Riding the Wave of Agile Innovation
Business leaders are boosting benefits with a better way to innovate
Business innovation is like an ocean wave – it can be powerful, dynamic, and multivariable, yet difficult to harness and predict. The forces for innovation are also natural in that every organization is instinctively innovative to some degree, in the normal course of doing business.
While virtually every organization aspires to be innovative, most fall short in one or more of three areas. The quality of business innovation is lacking, particularly in terms of what the customer really wants and is willing to pay for and adopt. Innovation speed is slow or otherwise misaligned with customer expectations. And ultimately, the final financial return doesn’t justify the investment and risk.
Growth-driven business leaders are turning to Agile Innovation as a pragmatic means to elevate the quality, speed, and ROI of their innovation – in products, services, and business models. The outcome is greater customer satisfaction and better financial performance. Agile Innovation is also a way to drive company culture that boosts employee engagement and commitment.
Agile Innovation is part philosophy, part strategy, and a large part mindset and action. It integrates innovation strategy with business strategy, and couples both with Agile principles and ways of working. Indeed, it is the tight alignment of business strategy, innovation strategy, and Agile execution that accounts for Agile Innovation success.
What are the hallmarks of Agile Innovation, and what does it look like in practice? Business leaders pursuing Agile Innovation can expect their organizations to evolve quickly in several ways, for example:
• Deep understanding of market and customer needs, leading to the best choices about what to do and not do
• Execution driven by persistent focus on the true problem-to-solve and associated strategy and structure, refined continuously by frequent iterations with external and internal customers
• Empowered, accountable, and well aligned multi-functional teams which develop products and services, or attack near-term business opportunities
• Mindset and behaviors which transform into healthy habits, and the foundation of a consistently – rather than episodically – innovative culture
At its essence, Agile Innovation is a logical and practical means to organize common sense. It creates the conditions that encourage employees and businesses to do what they want to do, naturally – to collaborate and create predictable waves of powerful benefits for external and internal customers.
© OIC Innovation LLC 2022