The New Innovation Value Chain Perhaps?

These are simply some opening thoughts. For a long time, I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the way we have managed or even depicted the innovation value chain.

I really think we should bring it up to date.

There has been such a considerable change taking place in many of the parts of innovation management, I think we need to replace the existing fuzzy front end, the pipeline and portfolio stage followed by execution with something far more reflective of how we think and what we deploy today as tools, methods and frameworks to deliver innovation.

The ‘old approach’ just does not calibrate anymore for me with where we have been heading, or more importantly in how we are attempting to manage innovation within our organizations.

So I feel we need to determine a new innovation value chain and would like to make the first attempt

Firstly we need to group the tools, methods or focus activities within the three heading I tend to feel are emerging as the ‘three stages’ of innovation.

The three stages of innovation are

1) Business Opportunity Identification. The search for business ideas that seem to offer opportunity, in its design, need and insight identification

2) The Testing, Exploring, Advancing and Learning stage. How we turn ideas and opportunities as quickly as we can into workable prototypes and where we can test the hypothesis in a direct understanding of their value in the marketplace. These will continue to be looped back from these iterations into more viable offerings (products, services, business concepts) that continue to show commercial promise as they progress through evaluations.

3) Capturing, Scaling, Executing and Delivering. Through the planning out of the portfolio, an increasing clarity emerges of its positioning. you are increasingly able to define its business model position, its strategic design, validation and re-tune its final value proposition from the customer engagement and increasing diffusion. You scale, execute and deliver accordingly on its perceived value and value creation impact.

This is my first attempt at recognizing the changing innovation value chain and what makes up its component parts for managing innovation.

These stages are not linear and sequential but loopback when they need to, so I have not put them, certainly at this time, not in a linear visual but as the phases that we need to work through in our innovation thinking and the management of the process.

I believe we do need to have a radical redesign of the innovation management process, partly to reflect the changes that have been occurring.

We are moving increasingly from products to solutions, from transactions to growing far more value-adding ongoing relationships, from a supplier of product services into highly valued network partnerships, exploring innovation across all options, instead of delivering on discrete elements. Innovation is becoming more complex, and multi-dimensional but lending itself to change.

We need a innovation process that is fully integrated, connected and compatible and can flow across our activities. with the objectives s of the business to grow and recognizes that there is the need to build a sustainable innovation capability going forward.

We are pioneering, experimenting and validating in new and very different ways into identifying different business opportunities, by testing, exploring, advancing and learning so we can deliver those that have been tested so as to be moved into more scalable, commercial propositions that meet customers needs?

Does this grouping and what each ‘houses makes sense? As I state, it is a work- in-progress and I am looking for reactions and more importantly contributions but without doubt we DO have to change the way we depict the innovation process.

We do need to bring it far more up to date and in tune with what organizations are attempting to set about for their innovation management. Any additional thoughts or views on this?