Overall corporate strategies may be more or less refined. Often we have strategies in sales, in marketing and other fields. One element, however, that is almost always missing is a clearly defined reason, goal and approach how to develop new customer values. Why is that so? Why do we struggle with defining strategic parameters for innovation?

Several things may come into play here:

Not realising the necessity

Often, there is a belief that any kind of regulatory restrictions will kill innovation. Innovation work would need full freedom to eventually and in a miraculous way spit out exactly what we want.

‍

Not realising the urgency

Expenses for innovation efforts may play a rather subordinate role in the full spectrum of a corporate financial structure. Weighing the time-invest with the urgency of topics in other more visible areas in the company innovation topics are often downgraded in their urgency. The consequence of loosing time by conducting unfocused innovation work is not realised.

‍

Having simply no experience / expertise of "How to" and therefore avoiding it

Sales, marketing, product management are all fields that companies have been doing for decades and feel comfortable with because the level of uncertainty is rather low. In comparison developing innovative additional customer values besides the core business is new and there is barely any expertise or even experience available in the company how to actually do this.

‍

Silent transfer of responsibility

Often, innovation managers thinks that developing an innovation strategy is the top management's job. And the top management thinks, this is the innovation management's job. In combination with not feeling secure how to actually develop a strategy, both remain silent.

‍

Common hurdles prohibiting the definition of useful strategies:

• Not having a vision. If we don't know in which direction we want to develop our company, we cannot describe a path that leads us there, which is what a strategy primarily should do.
• Being imprecise. "Developing the company's innovation capability" sounds good. But what actions are necessary? What resources? What exactly do we want to achieve and how do we measure it?

What can be root-causes for the above?

• Feeling of insecurity to make a decision that eventually turns out to be wrong which could lead to personal disadvantages.
• Fear of exposing oneself of lacking visionary thinking.
• Having simply no experience how to develop visions and strategies and fearing others might realise this.
• Not seeing the drawbacks of not having a precise strategy