Bridging the Gap By Marrying Innovation and Execution

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The business world is full of creative and smart people. Many of them work for technology companies, from the burgeoning expansion stage business to the multi-billion dollar enterprise. Regardless of the stage of the company, one maxim is true: innovate or die. That is to say, while a product offering may be cutting edge today, it can become outdated in no time. In order to stay ahead of the next trend, a company must constantly rethink its business model and create new and/or better products. Companies must also apply a concerted effort within organizations to think big and disrupt! This is central to maintaining sound competitive positioning.

The creation of new concepts is significant; however, it is certainly not the whole story . Innovation is only half the battle. You can create all the greatest ideas in the world but they are meaningless until they are turned into actionable items. Execution is the name of the game. Numerous companies have faltered by ineffectively managing new product roll-outs and/or waiting too long to call an experiment a failure.

I am reading about this innovation/execution dilemma in a recently released book called, “The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge.” The book, which is authored by Tuck School of Business Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, practices what it preaches. It isn’t just an expository on the mistakes concerning innovation, but a guide to new product management and experiments.

While I am not entirely finished with the book, I did notice several interesting themes I believe are important for growing . Expansion stage businesses must keep them in mind when thinking about new product development and creating the next big thing:

- Develop a system that tightly manages the innovative process: Google is famous for its “20% rule”, where all employees are urged to invest about 20% of their work time to innovation and new products, which is not part of their job description. Some businesses would view this practice as a waste of time and productivity. Yet, with this system, Google has created many new innovations such as Gmail, Google News and other successful projects.

- Involve relevant parties early: Get the people who are requisite to adoption and execution within the Company to buy-in early. Dont spring this on sales channels directly prior to a new product roll-out. Issues will definitely arise.
- Call it quits at the right time: Sometimes a new venture or offering may seem quite promising at the outset; however, for a variety of reasons it may not work out. Know when to admit defeat and walk away instead of increasing your possibility of major loss.

At OpenView Venture Partners, we are focused on working with companies to help them ideate and iterate. We love to join forces with companies that are zealous to enthusiastically pursue growth and push the boundaries of today’s industry standards.

Related articles

• Bridging the Gap: Thinking About How to Marry Innovation and Execution (bayviewhunterspoint.com)
• Google’s Innovation -And Everyone’s? (blogs.forbes.com)
• 10 Reasons for Open Innovation Failure (customerthink.com)

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1. Grow A Solid Innovation Culture In Your Company