Execution. That one word is more often than not the
difference between innovation, failure and success. It sounds simple enough.
But the reality is anything but. Without the successful integration of ideas at
the back end, innovation doesn't happen.
With
BEI Back End of
Innovation 2013 quickly approaching, we wanted to get an expert’s
point of view on innovation strategy in today’s increasingly complex and
competitive business landscape. We were in luck. Maria B. Thompson, Director of
Innovation Strategy, Intellectual Asset Management, Office of the CTO at
Motorola Solutions, sat down with us to discuss innovation strategy, execution,
and culture. Here is what she had to say:
IIR: What is
a fundamental characteristic or skill to lead innovation?
Thompson: Abstract
and analogous thinking skills are paramount to leading innovation. In order to
coach and mentor others to unleash their collective creativity, one must be
able to reframe problems and solutions in generic ways, so diverse-thinking non
subject matter experts in the domain of the problem can engage, and bring their
creative and novel perspectives to bear on a broader solution space.
“We cannot solve our problems with
the same level of thinking that created them.” Albert
Einstein
IIR: What
best practices support successful innovation execution? What typically stands
in its way?
Thompson: The
key aspect for successful execution on innovation is dedicated time and
resources for conversion of the original idea to a commercial
high-business-value product or service. In our experience, conversion must be
treated as a first-class program deliverable, with time allocated in Program
Plans and Performance Management evaluation systems. Our global Innovation Champions
all have a Performance Management goal to spend 20 percent of their time on
Innovation, which includes acting as evangelists for the best ideas and
concepts that should be resourced and moved onto our product roadmaps.
IIR: What is
the key to building an internal innovation culture?
Thompson: It takes a village. In other words, you need
to have a “social” network of change catalysts committed to the innovation
cause. We call these catalysts “Innovation Champions” and “Inventor Mentors.”
These change catalysts are role models for innovation and inventing and
co-resident at all global sites. They are selected for their past contributions
to innovative products, features and services, and have performance goals they
are measured on with regard to their efforts to support an innovation culture
and to increase innovation yield within and across businesses.
IIR: What is
the biggest obstacle you faced in your innovation strategy? How did you
overcome it?
Thompson: Time
and resource allocation. PDW, Performance Management… but mostly executive
sponsorship. Without senior leadership supporting and visibly recognizing and
rewarding employees for their efforts in prioritizing forward-looking work,
people will prioritize “business-as-usual.”
IIR: What is
a piece of advice you would give companies who are creating a corporate
innovation strategy?
Thompson: Start
by building on innovative work people are already doing. Prioritize the most
important and strategic areas and communicate, communicate, communicate.
Recognize ongoing efforts aligned with these priorities, support them, and
reward them. Help everyone - across all functions- understand how they can
contribute to the innovation pipeline – it is not only the engineering or
research role to be innovative!
Thompson will be
speaking at the upcoming BEI 2013 conference November 13-15 in Santa
Clara, CA.
BEI allows you to build your custom experience- from keynote
luminaries (including best-selling author Vijay Govindarajan & Google's
innovation evangelist Michele R. Weslander-Quaid), to field trips (PARC, Intuit
& PayPal), to business cases (Eli Lilly, Coca-Cola, Motorola, J&J,
Colgate & more) to learning labs, to full day open space collaborative
exercises . You pick it, you curate it, you achieve it. YOU are in control.
November 18-20, 2013
Hyatt Regency
Santa Clara, CA
See you in November,
Cheers,
The BEI Team
@BEI_Innovation
