Actionable Innovation Tactics - The Inspiration Behind Trend Hunter’s Innovation Assessment

“Innovation is in our DNA” is the most common phrase we’ve heard while interviewing hundreds of Fortune 500 innovation leaders about how they bring winning ideas to life. Failing to satisfy our curiosity, the frequently repeated and vague phrase inspired our team to delve deeper into the intricacies of successful innovation cultures and to build our Innovation Assessment.

This resource enables us to measure and deconstruct the essence of the innovation DNA that’s ingrained within organizations. Through the assessment, we seek to uncover tactical secrets behind the world’s greatest business success stories.

With more than 75,000 individuals from hundreds of brands completing our Innovation Assessment, we concluded that:

• 57% don’t believe that their organization has a clear process in place to turn ideas into new products or services.
• 43% don’t even know who is responsible for leading their company's innovation strategy.
• 52% don’t believe their company has a strong innovation strategy and are unsure of what’s specifically being done to help make innovation happen.

We continued our research efforts to understand applicable innovation tactics and the strategies needed to help drive innovation forward in inspiring and efficient ways. Among our discoveries, we learned that successful organizations value innovation that comes in various forms, including Consumer Innovation, Product Innovation, and the Culture of Innovation. These strategic "innovation buckets" are focal points for those seeking long term success and help empower businesses to forge ahead in the complex landscape of innovation.

Along the way, we uncovered some powerful Innovation tactics and lessons like “agility being greater than perfection in the innovation space.” We also learned that having a network of crowd-sourced consumer research “ninjas'' to keep you on the pulse of the latest trends is key. Additionally, we explored the idea of leveraging cross-functional thinking for diversity of thought, while learning that creativity isn’t enough without a sense of perspective. This sense of perspective is the secret formula for getting key decision makers on board, and crafting a narrative to get buy-in on your next big idea.

We now invite you to continue learning with us. At FuturistU, we offer engaging keynote speeches and self-serve training modules to reveal how leaders from world-class organizations like NASA, Pfizer, Adidas, and more out-innovate their competitors. If you wish to evaluate your own innovation archetype with our assessment, or have added questions, feel free to direct message us. Together, let's unlock the boundless potential of innovation and pave the way for extraordinary success.