Get ahead with innovation

Although many myths surround innovation, the authors of Making Innovation work, How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It by Tony Davila, Marc Epstein and Robert Shelton believe the execution of innovation is not any more difficult than the implementation of other management strategies.

Nonetheless, it seems as if the correct set of innovation rules has been misplaced, distorted, or misinterpreted.

Making Innovation Work challenges prevailing misconceptions and lays out the tools and processes necessary for an organisation to harness, manage and execute innovation successfully and profitably. It provides a start-to-finish process for defining strategy, integrating innovation and business strategy, balancing creativity and weaving innovation into the fabric of the business.

For any organisation, innovation represents the opportunity to survive, grow and significantly influence the direction of an industry. Blockbuster development does not, however, guarantee success, but must be followed up with successive streams of innovation, from the incremental to the radical. Knowing that the only reliable security is the ability to innovate better and longer than the competition, leading companies develop innovation portfolios that they can use to help sustain growth over the long term.

A fundamental tenet of innovation says: "How you innovate determines what you innovate." The elements of innovation – leadership, strategy, processes, resources, performance metrics, measurement and incentive rewards – and how they are arranged (i.e. organisational structure and culture) have a huge effect on the quantity and quality of an organisation. Given this reality, the authors believe that the key to successful innovation is what they call the Seven Innovation Rules.

Leadership is first because it is where a company needs to start. Metrics and rewards are last because they close the circle, creating the motivational and behavioural links to all of the other rules.

According to Davila, Epstein, and Shelton, strong leadership from senior management is essential to success. An important aspect of this kind of day-to-day leadership, which happens through commitment and solid decisions, is the creation of a portfolio of technology and business innovation. This is important in driving business success and revolutionising industries.

An example of this is Dell Computer, an enterprise that radically changed its business model in retail personal computer sales to become a worldwide success.