To Take a Leap of Faith​

Amichai Gross

Ami Gross

There are those that dream and those who do

I would like to start this article stating that there are two types of organizations those that are dreaming of innovating and those that actually do and have truly committed to innovation.

This article does not deal with organizations that are not planning for innovation, which you will most likely see disappear in the upcoming years. In today’s era, companies are mostly dealing with how implement innovation in order to better position themselves to the future. It is imperative that your organization will find the right innovation process and tools that will fit your DNA. There are many processes (Ideation, Design Sprint, Enterprenurship, Social Innovation, Open Innovation and more) and many tools to implemen them.

Choosing an innovation process and set of tools has a to be correlated with the organization’s vision, ability, culture, aptitude and overall appetite for innovation. Saying all that it the organization must first decide that it’s serious about innovation, which means the organization must inject innovation into its vision, goals and planning in order to succeed.

Innovation is not a side job or a second-third hat, its a way of life that the organization must decide on. The new path may lead to disruption of old habits, but an organization and its leaders must be passionate and brave to take on this amazing journey which can lead to new ventures, processes, products, services and most likely new people that will lead and guide the organization into its bright future.

The first steps

Your first step needs to be to assess:

  • The culture of integrating organization-wide changes​
  • The level of communication within the organization​
  • The management’s aptitude and attitude towards innovation​
  • The organization’s abilities to take on innovation​
  • The areas which innovation can and should adopt first​
  • Understand the organization's DNA​

Your first step needs to be to assess:

Maturity assessment​

The innovation maturity assessment is a set of questionnaires and interviews that give a more wholesome look at the points above. The maturity assessment will provide you with an idea where you are at and where you want to be. You will assess the organization periodically to see how you have improved – changing the DNA is just as important as the tangible results such as new products or services. An assessment needs to be delivered to the right people in the organization (first and foremost, the CEO and the board). The research you have performed needs to be coupled with some analysis that takes into consideration best practices, market standards and benchmarks, competitor innovation programs and your own compilations that will lead to a conclusion and a set of recommendations. Once you completed a full body of the assessment and analysis in the form of a comprehensive report (that should be a highly visual and clear presentation backed with conclusive numbers) you will be ready to take it on a roadshow. Your roadshow needs to lead you to the CEO’s office, with a very clear message that should say: “We need to invest in innovation, as this is a journey that will lead us to a bright new future and the journey starts with one step, I am calling on you to join me on taking this first step together.
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