SmartOrg Shares Secrets on Game-Changing Innovation

Strategy is defined as 'an adaptation or complex of
adaptations that serves or appears to serve an important function in achieving
evolutionary success.' So, it is obvious why innovation needs strategy in order
to reach the successful outcome it wants. Strategy and innovation can, and
should, work together in a virtuous cycle ' strategic direction guides the
search for ideas, and the patterns in our ideas inform and shape the evolution
of strategic direction.

An innovation strategy should be about creating constant
differentiation in order to maintain distance from the nearest competitor. But,
next generation competitive advantage will be delivered not necessarily by
'what' an organization does but more likely by 'how' it does it and that means
capitalizing on innovation in order to define new areas of opportunity instead
of competing to be 'better' in existing ones.

I recently sat down with Don Creswell, cofounder and
principal consultant at SmartOrg, to
discuss the role of innovation strategy these
days and just how critical it has become for businesses to grow. SmartOrg is a
provider of software and services to help companies evaluate their
opportunities and make the best decisions to invest.

The company was founded in 2000 based on a simple idea:
give customers what they needed to improve their capability around strategic
decision-making. Since then, SmartOrg has combined decades of experience
with rigorous decision analysis and psychology into set of approaches and
enabling software that helps organizations build better decision processes.

When it comes to successful innovation execution, companies
face some big hurtles, according to Creswell, Specifically, there tends to be a
lack of consistent process or a too rigid a process; along with the
inability to tolerate failure.

'Innovation is a learning process as the idea moves beyond
ideation and into development and most innovation, particularly new products,
has a very high failure rate,' he explained. 'Betting on one horse as opposed
to managing an innovation portfolio to balance risk vs. reward, acknowledging
that innovation is a risky business and you need to play the odds.'

Another inhibitor, he said, is trying to place financial
measures on an innovation too early in the process. When developing a strategy,
you need to be flexible, develop a set of 'proof points' along the development
path and be willing to change direction early on.

Creswell suggests providing an atmosphere that encourages
creative thinking in order to foster a healthy internal innovation culture.
'Reward both success and failure. Do not saddle new ideas with all the
burdens of corporate overhead. Treat innovative products as you would a new
venture. Seek innovators with a passion and give them room to move forward,' he
added.

It is no surprise that SmartOrg is an expert in the
innovation strategy space as companies like HP and Dow Agroscience use its
services to take early stage ideas and develop them into winning
businesses. But, even with SmartOrg's great success strategizing for
others, it has overcame big obstacles in its own innovation strategy.

'Trying to institutionalize innovation and make it subject
to a rigid process. People are innovators, not corporations,' Creswell said.

Leadership is also a key aspect of developing a corporate
innovation strategy. Creswell advises not to hire a VP of Innovation and expect
fast results; encourage everyone to put forth ideas for improvement; provide
those with implementable ideas (not just creative thoughts); and use agile
development methodologies to monitor success.

He added, 'Give me one committed innovator rather than 1,000
ideas.'