At the end
of the day, to be innovative all you have to do is think about the world
differently. But you can’t run a business on thinking alone; you need to create
a strategic plan so that your future vision becomes a set of reachable opportunities.
Your strategy has to be unique to you. One way to test this is to get a copy of
your strategy and replace your company name with your competitors – does the
strategy still make sense? If your answer is ‘yes’ then you don’t have an
exclusive strategy.
There are
many methods available to help you make decisions, formulas being one prime
example. However there are no numbers in the future, so any forecasted
calculations are purely estimates from today. Roadmaps, on the other hand, are
commonly used to visually link technical capabilities, business drivers and
competitors together over time. Companies need to move away from making
objective judgements by using formulas and be more subjective in their decision
making.
Planning
processes can stop us being innovative as they focus on the known, but we have
to remember that the goal is to make money, not just a plan. This is where
Roadmaps can be a powerful tool as they offer a focused and systematic framework
to make sure you have the right process in place. Roadmaps deliver value as
they collect and integrate the key elements needed for innovation and ensure
that not only do you get to your end point on time, but that it is the right
end point to begin with. To get started, make sure you have a clear
understanding of who you’re current and potential customers are and what drives
them to make a decision. Also, map out everything you currently know about
their ‘needs’, for instance what is the relative importance and maturity of
their needs, how well are the competition currently meeting their needs, and
what technologies might affect these needs. When implemented correctly,
Roadmaps communicate up-to-date competitive intelligence throughout the
business thus gaining true cross functional commitment.
From a
political standpoint, Roadmapping can be frustrating as you need top management
commitment for when ideas make it to the top. But by incorporating a business
case into the mix, the link can always be made between the technical investment
and the business return.
A key element to also consider is how you manage
risk as the very nature of innovation is such that we don’t know what the
future holds. We try and trick the human mind by screening the information
presented to us by ignoring the irrelevant information. Exposure is the key
element of working out what risk is. Think of two trapeze artists, both
swinging high up in the roof of the Big Top. One of these trapeze artists has
to let go of their trapeze, fall through the air at exactly the right moment to
be caught by their partner. The uncertainty of this maneuverer is the same for
both the trapeze artists. However the risk is significantly different. To be
innovative, you need to learn how to operate in an uncertain environment
without taking risk.
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