Engineers are problem solvers and as such are a great source of new ideas. Now more than ever, engineers can help lead Ireland’s recovery by being the idea generators and innovators across the board of industry – small, medium or large – making our products and services more competitive, efficient, of a higher quality and faster, writes Liam Fennelly.
The late Clay Christensen from Harvard University defined innovation as “introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility and affordability where complication and high cost are the status quo”. In other words, no part of a business is immune from innovation.
Cost reduction and process methods
Innovation can equally be applied to cost reduction and process methods and efficiencies just as much as it can be applied to new products and services. The perception that innovation relates solely to R&D still persists, though, to the detriment of a myriad of opportunities in other areas of a business.
Innovation isn’t about waiting for that one big idea that is going to change the world. It’s about generating hundreds of ideas, methodically validating them, and then funding the most probable successes in a competitive way. And, occasionally that big idea might just emerge from the pack.
An analogy I use is hiring staff. A company may require 10 new programmers for example. Initial advertising brings in 100 CVs. Some basic criteria are applied to whittle these down to a ‘possibles’ list of, say, 30.
First interviews result in a ‘probables’ list of 15 and final interviews result in initial contracts being offered. Probationary periods add that competitive element in that if certain criteria or milestones are not met then full contracts are not awarded. It’s almost an identical process for innovation ideas – all the way through to the funding of experiments.
Innovation is hard. As the saying goes: if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. And, originality is overrated – most innovations are variations of themes that already exist.
While about 70% of impactful innovations come from within existing companies, the concept of the career intrapreneur has never really taken off. The right culture needs to exist so that ideas are not routinely killed off through internal rivalries and jealousies.
A recent Harvard Business Review survey of 10,000 managers showed that 76% of new ideas generated within their organisations were treated with scepticism or outright hostility!
So, how do we generate all those ideas?
Three keys to successful innovation brainstorming
Brainstorming has been around for years. Unstructured or poorly managed, it can be a huge waste of time. Successful innovation brainstorming requires three crucial things:
- A mindset that recognises both the range of new technologies enabling innovation and the range of changing environments that demand change;
- The right composition of participants: A facilitator and a diversity of thinkers;
- A source of trigger points for interrogating every aspect of the business.
New and emerging technologies include: artificial intelligence, augmented reality, big data, cloud computing, quantum computing, robotics, automation and blockchain – all within the domain of engineering.
Changing environments include: climate change, the new middle class, polarising politics, global giants, ecosystems, remote working (WFH), and, of course, pandemics. The greater the awareness of these trends the greater the number of innovative ideas that will emerge.
Having a leader/facilitator who maintains team focus is crucial to innovation idea generation. He/she ensures all ideas are recorded and assigned for further action and analysis.
They also encourage diversity within the team. And diversity is not just about gender, race or religion. It is about different thinking formed from different experiences (age, culture, perspectives, skills and so on).
Innovation’s broader definition covers the introduction of new ideas, methods, products and services, or even new markets. This broader definition forms the basis of our Innovation Source Map – a 28-point grid of innovation trigger points – the starting point of an innovation process.
The Innovation Source Map
For each cell in the Innovation Source Map we ask two key questions:
- Bearing in mind a world of changing environments, 'Why are we doing things this way?'
- In light of emerging new technologies, 'Can we do it better?'
Regular brainstorming sessions with the innovation source map as its focus should generate the hundreds of ideas necessary for impactful innovations to emerge.
The map takes the focus of innovation away from pure research and development. For example, redesigning or automating a process or procedure may introduce new efficiencies that create greater capacity or profit margins.
Similarly, rebranding your product for a new market can be a new source of growth. My favourite (and long-established) example of this is Lucozade – its owner rebranded an aging product and targeted the new sports drinks market with Lucozade Sport to enormous success.
The hard part
Generating ideas is just the beginning of the innovation process. The hard part is turning a good idea into an impactful reality.
Some ideas/projects may be ‘no-brainers’ – low cost, high impact, easy rollout – that require very little analysis and validation. The majority, however, will require more detailed analysis due to their cost, riskiness, or strain on the company’s existing capabilities.
Here we enter the realm of entrepreneurship and a world not dissimilar to that of a startup. We need to carry out functions such as discovery, development, cost analysis, validation, rollout and scaling.
This is the job of the career intrapreneur within a company. At MBA Global this process has been consolidated into the Business Model Actualisation Platform (BMAP).
This is a rigorous process of situation analysis, challenge analysis and solution proposal that takes an in-depth look at the risk, opportunity, and probability of success of an innovation. All the skills required are well within the capabilities of a typical engineer.
A business that continuously innovates is better prepared for shocks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. Engineers can be the leaders – time to step up to the plate!
Author: © Liam Fennelly, director of MBA Global Consulting. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has more recently been a mentor and business consultant and is co-author of Countdown To Launch, the widely-recommended handbook for new venture start-ups based on the BMAP© process. He can be reached at liamfennelly@mbaglobalconsulting.com
For information on MBA Global Consulting’s CPD-accredited innovation workshops (online, in-house) see Engineers Ireland CPD Training.