1. Innovation
Facts / the need for systems
Fast-Bridge Consulting
Sample client event

2. Background
This is a sample event for a client that has participated in
our innovation audit
It combines client learnings (the yellow boxes through
the discussion) and powerful hands on exercises to learn
and experience a new way to think about Innovation

3. Targets this morning
Share a bit of what I know improving innovation systems
at a company like Proximus (30 min)
Have some fun… and learn while having fun. (+/- 60 min)
An open discussion (10 min)

4. Another talk about Innovation !
• Everyone seems to have an
opinion about Innovation
and there is an enormous
amount of (conflicting)
“information”
• A need for facts instead of
opinions
• A need for fact based
theories to guide action
In Amazon there are 76.579
books on innovation !

5. A disclaimer (my beliefs/ biases)
• Fact based
• Ideas are easy and cheap
• I don’t believe in heroes / big
ideas… I believe in systems
• I believe in systems with the
following characteristics
– Tight, almost authoritarian alignment
on objectives
– Lot’s of freedom on “how”
– Less planning, a lot more action and
learning (friction makes ideas bloom)

6. Delivering
Innovation is not
complicated
Notes:
Stimulus = Targeted
Diversity = Think different
Fear = Cycles, room to learn

7. Our Core Interest ..
Innovation is hard work, but
startups are getting it right
more often

8. Start-ups are about
more successful with new
business projects than
established companies.
Some experts estimate that over
of success in innovation is based on systems.
5x 80%

9. What should large
companies change in their
systems ?

10. More importantly..
Why are kids in a garage doing
better than the world’s best
companies …

11. A 2 year research program
• April 2014, 42 one to one company interviews to validate questions
and test questions found in over 200 academic articles
• October 2015, A survey with 71 test companies testing initial
questions and validating links to innovation performance.
• April 2015, we fully updated survey to better analyze disruptive
and ongoing innovation success.

12. A simplified view of the data set
1 Desire / Hunger
2 Philosophies
3 Autonomy
4 Competitive
5 Creativity
6 Risk Taking
7 Proactivity
8 Structure Breakthrough Innovation Results Overall
Strategy alignment 9 Strategy alignment Innovation Results Business
10 People processes Results
11 Organizational Design Sustaining
12 Customer Focus Innovation
13 Co-creation
14 Ecosystem Management
15 Speed / Results focus
16 Systems to select ideas
17 Commitment to Learning
18 Knowledge Sharing
19 Open Minded
Dependent Variables
Learning
Orientation
Entreprenuerial
Orientation
Independent Variables
Processes
Attitudes

13. Company audit Results

14. 1. Strategic alignment is the cornerstone of successful innovation
2. If you want to give autonomy, you need to have strategic
alignment first
3. If you get alignment, attitudes and learning orientation in place,
systems will follow
4. The right balance disruptive/incremental is key
5. Proactivity is the one thing you need to reward
6. Walk before you run (go step by step!)
7. If you are in a big company or a small company you need to act
like you are in a successful start up
7 Key learnings from the research

15. Not aligned Middle Aligned
bottom
20% 60% top 20%
Sustaining Innovation 22 56 65
Breakhrough Innovation 46 43 72
Overall Innovation 34 47 71
Other measures
Ability to create new ideas 37 47 69
Ability to communicate new ideas 41 49 65
Ability to commercialize new ideas 43 48 65
Confidence in launching breakthrough
Innovations in the future
29 56 57
N =202 companies
1. Strategic alignment is the cornerstone of successful innovation
Details
All participants ranked by
level of strategic
alignment (8 questions)
Avg. Rank orders (0-100)
Presented for other
variables
Client comments

16. • Autonomy and competitiveness
were negatively correlated with
innovation results
• Why:
People can get lost in what they are
doing. When customer focus is high.
Both autonomy and
competitiveness are positively
correlated with results.
Innovation Results
Low Cutomer High Customer
71
57
49
21
Low High Low High
Autonomy Autonomy
FocusFocus
2. If you want to give autonomy,
you need to have strategic alignment first
Client comments

17. Innovation
Performance
Firm
Performance
Attitudes Processes
Learning
Test: Origin of processes
Strategic
Alignment

18. 2. If you get aligned, the right attitudes and learning orientation in
place systems will follow
Excellence in systems
Predicted by Attitudes, Strategy Alignment, Learning Orientation
1. The model predicts 79% of the explained variance (a good model is anything over 20%)
2. All variables significant with learning orientation / attitudes most predictive
R2 0.79 (1)
Std.Coeffi
cients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) .028 .045 .625 .533
Strategic Alignement .125 .069 .135 1.822 .072
Attitudes (ALL) .423 .069 .445 6.150 .000
Learning Orientation .392 .067 .409 5.863 .000
a. Dependent Variable: Systems_ALL Systems_ALL
(2)
Unstandardized
Coefficients
t Sig.
Client comments

19. Attitudes Processes
Learning
Innovation
Performance
Firm
Performance
Test: Innovation Mix
Sustaining
Innovation
Breakthrough
Innovation
Strategic
Alignment

20. 4. The right balance Disruptive/ Incremental is key
Std. Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) .896 .108 8.304 .000
Breakthrough
Innovation
0.51 0.15 0.51 3.51 0.00
Sustaining
Innovation
0.29 0.16 0.26 1.76 0.09
a. Dependent Variable: Overall Innovation Results
Unstandardized
t Sig.
The biggest driver of overall innovation success is: Breakthrough Innovation
A 1% improvement in breakthrough innovation will deliver 2 X more than sustaining
innovation (.51/ .26)
Client comments

21. A balance portfolio =
85 % sustaining
15% breakthrough
But 50% of profit growth from
breakthrough

22. Why ?
Wonderful

23. Testing Everything
1 Desire / Hunger
2 Philosophies
3 Autonomy
4 Competitive
5 Creativity
6 Risk Taking
7 Proactivity
8 Structure Breakthrough Innovation Results Overall
Strategy alignment 9 Strategy alignment Innovation Results Business
10 People processes Results
11 Organizational Design Sustaining
12 Customer Focus Innovation
13 Co-creation
14 Ecosystem Management
15 Speed / Results focus
16 Systems to select ideas
17 Commitment to Learning
18 Knowledge Sharing
19 Open Minded
Dependent Variables
Learning
Orientation
Entreprenuerial
Orientation
Independent Variables
Processes
Attitudes

24. 5. Proactivity is the most important thing you need to reward
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Std
Coefficient
s t Sig.
B
Std.
Error Beta
(Constant) -.996 4.730 -.211 .834
Proactivity .465 .077 .484 6.063 .000
Commitment to Learn .286 .081 .291 3.539 .001
Clear Decision Systems .261 .080 .272 3.264 .002
Speed/Results focus .235 .079 .253 2.989 .004
Innovation Results
All independent variables tested stepwise, 4 factors remained
1.The model predicts 63% of the explained variance (a good model is anything over 20%)
2.Proactivity is by far the most important driver of innovation performance
Client comments

25. Now comes the
most important
thing we learned

26. Culture and capabilities grow over time
The Basics
Strategy
Hunger
Philosophy
Learning Orientation *
Operations
Speed
Proactivity
General systems
Customer focus
Entrepreneurial Orient.
Risk Taking
Ecosystem
Management
Structure
Creativity
Room to grow
Sustaining Innov.
Breakthrough Innov.
Want it Do it Not scared to do more
Client comment

27. How we see this in the company results …
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Missing Basics Operations EO Core
Breakthrough Innovation 19 44 55 70
Sustaining 25 40 50 64
Overall Innovation 34 50 67 76

28. Now our core
research question…

29. There is a big difference
in the innovation profile of
small and large companies
No big surprise there…
Small Big
Desire / Hunger 65 39
Philosophies 68 35
Autonomy 35 61
Competitive 48 54
Creativity 58 41
Risk Taking 63 38
Proactivity 56 45
Structure 64 38
Strategy alignment 57 42
People processes 70 39
Organizational Design 67 38
Customer Focus 60 39
Co-creation 62 39
Ecosystem Management 59 41
Speed / Results focus 62 36
Systems to select ideas 58 44
Commitment to Learning 59 40
Knowledge Sharing 67 36
Open Minded 64 37
All

30. The real news is:
Successful Innovators
big and small, have
similar company
cultures
Small Big
Desire / Hunger 75 79
Philosophies 81 70
Autonomy 27 41
Competitive 45 37
Creativity 72 72
Risk Taking 71 77
Proactivity 62 79
Structure 61 64
Strategy alignment 61 76
People processes 86 79
Organizational Design 70 72
Customer Focus 75 68
Co-creation 72 63
Ecosystem Managemen 67 65
Speed / Results focus 73 67
Systems to select ideas 85 70
Commitment to Learnin 49 72
Knowledge Sharing 81 59
Open Minded 65 57
Winning Innovators
(*) winning = top 25 percentile

31. Big Small Big Small
All Leaning Orientation 37 66 67 78
All Basics 37 68 72 77
All Operations 40 60 72 66
All Entrepreneurial Orientation 38 63 78 78
Overall Innovation Readiness 40 70 80 82
All Companies Winning Innovators
Client comments

32. Now for something a long way
from Telecoms
… hands on in another sector to review
key aspects of innovation systems

33. Intro: Innovation Engineering
• 6 years of experience teaching Innovation and
Entrepreneurship…
• Lot’s of theory, but take away limited
• I met Doug Hall while looking for “learning by doing” exercises
–What made Doug / Innovation Engineering special
• A guru grounded in data
• A profound belief that anyone can be innovative
• The spirit of a teacher

35. • “America’s #1 Idea Guru” – A&E Top 10 !
• “America’s #1 New Product Idea Man” – Inc. Magazine !
• "Former Procter & Gamble marketing whiz Doug Hall goes
to any length to encourage a fresh perspective...clients say
it works." Wall Street Journal !
• "(Doug Hall is) an eccentric entrepreneur who just might
have what we've all been looking for – the happy secret to
success." Dateline NBC !
• “When Doug Meets Disney, creativity ne’er wanes; our
team explodes when he jump starts our brains!” Ellen
Guidera, VP Disney

36. In his words..
He sold spark plugs
to Industry
Fees for 2-3 day
workshops
$100 – $ 300 K
then the sparks worked
less and less

37. PEOPLE Data: innovation benchmarking
data on over 100,000 managers.
PROCESS Data: As of this writing we have
measured over 6,000 teams during a day
of brainstorming.
IDEA Data: market research on over
26,000 innovations.

38. 16 %
ideas
84 %
systems

40. Exercise objective
To help and get your thinking about
innovation systems
Let’s have some fun !!

41. Start Video and use Video during the discussion
www.tiny.cc/IEsampler/

42. 5 minutes:
What is his story…
What should he do based on this story ..
Client comments

43. Insert discussion of client’s mission statements
or employee quotes

44. 10 minutes:
Your mission: using his skills, making the
companies drinks more noticed (without
promoting drinking)
Suggestion:
The headline…
The problem
Promise

45. Using 666
MOJITO
BAR
SHARK
EG “2” “1” “2”
Mojito
= rum, cold, cuban
Bar
= a place to impress
Share good times with friends
Laugh
Shark
= Danger, sleek viral

46. Look for associations ..
Headline:
Target:
Problem:
Promise:
Best friends
Plastic ice cubes

47. Ready, GO …
R W B R W B R W B
3 6 2 5 1 6 1 4 5
4 3 5 1 6 4 1 5 1
2 4 6 6 5 6 5 5 4
R W B R W B R W B
1 3 5 6 5 1 6 1 3
4 1 3 2 4 6 2 3 6
1 2 2 3 2 3 6 5 5
Develop 3 ideas for each combination
Choose your best 2
Write 'em up
Group 2Group 1
Group 5 Group 6Group 4
Group 3

48. What you didn’t see…

49. The 2 big questions…
26,000 New product
Introductions
70% of success
F (Meaningful
/ Unique )
49
A million dollar formula
.6 * Meaningful + .4 * Unique = the best
predictor of success
Cut-off = 6 or better

51. 10 minutes: Process discussion
What is the process ?
In your opinion where is the real value / The
ideas or the process ? Why .
How does this compare to your company?
How long would it take your company to do
something similar ? Why ?

52. Any thoughts / ideas :
3 ideas how you could use similar
methods to increase speed /
reduce risk in your company

53. Summary..
It starts with strategic alignment then..
Systems
(to encourage
learning/ sharing/ working
together)

54. How we work
Where are you
• Audits /
Interviews
• Objective
view
• Agree
targets
Test Runs
• Training
• Acceleration
programs
• See what
works
System
• Train the
trainers
• Bring things
inside
Align Learning Cycles Execute