Systemising Innovation: From Idea to Implementation - Part 1
- Herman Veitch
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Stop Waiting for the 'Lightbulb' Moment: How to Systemise Innovation in Your Small Business
If you're like most successful entrepreneurs, you know innovation isn't a luxury; it's the engine of sustainable growth. But let's be honest: waiting for a sudden "lightbulb" moment is no strategy.
Your business is likely past the chaotic startup phase. You need a reliable, repeatable machine for generating brilliant new ideas—a structured system to turn those sparks into profit.
This is the first of three articles designed to give you that system. Let's start at the beginning: generating and refining those raw ideas.
The Anatomy of an Idea-Generation System
How do you move from a random suggestion to a formalised system? It starts with creating a deliberate structure around the entire process.
This involves four critical stages, which you must formalise and document:
1. Structuring Idea Generation (The Input)
If you're relying only on the CEO's intuition, you're missing out. A robust system draws ideas from everywhere—employees, customers, suppliers, and even competitors.
Make it Official: Use dedicated channels, like a company-wide suggestion box, a monthly brainstorm committee, or quarterly "problem-solving sprints".
Encourage Quantity: Focus on generating a high volume of raw ideas first. The filtering comes later. This aligns with the mindset of continuous improvement.
“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” — Linus Pauling, Nobel Laureate.
2. Mobilisation: Giving Ideas a Voice
A great idea is useless if it just sits in a database. Mobilisation is about getting the best ideas championed by a person or a small team.
The Idea Advocate: Assign a specific Advocate to each promising idea. This person is responsible for articulating its potential value and preparing it for screening.
The Pitch: Require the Advocate to present the idea, detailing the problem it solves, the resources required, and the expected payoff. This ensures immediate accountability.
3. Rigorous Screening and Refining Potential
This is where the magic happens—and where most businesses fail by being too quick to judge or too slow to act. The goal is to separate the genuinely scalable solutions from the interesting, but impractical, concepts.
Ask the Hard Questions: Subject ideas to a rigorous screening process. Ask: Is it aligned with our business goals? Is it feasible with our current resources? What is the potential ROI?
The Power of Data: Instead of guessing, use metrics. Implement a simple scoring system (e.g., scoring 1-5 on impact, cost, and alignment) to ensure decisions are data-driven.
Did you know? Companies with a formalised, structured innovation process consistently outperform those with informal processes by a significant margin. Statistics show that structured innovation processes can increase the success rate of new products by over 50%.
Ready to Turn Ideas into Action?
You're committed to improving your business systems to focus on long-term sustainability and growth. Don't let your best ideas become just another business bottleneck.
Download our free decision-making tool today!
It's a powerful first step that will help you pinpoint your current operational challenges and show you exactly how our systemising course can propel your business beyond the current growth plateau.
Comments