It’s Not a Creativity Problem

Innovation enables companies to differentiate, establish competitive advantage, and drive revenue growth. So it isn’t surprising that nearly every executive wants their company to be innovative. When I ask executives how they are driving innovation, I usually hear how they are enhancing their employees’ creativity, such as:

• Conduct brainstorming sessions
• Encourage employees to take time each week to imagine better products/services
• Drive fear out of the workplace
• Recognize and reward risk-taking
• Encourage the submission of ideas
• Engage in “open innovation” to generate ideas from external experts
• Etc.

All of these activities have value but, in my experience, the primary ingredient for innovation success that most companies are missing is focus. Without focus on a known customer need, creativity exercises are largely a waste of time. The best creativity trigger is a well-defined customer need.

Most companies don’t lack creativity or ideas; they lack focus. They lack clarity about where the best opportunities in the market lie. And, yes, customers CAN tell us what they want if we ask them what they want to get done rather than asking them for product or service specifications. This insight is transforming innovation management from a haphazard event into a predictable and repeatable business process.