Last year, Bluegreen Learning ran some research around how important innovation was for the survival of organisations.  The headline was: 42% of companies see it as crucial to them now but 90% said it would be crucial in 5 years’ time. 

People interested in their work tend to generate improvement ideas, whether or not the wider business supports innovation.  But idea generation is less than half the battle.  Idea implementation needs leadership support. Only 29% of organisations thought they had very effective senior support, and nearly 85% of organisations saw this as crucial or very important for their future success. 

So what kinds of things do organisations need to make sure they’re good at innovation? 

We have identified five key areas that show whether businesses have the necessary skills and capabilities in place to make sure innovation happens and that it has the necessary impact in the business. 

1. Clearly defining the innovation challenge and ensuring leadership support right from the start
2. Generating ideas that are novel and useful and selecting the ones you’ll develop further
3. Planning for successful implementation by giving the ideas enough resource and making a robust business case
4. Learning from testing and getting ideas adopted more widely
5. Bringing diversity and energy to innovation challenges across the whole process

There are two aspects to find out.  Firstly, how important are these five areas to you?  And secondly how effective is your business in these areas?  Once you have found out this information, then it’s easier to know what the best pathway is to innovation fitness.

© Bluegreen Learning Ltd

Identify your strengths and gaps

To help you do this, we have developed an innovation capabilities healthcheck. This is free and self-scored, designed to pinpoint your innovation capability gaps.

You’ll automatically receive a PDF copy of your responses.

If you’d like to know what to do about these gaps, contact Rob on 07811 944782 or rob@bluegreenlearning.com.