Developing a clear innovation strategy for your organization is critical to driving sustained and successful innovation. An innovation strategy creates alignment on innovation efforts across different teams and functions, any number of whom might otherwise perceive innovation goals differently. Without this alignment, the organization risks wasting resources and investment on innovations which lack direction, don’t fit into the product portfolio, and won’t produce a return. This article will discuss tips for creating a clear innovation strategy for your organization.

Set concrete objectives

The most fundamental piece of developing an innovation strategy is setting concrete objectives. These objectives will set the direction for all innovations in order to ensure alignment. This will also help ensure that your organization’s innovation will work to drive value. Ultimately, innovation without any defined value will be a distraction and your 
organization’s investment will be wasted. Set innovation objectives by looking at your organization’s current portfolio, industry data, and customer needs.

Determine what will (or won’t) work

Not all innovation strategies will work for your organization. Determining what will work for your organization and what won’t work will help prevent unfruitful resource usage. Many large organizations stay innovative by creating unique tactics that work for them, like Intuit’s follow-me-homes or Kimberly-Clark’s expert acceleration sessions.

Encourage innovation amongst employees

Now that your innovation strategy has objectives and a clear direction, it’s time to motivate employees to innovate. Coupled with vocal support from leadership, there are many effective tactics you can take to create motivation for innovation, including contests, unstructured time, inventor incentive programs, and more.

Measure your success

Any strategy is incomplete without being able to measure its success. To measure innovation’s success, determine innovation benchmarks and put processes in place to measure against them. Innovation metrics can be focused on processes, revenue generated, costs, intellectual property, and more.

A clear innovation strategy can help your organization build a powerful innovation culture. An innovation culture impacts your company’s brand, hiring, development, competitiveness and overall value so it’s critical to build and nurture one in your organization. To learn more, download this free ebook.