Many people want to make their fortune as soon as they can and, in the meanwhile, they are sitting around waiting for the great idea that will enable them to retire to dawn on them. When they see something new in the marketplace that is successful, they always say things like, “I wish I could have thought of that?”, “But, how did she think of that?” or “I wonder how they come up with such great ideas?”. People think that ideas just come to them like switching on a light bulb. This is a very misleading belief and this is how it can be remedied.

When people take an idea and just jump on it, they tend to become very narrow minded and no other thoughts about anything else retain relevancy unless it relates directly to this ‘great idea’ that they have. “I’ve got it!” they believe, but have they really got it? The question that needs to be asked now is: what do run of the mill people do when they think of an idea that they wish to exploit? What happens is that they make some connection, some association, that they believe is a great idea. And they ponder the idea and convince themselves, using circular thinking, that it is the right thing to pursue. They then talk to some business savvy people that they do not heed unless they are telling them what they want to hear. The business plan is then written, submitted to some funding agency for assistance and in a small number of cases a new small enterprise is born. Then it dies, four out of every five of them at least. And most of those that happen to survive are often retail outlets and the like, that have a reasonable chance of succeeding if the location of the business is appropriate. Believe it or not, the problem is that big.

What most people don’t think about is that an idea is only the beginning of an exploration for a workable concept upon which you can build a business; in almost every case, it is not the end game, where you run with it straight away to make you millions. To quote the Harvard Business Review article: Breakthrough Ideas for 2006 (Feb 2006), “A breakthrough idea is a springboard, not a perfect landing; a conversation provoker, not a definitive answer; a starter’s gun, not a finish line. It’s something that makes you stand up and take notice, not sit down and work out the application of a specific formula.” The message is thus: ideas are seeds - they need attention, nourishment, hard work, modification, transformation, growth and reseeding of new ideas. Then, and only then, do they need development into full-blown concepts and prototypes (in the case of products and some services) upon which realistic business plans can be written that have real benefits for those who wish to pay for them in the marketplace.

To do this you must:

1. Start with as many ideas as possible. List your ideas, the problems to be solved, unmet needs, bugs, frustrations and related ideas.
2. Expand on all of these ideas and brainstorm them using the large variety of creativity tools currently available such as SCAMPER and brainwriting.
3. Discuss these ideas, at length, with others and listen to what they have to say. Note all conversations about the ideas.
4. Develop as many of the ideas into more elaborate concepts. This is critical. You must generate information about each of the concepts so that you can make evidenced based decisions. If you have poor information about your ideas you will end up making poor decisions about which ideas to invest in.
5. Carry out any necessary ethnographic and marketing studies that may give you further insights into these concepts.
6. Rework and re-evaluate the concepts based on the newly acquired information.
7. Rank the concepts to determine which are best to pursue. To find out more on ranking matrices, read our guide to the innovation process currently available on our website: http://www.nscpublishing.com/products/innovation1.html
8. Develop more detailed concept statements for each of the concepts.
9. Set up a list of evaluation criteria that will be used to select the best ideas. These criteria are questions that must be answered positively before you should invest in the idea. For example, “Do I have adequate distribution channels through which I can sell my product?” It is probably a poor investment if you can’t distribute the product properly and the issue of distribution should be dealt with before the idea can be exploited. There are many sources of information that will help you construct a list of criteria (see references below).
10. Evaluate each of the concepts and determine which ones go to development, prototyping and testing (applicable to both products and services).
11. After development and testing, re-evaluate the best performing concepts. Only commercialise the very best concepts that have real futures. In other words, only those ideas that fit you criteria as completely as possible should be funded.

There are a number of things to note about this framework. Firstly, having a solid framework that stops one from going with the first idea that enters their heads is vital. This is achieved by placing a large emphasis on change and open mindedness through the search for better ideas through brainstorming, discussing ideas and listening and heeding those who are truly business savvy. Secondly, there is an emphasis on the ‘fit’ of an idea to see if it is worth pursuing. If the idea does no fit the needs and wants of the consumer, then it is not worth putting the effort into it. Thirdly, continuous modification and reevaluation of your ideas is critical if you are going to commercialize those ideas that are worth commercializing. Always keep the bottom line to the forefront of your mind - will it make a profit?

Notes
To read a full version of this article visit my body of knowledge at www.nscpublishing.com/bok

References

[1] Cooper R.G., 2001, Winning At New Products, Perseus Publishing.

[2] Goffin K., Mitchell R., Innovation Management: Strategy and implementation using the pentathlon framework, Palgrave Macmillan.
[3] Higgins J.M., 1995, Innovate or Evaporate: Test & Improve you Organisations I.Q. – Its Innovation Quotient, The New Management Publishing Company.

It is uncanny how many people talk about innovation and about being innovative, but when asked, fails to give an adequate definition of what it is. Here are two useful definitions of innovation that will give you a flavour of what innovation is all about.

Definitions of Innovation
The OECD provides a useful definition in the Oslo Manual published in 2005. The definition reads:

An innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations.[1]

The first thing to note about this definition is that is uses the word product to define a good or service. In most books, papers and texts, innovation techniques associated with products, as in goods, are perfectly applicable to services as well. By way of example, services can be prototyped just like physical prototypes of products (goods); 24 hour online banking can be
prototyped by producing visual images of the screens that the customer will be exposed to and by producing beta versions for test. Insurance providers can produce prototypes by preparing a makeshift office and sets of working documents and operate the sale and delivery of the service in a test facility.

The second thing to note in this definition is the types of activities that are considered innovative such as a new or significantly improved product, or process, or a new marketing method or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations. This definition actually provides a very useful classification for types of innovations and can also help innovators organise their innovative activities. The best innovators generally innovate in all of these areas thereby producing the greatest and most rewarding changes to their organisation. We will deal with classification of innovations in other areas of our NSC Publishing Body of Knowledge.

The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) provide another useful definition; it is:

Innovation: A new idea, method, or device. The act of creating a new product or service. The act includes invention as well as the work required to bring an idea or concept into final form.[2]

This definition, while meaning much the same thing as the OECD definition, introduces the concept of the idea in innovation. It is important to note that all great innovations start with an idea. Generation, development and implementation of new ideas in your organisation are, in essence, innovation. Idea generation and idea management in general, also known as the fuzzy front end, is poorly managed in companies and other organisations. If there is one single message to be taken from this definition, it is this: it is absolutely essential to effectively master the art of idea management to be successful at innovation. Many studies have shown this to be true; the reader is directed to the works of Prof. Robert Cooper[3] and Koen[4].
If an organisation is attempting to introduce an innovation strategy and process in their organisation, the first step is to get an understanding of the term innovation and what is involved in being innovative. These definitions clearly define the areas within which an organisation must learn methods and tools for managing them and within which they must become highly active.


[1] OSLO MANUAL: GUIDELINES FOR COLLECTING AND INTERPRETING INNOVATION DATA, OECD/EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 2005, ISBN 92-64-01308-3.

[2] Belliveau, Griffin, Somermeyer, 2004, The PDMA Toolbook for New Product Development, Vol. 2, Wiley.

[3] Cooper R.G., 2001, Winning At New Products, Perseus Publishing.

[4] Koen P.A., Ajamian G.M., 2002, Fuzzy front End: Effective Methods, Tools and Techniques, in Belliveau, Griffin, Somermeyer, 2002, The PDMA Toolbook for New Product Development, Vol. 1, Wiley.