Innovation Defined
Innovation is the development of an idea into a commercialized reality that creates value.
The Opportunity
The job is to create value: value for customers and economic value for the business. Whether it’s a strategy, new product, marketing initiative, productivity opportunity, capital investment, organizational change, or solution to a hairy business problem, all value-creating innovation opportunities must progress through three stages of the Value Creation FunnelTM. Ideas are not monetized until they make it all the way through the Funnel. Then they have impact and drive meaningful results. The Funnel can be sketched like this:
The Business Challenge
It can be very difficult to identify and move winning ideas through the Funnel to get impact and drive better business results. Obstacles and limitations inherent in the design of businesses can obscure winning ideas, slow things down, sidetrack efforts, eat away at the value of the original idea, or prevent opportunities from being realized altogether.
The challenges to creating value come in many forms and appear at every stage of the Funnel. Typical challenges may include unclear strategies, lack of alignment, lack of innovative thinking, too much or too little process, bureaucracy, technology, skills, capabilities, capacity, financial and human resources, structure, and culture.
The Business Design Solution
To get better results, better design is needed: a better designed business that produces better designed value propositions.
