Enough ideas? Think again.
When we visit clients in our capacity as IdeaFactory, we often hear “it’s not the ideas that are the problem, it’s the execution!”. Of course, execution is key to a successful innovation but (and here it comes, the big,big but): Only ideas that have been developed in a systematic way and also have the buy-in of your team will, in the end, become successful innovations in the market.
The whole thing really starts with the question: “What kind of ideas are we actually looking for?” Or “where do we really need to innovate?” These questions must be generated top-down. The ideas themselves can be generated bottom-up, of course.
Based on that, the process of ideageneration has to emerge with many inspirations (in our opinion and in the research, by the IMD Business school for example, thousands of inspirations are necessary for one successful innovation). It is also key who you involve in your idea development. Do you only rely on internal thinkers? Or do you rely on your clients, partners and even crazy outsiders?
Then, the inspirations have to undergo a rigid and systematic filtration that will find out which ideas still have a chance. And only after a transparent decision making process that also involves the people who will need to execute the idea, can you really call it a success.
Now if you do this right, the process will generate more than one valid and clever idea for your question. Which means, of course, that you have better chances to really implement at least one idea given the fact that the execution is key and you will encounter a few beasty problems along the way. So. Still think you already have enough ideas in your organisation?
