Most innovations fail within three years, according to Scott Kirsner, editor of Innovation Leader, a resource for innovation executives, and a business columnist for the Boston Globe.
In an article for Harvard Business Review, Mr. Kirsner wrote innovations are most vulnerable when companies attempt to scale them across business units. Maybe communication isn't great, or the business units feel they didn't have a say in the process or they are not equipped with the right resources to make the project succeed. Perhaps there are simply no people dedicated to making sure the ball stays in the air.
The solution is something Mr. Kirsner calls "constructive connectivity." Essentially, businesses need to create an alliance between research and development teams and the departments who are putting their innovations into action. The ideas need to be tethered to operational goals.
To do this, Mr. Kirsner suggests organizations intertwine business units with R&D teams by providing funding, discussing their top day-to-day issues and even sending members from the front lines through rotations with the innovation teams, and vice versa. He also suggests organizations decentralize R&D teams across various business units or departments and retain a small corporate innovation team to coach each division individually.
Read the full article here.
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