A great philosopher once said that struggles and roadblocks open our minds to creative ways to achieve our goals . This is true for most aspects of life , and innovation is not any different . The process of innovation can be lengthy and tiring . The processes may go back and forth and can end up causing frustration , not just for the team driving it but also for the entire organization . Understanding some of the roadblocks can help innovators escape the trap of ‘ killing ’ projects prematurely . It can also help in reenergizing teams when they feel demotivated about projects that stall or become draggy .

Lack of a Formal Innovation Process : One of the significant challenges that face organizations , especially in developing countries , is the lack of formalized processes . If you work for a homegrown company , a lot of learning and effort must be put into formalizing how innovation is done . Without the process , the flow of activities can be slow and characterized by back and forth issues . It ’ s easy to forget critical elements of product development if there are no ways of cross-checking . The stage-gate innovation process , for instance , allows you to finalize all actions within a phase before proceeding to the next , ensuring that no balls are dropped . The phased approach also provides for approval from execs , which allows for the continuous support of the projects . When top management has visibility of those projects , there is full support because they will ask the right question and unlock any roadblocks .

Inadequate Resources : Innovation requires investment of resources that will drive and actualize ideas into products . Research is key to generating insights and testing concepts . A skilled innovation team will help drive the process . Significant time must be invested throughout the process , and some projects require substantial budgets . Most organizations do not allocate budgets to innovation brands , which results in poor commercialization . Unlike in the past , when the back end of innovation ( ideation to launch ) mattered more than the front end ( commercialization ), most product launches ' success is a result of learning post-launch . The speed to learn and course-correct makes a whole difference because the consumers ' feedback plays a crucial role in perfecting the product or service . Firms seeking to overcome this must allocate sufficient budget to support commercialization .

Focusing on Operation Excellence and not Innovation Excellence : The truth is that operational excellence brings you today ' s profits , but innovation excellence will bring you tomorrow ' s profits ( Gijs Van Wulfen ). A business can focus on doing things in a better and efficient way by making small improvements without spending too much money . A good example is Kaizen . Since continuous improvement is an anthem for most organizations , focus on innovation can become fuzzy or even confused for operation excellence . To overcome this roadblock , firms should adopt a balanced approach to innovation by pursuing both incremental and disruptive innovation .

Solving Past Problems : With up to 90 % of new products failing to return a profit in their first year of launch , there is usually a great temptation to ‘ creatively ’ solve any problems that emerge from the failed launch . If a new product has poor reception in the market , it is very likely that other issues such as material writeoffs will come up . Usually , the most probable action is to innovate around the problem i . e ., launch another product that will utilize the materials at risk . In such incidences , it ’ s unlikely that the real consumer need is considered meaning that the additional new launch may also fail . Avoid this roadblock by ensuring that proper work is done on forecast based on the opportunity and not necessarily ‘ pressure ’ to launch . Past repetitive problems bog the whole chain , from the organization to the distributors and retailer , and may make it hard to introduce other products .

Fear of Failure : It is said that most managers say yes to innovation only if doing nothing is a more significant risk . The fear of failure , therefore , makes organizations conservative about new ideas . The pressure to guarantee additional revenue through innovation inhibits such efforts . We all know that despite the business cases and extensive research throughout the innovation process , when it comes to explaining to the business why the revenue streams from newly launched products are slow , those directly involved have the highest accountability . This , to a greater extent , limits innovativeness to mostly incremental changes that have lesser failure rates . Innovators can overcome this roadblock by allocating resources to experiments which do not have to give a positive return immediately but can result in bigger profits if tried and tested , before scaling up .

Senorine Wasike is an innovation catalyst with over 10 years ’ experience in FMCG , currently working as the Senior Innovations Manager at Kenya Breweries Limited . You can commune with her on this or related matters via email at : Senorine . Wasike @ gmail . com .

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Common Innovation Roadblocks