We are experts at building the processes, tools, and teams that make innovation successful and repeatable
Over the years, we have helped dozens of companies, large and small, become more innovative—by setting up and advancing new innovation functions, designing incubators and innovation labs, benchmarking innovativeness, and training thousands of people on the fundamentals of innovation. You can find our thumbprints on innovation programs at many of the world’s most admired companies.
Our expertise comes from decades of experience as innovation consultants in addition to constant research in the field. Our recommendations derive from this deep knowledge base, and our approaches reflect both the discipline required to communicate ideas and processes simply, as well as the nuance needed to bring diverse stakeholders on board and adapt initiatives to companies’ specific organizational and strategic environments.
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Our approach for designing and building support for innovation programs
To build broad innovation capabilities in a company, we first help clients to establish the strategic context: what sorts of innovations are most critical to pursue, and what is off the table? We then audit a company’s innovation capabilities, primarily through private interviews with a range of stakeholders, but also at times through wider internal surveys and cultural diagnostics. We use this perspective to co-design a program with our clients that might encompass elements such as training, tools, collaboration mechanisms, and process development. Our work culminates in a consensus-building workshop, where program design elements are detailed and connected to existing business processes.
Download our book chapter “Enabling the Corporation,” which describes how to create organizational competencies that spur repeatable innovation >>>
Download our book chapter “Enabling the Corporation,” which describes how to create organizational competencies that spur repeatable innovation >>>
Our approach to innovation training
From half-day workshops on Jobs to be Done to multi-month immersion programs, from in-person events to engaging virtual courses, our training is tailored for each client. We specialize in grounding organizations in a common methodology for generating, assessing, and commercializing innovations, while also building expertise and confidence in using these approaches throughout the organization.
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Our most popular training is an Action Learning Program, where participants build skills by working on real innovation projects over approximately 3-4 months. We break down the mystery of innovation into discrete steps, which we demonstrate live and which participants practice between workshops. Participants learn by doing—conducting customer research, for instance, or setting up small-scale business experiments. Throughout the program, we hold bi-weekly coaching sessions to address specific questions. This approach enables teams to have immediate impact on actual projects, meaning that the learning persists long after our programs conclude.
Download a case study on a training program we executed for the leading IT firm, Cognizant >>> |
We evaluated a handful of [innovation consultants]. Our choice of New Markets has turned out to be excellent. Their expertise in the concepts and their practice along with their thoughtful mentoring has helped in applying this new skill in our day-to-day work. This has given us a new perspective and ability to spot opportunities” – Bhaskar Venkatasubramanian, Innovation Program Manager, Cognizant Technology Solutions |
Our perspective on innovation
what we know to be true about innovation
- Innovation is a means to an end. It has to solve for something. Innovation needs to be goal-oriented, not just “innovation for the sake of innovation”
- You don’t have to look like Silicon Valley in order to be innovative. There are many innovation archetypes. The right model for transitioning innovative ideas into innovative products and scaling the output depends on the company’s strategic objectives, internal culture, structure, and environment
- Culture is a lagging factor, not a leading factor. While culture can be a major impediment to innovation, it will not fundamentally change without simultaneous efforts to alter management systems. Clear innovation mandates and processes are critical for changing mindsets and creating a culture of innovation
Common pitfalls for innovation
Over the years, we have witnessed many ways that organizations can struggle with innovation. Four of the most common pitfalls include:
Many of these issues are addressable through establishing clear rules of the road—transparency around how the effort will be governed and how it will relate to the rest of the organization. By laying the appropriate groundwork and generating buy-in from the start, you can vastly improve the odds of success down the road.
- Attempts at innovation haven’t yielded any impact. It’s all buzz and no results—ideas have nowhere to go and get swallowed up in the corporate ether where they are never seen again. For the few that are acted upon, the results tend to be too small or too close to home to drive meaningful change for the organization, or they are too divorced from the way the organization runs today that they don’t get used in the main business units
- No one has time to innovate. People hardly have enough time to achieve short-term goals within normal business hours; how will they possibly have time to dedicate to speculative new ideas that may or may not go anywhere?
- No one feels that there is a reason to innovate. There are plenty of other priorities demanding attention; surely someone else will take care of innovation
- People don’t know what to do to be more innovative. There is a lot of hype around innovation but employees don’t know how any of it specifically impacts their jobs or what they are supposed to do about it
Many of these issues are addressable through establishing clear rules of the road—transparency around how the effort will be governed and how it will relate to the rest of the organization. By laying the appropriate groundwork and generating buy-in from the start, you can vastly improve the odds of success down the road.
CASE STUDY: FOSTERING INNOVATIVENESS AT A NON-PROFIT
Challenge: A public health non-profit wanted to foster more organic growth through new innovative initiatives. The organization had a long and proud history of launching new services, but felt that in recent years, opportunities for new services were being abandoned too early by overly conservative stakeholders or persisted with far too late. This had led to a culture that many employees would hesitate to call innovative. How could they reinvigorate that spirit of innovation, and make innovation repeatable into the future?
How New Markets Advisors helped: What the non-profit needed was a structured process for carrying out innovation projects—a clear understanding of what was expected, what activities were encouraged, and how people could cultivate ideas efficiently.
To develop this, New Markets Advisors interviewed internal stakeholders to learn about what hinders and bolsters innovation at the organization. After assessing the current state of innovation and referencing our extensive library of case studies, we designed an innovation program that made clear what kinds of innovations were in and out of scope; how new ideas would be collected, assessed, and implemented; and how innovation would be resourced, governed, and measured. New Markets Advisors introduced this process in a series of workshops and meetings to ensure buy-in.
How New Markets Advisors helped: What the non-profit needed was a structured process for carrying out innovation projects—a clear understanding of what was expected, what activities were encouraged, and how people could cultivate ideas efficiently.
To develop this, New Markets Advisors interviewed internal stakeholders to learn about what hinders and bolsters innovation at the organization. After assessing the current state of innovation and referencing our extensive library of case studies, we designed an innovation program that made clear what kinds of innovations were in and out of scope; how new ideas would be collected, assessed, and implemented; and how innovation would be resourced, governed, and measured. New Markets Advisors introduced this process in a series of workshops and meetings to ensure buy-in.
