You're a new leader in business innovation. What common mistakes should you avoid?

Avoid the "I know it all" trap—listen to your team's ideas. Don't rush into every new trend; assess risks and benefits. Don't micromanage; trust your team to innovate. Don't neglect communication; keep everyone in the loop. Avoid playing it safe all the time; take calculated risks. And remember, innovation isn't just about flashy ideas; it's about solving real problems. So, stay humble, stay curious, and don't be afraid to shake things up a bit.

Lack of clarity is the quicksand that drowns innovation. As a leader, forge an unwavering vision, aligning your team's efforts like laser beams converging on a singular purpose. Communicate this purpose relentlessly, letting it anchor every decision and action, propelling your organization towards groundbreaking solutions that redefine boundaries.

Acredito que o erro mais significativo seja a falta de uma equipe de inova??o dedicada, isolada das distra??es das atividades cotidianas. Observo frequentemente que muitas equipes tratam as responsabilidades de inova??o como apenas mais um item em uma longa lista de tarefas.

As a new leader in business innovation, avoid common mistakes like: Ignoring team input: Fostering a culture of collaboration is key; value diverse perspectives to drive innovation. Overlooking market research: Understand customer needs and market trends. Fixating on perfection: Embrace iterative processes and learn from failures to iterate quickly. Micromanaging: Trust and empower teams to explore ideas independently. Neglecting to communicate: Transparent communication builds trust and alignment. Prioritizing short-term gains: Balance short-term goals with long-term. Resisting change: Embrace uncertainty and adapt to evolving technologies. Failing to celebrate successes: Acknowledge achievements to boost morale and motivation.

I see a major problem when companies link business innovations to the company as a satellite, but do not anchor this in their strategy. This creates a vague picture of what should be achieved with the targeted business innovation. Long story short: a lack of clarity. We have seen these developments in form of incubators, accelerators, innovation hubs and business change units in almost all major companies, not many of them still remain. From the outside perspective, these innovation units don't seem to be able to align with the governance of the corporations. In my opinion, part of the problem here is that these units do not find a strategic home in their organisation.

Going for incremental change. One needs to understand that something which can be accomplished using existing or more than one vendors is not innovation. Innovation is more than incremental and towards or actual disruption. Thus avoid putting together innovation resources (team/budget etc.) for incremental results, use those resources for more than incremental change and disruption

Ignoring Emerging Technologies and Trends: In today's rapidly changing business landscape, it's essential to stay abreast of emerging technologies and trends that could impact your industry. Failure to do so can result in missed opportunities or being left behind by competitors. Lack of Alignment with Business Objectives: Ensure that your innovation efforts are aligned with the overall business objectives and strategies of your organization. Innovation should contribute to the long-term growth and success of the company.

Triumph eternally eludes the faint-hearted. As an innovation leader, embrace failure as a catalyst for growth, not a specter of doom. Nurture a culture where 'unsuccessful' is celebrated as 'not yet,' where risks are revered as portals to breakthrough. Fear has no place in the realm of the bold; banish it, and let your team soar on the wings of audacious experimentation.

It's all about creating an environment where taking risks feels more like an adventure than a scary leap. Start by encouraging everyone, to have a growth mindset – this stage where you see failures as stepping stones to success rather than roadblocks. Make sure your team feels safe to share their wildest ideas without worrying about getting shot down. Give them feedback, but let's not forget to give props to those who dare to try, even if things don't pan out. It's the effort that counts. And when things go wrong, which they sometimes will - take a breather, reflect, and come back stronger for round two. Innovation is about trial and error – so let's embrace the errors and turn them into epic wins!

It is great to have a vision for your innovation or even your company. Your vision should be formulated in an ambitious and far-reaching way. At the same time, this vision with its level of ambition can have a negative effect if the path to achieving it is not clear. The struggle is real. To avoid this trap, you have to keep in mind, that every single and little step counts on your way. So choose your steps wise, focused on their outcome and you will eventually reach what you are seeking for.

Not Seeking Feedback and Collaboration: Don't work in isolation. Seek feedback from customers, stakeholders, and other industry experts throughout the innovation process. Collaboration with external partners or organizations can also bring fresh perspectives and insights.

Stagnation is the graveyard of potential. As an innovation leader, be the unstoppable force that shatters the shackles of complacency. Inspire your team to embrace change as the catalyst for growth, not the enemy. Celebrate small victories, empowering advocates to become ambassadors who uplift the tentative. Let your conviction be contagious, propelling your organization into an exhilarating future.

Status quo is comfortable. Innovation often creates challenges that challenges the status quo - or the comfort. The best way to counter status quo is to be very transparent, over-communicate and simplify things as much as possible. Resistance to change is often combined with busy schedules of people. They have their own things to do, KPIs to meet and targets to achieve. So a jargon-filled powerpoint, a lengthy document or a once-in-a-blue-moon meeting will not cut it. You need to have a clear idea about what needs to be achieved, the challenges that may arise and FAQs. Engaging people is the best way to counter the resistance to change. Collaboration often leads people to share their worries and achieve consensual outcomes.

When it comes to tackling resistance to change, it's like convincing your team to switch up their workflow. So, start by getting everyone on the same page. Share the plan, lay out the benefits, and be transparent about why the change is necessary. And don't forget to lend an ear to their concerns – everyone's got valid points, and listening shows you value their input. Once you've got buy-in take it slow and steady. Introduce changes in bite-sized chunks, test them out, and adjust as needed. It's all about making the transition smoother and showing that change isn't such a scary beast after all.

In this case I like the idea of behavioural design. This implicates, that every person standing upfront a change needs the motivation and skills to do so. Otherwise, if one or both factors are missing, the change wouldn't be successful. When you are not listening to the individual situation of each affected person, you're possibly investing time, money and other ressources on the false actions.

Innovation untethered from reality is a rudderless ship, doomed to drift aimlessly. As a leader, anchor your vision in the bedrock of market truths and customer needs. Immerse yourself and your team in the vivid tapestry of real experiences, challenges, and aspirations. Let the Voice of the Customer be your compass, guiding you to solutions that resonate with profound relevance and impact.

Being young and enthusiastic, you eagerly jump on and try to do everything for everyone you meet in the Organization. You might end up doing too much, only to realize that what you are trying to do does not add up to anything long term tangible that benefits you and the Organization. We have to take feedback and ideas, and critically evaluate them. Understand the broad direction of the Organization and align yourself and the ideas you think it’s worth implementing and catch the right wave to implement them. A manager once shared with me: “Not all hoops are meant to be jumped through. Some you simply have to walk around it.”

This may be controversial, but sometimes isolating yourself can be strategic. It is not always true that the market knows best, or that users know what they want. To wit, Henry Ford: "had you asked people what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." Innovation by consensus can offer very tepid solutions; sometimes it is best done silently, stealthily. Yes, at some point you emerge and test the market's readiness. Yes, there are failures. But from Post-It Notes, to Velcro, to Bitcoin, to ChatGPT innovation can occur in isolation. In fact, "the market" in the context of innovation is often a crucible for greed where unchecked pursuit of profit can lead to ethical dilemmas, monopolistic practices, and societal inequalities.

Success is a seductive siren, luring the unwary into the depths of stagnation. As an innovation leader, be vigilant against her song. Never allow past triumphs to blind you to the ever-evolving horizons of possibility. Stay eternally curious, hungry to learn, grow, and disrupt stale conventions. Let each achievement be fuel for your insatiable drive to explore new frontiers, propelling your team towards perpetual reinvention.

Stay humble. Stay hungy. What you can see in all the new build start ups all over the world is a deep inner will and drive for success. But success could work like an anchor in case of scaling your business. Growing your company could lead to false structures, ineffective processes and bureaucracy. To avoid this situation, always have your beginnings in mind, seek for lean processes and be driven by outcome, not by your invest.

I'm not sure complacency with success is a huge thing with leaders who love innovation. Maybe loss of drive which might mean less risk taking. Or alternatively, overconfidence which leads to protectionism and eventual regression. But I think most of the people who truly enjoy working in the innovation space have a growth mindset, they enjoy the process as much (if not more than) the outcome; they are "makers" and love the work. They have a natural affinity for continuous improvement, which I think is a definition of success in and of itself and largely fosters growth and engagement without other external factors or incentives. The more you seek external validation (KPIs, customer perspectives) the less of an innovator you actually are.

In my experience time is money. It is nearly always better to pursue the fastest pathway even if that costs a little more during the innovation stage and leave refining and cost savings till later. Get something working, identify cost saving opportunities along the way, but pursue those savings later as time is almost always more expensive than the savings achieved.

I would add, don’t take venture capital early (if at all). Find other ways to fund your growth that leave you in control of your own destiny and when you need capital take on long term investors that share your values and vision.

You don’t know it all, you never will. Listen to people, empower others around you and communicate clearly. If you’re unsure, struggling or need support, work with your management team on plugging the gaps and assisting with your weaknesses. Be as self aware as you can and don’t be afraid to delegate.

New businesses are born to disrupt, challenging established industry norms to tackle problems. In practice, this can be innovating new business models for product success or adopting flexible org and comms structures to promote agility. Often though, new business leaders face pressure to reconcile their unique visions with the conventional. External stakeholders tend to advocate for what’s proven effective thus far. Consultants offer solutions they have tried and tested for years. To stay true, leaders have to understand industry dynamics, business propositions and customers’ needs and pains to be empowered to forge their own paths on untrodden roads. The flipside is to avoid reinventing the wheel when existing solutions can be leveraged.

Ability to put the customer in center, this is important. Not just talking about the essential role of customers but building mechanisms to involve them in the innovation process. Next, skills to listen, observe m, ask the right questions, discover and turn the insights into value. Maybe in these words we found the real innovations.