Why We Are Entering A New Innovation Era In 2017 - Innovation Thinking and Resources

I wrote this recently in a post entitled “Bringing New Innovation is Stretching the Mind“. It opened with this view:

“There is a profound shift taking place, relating to innovation. Increasingly we are seeing a growing dissatisfaction on the impact that innovation is having; in growth, in returns, in market and customer impact. There is a search for new solutions.

One of the implications is this growing recognition that innovation is rarely succeeding in isolation but it is growing on a more highly dependent type of complementary innovation, a collaborative network, working around this new emerging innovation to deliver a more connected, radical experience, requiring innovation ecosystem management.

This dramatic change we will all be undergoing will have a significant impact on each organization’s innovation management design as it will require new connected thinking, built upon a substantial network of collaborations and partnerships

I believe innovation has been in the need for change for some time and 2017 will be the transforming year.

I sense innovation will change dramatically in 2017 as we are coming very quickly to a refraction point in how it’s going to be managed. The underlying change is the contribution of technology and digital, enabling the opening up of our world of possibility, through ecosystems and platforms that provide the collaborative base for a new, complex, diverse set of connections.

This ‘connected world’ can deliver a new higher’ value set’ of innovation solutions, increasingly based more on understanding the customer’s demand for a seamless connected experience, through a greater set of contact points and the increasing levels of data and analytics gained from theses ongoing engagements

Innovation has for a long time been struggling to gain a new growth momentum for many.

For many years there have only been many disappointing incremental steps in how we innovate. Now innovation will require significant changes as the digital transformation momentum takes hold. This transforming will require a radical overhaul of the innovation management process as we will increasingly be operating in this different world of ecosystems and platforms.

Today I believe we are on the cusp of a new innovation era and it is a powerful set of enablers that are combining to bring us to this point. My next post will lay those out but before this but before we move forward we should look back, to reflect on the many aspects of change that all are part of the radical redesign that will be required.

I have argued consistently innovation required changing. I want to recap here before we move on

There have been many potential innovation change points I felt needing challenging over the last few years. Below I have shown links into previous posts of mine that are part of this innovation transforming journey we all need to undertake. They are here as prompters into our thinking about change.

Each of these is a link to the post itself. If you feel inclined take a dip, if not stay dry.

Bringing New Innovation Together Is Stretching the Mind, Posted on October 25, 2016

The New Innovation Need: Organizing within a Networks of Collaborators, Posted on October 3, 2016

Developing a new framework for risk and innovation. Posted on May 19, 2016

Establishing a new mentality for innovation Posted on April 28, 2016

The New Innovation Value Chain Perhaps?, Posted on September 25, 2015

Moving towards a new innovation service model, Posted on August 12, 2015

A new innovation perspective – change to fluidity, Posted on June 29, 2015

Where are the new feeding grounds of innovation? Posted on January 4, 2015

As new digital technology dawns for innovation. Posted on November 22, 2014

Redesigning the organizations middle for a new innovation shape., Posted on August 15, 2014

Seeking a new middle management’s innovation perspective. Posted on August 20, 2013

Reducing confusion, promoting diffusion of new knowledge in innovation. Posted on November 9, 2012

A new raison d’être for HRM through Innovation. Posted on July 30, 2012

Making the first crucial steps towards innovation renewal. Posted on September 21, 2011

What are the new paradigms in innovation? Posted on August 26, 2011

Impact investing for social good through new innovation- a growing momentum? Posted on July 27, 2011

Renewing Innovation through the Social Innovation Agenda. Posted on July 22, 2011

Learning to absorb new knowledge for innovation. Posted on July 12, 2011

The forming of new structures- the business ecosystem of innovation federations. Posted on July 5, 2011

The new extended innovation funnel. Posted on April 13, 2011

The beginning of a new era for innovation, truly global. Posted on February 13, 2011

Welcome to the brave new world of innovation ecosystems. Posted on February 12, 2011

Orchestrating the new dynamics of innovation fitness. Posted on February 7, 2011

The intervening years between the first “burst of 2011 / 12 and 2015 / 16 were collaborative ones. A short recap on these.

The period of 2012 to 2014 was a far from quiet time, it kept reinforcing my belief that innovation needed to change. It helped me make up the arguments towards a new way of thinking about innovation but through a collaborating relationship with Jeffrey Phillips over at Ovo Innovation really advanced this thinking.

We initially concluded innovation required a common framework This has included “collaborative-innovation-reference-framework” (paper one) that argues for the establishment of the-need-for-a-common-framework-model-for-innovation-management (paper two) and they developed this as a Collaborative Innovation Reference Framework. It can be found at http://cirf.pbworks.com and explores the necessary business architecture, provides a detailed innovation reference framework and examines the different innovation types through a unique lens.

Then we recognized a lack of an organizing around an integrated innovation framework, so we went into the second substantive collaboration was around the development of the Executive Innovation Work Mat with the “innovation-executive-work-mat-initial-whitepaper here. In a series of blog posts, articles and an initial Whitepaper, this fills a vital and often “missing gap” in innovation. Often the leadership at the top of our organization fails to fully engage in innovation, it remains unclear of its pivotal role in drawing together the vision, mission, and goals of the organization and achieving a strong and clear alignment to the innovation activity that can deliver on these strategic intents. The use of this Executive Innovation Work Mat is designed to resolve this “gap”.

The third collaboration we had together was focusing on “the Interplay Surrounding Innovation” where through two whitepapers ( the-critical-interplay-among-innovation-business-models-and-change and why-innovators-need-a-new-change-paradigm) and a series of blog posts we provided a focus on innovation that requires an interplay with business models and systemic change as essential in today’s more volatile and disruptive world. We argued that innovation almost always impacts three constituents: the customer, the competitors or markets they are in and the innovator themselves. These all have high levels of impact on business models and increasingly an end result of an innovation, regardless of its initial outcome and can become a business model innovation in themselves.

Our latest collaboration is presently around innovation ecosystems and all that it connects into for innovation

So we come to this our fourth substantive collaboration here. We are entering the world of innovation ecosystems where broader, more complex innovation challenges, through greater collaborations can be achieved. So this site is dedicated to building the arguments here on https://ecosystems4innovating.wordpress.com . We decided to ‘house’ this in a dedicated blog posting site as it can forge a new direction and momentum for innovation to travel, dedicated to the changes occurring.

So a new innovation era is upon us, do you recognize it or simply want to stay ignoring it?

2017 will be a defining year for innovation, well actually it will be a transforming one. Both Jeffrey and I believe innovation needs to enter a new era of prosperity and for me, that requires this recognition we are moving towards a new innovation model, one highly connected, and collaborative and this will come about in 2017 for most organizations to embrace.

The big change will come increasingly around the growing participation upon digital platforms and the being involved in multiple ecosystems of solution providers, all leveraging technology and highly digital. It’s transforming potential will be how it will increasingly connect into the customer needs in collaborative ways, to provide greater seamless experiences.

The ability to form new networks, to collaborate, to connect into others on common cause through technology working through platforms and ecosystems is going to revolutionize the way we think, and certainly manage innovation in the future.

Welcome to the new innovation era, coming your way in 2017.

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