Avoiding the Seven Chronic Innovation Problems

The last thirty years have revealed a continual shift in R&D spend and innovation from large organizations to small firms containing fewer than five-thousand employees.¹⋅²  To illuminate why, we identified seven chronic problems that we see trip-up innovation efforts in large organizations daily.

Over the last few weeks my co-author of The Chief Innovation Officer’s Playbook, Bill Poston, has drilled into each of these chronic innovation problems in an effort to help executives spot symptoms in their organizations.

As a Chief Innovation Officer, you should identify where these problems reside in your organization and the impact they have on your innovation performance.

I highly encourage you to use the links below to see what Bill has to say about these problems and what you should be doing about them.

 

The Seven Chronic Innovation Problems

1. Lack of an innovation strategy
   • What are our organic growth growth goals?
   • How much should we invest in innovation?
   • What is our tolerance for risk?
2. Lack of cross-functional alignment
   • Do functional business leaders recognize the value of innovation?
   • Is innovation “thrown-over-the-wall” from function to function?
3. Overloaded product development pipelines
   • Are resources booked over 150% capacity?
   • Are projects getting stuck in our pipeline?
   • Is there never enough time in a day to focus on fun, high-value projects?
4. Rampant incrementalism
   • Do incremental projects comprise over 70% of our portfolio?
   • Do we balance sustaining core business performance with long-term growth from innovation?
   • Do we use different evaluation metrics for innovation initiatives and ongoing operations?
5. Unclear accountability for results
   • Who has accountability for innovation results?
   • Where do they sit in the organization?
6. Short-term orientation
   • Is employee role turnover impacting project success in-market?
   • Is “innovation” something that only happens after the urgent work has been done?
7. Lack of skills
   • Do our employees have the knowledge, experiences and competencies to innovate successfully?
   • What is the average age of our technical and commercial resources?
   • Are we actively grooming innovation leaders?

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
¹ National Science Foundation, Science Resource Studies, Survey of Industrial Research Development, 1991, 1999, 2001, 2013.
² Joseph Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934].

 

The Chief Innovation Officer: Is It CIO, CNO, or CINO?

by Bill Poston and Sean Klein

.

The great Chief Innovation Officer acronym confusion has obscured a much more important conversation. Just what is a Chief Innovation Officer? I don’t care what acronym becomes the norm, but I am concerned about the number of executives claiming the mantle of Chief Innovation Officer without having the requisite scope of responsibilities to do the job well.

A Chief Technology Officer can’t just change their title and expect to dramatically improve their organization’s innovation results from within R&D. Likewise, simply changing “Information” to “Innovation” in your title doesn’t fundamentally alter your role. The “New CIO” is not just a more creative version of the Chief Information Officer. At their core, these roles are radically different.

The role of the Chief Innovation Officer is to drive innovation capabilities across functions and geographies to deliver better business results. In large, multinational, multi-business unit companies, this role typically has limited positional authority. A successful Chief Innovation Officer is a master of influence. They formulate strategy and establish a coalition of individuals across business units, functions, and geographies to improve the execution of all types of innovation. This includes innovation beyond products to include service, business model, channel and commercial innovation. Importantly, they also lead the development of domain expansion and incubate disruptive innovations that might not survive in an established business.

In my opinion the Chief Innovation Officer must be a member of the corporate executive team, preferably reporting to the CEO. The best people in this role lead small dedicated teams and are charged with the following set of cross-functional responsibilities and accountabilities:

• Improve and deliver business results from innovation
• Lead the measurement and analysis of innovation results
• Formulate and communicate innovation strategy
• Identify disruptive threats and opportunities based on trends
• Shape and manage the corporate innovation portfolio
• Cultivate and sponsor breakthrough innovation initiatives
• Evolve innovation business disciplines and competencies
• Create and nurture a culture conducive to innovation
• Develop innovation roles, talents, and career paths
• Define and monitor innovation metrics and measures

This is a big job. One that we wouldn’t want to adopt the title of unless chartered by the CEO and had the staff, funding and executive support necessary to tackle these responsibilities effectively.

With this full scope of responsibilities considered, we think you will agree that, unless your company’s value proposition is delivered through information systems, this role is beyond the reach of the Chief Information Officer or even the Chief Technology Officer. The cross-functional nature of the role, and the broad skillsets required, necessitate someone with a balance of commercial, technical, and managerial experience.

So let’s stop worrying about the right acronym and let’s stop using the title inappropriately. To be a legitimate Chief Innovation Officer you have to be able to sustain superior returns on you firm’s investment in innovation. In most large organizations this will require a transformation in the way products are developed, businesses are created, and innovation is delivered.

Like we said, this is a big job – regardless of what you call it.

For collaborative articles by Bill & Sean please visit: The Chief Innovation Officer.com