Innovation doesn’t happen (only) in R&D

Therefore, it is not the chef who makes a restaurant great, but it is the restaurant itself that changes and evolves over time into a great restaurant, great in all its constituent elements.

In fact, it is true that the Michelin guide assigns stars to restaurants and not to chefs, although we improperly read in trade magazines of “starred chefs” (and we too have used that term just above).

In fact, if you think about it, when you remember an unforgettable evening spent at a restaurant, many details come to mind: the clinking of the dishes, the scents and aromas, the taste of the dishes, the background music, the relaxed atmosphere, your companions, the kindness of the staff, the colors of the walls, the warm details of the furniture and perhaps, finally, even the bill.

And now we come to innovation. In a starred restaurant, the chef is the equivalent of the research and development of a company – his technical office – the function that designs and creates new innovative products and services, but if he is the only one in charge of creating innovation, it may not be enough to ensure that this really meets the customers’ demand for value. On the contrary, his approach of starting from the product or service, conceived and developed entirely in the laboratory, without ever relating directly to the market to understand in depth where the value for the customer lies, is often one of the main causes that move away from the hoped-for success: the biggest failures of innovation consist precisely in launching solutions on the market that nobody is interested in.

For a new product or service to be successful, it must appeal to the market, and this happens if it solves a problem for the people who buy it.
But too often, technical departments design products and services focused on lists of requirements indicated by channel partners, and not on what they could have learned in an analysis of the market and customer needs.
Companies that operate like this are just like restaurants that bet everything on the chef: by doing so they neglect everything else, without understanding that the real value that the customer seeks in a restaurant lies in the need to spend a pleasant evening.

To this is added a second problem that concretizes the risk of failure in an innovation process entrusted only to the research and development department, namely that of over-focusing on what one knows how to do: it is more likely that one will focus on the opportunities that one knows how to face with current skills, rather than on those that should be addressed. And, instead, most of the time it would be the latter to offer the best chances of success!

In fact, those with a certain expertise play their best cards to maximize the results they can achieve by focusing on what they do best, often continuing to improve products or services along the same dimensions, even when the results achieved are, for the market, already satisfactory.
The result is a customer who is overserved, a product which is too expensive and does not add new value to the customer or even an innovation which has no value as a product.

To clarify this concept, let’s look at what happened to 3M when it developed the Post-it!, which we all now recognize as a disruptive innovation, but which was not born as such.

To obtain new successful products and services, the innovator must come out of his solitude, seek forms of participation, develop the ability to make better decisions through comparison to ensure the quality of analysis and development of an idea.
In one person hardly all the answers, all the visions, all the angles reside.
We will say more: a holistic approach to innovation, involving not only the R&D department but also other business functions and external sources, can contribute significantly to the achievement of economic and human sustainability goals which are often the longer-term goal for companies.

Innovation can come from any department of the company: each department has experience and expertise to use to stimulate innovation. When different business functions are involved in the innovation process, it opens the door to new ideas and perspectives that may not emerge from the isolation of a single department. When people from different departments work together on a project, synergies are created that lead to innovative results and higher chances of success, because they develop more complex solutions that are harder to replicate for the competition.
Collaboration can take place at all levels of the company, even in a transversal way and creating different groups for tasks and responsibilities.
In addition, an innovative process with a collaborative approach promotes economic sustainability: the involvement of marketing, sales and finance teams, for example, can help ensure that new solutions are aligned with customer needs and sustainable business models.
This cross-functional collaboration helps to develop products and services that more effectively meet the market, improving long-term profitability, thus benefiting the economic sustainability of innovation, but also of the company.

In addition to internal departments, external sources can be an inexhaustible source of ideas and knowledge.
Suppliers, for example, can identify innovative ideas on materials, production processes and finished products: a technology provider may suggest new software that improves the efficiency of the company, or a materials supplier may suggest new solutions to reduce production costs.

Innovation can come from customers, who can provide important feedback on the company’s products and services, suggesting improvements or new products. This possibility of dialogue between the customer and the company, which can be realized in many forms (contest, social network dialogue, contests, etc.) not only creates a stronger bond with i customers and strengthens the brand identity, but also contributes to a corporate image based on transparency and attention to customer needs.

Finally, innovation can come from sources outside the corporate world. For example, universities and research organizations can provide innovative ideas through the research and development of new technologies. Industry associations and conferences can provide a forum for the sharing of ideas and information exchange between different companies.

Collaboration with suppliers, universities, research organizations and other companies in the field broadens the pool of expertise and stimulates new perspectives. This collaborative approach to innovation opens the door to new ways of tackling complex challenges and can lead to surprising discoveries that contribute both to economic sustainability and a more dynamic and interesting business environment, in which employees feel stimulated and inspired to seek new ways, thus also valuing all aspects of human sustainability.

Working with hundreds of companies, Lenovys has seen how often the unintended effects of innovation processes that rely solely on the professionalism and competence of technical offices lead to a high risk of failure.

To manage innovation in a collaborative way and create value relationships with external actors, it is necessary to build an innovation process that allows the various functions involved to understand what contribution they are expected to make, how they should interact with other business areas and what intervals are to be respected to ensure the correct timing of the process.

To help companies in this path, Lenovys has developed a structured innovation process that allows you to reduce the risks arising from innovation entirely managed by the R&D department or the Innovation Manager and each year, the principles and logic underlying the High Impact innovation process are addressed within the Executive Master Impact Innovation, in a training room where dozens of entrepreneurs and managers are gathered.
The next meeting will be held in Milan next October: there are still some seats in the classroom if you want to be one of us!