How can you make an innovative strategy roadmap?

Innovation without a clear idea of its purpose is a recipe for disaster. While innovation is an important part of business growth and durability, you can’t ignore the drain it puts on the system. Innovation requires time, money, and the attention and prioritization of the people ultimately responsible for carrying it out. Furthermore, lots of innovations fail. It’s part of the cost of innovating. As such, it’s important to be thoughtful and intentional about what you’re hoping to accomplish and what good looks like. Fail to do that and innovation may sink the ship.

This is exactly right. Start with "Where are We", then, "Where do we want to be?". If you don't set a vision for where to go, you can't connect the dots to any impact to your organizations' mission. There can be no strategic discussion or plan developed without a desired destination in a timeframe.

Two questions to ask before getting into the tactics of strategic planning... 1) what is the business goal? 2) how do we get paid for the innovation? For 1), are we innovating to accelerate growth, to improve productivity, to expand selling margins, to reduce cost to serve, etc? Define a clear goal/kpi/metric before you get started. For 2), investing in innovation requires a payback, regardless of the payback period. Who (meaning customer, client, partner) is willing to pay for the innovation vs alternatives that exist in the market, or internally? Many times there's no clear answer and the better immediate route is to "buy/license" someone else's innovation to learn and test your concept before committing to an innovation strategy.

Innovation isn't just about creating something new; it's about understanding the essence of what already exists and elevating it to its highest potential. When defining your innovation ambition, it's crucial to not just look outward at markets or products, but inward at your core beliefs and values.

Once your vision is established, you have to connect the dots to the organizations' mission, vision, and goals - if these connections don't exist, one has to question the legitimacy of the strategy. As to working themes, up to three "Areas of Focus" are ideal - make sure they are relevant and have fun, give them catchy titles... these are the areas that will have Action Plans and that will bind the team together in their efforts - everyone will identify with the work they are doing under these banners towards the goal.

"Strategic initiatives" can be seen as a portfolio of investments and related projects that need to be managed over time, including frequent assessments, updates on progress, and various stage gate milestones. The trap with this approach is that there's a tendency to move everything along at a similar pace, or worse, to focus on keeping projects alive, when in practice the value of the portfolio will likely be found in only a few projects and the job of leadership is to identify the planes that want to land and put all resources and energy into those critical few projects. And in doing so, if a few "planes in pattern" run out of fuel, then go ahead and ditch the projects to free up resources for the winners.

It's important to identify success criteria up front to keep your innovation programme honest. These may not be financial or commercial in nature for the initial phases, but should give a clear indication as to whether your initiatives are succeeding or failing. Ensure your project plan has clearly defined review points and go/no-go decision points, and don't be afraid to kill off failing initiatives - it's better to redeploy resources to more successful initiatives within the wider innovation portfolio than to keep doubling down on unsuccessful ones.

Innovation is a cultural value, not an organizational function. The firm either is innovative within a respective market, or it is not. As such, this value needs to be core to the company vision and financial model. CEOs and Boards are accountable and it's everyone's role in the company to find ways to innovate against that vision to deliver the financial targets. There is a tendency to create corporate roles (CxO) or divisions that "drive innovation", but they are most effective as a catalyst or enabler for scale. It can't replace creating, maintaining and rewarding a company culture based on achieving the goals of innovation and ultimately a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.

It may sound obvious but understanding your stakeholders that are affected by or have an interest in your project is key in my opinion. You should look to understand their needs, expectations, and concerns. Use a mix of communication channels, such as meetings, presentations, emails, and workshops, to keep stakeholders informed and engaged. Involve cross-functional teams in brainstorming sessions to generate creative ideas and solutions. The strategy should address these factors whilst directed by collecting data and insights about your market, industry trends, and competitive landscape.

There’s always an element of risk to any long-term strategy so the more data you collect the better, make data-driven decisions and iterate on the roadmap based on results and changing circumstances.