In most businesses, innovation is an ad hoc process which is usually focused around new technologies, “apps” or generating new products. Business model innovations usually have the highest impact, yet are an inherently risky undertaking, which require a well-designed guidance process in order to be successful.
Our approach is to formalise it in a process-light manner, which puts guardrails on either side of the innovation effort, and incorporates a few stop/go gates along the way. Our approach to idea generation is founded in human centred design and design thinking principles, and has the effect of finding radical ways to generate high quality ideas early in the process.
A large quantity of ideas alone is not a recipe for success. Each idea is viewed through the three quality lenses of desirability, feasibility and technical viability to ensure that only relevant, high quality ideas find their way into the innovation funnel.
When done correctly, the governance process has three effects on your innovation effort:
- It de-risks an inherently risk-prone process;
- It ensures that the process of innovating becomes repeatable and sustainable; and
- It creates a basis for corporate learning and maturation from an innovation perspective.