Innovation Vs Shiny Ball Solutions

James Paulsen - Founder and Executive Director, International Leaders

Roughly one out of 20 start-ups is a success, according to start-up accelerator BlueChilli, which means they fail 95 percent of the time.

This would indicate that almost 100% of Ideas will fail due to lack of due diligence and execution.

Growing companies need to incorporate a process to logically review and introduce new ideas and innovation into their business. If a company were to workshop each and every new idea, they would never have the time to run the business.

Each idea should be championed by the person proposing the change/innovation and go through a thorough analysis prior to being introduced to the whole team.  This discipline is necessary to ensure efficient use of resources to create effective innovation.

Following is the process we use when considering a new idea or change:

• Opportunity – Is there an actual opportunity or problem – Fact or Emotion
• Why – Understand why it is working or not working – tangible reasons or feedback
• Process – Are you fully following the prescribed process to avoid the problem/opportunity
• Solution – What are multiple options to the actual problem/opportunity
• Consequences – What are the potential positive and negative results of each change
• Greater Good – Does the solution benefit the greater good or just YOU
• Communication – Bring the innovation and research from above to the company to share – clearly articulate the process and points detailed above for all to review

This process provides a disciplined and efficient process to identify and select the best ideas from within an ever increasing changing business environment.