Why are so many people dissatisfied with ROI2?

ROI2 = Return on Investment for Innovation!

If you read the BCG Report Innovation 2009:  Making Hard Decisions in the Downturn you will see a continuing trend for high levels of dissatisfaction with ROI2.  Fully 50% of Managers/VP’s are not happy with what they get from their innovation process, and this is bound to impact investment levels in the future.  Why is this?  Is it temporary and due to the economic climate over the last couple of years or are the reasons deeper?

• Are organisations becoming immune to innovation?  Are “not invented here” antibodies being created by a history of poor results from innovation initiatives?
• Are we at the end of a technology wave? Do we need to develop or adopt new scientific and social paradigms that offer the potential to become novel technologies?
• Are our innovation “initiatives” loosing face as they claim victory before the recommendations have been embedded in a meaningful way and developed into an innovation culture that is adds real value to our ideas?
• Have we lost some of the ability to take an overview of our innovation architectures and design effective end-to-end processes that speedily develop ideas that have great value?
• Is our innovation leadership failing us? ⁽⁴⁾ Has this leadership generation simply grown in a time of artificial economic growth and therefore not had the time to adapt to the new realities?

Also interesting in the report is that although only 50% of managers and VPs were satisfied, 63% of top level execs (CEOs) were happy – is this evidence of a mismatch of expectations at senior levels which could be damaging?

What do you think?

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Boston Consulting Group Innovation Report 2009

Am just reading and digesting the BCG Aannual report on Innovation for 2009 – it makes interesting reading looking at what impact the recession is having on innovation strategies.

What do we call the Creative Innovators?

I was wondering what to call those people in our organisations who come up with the creative and left-field ideas.  Belbin used the term “Plant” but I have discovered that this term does not seem to resonate much in the US.  Malcolm Gladwell in “The Tipping Point” user the term Mavens to describe those who are ” intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends” (from Wikipedia) though I not sure this quite sums up what  I am looking for.  “Innovators” is not right as the scope of innovation goes well beyond the pure creative part.

By being able to name the role, we are halfway to identifying those who can fulfill it and maybe recognise some talent already in place in your organisation whose contributions are going unnoticed currently.

Ideas on a postcard

Innovation in a Cold Climate

What do we need to do to thaw out our innovation processes ready for the Spring?

What happens to innovation when times are tough? Are we all concentrating our dwindling resources on trying to make things better, cleverer, slicker?  Or are we simply turning off the tap and hoping for the best – riding out the storm waiting for things to get better.

A recent mail from a client of mine reveals all…  “Innovation is on hold for the moment”.  I find this very worrying.

It is clear looking around at the current business environment that things will never be quite the same even after the recovery kicks in at some point in the (indeterminate) future – should we not be using this opportunity to look at how we do things and come up with new ideas?

Another very innovative and forward thinking  client recently observed “The old ways are broken, we need new ways to do things better” just before he was made redundant in the latest cost saving drive.

It is my belief that innovation will be one of the most critical keys to open up the new world that will be the post crunch economy and that those organisations that have reviewed their innovation strategies while things are quiet will be ready to leap ahead when conditions ease.

What do you think?  Is now the time for radical thinking and being bold in identifying things that need to change?  Or shall we all continue just tightening our belts and hoping for the best?

What can we do?  How do we approach it?  What tools are available to help us?  Are there new ways of thinking about innovation that can kick start the creative process?

Get involved in the debate!

Simon Evans, Innovoflow Ltd