DC Velocity - Digital 2018

Special Delivery

should be tied to strategic goals, have a time component, and include a financial target (for example, percentage of revenue increase, dollar amount of cost savings, or percentage of increase in sales). They should also drive innovation activity (for example, number of ideas generated, number of prototypes implemented, and so forth). Keep the focus fairly narrow—define the most important outcomes to assess, and be willing to adjust if needed to drive the right structure and desired behaviors.

Structure— The best innovation ideas are generated once
parameters have been defined to clarify the issue at hand.
Ideally, this involves collaboration among all stakehold-
ers—including vendors, staff, customers, and end users.
The innovation process should be appropriately scaled
and structured so that all stakeholders can understand the
opportunities, the process, and the appropriate boundaries
of the initiative. It is helpful to establish a governance com-
mittee or council that will help guide the innovation efforts.
This group should be made up of key decision makers in
the organization. They will help define this structure and
ask questions such as: Will an interdisciplinary team be
established? Will innovation be a part of everyone’s job? Or
will there be an individual who is charged to lead this new
function?

Innovation is not a science; rather, it is a combination of art and management that should become a repeatable process for your company to help you build a culture of creativity. The structure you develop, then, must not be so rigid as to limit creativity and cause fear of failure.

A key deliverable of the governance stage is a matrix that defines how potential innovation projects are to be weighted once ideas have been generated and researched. The weighting will be determined to some extent by your innovation goals and measures, but there are other key