. Without the budget to
ideate" evaluate" and prototype" it is unlikely that real progress will be made.
-efine Success .ver Time, When teams are calculating their R$#" they should do it
on an eponential basis" beginning with nonfinancial success and measuring their
programs against various organizational ob'ectives.
(ertainly" each of these best practices represents a commitment to innovation that
also has in mind the overall business goals of the organization that it!s serving. )nd
although numerous companies are committed to widespread ideation techni/ue" it
is often hard for them to attend to that net level of sourcing the best ideas to
dedicate real resources to.
The process of successfully identifying new ideas depends on the innovation team
first defining vectors for success and ensuring that ideas that move through each
successive stage gate measure progress against those ob'ectives. #t is for this reason"
that #dea*cale has developed a sophisticated decision matri system that evaluates
promising ideas against organization goals" as well as potential costs and
constraints.
To learn more about prioritizing an organization!s innovation initiatives" 'oin
#dea*cale!s complimentary webinar about decision matri solutions on +une ,-
th
at
,- a.m. .*T. Register today.
By: Rob Hoehn