Build Innovation Capabilities

Coming up with a new idea is just the beginning

Coming up with a promising new concept is often the easy part of innovation. Even those companies that excel at ideation and concept development may have trouble capturing value from their new ideas, often finding that projects are terminated before they have been given a fair chance to succeed. In many cases, truly new ideas struggle because they fail to fit into an existing business unit, meaning that they either get starved for attention or are forced to serve too many masters. Other times, concepts are successfully incubated, but they fail to survive the transition to the mainstream business.

Common pitfalls:

Companies do not establish programs to nurture innovation broadly in the organization
Companies struggle to sustain a narrow focus on specific growth initiatives

Download our 2016 working paper outlining an 8-step process for creating meaningful innovations and making companies more innovative >>>

We are experts at designing corporate incubators and leading innovation training

We understand how large organizations work. We know how to make innovation cultures flourish, how to embed innovation capabilities, and how to build processes and mechanisms that make innovation reliably repeatable.

We have a firsthand understanding of the many obstacles that new ventures confront: vague strategic direction, narrow bases of political support, shifting mandates, unclear governance, unrealistic expectations, poorly-defined processes for “graduating” ventures, and sub-optimal staffing, to name just a few. We have a strong track record of working through each of these challenges.
And, critically, we have worked with a vast array of functions to foster innovativeness not just in product development, but in fields including supply chain, financial control, and talent development. We do so embracing methods that are both creative and scalable.

Download our book chapter and a case study on building innovation capabilities >>>

What we’ve learned

Our process for bolstering innovativeness

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, assessing how the company pursues different types of innovation, where the company falls short against benchmarks, and what that might mean in light of strategic imperatives. This perspective underlies the design of a program that might encompass elements such as training, tools, collaboration mechanisms, and process development.

New Markets' approach to successful corporate incubators

New Markets Advisors helps innovation teams and incubator leaders build consensus on what to do and how to measure success. We assist in developing:

Clear mandates for innovation, linked to resourcing and portfolio plans
Strategic “investment theses” that direct where efforts are concentrated
Processes for creating truly innovative ideas and nurturing them to resist corporate antibodies
Plans to staff incubators with the right mix of people
Governance that balances autonomy with necessary linkages to the company’s core business
Innovation metrics that are well-rounded and actionable

New Markets Innovation training

New Markets Advisors is a leader for training for staff in innovation methodologies, and our approach is both dynamic and pragmatic. For companies ranging from Cigna to Ingersoll Rand, we execute superbly-reviewed training that encompasses innovation fundamentals along with an action learning approach to innovation that embeds take-aways within impact achieved on actual projects. The result is learning that persists long after our programs conclude.

Learn more from our client impact story

New Markets Advisors Boehringer Ingelheim

Building Innovation Capabilities – Boehringer Ingelheim’s Business Model and Healthcare Innovation

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