The Road to
INNOVATION
Begins with Strategy
It ’ s one thing to encourage innovative thinking among employees , but sustaining a companywide innovation program is a much bigger task . Gaining a better understanding of the various approaches to innovation is the first step to actually building a strategy that will ignite creative development and support it across your company .
If you ever question whether innovation is important to your business , consider brands like Blockbuster ® and Polaroid ®. The once-dominant companies failed to engage in meaningful innovation practices and missed huge opportunities to stay relevant amidst streaming video and digital photography . They are not alone . In reality , innovation remains elusive to most businesses . Google ™ , Facebook ®, and Apple ® are often touted as titans of innovation , but what is supporting their efforts beyond creativity pods , juice bars , and ping pong tables ? The answer is strategy .
Put simply , an innovation strategy stipulates the specific steps or processes a business adopts to convey how new ideas and approaches will be discovered , how they ’ ll be tested and developed , the criteria for further development , and how they ’ ll be funded . It isn ’ t a fruit salad of best practices collected over time , but rather a customized set of interdependent processes based on the unique positioning of your business .