Q: How can my firm effectively implement our innovative ideas?
A: Traditionally, strategic-planning processes have been used to revitalize organizations and develop significant innovative directions. Expected outcomes have been large-scale initiatives that are implemented over a number of years. Businesses have found it takes time to integrate these bigger ideas into an operational format. In addition, the rapidly changing information economy means good ideas can run their course very quickly.
Organizations today are finding successful innovation through controlled experimentation over a short period, rather than through long-range strategic planning. For example, Procter & Gamble harvests new ideas from outside the organization and then methodically brings them in through a process called "open innovation."
Open innovation can be compressed into a few steps over a short learning cycle that ranges from 90 to 120 days.
1. Talk with engaged stakeholders to understand what is and isn't working in the field. The best innovators are those who have experience within an industry and know the interactions among customers, suppliers and regulators. Tap into their expertise.
2. Apply strategic thinking to the areas where innovation is required. A guiding coalition can help determine what innovations to implement and how to complete them. This group will challenge proposed initiatives with a series of questions asking "Why?" and "Why not?"
3. Once a focus is decided upon, create a testing laboratory to design the experiment and demand rapid validation. The laboratory should move quickly from prototyping to designing experiments that challenge existing operational assumptions.
4. Decide whether to discard the new idea or create an operational design for further research.
Today's organizations are time-starved, and their employees are hustling to keep up with technology. The time for leisurely strategy planning is over. Testing new ideas on a small scale can allow for pressure trials of new concepts in real time. The more an organization engages in this process, the easier it is for innovations to be discovered and integrated into the organization's business model.
Jack Militello is a professor of management at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business.
