Innovation Basket presentation

1. For PMI
Haijian Si and Anyu Gao
25 January 2024
Introduction
to Innovation
BasketTM
Linking innovation
projects to strategy

2. Who are we?
Haijian Si, PhD
• First Author, Business Doctorate
candidate, University of Cambridge
• Former CEOs of new energy companies
• Former President of China New Energy
Chamber of Commerce
Anyu Gao, PhD
• Executive MBA candidate,
University of Cambridge
• Experienced leader in portfolio,
project and change management
• PMP and PMI Mentor since 2011

3. Agenda
• The Background: What is innovation?
• The Problem: Why do innovation projects
disconnect from strategy?
• The Solution: Innovation Basket
• Next Steps and Q&A

4. What is innovation
A (working) definition of Innovation:
• Something new
• Implemented
• (Economically) useful
“Any (new) change
that helps
companies to
compete”
“Any deliberate
change that helps
the strategic
position of the
organization”
“The successful
commercial
exploitation of
new ideas”

5. Types of innovation
New Technology
New Organizational
Structure
New Services
New Product
New Business Model New Process

6. Why is innovation difficult to manage
Creativity vs.
Discipline
Time &
Uncertainty
Collaboration
Complexity
Frameworks &
Approaches

7. Strategies and projects are unique
Business
Growth Competi-
tiveness
Technology
Leadership
New tech-
nologies
Functi-
onality
Product
reliability
Solar
conversion
efficiency
Company A (Tech Leader)
Project groups
Growth
Lean
management
Manu-
facturing
excellence
Cost
reduction
Production
line
equipment
Factory
layout and
systems
Supply chain
back
integration and
efficiency …
Manufacturing
process
improvement
project…
Company B (Cost Leader)
Project groups

8. The problem
Strategic
Objectives
(What you
want to
achieve)
All the innovation projects that have been given budgets in the organization
What?
Market offering
For what: Use
Who?
Customer
segments
How?
Business
Model
Why?
Competitive
strength
What If?
Changes
Strategy
(How you
want to
achieve
them)
Innovation
Project
Portfolio
(What are you
going to do)
Market Share, Revenue Growth, Technology Leadership etc.

9. The Innovation Basket Toolkit
*From the HBR article
Diagnosis Alignment
Achieve
Strategic
Consensus
Derive
Innovation
Goals
Develop
Innovation
Basket
• What, who,
why and how
(3W1H)
• Understand
Strategic
position
• What needs to
change?
• Internal
weaknesses,
vulnerabilities,
external threats
• Iterative: Project
are removed,
added, or
changed
• May change
Strategy

10. Case: Achieving focus at Glass Inc.
Unaligned Projects
- e.g., 4 projects removed
for goal 3: One-off feature
for single customers, no
recurring revenue
Strategy
may be
updated

11. Next steps
The
Innovation Basket
• Awareness and
adoption
• Collaboration,
e.g. With PMI
• Ongoing
research, and
new use cases
The
Audience
• Share on
LinkedIn
• Complete
Survey
• Use the
Innovation
Basket
Useful
Links

12. Thank you & Q&A
Haijian Si
Email: hs777@jbs.cam.ac.uk
Anyu Gao
Email: ag2311@jbs.cam.ac.uk
Connect with us on LinkedIn, share your experiences, ask us questions, or receive information
about facilitated workshops using the Innovation Basket.