I was chatting yesterday about Innovation in large organisations and the topic of an Innovation Strategy came up - whether one was needed or not. The debate was quite a lively one with some people suggesting that without a strategy the innovation initiative would fail and the others arguing that having a strategy was too restrictive.
I must admit that my own view lies with the latter - a
strategy, as such, sounds as if it will be too prescriptive, too rigid. In the
past I have used words like - roadmap, landscape, journey and if pushed
programme. A strategy, to me, suggests that the innovation journey you are
embarking on is known, has structure and form, however my experience is that Innovation
is a rather fluid path to take and needs to flex as the organisational needs
and those of the initiative change. A few organisations manage to use this
approach however I don’t feel that they get maximum benefit out of the program.
This isn't to say that you don't need some form of documented idea of where you are going and what you are trying to achieve. Some of the most successful Innovation programmes I have seen have had nothing more than a well articulated vision of what 'good' would look like - a deep understanding of how the organisation would be different of it was truly innovative.
The second question this debat sparked was ‘why are you doing Innovation’ – as this is a pre-curser to the strategy debate. Are you wanted to change the culture of the organisation? Are you looking for new ideas? Is it a way of engaging the workforce in the future of the company? Or is it just the next ‘fad’ that you feel you should initiate because your competitors are?
Which of these objectives you choose, and they are not mutually exclusive, you can have them all, well maybe not the last one, will dictate your approach. One of the things that came up in the discussion yesterday was that no two innovation programs are the same – they are context and company sensitive – what works for one company doesn’t necessarily work for another. I know that there are consultancies out there that profess to have a model that they can implement in any company but I would be wary of being force fitted to their ‘answer’.
So back to the
original question – is there a need for a strategy – I guess I am arguing that
there is a need for something but don’t call it a strategy.
What are your thoughts – let me know. I am interested in your views for my next book “Sticky Innovation’ which will hopefully be launched mid 2010 if I can get down to finishing it!
