The People Side of Innovation These days, there is much talk about open innovation, business model innovation and innovation culture. These are important topics, but the most significant element to anything related to innovation will always be people. It is people that make things happen and this is you, your colleagues, your customers and other external partners that you engage with to bring innovation to market. It is not that long ago that a good innovator was considered to be a good engineer or R&D person. However, things have changed big time over the last 5-7 years as the open innovation and business model innovation movements continue to rise while companies have failed to upgrade their innovation capabilities during the financial crisis. In this talk, Stefan Lindegaard will explain the consequences of these changes as he looks into the skills and mindset that are required to be a good innovator in this era of “modern innovation,” which is driven more by openness and business models than internal R&D and patents. The topics include: • 7 critical personal competencies for innovation success • an overview of the types of people and functions you need for a strong innovation team • insights on the key elements for corporate innovation training programs • a view on why some people kill innovation – and how to deal with them

1. The People Side of Innovation
www.15inno.com
15inno by Stefan Lindegaard at LinkedIn Groups
stefanlindegaard@me.com
Twitter: @lindegaard
Hey! Free books on 15inno.com!

2. A CFO is wary about investing in the training and
education of the employees.
He asks the CEO: ”What happens if we invest in
developing our people and then they leave the
company?”
The CEO is a bright person and replies:
”What happens if we don’t and they stay?”

4. Faster pace, shrinking window of
opportunity, less time for cash cows
Global megatrends: faster, more open,
more transparent and more connected
We need a holistic approach based on open
innovation and business model innovation!

5. What is open innovation?
“…a philosophy or a mindset that they should
embrace within their organization.
This mindset should enable their organization to
work with external input to the innovation
process just as naturally as it does with internal
input”
Open innovation as a term will disappear in 5-7
years!

8. Discovery – Incubation – Acceleration: Have the
right people at the right time!

9. What skills / key people do you need now, short
and long term? How do you get access to them?

10. 1) Intrapreneurial skills
2) Networking talent
3) Communication skills
4) Strategic influencing
5) Adaptive fast learner
6) Balanced optimism
7) Tolerance for uncertainty
8) Passion

11. 58 replies, 62% working in companies with
more than 5000 people
45% work with innovation in full-time position
as leaders/managers, 18% full-time with no
leadership role and 27% on ad-hoc basis
Full survey = search “survey” on 15inno.com

12. Please rate these qualifications for a team
working to create a stronger innovation culture.
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13. Please rate these ways for leaders to motivate
employees to become more innovative, help
create better culture for innovation.
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14. Innovation is a team sport. To which extent do
these statements resonate with you.
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15. Companies need to upgrade their innovation
capabilities. How relevant are these
initiatives and activities for this?
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16. No networking culture? No innovation culture!
- future winners get communities to work!

17. Networking efforts require direction, training and
time. Few executives get this.

18. Horizontal: disposition for
collaboration across disciplines
Vertical:
depth of
skill which
allows to
contribute
Only T-shapes:
“Occasionally, we
have people who
don’t really have a
depth of skills, and
they really struggle.
They don’t get
respect from the
group.”
Credit: Tim Brown / IDEO
Only I-shapes:
“…very hard for them
to collaborate…each
individual discipline
represents its own
point of
view…becomes a
negotiation…you get
gray compromises…
The results are never
spectacular but at
best average.”

19. Productivity versus innovation?
”…people are more productive when they're
alone...they're more collaborative and innovative
when they're together. Some of the best ideas
come from pulling two different ideas together.”
Marissa Mayer, Yahoo!

20. Thoughts on training programs
Double challenge = paradigm shift during the
financial crisis
Train the trainer (not full-time, ambassadors)
Bring in real life experiences: intrapreneurship,
learning while doing
Focus on creating right framework and
conditions: there are no silver bullets!

21. Intrapreneurship is an overlooked tool:
“Intrapreneur: a person within a large corporation
who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea
into a profitable finished product through
assertive risk-taking and innovation.”
American Heritage Dictionary, 1992

22. The Man on The Moon competition
• To identify and develop new ventures that creates significant growth
and/or strategic advantages
• To spot and develop talent
• To change the culture and establish ”intrapreneurship” as a fourth career path

23. “…an intrapreneur must have the ability to see and pursue possibilities by
piecing together innovations across three or more business functions
simultaneously.”
Paul Campbell, former VP, HP

26. www.businessmodelsinc.com

27. Only a truly burning platform or fully aligned
executives can change the culture fast!
If you want to change a culture, you should
reward behaviors as well as results!
Organizations must embrace experimentation –
and the failures that come along with it!
A corporate culture is carved in stone in the
early years. You can’t just copy Google!

28. People first, processes next, then ideas!

29. Get in touch!
www.15inno.com
15inno by Stefan Lindegaard at LinkedIn Groups
stefanlindegaard@me.com
Twitter: @lindegaard
Hey! Free books on 15inno.com!