Rapid Innovation – Why Your Opponent Is Not the Competition

Too-late-to-market. Slower-than-the-competition. A danger but not the main problem with innovation.

Innovation has to be fast. Everyone knows that. Because when it comes to innovation, there are no second places, no B patents and rarely any good consolation prizes. The competition never sleeps, start-ups are more agile and new technologies are spreading in record time. So the goal is to get to market quickly. Faster than the others, faster than the next trend.

This view is certainly not wrong. But it is only half the truth. Because the real danger for innovation projects is not lurking outside in the market. It is not the competition, the trend or end consumers that are overtaking innovation. The danger comes from within. From within your own company.

While we look spellbound at our competitors, internal developments within the company often go unnoticed. And so innovation projects rarely fail because the market no longer wants them. They fail because they are not completed. 8 out of 10 innovations are stopped internally before they can prove themselves on the market.

Cancel Culture: When innovation is canceled in the company

Studies and empirical data paint a bleak picture: around 90% of all innovation projects fail, often before they are even implemented. Not because they are poorly planned – but because they do not meet internal requirements.

What is happening? Companies are constantly changing:

• Strategies are being realigned
• Shifting focus and budgets
• New appointments to management positions
• Structures are reorganized
• Economic uncertainties lead to savings rates

And in all these cases, innovation is at the top of the list. Why?

Because it seems too slow, too uncertain or too abstract. Projects that do not deliver concrete results quickly are considered risky or “nice to have”. And therefore quickly lose their relevance in the internal power structure.

But shouldn’t lazy innovations be discarded?

Absolutely. It’s good when rotten eggs are sorted out. Not good when projects are stopped across the board. And that is almost always the case. This is also shown by the extremely short half-life of the innovation manager. On average, they are out of the job after just two years. Other priorities. Innovation was a brief detour from times when money was too loose.

In the public perception, it is the market that puts pressure on innovation. But in reality, it is often the company itself that has run out of patience. The moment priorities change, innovation seems too slow to everyone. Even slower and riskier than we already know:

• Incalculable risk
• Benefits not clearly quantifiable
• Gimmicks and gossip from the former management level
• And retreating to the tried and tested suddenly seems tempting: “Let’s concentrate on what we can really do: Continuous improvement.”

This is how projects are canceled – regardless of their actual potential.

Speed as a survival factor

In this context, “fast innovation” takes on a new meaning. It is not (just) about being faster than the competition. It’s about being faster than the next reorganization.

Speed is not a competitive advantage in the corporate context – it is a protective shield. Those who are fast may make it across the finish line before the general conditions change.

If innovation is stranded before the finish line, it often has long-term consequences:

• Personal branding of those involved as wasters of time and money
• Dissolution of the innovation department
• Innovation as a burnt term (we tried it. It didn’t work. No more!)
• 5 years or more off until the topic of innovation can get a fresh start
• lost potential and ideas that would be old hat the next time around

Rapid innovation or more patience: what really works?

More patience creates scope for innovation in order to achieve success after all. Faster innovations may not need patience at all. Both directions can help.

The three most important approaches for innovation ideas to survive the path to market

1. Increase the strategic relevance of the innovation

Many perspectives change. During reorganization, management changes and economic downturns. Innovation topics that are still relevant in the “new world” have a chance of survival. These are often the following:

• Innovations that fit the corporate strategy: Suitable markets and sales regions. Development of future-oriented competencies. Innovation projects aligned with corporate values.
• Innovations that are geared towards growing trends.
• Innovations that have many supporters. In the company management, with the owners and with other stakeholders such as advisory boards, works councils and opinion leaders.

It is important to ensure this fit. Before innovation projects are launched. And a little more time can be allowed here. Stakeholder management and strategic alignment pay off for innovation! Quite the opposite of the popular opinion that innovation should be implemented bottom-up and as secretly as possible as submarine projects.

2. Accelerate innovation projects

As the saying goes, you can’t discuss Christmas with geese. Similarly, it is difficult to discuss with technicians how long it takes to develop innovations and future solutions. “It just takes as long as it takes” is often the answer.

But of course innovation projects can be accelerated. Innovations become faster in particular through:

• Setting a time frame and having the courage to be imperfect: Better to have an 80% solution with a finished pitch in 6 months than three years and still no decision. Still have to be there: Technical feasibility, business case and feedback from the market. (The innovation marvel does just that)
• Shortening the specifications: Minimum Viable Product and first product generations instead of sprawling feature lists and over-engineering. “Think big – start small”
• Close collaboration in the core team instead of division of labor, e-mail ping-pong and continuous loops: With the right people around the table, you can achieve more in 3 days than you would otherwise in a whole month. A plea for compact innovation workshops.
• Fail faster: If you manage to fail in the market before the next reorganization starts, you may not have achieved market success, but at least you have proven that it wouldn’t have worked anyway. Not the perfect ending. But still better than mourning lost opportunities and never finding out whether it could have worked. And perhaps the positive assumption that the market really wants the innovation will be confirmed.

3. Avoid overloading existing capacities

In most cases, the development of innovation projects is not slow at all. The truth is: no work is being done on them at all. In practice, there are 60 developers, a “list of ongoing innovation projects” with 100 entries and nothing at all happens on these topics in day-to-day business. Innovation is then not slow. It just lies around and nothing happens. That helps:

• Sort out projects. An organization with 500 employees cannot realistically manage more than 1-2 genuine innovation projects per year. Too much uncontrolled growth is often an indication of a poor innovation process.
• Create focus: If only Friday afternoons are available, then no one is developing the next first iPhone, SpaceX or other groundbreaking thing. It should be at least 50% of working time. At least as an ambition and personal aspiration; even if only 40% works out in the end.
• Put the usual suspects experts on the back burner: Innovation projects don’t have to be packed with experts. What is needed are a few young and wild people and motivated employees from the second and third ranks. And from other functional areas. If experts are needed, the team will seek advice and support from time to time. This takes the pressure off the typical suspects and those who already feel understaffed and overstretched.
• Building capacities: Innovation means investment. Simply smuggling innovation “on top” of existing resource planning has little chance of success. Not only because of the high costs involved. But also because there is no sign of commitment from the company management.

Bonus: Innovative submarine projects and the principle of hope

The secret hope of the large corporation. The submarine project that reached its goal precisely because nobody knew it existed. The examples of success are truly few and far between. The number of burnt-out employees who have invested a lot of their lives in failed dreams is significantly higher. But of course it is possible. And it is also actively propagated by serious figures such as Gunther Dück (former CTO at IBM). Success factors for submarine projects:

• Work in secret: Develop technical feasibility without having additional budget approved.
• Don’t stir up dust: Avoid anything that requires approvals and additional publicity.
• Loyal allies: Ensure that only the closest confidants know what is happening. Every confidant is a potential deserter.
• Show patience: Wait for the perfect moment to offer the preliminary work as a quick win. For a current customer project or another unsolved problem

Conclusion for innovation in the company: Be quick. Or you’re finished.

Corporate Innovation means:

• Be quick.
• Or be canceled.
• The competition is only your second biggest problem.

The real challenge for innovation is not just on the outside. It lies within the company. Those who recognize this can think of innovation projects differently: as investments with only limited puppy protection. As potential prey for the next cost saving. As an opportunity without alternative for a unique position in the market and a secure future for the company.

TOM SPIKE accompanies rapid innovations and thinks along with the company organization

B2B companies are looking for the product and business of the future. TOM SPIKE helps companies to build this future. For a unique position on the market, faster than the competition and taking into account the respective organization. Depending on the task at hand, through individual innovation workshops, comprehensive consulting or minimally invasive coaching.