Get the ball rolling

That word – ‘innovation’, usually finds its place in organizations’ strategy either directly or indirectly as a non linear initiative, budget thrown in and going back to business as usual.
Not so surprisingly, there is a huge gap which gets created between the strategy and what eventually happens on the ground.

What can one do to get the ball rolling in the right direction?

1) Do one simple check as a first step, see that the strategy involving the word ‘innovation’ is not done just to make your annual presentation look good but is aligned to a business objective.

2) Leave lot of room for change on the way, having a direction is good when it comes to innovation, but don’t get stuck with it.

3) Conflict of opinion is a biggest killer of innovation, and dropping the project is more often the way out to avoid the disagreements.

For a strategic objective to increase the sales, you will find things like better branding, advertisement, and new geography in the operations plan. Similarly the pillars of your innovation operations plan should be a) Platform conducive for innovation b) Encouragement - be it reward or recognition c) Non political transparent process to evaluate ideas.

You have the pins lined up; and you have the ball.