Peter Christo

Corporations are creating a new executive role as a way to foster innovation, undertake corporate venturing and create a competitive advantage for themselves as part of their operations. Say hello to the Innovation Manager!

Innovation Managers come from everywhere, inside and out of the organisation, from HR, Marketing, Sales and even operations and supply chain management. But, who are these people? And how do they add value to the organisation?

Of course we can all see the world is changing, and it is doing so at an accelerating rate. This is happening in all aspects of our lives, from politics, to personal values to economics, climate and, consequently, in businesses who produce products and services. The innovation manager is (in part at least) a result of firms looking for that competitive edge in this new landscape. However, the approach to corporate innovation in most western businesses has a way to go before it can be effective in delivering true, measurable and accountable value to the organisation.

The ‘current state’ of corporate innovation being implemented is mainly through a range of training programs and workshops. While training is a necessary part of achieving desired outcomes, currently measurable positive outcomes are random at best. The Innovation & Commercialisation function needs to justify its existence and be as accountable as any other department otherwise it will never be taken seriously by the rest of the organisation.

The issue rests with the fact that there are little or no frameworks developed that are suited to the task, in fact, any that do exist, misunderstand the task. The issues are many, but part of the problem rests in frameworks that don’t foster innovation, in fact stifle it. What I call the ‘One No!’ problem, where just one ‘No’ from a manager kills the idea in its tracks.

If there is any doubt regarding my claim, ask yourself why innovative businesses continue to appear and compete with the established players, when these established businesses are already in the market and have all the money needed to invest in new innovations to release new products and services? Innovations mainly occur outside the enterprise (like Google’s slaying of Microsoft’s dominance and Aussie Yellow Pages inability to respond to the new business landscape, but to name a few)!

Until now, it’s very rare to find real innovation occurring inside large businesses. I suggest that there are new, educated and progressive innovation managers that are poised to change this, if they can grasp and respond to the challenges.

If you are the innovation manager for your organisation and want to help your business create a proactive and professional culture and engagement with the business on an operational and strategic level, consider the following recommendations;

1. Agree on where and how the innovation role fits into the organisation, and how it contributes to the goals of the business. This should be documented and endorsed by management. You should also include a statement of purpose not only for your role, but the activity of ‘corporate venturing’ within which innovation falls.

2. Take a portfolio and investment view of the ventures your business gets behind, taking into account yield, risk and exit and other factors relevant to the business strategy. A portfolio view means that you as the innovation manager need to be working with the strategy manager (unless you have that role too) to gauge the appetite of the business (directors) for risk.

3. Work with the Marketing department to get visibility on the changing landscape of the market and customer (ie: research). Your role needs to morph into both educator and seller of ventures that have bubbled up through your department.

4. The business needs to determine the investment amount that it has earmarked for innovation and corporate ventures. This should be separate to the operational expenditure associated with running the innovation team. There needs to be no doubt that money is available and allocated for this activity.

5. Learn to Pitch. As the innovation manager, you will need to both scrutinise opportunities for the business and Pitch them to the top table. If you can’t get excited, you need to ask yourself what your motivation for the job is.

6. Look both inside and outside the corporation for ideas and opportunities. Think head hunters, but for innovations and opportunities. Have your spy’s out there looking for you. This can be done formally and informally. Think about working with the top table to determine what constitutes a good opportunity for the business; you’ll be surprised to see that not all the directors agree.

7. The nature of corporations is to manage, control and measure rather than accepting that innovation needs time to experiment, morph, gestate and learning to occur. Your program needs to be multi dimensional, where you instil an innovation culture, skills, and KPI’s to deliver results.

8. Innovation programs need to be tied into programs that dovetail into a broader framework that rewards all stages of the process, that allows for experimentation, and can utilise the internal market forces of the business to get its opportunity ‘up’. Even the corporate suggestion box is a source of inspiration.

9. In many cases there is confusion between what is a prospective innovation (that is a commercial opportunity for the business), and what is incremental improvement, and part of business as usual BAU. Set some guidelines and clear this up with management. Don’t confuse the two.

10. Consider managers (your peers) middle to senior, are trained to minimise risk, not seek it. Also remember that one persons appetite for risk should not determine the future of an opportunity. Your innovation framework should cater for this (Say No to ‘One-No’).

11. Innovation (ie generating or identifying ideas that lead to products, services and business models that are commercialised by the corporation), is in many cases confused with R&D. If you have an R&D department, work with them as a service, not for them. If anything, the R&D department should report to the Innovation manager.

12. Finally, get some training either formal or informal. The body of knowledge in corporate innovation, entrepreneurship and innovation is evolving and interesting things are happening in academia and other firms. You should be across that as part of your role.