The 10 Most Innovative Companies in 2019

novelty. Innovation, truly deep and sustainable innovation,
combines both creativity and discipline, which are curious
bedfellows. It is a considered process that requires a raft of
different skills and ways of thinking, combined towards
creating a common outcome. In fact, the innovation journey
is more like a cycle that can start at any point, not just in the
playful and curious spaces.
There are probably many employees in your organisation
who do not identify with this sense of curiosity, or think
that they have light bulb moments, but who are nonetheless
crucial to the success of innovation as an outcome. You will
not embed an agile innovation culture without showing
employees of all stripes and skillsets where they fit in. The
innovation culture needs a common framework and
language. Within this shared understanding, different styles
are more likely to interact with, and appreciate, the
contribution of others. Creating the best environment for
each stage of the journey, so that people are empowered to
contribute their strengths will improve the likelihood of
success.
Understanding the innovation journey
Start with aligning teams around PURPOSE, what are they
trying to achieve and why? Then move to how they can
identify opportunities through understanding trends and
patterns, often related to changes in human behaviour. Then
move to the creative space where people ignite ideas,
through practices such as brainstorming and value
proposition design. After you have an array of ideas, submit
them to analysis and experimentation, separating the good
ones from the bad, investigating whether they are useful,
not just novel. The interrelationship between these three
spaces is often where you see design thinking processes in
action. Now, if you have a few really good ideas that have a
high chance of working, start to think through how to best
make them work. If not, revisit the original-identified
opportunity or generate alternative ideas and solutions.
When ready for investment, innovation leadership is really
critical. This is often the graveyard of ideas. Here
demonstrate courage; assign resources, whether it is people,
time or money. Once ideas are funded, find people who are
great at implementation and getting things done. Once the
idea is starting to get traction and have an impact, harness
the skills of improvement and optimisation to scale and
leverage the ideas into other areas of opportunity.
There are no straight roads. This is why innovating is often
so difficult. Not only are you trying to do something new,
you have to harness diversity towards an often unknown
outcome. Creating the best environment for each stage of
the journey, so that people are empowered to contribute
their strengths, will help to create a successful outcome.
This means teaching people when to contribute and when to
pass the baton on to someone else. This is true
collaboration, anchored in a clear purpose that is focused on
the success of the idea.
Give each of your employees a proactive role in the
innovation journey
Culture could be termed “how we do things around here”
and part of what contributes towards this is how leaders act
and behave towards the people that they manage and lead.
Even more so when it comes to innovating. If people
understand their contribution, they will have the confidence
and courage to start thinking of themselves as innovators.
They will also understand when they will have the most
impact. The innovation journey needs a different culture at
different points; a culture that allows for ideas to be
generated is not the same as one needed to investigate those
ideas.
Innovation and the CEO
Lead by example. Understand the part of the innovation
journey that you are best at, and be aware of the bias that
you will have because of that. Increase the awareness of
yourself and others,so that you can empower everyone to
cultivate environments that allow their strengths to flourish.
Ensure that every skillset and its contribution to innovation
is respected and rewarded. This can only be done by
understanding the whole of the innovation journey, end-toend.
Diversity is key, if you have a lot of people who are
good at generating ideas, you may end up with very little
that actually gets done. If you have a lot of people who are
good at implementation, you may end up dealing with
today’s work very well, but not have the culture of a
future-ready organisation that can adapt to fast-paced
change tomorrow. In empowering your leaders and
employees to develop their creative potential, in the
broadest sense of the word, innovation will start to seep
through the whole of your organisation, embedding a
culture that will increase the likelihood of you creating
impactful value out of new ideas.
12 April 2019|