Understanding the Challenges to Innovation.

While each organization wants to be innovative, but do you think innovation is some sort of off-shelf solution?

Innovation in reality requires some 'home-work' from organizations, some changes, some preparations.

Innovation is crucial for businesses to stay competitive and adapt in changing markets, but internal organizational challenges can impede progress.

Following are some of the main challenges

Innovation Culture

A rigid, traditional management style can be a significant challenge for innovation and creativity. Even if a company is open to new ideas and willing to invest in them, the majority of the organization may not have the ability to bring those ideas to fruition. Many managers view new ideas with fear and see innovation as a distraction from current pursuits of profits. This leads to a lack of emphasis on innovative thinking and problem-solving, and a focus on maximizing current tasks at the expense of planning for the future. Additionally, key skills such as fresh insights and creativity are often not encouraged or invested in through training or development, making it difficult for even skilled engineers to create market-changing products. To overcome this, companies must invest in a culture that both encourages and develops these vital skills.

Innovation Ecosystem

A lack of an innovation ecosystem can be a major obstacle to innovation as it prevents the sharing of ideas and knowledge among different teams. A silo-driven culture within a company can lead to teams focusing on their own KPIs, competing internally, and avoiding bringing new, controversial or risky ideas to the table. This is why startups and younger organizations often utilize hackathons and ideation sessions to encourage cross-functional collaboration and idea sharing. An innovation ecosystem ensures that every department has a role to play in the development and funding of new ideas and solutions, leading to greater creativity and innovation.

Not Invented Here Syndrome

A fear of change can be a major obstacle to innovation, especially in established companies with a longer history. This resistance to change can lead to a lack of support for innovative ideas that deviate from the traditional core model of the business. Innovation is often driven by teams working on the fringes of the company, who have the freedom to be creative and explore new spaces but are often not valued or dismissed as unrealistic. When a company is unwilling to embrace new ideas or deviate from established practices, this can lead to a lack of internal support and funding for innovative teams.

Leadership Style

Leadership that prioritizes short-term returns over long-term investments can be a significant obstacle to innovation. This impatience can lead to overlooking or dismissing important innovations in favor of quick and easy solutions that are less impactful and become outdated quickly. In the long run, constantly pursuing small innovations can make a company appear as if they are simply trying to keep up with the times, while competitors who invest in strategic innovations that take longer to pay off are better positioned to take advantage of larger opportunities.

Choosing a direction

Inadequate benchmarking can also be a challenge for innovation as it focuses on the present and past, rather than the future. Companies often rely on metrics such as sales and revenue to determine the success of an innovation, and this can lead to dismissing ideas that don't have immediate value or don't align with current KPIs. To overcome this challenge, it's important for companies to evaluate ideas based on the problems they aim to solve, rather than just comparing them to existing benchmarks. This requires unique variables to be agreed upon and a designated owner of innovation to ensure fair assessment and testing within the company, rather than just chasing vanity metrics.