[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_position_1=”top_left” background_repeat_1=”no-repeat” custom_margin=”||0px|” custom_padding=”||0px|” padding_bottom_1=”0px”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Intro” _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
About two weeks ago, we shared a post about our Minneapolis Meetup, co-hosted with 3M: Behind the Scenes of Corporate Innovation<\/strong>.\u00a0 Since we believe the content, insights, and learnings from this meetup are valuable, we will use the next three weeks to present some of this information to you:<\/p>\n Back to the meetup: prior to attending, participants were asked to list their three most critical innovation-related corporate challenges<\/strong>. In brief, there were 24 respondents, who identified 67 challenges, many of them later confirmed by the rest of the attendees.<\/p>\n SIT\u2019s facilitation team analyzed these responses and detected four main buckets, which are arranged below according to frequency of appearance in participants\u2019 responses. Quotes from the survey are also given to further demonstrate and highlight the relevance of these themes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n Companies are accelerating their front-end efforts; they are producing more ideas and launching more development projects. However, they feel that this only exacerbates the stress of having to decide where to allocate development resources, how to select those products or services with the highest probability of success, and how to manage their launches.<\/p>\n SIT\u2019s take on this<\/strong>: The shift toward more agile-minded approaches, often through Lean Startup, should in principle alleviate this stress, since LSU dictates that instead of focusing on de-risking a specific \u201cbig\u201d idea,\u00a0one should test numerous MVPs and quickly pivot based on the results of \u201cexperiments\u201d. But it<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.65″ src=”https:\/\/www.sitsite.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Minneapolis-post-600×450.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Summary” _builder_version=”3.0.65″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n seems to us that although many companies have officially adopted an LSU process, they find it difficult to wean themselves off the habits of testing and seeking a high level of certitude for each specific innovation before launch.<\/p>\n \u201cLack of external leverage; too\u00a0many options to\u00a0choose\u00a0from\u00a0makes it even more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The most common task these days goes way beyond launching a product, or even an entire product line. Key words are \u201cculture\u201d, \u201cchange\u201d and \u201ctransformation\u201d. The desire is to find ways to influence the entire organization, change strategies and business models.<\/p>\n SIT\u2019s take<\/strong>: We\u2019ve seen this process evolve in the past 24 years, from attention to a specific local result such as solving a problem or launching a single product, to the demand to generate an entire pipeline and roadmap, all the way to the current situation, in which CEOs and top management either realize the need or are pressured by their boards or stakeholders to lead transformational changes in their organizations. This can often lead to futile high-profile and costly changes-for-the-sake-of-changing, but, if well managed by a committed management team, can truly transform and invigorate a company.<\/p>\n \u201cFocusing on long-term development, not the \u201cright now\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cInternal cultural shift necessary to transform our business model.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Companies are not only pressured to change, but to change faster<\/em>. This obviously places additional demands on managers, often accompanied by stress.<\/p>\n SIT\u2019s take<\/strong>: a paradox ensues, whereby managers are expected to lead profound transformations, rather than superficial change, which requires time and patience; but, since the environment changes at an ever-accelerating pace– requiring rapid and immediate adaptations–there is less patience and resources for profound long-term change processes to take place.<\/p>\n \u201cInnovation takes time to hatch. How do we innovate with the fast-paced environment?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n After 30+ years of constant effort to get closer to the client, listen to the Voice of the Customer, observe, empathize, research and analyze, companies still feel that true understanding and insights tend to elude them, and therefore are searching for novel approaches.<\/p>\n SIT\u2019s take<\/strong>: although true that innovation is useless unless it addresses a customer need, it is a mistake to believe that true innovation is born just from listening to VoC. We believe that being attuned to your customers is a necessary but not sufficient condition for innovation. Instead, we recommend a combination of: a) breaking the more-of-the-same-VoC mold by engaging with your customers proactively through co-creation exercises; b) using structured innovation methods to come up with initial ideas that are in turn validated with customers.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing adequate research to uncover new problems.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLack of customer interaction for directed innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n To summarize, we found, not surprisingly, a high level of congruence between the most pressing innovation-related issues in a wide variety of organizations and positions. In the next two posts we will relate, respectively, SIT\u2019s approach for dealing with these issues and some common traps and misconceptions when going about it.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About two weeks ago, we shared a post about our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
4 Critical Innovation-Related Challenges<\/h2>\n
1. How do we de-risk our innovation efforts<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. How do we change our company\u2019s culture\/mindset<\/strong>?<\/h3>\n
3. How do we accelerate \/ acquire speed and agility<\/strong>?<\/h3>\n
4. How do we listen and get closer to our customers?<\/strong><\/h3>\n