My Single Best Tip for Big Company Innovators

I know a lot of innovators in big organizations who are very frustrated because there is no support for their breakthrough initiatives at all. It makes them angry and sad at the same time.

 

Innovation is a paradox. On the one hand you are well aware that you have to take new roads before you reach the end of the present dead end street. On the other hand it is risky. It takes a lot of time. And it takes a lot of resources. Research shows that only one out of seven innovation projects is successful. So saying yes to innovation for a vice-president is a step into the unknown. If an important innovation initiative fails, it will probably cost his or hers job. So a lot of top managers don't lead innovation but wait in reality until not innovating is not an option anymore. This is so human. It is also frustrating, as you as innovator want to start today.

I like to quote the CEO of BMW AG, the German luxury car producer, Dr.-Ing. Norbert Reithofer. When asked why BMW started the risky E-car project with the BMWi-3 and i-8 he responded very honest: "Because doing nothing was even a bigger risk" [Autoweek 41-2013].

You're company is like a tanker. It's successfully moving steady on the same course for quite a long time, trying to master operational excellence in its core business. It has made procedures for everything and organized itself to keep focus and control. A big company is a world in itself. You as innovator are aware of the changes in the world around you. You feel the urgency to change and you see lots of opportunities for new products, services and business models. You just want to move at high speed. And when you suggested to your bosses to start a breakthrough initiative you probably got a no. And when you came back with the same initiative three months later, they thought you were a very stubborn ............

Now as innovator you can fight this risk adverse culture, as a kind of modern Don Quixote fighting windmills.

Or you can accept it. Only when you accepted it, you can deal with it in a big company. A tanker isn't a speedboat. So my single best tip for Innovators is:

Pick the Right Moment!

The right moment to get support for a break through innovation project in your company is when doing nothing is a bigger risk. When the people steering the tanker know that they have to change course soon.
These now-we-really-need-to-innovate moments often coincide with incidents, like:

• Three continuous quarters without any growth in turnover;
• A competitor just introduced a great new product, that envies everyone;
• One of your biggest clients just left;
• A new competitor entered the market with a revolutionary business model;
• You just lost three tenders in a row for a big assignment.

To be really effective as innovator, these are the moments you should wait for to get support for your breakthrough initiatives. An effective innovator in a large organization has to act with the patience of a hunter. You cannot wait too long though. You know completion of the innovation process in a big company takes at least 18 - 36 months from idea to market introduction.

As innovator you can speed up the felt need for innovation by confronting key leaders in your organization personally with concrete reasons for change that will move them out of their comfort zone.
So:

• Take them to visit start-ups challenging your position.
• Invite a trend watcher to confront them how quick the world is changing.
• Visit ex-customers who just changed to a very innovative competitor.
• Take them to Tech Universities to see experiments with new technologies.
• Spam them with articles of new successful business models;
• Visit young customers and ask what they think of your brand and - products.

Remember you can only start an innovation project once for the first time. So like the people on the picture: pick the right moment to jump.