Sharing a compelling post and report from Bob Casey and Korn Ferry on Reigniting Growth: How Innovation Can Be a Gamechanger.
There are lots of great points, so I won’t rehash the full report. It is worth reading if you are at all committed to or even just considering building your innovation muscle.
Check out Bob’s post here: https://lnkd.in/gHRxW8_x
Or go directly to the report here: https://lnkd.in/gtKXvShq
I would reinforce 3 key points:
1. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 – The report makes the case that consumer companies have spent too long in caution-mode and cost cutting. While this works for a while, time’s up. Companies in the consumer space need to get growing again.
2. 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻…𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 – Having run businesses, I get the need to cut costs. But don’t stop there. Make sure you reinvest at least some of the savings to pursue both closer-in and bigger bet innovations.
3. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘀 – Having written about this recently, AI can be a useful tool, but ultimately, as the report points out, “talent is more important than tech to drive growth.” The big, breakthrough ideas are still going to come from having the right leadership and teams.
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱? If you are interested in but struggling to drive growth and build your innovation engine, “𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽”.
What do I mean by this? Building a high-functioning innovation capability is complicated and takes a number of elements, but fundamentally it is a form of change management. Per John Kotter‘s work, step 1 is “create the sense of urgency.” As a company you need to fully commit to pursuing innovation.
To do this, look at your growth goals. What is the gap between your 5-year goal and how much you can 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 expect to come from business as usual. No Gap? No Problem. I’ve rarely seen that, however. You can only fill the gap with acquisitions or organic innovation. Once you are committed, you are ready to get going, but that’s a topic for another day.
What are you seeing in your organization? Not enough growth? Feeling stuck on hold or in a cost cutting death spiral?
