Who is CINO?

Innovation is important. It generates future revenue for the business. It must be a top priority for any company to increase revenues and survive in the upcoming years. It has to be systematically managed end to end and has to have the same place in a company as any other significant process.

One thing has to be clear from the start of recruiting CINO. Are serious about innovation or just playing theatre? Are you implementing CINO role just because it is a buzz word nowadays and everyone has it, or you are genuinely dedicated to making an impact? Expectations are high, but some sceptics in the organization feel that innovation is an overhyped buzzword that doesn’t justify being a separate function. Many companies are dedicated only to the ROI of every project that comes along.

With every change, there has to be some dedication on top management level to achieve. Innovation must be complemented by:

· Disciplined management direction

· Clear strategies and processes

· And dedicated budget.

CINO or Chief Innovation Officer needs to be, in my opinion, a »people person«. Someone who predicts the unpredictable expects the unexpected.

I would first set the record straight with the top management. Are they committed? Cliché as it sounds, I would start with why.

PURPOSE:

What are the objectives and desired outcomes? Changes are hard work, and in the face of difficulty, people tend to gravitate toward the old and familiar ways. It is easier the old way, takes less time and effort.

The biggest challenge for large companies is to be agile despite their size. Cino, in this case, needs to drive the innovation across the whole company, across the silos, functions and business units, geographical areas and beyond the company’s traditional borders.

And in the end, it is not just about the innovation process. CINO needs to ensure that innovation delivers business results. Having only an idea has zero value. There has to be a strong focus on the overall business value of the concept. A clear distinguishment and identification to tell apart disruptive threats and opportunities based on emerging trends. Also, ensure that innovation focuses on value for the customer. The real CINO challenge here is how to align both?

CHANGE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE:

Nothing leads like an example. Walk the talk, it is said. Leaders and managers should push themselves to adopt agile ways of doing things and publicly demonstrate their changing behaviours.

CINO and his team need to start rolling the snowball of changes. As it moves, it gets bigger and bigger and almost unstoppable.

We must start a communication. I would establish an internal dialogue because it shapes the company culture. We need to be heard. What are we doing? That the information flow is starting. We need to understand that this is a new movement inside the company. And all changes can and most certainly will spark a revolt with some. We need to be vocal that all the employees get to know this new role and the process behind it and most important to motivate people to take part in the upcoming projects.

The same focus has to have external communication towards the outside public, especially to attract creative talents and partners.

We need to understand that we don’t change the culture by issuing a memo. We need to establish a culture where we empower and enable its employees to think differently, ask questions, and challenged the conventional ways to find new opportunities for creating value.

SET A KPI (tracking and reporting)

· Describe the overall vision in a compelling way

· Define the critical success metrics that follow that vision

· Set milestones and create Gantt charts

· Divide the work into stages and clear accountabilities

· Manage the process centrally from program office against the plan.

Cino is in charge of defining and monitoring the metrics of innovation performance.

1. GET BUY-IN

Spend some quality time with every member of the top management. You are starting something new inside the company, and it is vitally important to develop relationships with the CEO, business unit leaders, and other key executives to understand the company’s strategy so that innovation becomes in alignment with overall corporate goals. It means that you are trying to get in-depth insight and understanding of the innovation’s role inside the company. Will it is a tool for improving and expanding the existing business or it’s an intention to redefine and transform the company. Will we be pushing the innovation through research and development department or coach and incubate ideas through organic growth from each and any department.

You need to understand if the management and department leaders are willing to allocate some of their human and financial resources to work with you and other teams?

2. RESEARCH YOUR TERRITORY AND MAJOR OBSTACLES

Know your most critical organizational roadblocks to innovation. Some departments are generating the silos effect, and some managers disagree with one another. Perhaps this will be one of the most significant challenges to ever face in CINO role. I would try to establish some of the hidden determinants in every company, and that is: how it funds and staffs projects, how it measures and rewards performance, and how it allocates overall budgets. And rewarding will help you identify the biggest hurdles to achieving your longer-term plan, and where short-term workarounds are required.

Determine how you plan to balance your efforts between developing ideas, supporting initiatives in other parts of the organization, and creating an overall culture of innovation. Those are related, but distinctly different tasks. Don’t get too rooted to your initial perspective. Be as adaptable in your approach as you will be when you work on specific ideas.

Develop the ability to identify and disarm all the innovation antibodies.

3. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS

Don’t ever assume what your customers want or desire. Clear market definition ideally is grounded in customer insights. Never put products on the market and think that this is what customers want. Get out of the building and explore the market. I would also join the sales team and go with them to the field and visit customers.

We need to create new or your markets by analyzing trends, global market disruptions and searching for emerging opportunities.

Companies tend to define their world based on the categories in which they compete or the products they offer. However, customers are always on the lookout for the best way to get a job done and don’t care what industries or categories the solutions happen to fall into. Understanding how customers make their choices often reveals an entirely different set of competitors, redefining the market in which your company operates its role in the market and the basis for business success.

4. CHECK THE DUST BIN OF FORGOTTEN IDEAS

A key component of my new job role will also be to freshen up the existing innovation initiatives or idea-collection. Some may already be in progress. There may be a backlog of ideas waiting to be developed or even evaluated. Sometimes these so-called commissions are a real idea killer. And these commissions also hold on the concept for almost half of year before they accepted or refuse them. In the meantime, people don’t get feedback, and it kills their motivation for future idea generation. With this lack of innovation spirit, people tend not to disclose their ideas. That is why sometimes the raw material might be a bit rougher, existing primarily in people’s heads. We need to give them a platform like short innovation pitches once a month, innovation days or hackathons. You would be surprised what potential have people inside of them if only they have a chance to be heard. The first thing I would go through would be the innovation process in the majority of companies the use a paper form or perhaps a SharePoint online form.

5. EMBRACE THE FAILURES

When considering quick wins, don’t avoid rapid losses. Real innovation requires an organization to stop avoiding failure and see the benefits of learning from it. But the crash remains very scary to everyone. Have enough things going on that you can tolerate a quick loss without damaging your overall pipeline. Many ideas might fail in the end; however, we need to embrace this path as a total learning curve towards future success. One thing is also important, knowing when to end a project. Some just stick till the end and burn a lot of money in the process, when they don’t want to face that they don’t have the market or the customers. All they have is their idea, their baby and they don’t want to finish that loving relationship. In the end, when this happens, and for sure it will work on several occasions, do not judge, do not make a fuss or publicly disgrace … Make sure that you and your management loudly and proudly celebrate the first project you stop when it becomes clear it won’t work.

6. ENSURE INNOVATION BUDGET

We need to have a budget for innovation. This budget is not directly allocated yet, but it is in a function as directing seed funding. It comes in smaller amounts to cover the initial cost for testing assumptions or MVP, or initial prototype… some might not be refunded back, but it will cost you much less than full development and then checking on the market.

Manage a yearly budget for »homeless ideas« (too risky ones or ideas outside existing business boundaries), that might otherwise not get funded. These ideas might be out of the current business model or scope. However, it might be groundbreaking in the end. Be the one who pushes and protects new ideas.

In conclusion, Chief Innovation Officer in the bare end needs to support best practices and introducing new ideas and methods. Needs to develop skills and train, support business units. Be the voice of the innovation teams across the company and with this also identify new markets. Help them spark creativity and generate ideas. It is a responsible role within the company if the company chooses to have one; however, it is crucial to have the right person to take that place.