Most businesses have a sales funnel. They formalise sales teams and divisions and use (mostly) formal methods to strategise, to create and manage sales leads and opportunities. They have a sales funnel and are constantly focussed on sales and identifying sales opportunities – after all, that’s why they are in business.
What about innovation? How much focus should an organisation have on innovation? And how much effort should you put into establishing innovation as a mainstream activity using innovation management methods?
“Just as you have a sales funnel for constantly pursuing sales opportunities, you must also have an innovation funnel for constantly pursuing innovation opportunities.”
Our answer is to undertake as much innovation as you can. Just as you have a sales funnel for constantly pursuing sales opportunities, you must also have an innovation funnel for constantly pursuing innovation opportunities. Not every innovation will lead to a new product, some may just help with productivity by rearranging the furniture – yes, seriously! But every organisation should care as much about innovation as it does about sales.
We can help you to identify innovation opportunities, set up an innovation funnel, select methods and tools to manage it, and run a continuous innovation programme and strategy – rather than a start/stop programme with discrete, disconnected projects.