How can you turn innovation into profitable growth?

How can you turn innovation into profitable growth?

There are 5 components to innovation:

• ideation
• selection
• nurturing,
• launch, and,
• killing failures early.

Before discussing each, there are four factors to note.

1. All the factors are interrelated, although most people don't stop to realize that. You need to know all pieces tie together, because a breakdown in one can affect what happens thereafter. If you can improve the nurturing and launching of ideas, for example, you can improve their flow.

2. This is an observable process. You can observe and diagnose how well your organization deals with each component. You can rank your firm's ability to handle each function on a scale of one to ten. And you will also be able to observe how well your company, or business unit, handles the overall flow within each of these 5 components. The selection process should be transparent. Everyone should know the criteria that will decide whether the concept will be funded.

3. You can't pursue every idea, and not all ideas are created equal. After you have surfaced as many ideas as possible, pick the best ones to fund. Kill off the rest. There are criterias you use to make that decision.

4. Finally, these are 5 distinct steps to getting an idea into the marketplace. Each requires a unique set of skills.