A continuous innovation pipeline is a necessity for business if they are to remain relevant and profitable. Customer needs change, expand, and evolve, regulations shift, and technology advances frequently and quickly. As a result, companies must continually innovate or suffer.
Small, Dedicated Team Can Steer Change
The idea of continually innovating is often daunting for leaders and implementers. Consequently, many organizations believe innovation must involve a huge group of players to manage the scope of the work. Unfortunately, this approach can lead to confusion and high expenses, with little or no significant results.
Fortunately, this needn’t be the case. Business can create a continuous innovation pipeline by utilizing a small, dedicated team. This makes innovation more manageable, measurable, cost-effective, and significant.
Pinpointing Actionable Ideas
The idea of a continuous innovation pipeline rests on an innovation team. Their prime purpose is the generation of the steady flow of actionable ideas. This may include thoughts on almost any area of business.
For instance, they could suggest an idea on how to improve a project or solve a specific problem. They may also consider changing a product or modifying a service. Other ideas may include methods to strengthen infrastructure or better utilize existing resources.
Initially, the team considers all ideas. As the process continues, they examine whether legal, security, policy, finance, compatibility, scalability and deployment challenges can be overcome. They also investigate whether similar products and services are already offered by competitors.
Eventually, some ideas within the innovation pipeline weaken. Others strengthen or converge. Finally, they eliminate unfeasible ideas. This targeted process ultimately separates the most actionable ideas from those that do not meet company needs, saving time and resources.
Prioritizing Innovation
Once the team has curated the most actionable ideas, they prioritize where to focus efforts first. Often times, the team has already been given a clear picture of where the company needs to improve, but not the methods to achieve it.
As an example, the company may want to strengthen their existing business model and core capabilities. Alternatively, they may choose to respond to disruption already impacting their business. They may also want to employ disruptive technologies is to create a competitive advantage.
From this point, each chosen idea is put to the test. The hypothesis is challenged to discover whether it fulfills its intention and fits organizational needs. Fortunately, creating a continuous innovation pipeline ensures only the most actionable ideas move forward.
As mentioned, a continuous innovation pipeline saves time and resources. However, this systematic, continuous process also creates momentum as it drives innovation in small steps. Simultaneously, it builds organizational capabilities gradually and continually improves competitiveness.
Even though most organizations know they face the threat of disruption and potentially failure, they still need compelling evidence to make innovation decisions. Luckily, a continuous innovation pipeline is a very sensible method that offers solid data for informed decisions.
Speeding Innovation Through Collaboration
Regrettably, any company can become bogged down during the innovation process, rather than operating with the speed and urgency that it demands. However, it is possible to speed innovation when a company collaborates.
Business does not need to focus inwardly when it is time to curate ideas and identify suitable technologies. Equally, they needn’t start innovating from the ground up. In many cases, startups and scaleups are already developing appropriate disruptive solutions. It’s just a matter of matching what enterprise needs to what’s already in the works.
Partnering with a seasoned business leader can provide direction and resources. EarlyBirds offers self-service and assisted services specifically designed to support the acceleration of actionable innovation.
EarlyBirds Innovation Ecosystem
The EarlyBirds Innovation Ecosystem is a Business-to-Business portal connecting Innovators, Early Adopters, and Subject Matter Experts. Early Adopters are leaders or influencers in an organisation eager to identify new and disruptive technologies. They want to seize opportunities, solve business challenges, or create new products and services.
The Ecosystem has a data pool of over 4 million global innovations that may already address your organization’s challenges. Alternatively, organisations can list their challenges and request solutions from innovators.
EarlyBirds Explorer Program
The Explorer Program is tailored towards those who need innovation as a service to supplement existing innovation programs, or to conduct innovation projects when required.
EarlyBirds Challenger Program
The Challenger Program focuses on a single organisational or technical challenge. It looks for the most relevant innovators that meet your organisational, technical, and risk requirements.
The program is run by an EarlyBirds Subject Matter Expert who collects your organisational requirements. The SME then searches the data pool to identify and curate options for further evaluation. The most suitable option is chosen and the SME drafts a roadmap of next steps, POC, trial, or implementation.
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EarlyBirds can provide direction and expertise if your organisation needs to create a continuous innovation pipeline. We can find innovative solutions and connect your organisation to appropriate disruptive technology.
We help organisations find direction and accelerate innovation within their silo and through external collaboration. Our expertise extends to many sectors including Operations & Maintenance, Energy, Education, Healthcare, the Public Sector, and more.
Register at https://earlybirds.io/, or contact us to discuss your needs.