I had a great response to a question I posed to our contacts at Strategyn, creators of the Outcome-Driven Innovation method (ODI) which my company, The OMC Group, licenses for the UK. We were discussing how ODI compares to TRIZ, Voice of Customer and other innovation and idea-generation methods.
Here is the basis of Strategyn’s argument which I have elaborated upon – and of course, subscribe to.
For most companies seeking to innovate, coming up with the ideas is never the problem (TRIZ is a method for idea-generation). Far from it – often there is no shortage of good ideas as well as people willing to offer them.
Rather, the real challenge is two-fold; first and obviously, there is the difficulty of knowing which ideas will address the biggest opportunities in the market (for creating breakthrough value, creating new markets or disrupting existing ones) and thereby create greatest returns.
But the second challenge is often overlooked and is perhaps more significant. It concerns the difficulty of convincing internal decision-makers to commit to a solution that they do not buy into. “Not invented here”, a lack of appropriate risk/reward structure or internal politics can be much bigger obstacles to successful innovation than just a drought of ideas alone.
Put another way ... a superior capability to generate ideas and identify solutions to address valuable opportunities – whilst important - do not necessarily make a company a good innovator. Rather, Strategyn’s view is that innovation must be viewed as a business or operational process, just like any other (like six sigma, lean, project management, sales force automation, CRM etc.). Yet remarkably, it seems that few companies have a disciplined, rigorous and repeatable process for innovation. In fact, it is probably the only management activity where failure is seemingly tolerated as a worthwhile price to pay for future success.
Having a process for innovation means that companies have a much better chance of getting valuable and valued ideas through the layers of decision-makers and doubters. It is this which separates the successful innovators from the also-rans.
(Apologies for the lack of posting activity. OMC is in deep-dive mode in an ODI engagement).
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