SUCCESSFULLY EMBEDDING INNOVATION: STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
Successfully Embedding Innovation “It takes time and focused effort for enterprises to shift their paradigms and integrate innovation into their business strategies and cultures. What does an organization do when employees cling to the way things have always been done? How can leaders convince employees that innovation represents something other than more work? This APQC study seeks to answer these questions.”
--Marisa Brown, innovation and R&D senior program manager, APQC
With thought leadership by IBM, this report examines how best-practice organizations create a strategy to embed innovation, define roles and structures to support innovation engagement, understand the cultural and technical enablers of innovation, design ongoing communication and change management tactics, and evaluate key innovation measures.
Key Findings
* Overarching cultural frameworks and strategic guideposts help establish the foundation for an innovative culture.
* Clearly articulated strategies and road maps can provide transparency and direction for innovation.
* Establishing innovation specialty groups--in addition to centralized ownership--helps to broaden engagement.
* Internal events and competitions provide recognition for innovative thinking and behavior.
* Organizations are deliberate in how they allocate resources depending on the amount of risk involved.
* Collaborating through internal and external alliances can strengthen innovation and idea generation.
* To strengthen the innovative culture, organizations are hiring employees who meet criteria outside of functional capabilities.
* A critical ingredient to get innovation to “stick” is visible participation and active involvement from leadership at all levels.
* Designating physical and/or virtual spaces dedicated to innovation can encourage creative thinking.
* Encouraging risk taking is essential for innovation to thrive.
* Encouraging employees to collaborate with those outside their specific peer groups can facilitate idea generation and problem solving.
* Proper selection of software tools can facilitate the innovation process.
* Employing a diversity of communication vehicles is necessary for a relentless focus on innovation.
* Knowledge and change management techniques can facilitate the embedding of innovation.
* Offering both formal and informal training courses improves internal competencies related to innovation.
* View Executive Summary
Chapters ( This document's chapters can be viewed as separate documents. )
* A. Air Products and Chemicals Inc.
* B. Boston Scientific Corporation
* C. Computer Sciences Corporation
* D. Ethicon Endo-Surgery
* E. Hewlett-Packard Imaging and Printing Group
