The 10 Rules for Innovation to Scale Your Company

1) Brave Leaders

As David Buruks explains in his Harvard Business Review article, "Innovation is not lacking in ideas but the support to make them a reality", when most organizations try to expand their efforts to innovate, they always seem to start from the same assumption: " we need more ideas. " They will start talking about the need to "think creatively" to find new ideas that can become new products or business. However, in most organizations innovation is not limited by the lack of ideas but by paying attention to the good ideas that have already emerged. "INNOVATION IS NOT LACK OF IDEAS BUT THE SUPPORT TO MAKE THEM REAL".

The Kodak research laboratory invented the first digital camera in 1975 but did not develop it. Instead, they barely paid attention while Sony developed a different prototype and stole the future of digital photography from under their noses. Xerox designed the first personal computer, but did not invest enough in the technology and allowed Steve Jobs with Apple to snatch the opportunity. In the end, not only ideas are needed, but managers with courage who bet on innovation and create mechanisms so that ideas can take their first steps to demonstrate their value in the market. We do not generate ideas, we generate leaders. In an environment where uncertainty is high and where people play their jobs based on short-term results, it is demonstrated that a conservative environment is generated, which is unfit for innovation. The own pyramidal structure of the companies prevents that the boldest and risky ideas go ahead, stopped by the managers who do not see with clarity his success in the market or too risky his development. A possible solution to this problem of "extermination of ideas" is to change the structure through which ideas must pass. Instead of using the traditional hierarchy to discover and approve ideas, the approval process could be extended by the entire organization.

There are already several companies where the employees themselves, besides being able to contribute ideas, can vote the best or directly, in gamified processes, "invest" in the most brilliant ideas. In addition to the investment, in several cases employees also volunteer to work on the ideas of the projects they support. In some company, such as Rite-Solutions, if an idea gathers enough support, the project is approved and all those who supported it receive a share of the benefits generated by the project. There are already various companies where employees, in addition to being able to provide ideas, can vote for the best, in gamified processes, and invest in brilliant ideas. These types of programs, intra-entrepreneurship and collaborative intelligences, are generating many millions of dollars in new products and strategies. This is not a solution of ideas; is a recognition solution created by Brave Leaders.

2) 10x Vision

A single phrase, clear, powerful and simple, that summarizes where the whole organization is going: The Mission. The mission is the engine of innovation, if the organization has it clear, believes it and is committed to making it possible, it will be the gas for the company. The first thing about innovation is to have clear ideas, where we want to go and what are the goals we want to achieve.

Google teaches us that it is easier to multiply by ten (10x) than it is to raise a 10%, think big! Although we all know that a 10,000km race always starts with the first step: think big and start small. You have to be able to design ambitious plans, visionaries, transformers, but at the same time, be aware that you have to chop them, create the phases, assign the right people and resources, in the right times to meet them. The role of the leaders is to design the 10x vision; always with our eyes thinking about today and tomorrow: disruptive innovation.

3) Lead through culture

We all know the famous phrase "culture eats strategy at breakfast" and we have already seen on our skin that it is the truth. We can never move an organization by force, and the bigger and more mature it is, the greater the effort will be. Innovation is not just a matter of budget, innovation is a matter of mindset and leadership. In order for innovation to flow we need all facets of the organization to innovate, to understand how to innovate, and have the ability to innovate. Innovation is a matter of commitment and passion. The most innovative companies on the planet are differentiated as they have the highest level of employee engagement: they are committed to creating a favorable climate for innovation and take care of every detail of the experience of their own employees.

4) Work, perseverance and excellence

Innovating is not having a brilliant idea from time to time, it's an everyday job. Innova is a constant work, a long road, a long distance race where we will find many difficulties. No product will work at the first attempt; You need continuous improvement, revision, change, it requires a daily work, and that is the secret of success. The question is not to do everything well, but to learn quickly and mark the following steps before others, being willing to make improvements at every moment and to admit that what we had thought not. It was the right thing.

The challenges that we face today are always more ambitious and complicated, that's why we need to look for excellence. In order to respond to today's challenges, we not only need bright ideas, but we really need specialist teams and centers of excellence to develop these ideas. Create in your organization centers of excellence, working with agile methodologies (Design Thinking, Lean Startups, Agile) and with the best possible equipment that is really capable of passing from the laboratory to the market successfully. No matter what the problem is, technology will always be part of the solution: it leads the technologies that really have the potential to change the world and any business: Cognitive computing (Big Data & Artificial Intelligence), Internet of things, Blockchain, Economy Collaborative, Cybersecurity, 3D printing, etc No product will function at the first attempt; need a continuous improvement, the review, the change, requires a daily job, and that is the secret of success.

5) Ideas are everywhere: lead your tribe, look for your catalysts

The basic principle of innovation is to be open and receptive to what happens around you and know how to make the most of it. You have to involve all your "Tribes" in your innovation process: Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Experts, etc. We need to create a platform for innovation, create an ecosystem around our company, that will help and inspire us. As Seth Godin says: count one History, connect with a tribe, lead a movement and make the change happen. To accelerate the innovation process the fundamental key is to identify the innovation catalysts and the innovation viralizers within the organization to work to expand innovation throughout the entire organization. To identify them it is very easy, in Opinno we have even automated tools, try to ask 100 people of your organization: If you had an innovation project with whom you would launch it? If you had a question to whom would you ask? If you need to connect with someone from the organization that you do not know, who would you go to? ... you will see that the names that are repeated will be 10/15, working with them will be everything easier.

6) Be a platform

With the same opening principle of the previous point, seeks to be your platform on which others innovate. The clear and obvious example are Google and Apple, are the most innovative companies in the world especially for their ability to open collaborative platforms, to ensure that anyone on the planet with talent can contribute their grain of sand to one of their products. Something similar is seen in Linux or in the more "classic" platforms such as Goretex or P & G. When the userb helps to co-create the strength of collective intelligence is unstoppable.

7) Integrated intelligence

"Whoever hits first hits double". This phrase is usually used for situations that are not very pleasant, in innovation it is the same. We have to arrive before the others to discover blue oceans in our markets.To reach the blue oceans we need and have to be constantly listening, in order to anticipate others. We need to establish active listening mechanisms in the market that allow us to identify trends, technologies and data that allow us to anticipate our competitors. We need to establish mechanisms of active listening in the market that allow us to identify trend, technologies, and data that anticipate our competitors actions. We have to deploy an active listening strategy and not only look at our sector, but see what is happening in the world in general, with special attention to the technological world. Activating a surveillance team is essential to be able to innovate successfully, as well as to be continuously listening to our customers and making decisions based on data: Voice of the Customer Lab.

8) Agile Management: never stop failing

Failing in the world of the company (and in many cases in life) is not a problem, if we learn from that failure, we will obtain very useful information to keep improving. It is important to change our beliefs regarding failure and launch ourselves to diversify, test, learn and not wait for a perfect product, in which we have invested everything and on which we have focused all your energies to launch it to the market ... the market can tell you no, it is not useful ... and it is good to know, but if you do it fast, cheap, learning and with controlled risks, better. In Silicon Valley it is said that if you are not ashamed of the beta version of your product, it is that you have taken too long to release it. We already see Lean and Agile methodologies, previously used in the world of startups and technology, today they are the key to success for many large organizations and not only from the technological point of view. In today´s day of age the useful life of a product is average, less than 24 months. We can not be 18 months of trying to create a business plan and rebuilding it. We need to manage to become more agile and lose fear in the marketplace. Do not be afraid to fail, do not be afraid to say that you have made a mistake ... it is the only way to success.

9) 360 degree alliances

In today's world, to think that you can do everything is the big mistake. The successful companies of today are ecosystems that integrate their entire value chain. To innovate we need to develop successful alliances, not only from the technological side or product construction, but also to reach the market. Today's managers need to be able to lead complex consortiums, they have to go much further than leading a team that is obliged to respond to their orders due to contractual conditions. Really today we have to seek to generate synergies, win wins and value propositions that make things work. We have to integrate our entire value chain, not through contracts but through value propositions that generate benefits in all parts. The current manager must know how to lead the complexity, creating proposals of value for all its stakeholders that make everyone pull down the same path.

10) Corporate Venture Builder and Digital LABs

We need to create in organizations the instruments for innovation to flourish. We need to really recreate an environment that works at a different speed than the internal one of a mature organization, where it can really fail without fear of compromising the current business, where teams have a different way of working that allows them to go faster. Call them "Corporate Venture Builders" or "Digital Labs." The incubators and accelerators are no longer working, for the simple reason that they were designed to take a group of people with ideas, accompany them for 6/12 months, give them capital, training and resources to access the market and if you are successful you go ahead and if you fail, you go back. But this model is very capital intensive and has something that makes it inefficient, if in 6/12 months you do not work you go back home ... with all you have learned and with everything you have developed. For this reason we like to talk about Venture Builder, which are places where you really want to have the best talent you can have working full time in solving challenges and creating business. This team of special forces is growing and working on new projects all the time, with the tranquility of having sufficient funding that allows you to arrive at least until the validation with the market and the tranquility of being able to fail without affecting its continuity.

The venture builder award has the capacity of attracting talent and this is why they are the future. Venture builders have a big difference, compared to accelerators and incubators ... they are intensive in talent and not intensive in capital, the ability to attract and retain talent is rewarded, compared to the deal flow of projects that you receive, for this reason they are the future . The current challenges are too complex for an entrepreneur or intra-entrepreneur to respond to his first attempt, we need new mechanisms to select the best, give a methodology of work, funding and peace of mind to help us generate the new businesses we need. We need to create a parallel organization, a place of testing, where knowledge is recycled and with the best teams focused on creating new technologies and new businesses.We have to prioritize investment in talent, as opposed to investing in ideas and projects.

I would like to conclude this article with a reflection: It is better to disrupt than to be disrupted.Innovate!