Six Signs That Your Innovation Program is Broken

The innovation function — the starting point for creating new advantages — is ineffective in most companies. Warning signs that an innovation process is broken can be grouped into six categories. 1. Innovation is episodic. Innovation should be continuous and systematic, yet it is often downsized during a company’s financial struggles and is sometimes suppressed if a new idea threatens existing business models. 2. The innovation process is invented from scratch. Companies often neglect the wealth of educational opportunities and coaching, as well as the vast literature on venturing and entrepreneurship. 3. Resources are held hostage by incumbent businesses. Allowing existing businesses to determine where employees and funds are allocated does not enable or support innovation. 4. Innovations are force-fitted into existing structures. New businesses should be given combinations of people, assets, and resources that suit their particular needs. 5. Applying the same criteria to evaluate both an innovation and the core business. It is wrong to use the same planning, budgeting, and control processes for things that are predictable and those that are not. 6. Insisting on the venture meeting the plan. Many innovation leaders try to defend past assumptions even after they have been proven wrong.

• Innovation Budget
• Innovation Process
• New Business Models