Many business managers are already starting to embrace innovation and accord it the seriousness it deserves. However, with it comes a number of myths and poor ways of handling innovation. One of the myths that corporate managers have allowed to gain ground is the belief that, when it comes to innovation, anything goes. They falsely believe that no idea should be said to be bad, and all forms of innovation should be allowed a chance to blossom. This assumption is utterly counterproductive. It makes innovation to be less significant, with some ideas having a negligible impact on the company’s performance.
Not every idea is good. There are good and bad ones, and corporate leaders shouldn’t ignore this fact. An enterprise cannot just take in any idea regardless of the impact it will have on the company. It doesn’t matter how viable it looks; if it adds no value to the company’s operations, then it is not worth adopting. A bad idea, however financially feasible it appears, can stretch a company’s resources without bringing in any major benefits and affect the business’s financial standing.
The Importance of Making the Right Choices
Corporate managers are tasked with making choices for their companies. However, a number of the managers I have come across seem to make randomized and not-well-thought-out choices. Their decisions seem to incline towards favoring employees aligned to them, giving them more attention and access to the company resources. The managers seem to have their view of innovation strategies clouded by political inclinations with no clearly charted guidelines.
This way of doing things presents a whole lot of problems. First, it is counterproductive, providing poor returns while using up company resources. Second, it creates an atmosphere where employees aren’t motivated to bring into the business some good ideas to help with productivity and performance. It leaves the leaders in such companies lamenting the lack of innovation amongst their teams when they have no idea how to encourage it. Still, most of the corporate leaders who complain about the lack of ideas amongst their employees do not know how to distinguish a good idea from a bad one.
The Innovation Thesis; Why it is Important
To set a clear path and encourage innovative strategies or ideas, companies need to have a well laid out innovation thesis. Company managers need to spell out how they intend to use innovation to lead the company in tackling issues that come up in their line of business. The innovation thesis helps bring out the company’s plans to generate ideas and should be in line with the company’s overall strategy.
The Essentials of an Innovation Thesis
In structuring a company’s innovation thesis, the following should be taken into consideration.
• The Company’s Portfolio;
It entails ascertaining where the company currently stands in both products and services. It helps to know which specific aspects of the company portfolio are performing and which are going downhill. It presents a way to gauge the viability of each, know which ones need to be dropped and which need to be revamped. Only when the position of the company is known can meaningful innovation strategies be developed or implemented.
• The Business Atmosphere;
It involves looking outside the company to understand what the business environment looks like. Doing so helps identify the economic, technological and the social trends that are shaping the business environment, and how they are likely to affect the company. With this kind of information, formulating and developing ideas that impact positively to transform the company becomes possible.
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