Innovations Management

At the core of innovation management lies disciplined leadership and tactical thinking that strikes a
delicate balance between the performance engine (existing operations) and the innovation engine.
Innovation management is defined as” a combination of the management of innovation processes and
change management. It refers to product, business processes and organizational innovation
“(Wikipedia.)

The value proposition of a successful innovation can never be underestimated, even well managed
companies have failed when faced with disruptive innovations. Imagine what solar powered engines
will do to the petroleum industry? Or most recently what the advent of the Compact Disc did to the
Video/ Audio cassette and vinyl records companies? One man drove Apple to success; two others
created Google and another young man, now a father founded Facebook; these men have changed
the world in ways never imagined.

Well managed companies have fallen when faced with powerful disruptive innovations and certainly
more companies will fold as more and more innovators defy the odds and tread even where angels
fear. Such is the power of innovations changing the completion of the competition in an amazing way.

In this article the author will argue that a more proactive approach that anticipates known and
unknown conflicts and building a strong team can increase the chances of launching a successful
invention.

Resource Allocation and utilization

To push an innovations initiative through the tedious innovation process leadership needs to separate
the innovation team and its operations as far as possible from the existing operations. While at the
same time letting the innovations team’s operations be sufficiently close to the existing operations to
leverage on the existing assets such as brand, finances, networks etc.

It is critical that to mitigate the competition for resources, the innovation team should submit a
separate request for their resources and budgetary needs. The innovation team should pay for the
services of the shared resources and if quantifying the services is not possible they need to pay for
their full costs. Failure to pay for the services provided even though it is an intra -organizational service
will make the leaders of the performance team de prioritize the innovations’ teams’ work. The
Innovation team needs to take into consideration the stage and level of the business in order to
balance agility and scale.

There is an inevitable need to discuss contingency plans with regards to shared services in the event
that growth requires more or vice versa, failure to have one in place might lead to conflicts.

The existing operations have a better argument to spend resources as they are larger, established and
their plans are more quantifiable therefore the innovation team can only promise a bright future. The
odds are against innovation hence the need for a persuasive, collaborative and diplomatic approach
together with the intervention of top leadership.

Conflict management

The innovation leaders should anticipate conflicts and proactively mitigate or neutralize them.
Innovation deals with a high degree of uncertainties whilst existing operations work with a degree of
certainty and budgets are changed by insignificant margins. As the operations’ grows there will be a
high demand of more resources such that the innovations team will have to fight for resources and
even advocating for a higher priority and higher budget. This will bring conflict as a new budget process
is brought into the picture. The leaders of the dedicated team should ensure that they are not viewed
as rivals, antagonists or rebels by the performance engine. Innovation team should consistency be in
touch with the political , economic, social and environmental issues that potentially have an impact
on the business to ensure that it remains relevant and alive

Building a successful innovation team

This is key to innovation success and there is need for a dedicated team to be assembled. Their sole
mandate is to push the breakthrough idea through the stages of the innovation process and there has
to be a separation from the team working on the existing operations.

The dedicated team cannot work alone, it requires some interaction with the staff from the existing
operations to give input in a number of key areas especially of leveraging on resources, information
and the brand of the organisation.

The configuration, structure and management of the innovations team is so different from that of the
existing operations hence the need for separation of the teams.

Selection of the team members is critical, the team should be made up of highly talented and highly
energetic people. The key is to identify the skills, hire the best people and organizing their efforts in
such a way that they do not mimic the status quo in the organization. The organisation needs to be
clear of the specific skills (individual skills) and the general skills (innovation skills) that the team will
require. Create a framework or structure in the processes so that flow of ideas, changes or people are
adequately managed.

The leadership of this team should include those that have served on an innovation dedicated team
before, should be politically astute, competent in team and partnership building.

Common pitfalls to successful selection

1. Bias towards insiders
The organization should choose the best people for the team and should refrain from deluding themselves into
believing that they have the talent they require within the confines of their organisation. If the best individuals are
outside their organisation they need to go all the way into bringing that talent within the organisation. Settling for
insiders exposes the dedicated team to two risks, inadequate skills and falling into the trap of institutional memory.
However, there is need to strike a balance between the insiders and the outsiders between the insiders and
outsiders working on the initiative and both extreme of having either insiders or outsiders only is not sustainable.

2. Defining roles and responsibilities

Dedicated teams can fall into the trap of existing working partnerships with the performance engine if all of its
members are from within the organization. Borrowing titles and job descriptions from the performance engine can
be a key determinant as ascertaining of authority and informal engagements at the same level are easily crafted
due to clarity of positions. The use of new and unfamiliar titles is key as it aids the process of breaking and rebuilding
working relationships. Leaders need to physically separate the dedicated team and the performance team as
regular face to face interactions slows the breakdown of existing relationships. So a balance that the tilts innovation
team towards the specific thrust of the innovation initiative, has to be sort with the team members with the
relevant background.

3. Dominance of performance engine

Every organization has a function that is a centre of power. It is critical that the power within the dedicated team
is determined by what is intended to be achieved. The most common areas of expertise of the leaders of the
dedicated team creates the power centre, if most leaders are from a marketing background the team tends to
have marketing as a powerful function within the team. So a balance that tilts the innovation team towards the
specific thrust of the innovation initiative has to be complimented with team members with the relevant
background.
 What is key to note is the identification of the function that is the centre of power? Decision whether to shift the
power to where it will yield better results?

4. Performance appraisal of dedicated teams

Performance appraisal of the dedicated team need to be informed by the key results which is managing the
innovation process. Compared to the performance engine where the outcome is uncertain and measurable, the
innovation team is usually works with unknown outcome and immeasurable results hence the need to think
through the performance management system.
Therefore scenarios planned can ultimately be a tool used to measure performance of the innovations team.

5. Creating distinct culture

Every organisation has its own culture, usually built around a major breakthrough or major event of the
organisation. It is shaped by events of the past that then dictated the pace of events over time. It is paramount
that an organisation takes time to study its culture and make conscious choices as to which aspects of the culture
to take to the dedicated team and which ones to leave. Hence change management of the existing team and culture
integration of the new team is vital.

6. Use of existing processes

Existing processes are the most apparent source of institutional memory and are usually codified for performance
engine to ensure consistency and efficiency. Whilst dedicated teams face the challenge to come up with completely
new resources. The temptation to copy existing processes is high when the processes are almost similar. The
innovation team should never at any given time duplicate the processes of the performance engine. However the
innovation team needs to identify the processes that are working and those that are not. Hence the team should
focus on areas not working and further analyse the interaction with the working areas. The role of the innovation
team is to anticipate the areas of pitfall where processes are already working.

7. Tyranny of conformance
Rigidly enforced standardisation is bad for dedicated teams, support functions such as HR, IT, Finance are usually
under tremendous pressure to be cost effective and the obvious panacea to cost reduction is standardize. The
dedicated team should be treated as an exception in this regard.

In conclusion, selection of members to serve on the dedicated team should be an uncomfortable

exercise. It is essential that the skills required are identified, the best people are hired and crafting of
the dedicating team from scratch. These people are meant to drive the organisation into the future
by always identifying opportunities, anticipating pitfalls and understanding limitless possibilities.

No matter how good the leader is no amount of coaxing the wrong team will work out as
organisational memory is a powerful force.

If you cannot change the people: change the people.