At certain periods during the year, business slows down. This especially holds true for companies beginning a new year after the holidays. Leaders often emerge from that time of year with new vigor and new ideas for profit growth. But even though idea flow hasn’t stopped, execution can be slowed. It takes some time for employees on leave to return to their posts, or to reassess what they were working on and pick it back up. As a result, cycle times take longer.

When you’ve built the perfect innovation and patent strategy for your organization, it can be easy to turn your team loose and expect the process to just fall into place. Execution can easily go awry, however, and any delays or obstacles that crop up during the process can derail that perfect plan. While the timing and methods by which businesses carry out their innovation process may vary, there are some tips that can almost always be applied to enhance cost-effectiveness and productivity. Read on to learn five of those tactical tips.

The IP development process can be drawn out over dozens of months, while on other occasions it can be accelerated to a few weeks. Although the timeframe may vary, there are a few core milestones in the innovation workflow that will always be met in order to give inventions life, protection, and profitability. Here are the seven steps that businesses must follow in order to successfully convert their ideas to proprietary assets, and some recommendations on how your company can accomplish those steps.

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.

Innovation is critical for organizations to continue to build and sustain competitive advantage over the long term. Many of the world’s most innovative companies have unlocked the secret to continuous innovation: their employees. However, motivating employees to take part in innovation can sometimes be a challenge. This article will cover six tactics your organization can implement to motivate employees to innovate:

Today’s organizations have undergone a shift from traditional research and development (R&D) methods to modern, collaborative innovation systems. Organizations that can take advantage of this changing landscape are well-poised to drive higher value for customers and long-term success. This post will look at the disadvantages of traditional R&D structures, the shift to new innovation models, and how to begin taking advantage of these models in your organization.

Innovation is fast becoming one of the most important factors for an organization’s success and growth. As such, cultivating innovation in your company should be a critical organizational initiative. Despite that, many organizations face internal challenges which hinder the progress of innovation. Here are nine of these common challenges and how to solve them:

In order to boost innovation in your organization, leadership must enable employees with the right tools and technology.   Though many may envision innovation tools as sticky notes and markers on whiteboards, there are many tools beyond the basics which can help drive innovation past the brainstorming stage. Here are some of the core types of tools and technology which can drive innovation at your organization:

Your company’s innovation strategy is an incredibly important element in taking your organization from an emerging newcomer to an established cash cow. Innovating constantly ensures your organization’s ear is always to the ground to stay proactive instead of reactive, but in many cases, that’s easier said than done. An effective innovation strategy must scale with the organization. Here are three ways to effectively scale your organization’s innovation strategy:

In today’s environment, organizations are well-positioned to make a powerful, positive impact with their innovation. While many organizations have focused on improving the triple bottom line by increasing their sustainability efforts, or those in their supply chain. However, organizations have relatively extensive resource pools, full of top talent, capital, supplier networks, brand reputation, and more. This means that they are well-equipped to not only make process improvements, but also to truly innovate and invent to make a difference where it’s needed. For example, these innovations in clean technology and medical technology can improve the environment and save lives, respectively.