Last week, several of my fellow innovation enthusiasts on #innochat and I were discussing the best tools / platforms / resources companies use to facilitate innovation. People shared excellent examples, such as P&G’s Connect+Develop approach, Invention Machine’s Goldfire, and tools like Sharepoint that allow distributed teams to work together.
One thing, though, that became apparent is that tools and platforms can be successful only if their use is supported from the top down - C-Level support of innovation is critical. With that in mind, I think there’s another question those of us in the innovation world need to ask ourselves: If we all agree that executive buy-in is imperative, why don't we have more tools/techniques around securing that buy-in?
I don’t have the definitive answer, but one thing I’ve found helpful is to learn exactly what gets measured within an organization, and then draw connections between those things and innovation. For example, if a company wants x% of its revenues to come from the sale of green products and services by the year 2012, it probably makes sense to link innovation efforts to that objective. Or, if the goal is to increase customer retention by y%, then that should be one of the metrics by which innovation is measured.
It’s important to recognize it’s not enough to make this linkage only once. The connection between what gets measured and innovation has to be made repeatedly. Virtually all innovation-related materials, reports, resulting concepts, etc. should contain some reminder of how this effort will help the company reach its goals.
That’s not to say that more tactical innovation and collaboration/knowledge management tools aren’t important. But if we can’t lock down the prerequisite C-level agreement, innovation efforts don’t stand much of a chance.
I’d be interested in hearing what others have done to secure top-level innovation buy-in. Please share!
Gwen Smith Ishmael