There are so many pressures surrounding innovation it is important to see all of these to combine into the need to innovate

1. Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
Industry and Market level issues
PRESSURES- There are external forces that are having a real impact on present growth- effecting position,
competitiveness, operation, profit, growth of the business organization. These are coming from new pervasive low-
cost technologies, volatility in markets, new scale & complexities, global competition, shift in market power,
different regulations and increased scrutiny of what a company offers and often tired and out-dated business
models that are not reflected the rapidly changing environment.
ACTIONS- that need to respond to these pressures that call for better informed knowledge, different ways to do
business, new approaches in products, services, business models and processes. These need to be more „dynamic‟
and „innovative‟. They need to show „differentiation‟ to the multiple stakeholders that the business can offers new
value and this can be sustained through creativity, innovation, fresh approaches and ideas.
Why is Innovation Strategy Often So Difficult to Execute?
Why is it so elusive to many?
1. Often, there is no clear organizational definition of innovation, its context
2. No alignment around clearly articulated drivers of success
3. Innovation is inherently difficult to measure
4. Understanding where „the pressure to innovate‟ comes from is poorly recognized
5. A lack of a „hard core‟ of innovation capabilities
Finally, innovation invariably requires cross-functional collaboration & enterprise management.
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

2. Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
@Leadership Level
Primary motivations of innovation:
The likely driving-forces for innovation at leadership level:
• Frustration with the status quo
• Declining revenue, changing customer tastes
• Response to crisis, need for change
• Focus on prevention
• Adaptation of technology
• A change in leadership bringing new perspectives
• A change in market conditions
Agility Innovation Specialists
Source: J Walters : Understanding Innovation. www.agilityinnovation.com

3. What are the key issues driving innovation globally?
Drivers to Innovate-successfully-
What is happening today?
•Drivers of the global innovation networks and the models emerging are many and varied.
•Innovation is becoming more complex and expensive because of the confluence of disruptive forces
•R&D is increasingly being off shored for cost and quality
•Innovation is increasingly becoming more open and collaborative
•Disaggregating R&D creates major management challenges
•The increased cost of complexity- revolution, harmonization, breakdowns, convergence are all adding
additional burden
•The growing importance of customer-centricity to know what they want and calibrate this overall
strategy
•The migration of „pull‟ and „push‟- constant “iterative exploratory dialogue”
•The importance of people- talent, location, bridging gaps, experience
•Flexibility, trust and cultural fit of innovation and present environment.
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

4. Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
@“Macro” level
These come from:
• Cost pressures- to reduce cost consistently to „right size‟ the business to reflect present market realities
• Wall street demands and emphasis on innovation is for early payback and visible success.
• A more demanding customer and faster delivery to market through the new product innovation pipeline
• Fewer successful mergers dilute or deflect- grow organically may be less „disruptive‟
• Greater regulation and changing environmental factors are pushing the focus perhaps to much
• Future growth comes through covering all aspects needed to combine: a mix of new innovative products,
technologies, services, productivity & new business models
• Low inflation, slow economic and market growth- economic improvement is not as reliable and is
creating downward pricing pressures causing pressure on innovation to be sole solution providers.
• More pressure, less time -causes constant rethinks and restructuring needs and this is disruptive.
• Risk of disruptive change- threats of global events, nimble competitors, displacement technology
• Wish of employees need for engagement and creativity release as part of their everyday need.
• New supply chains, systems, processes and technology are demanded
These pressures need strong structures and culture aspects supporting innovation, to ensure these pressures to change can
flourish positively by constantly adapting to these changing „macro‟ conditions that are constantly occurring.
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

5. Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
Company level issues
Fundamental problems often prevent companies from delivering their full potential for innovation.:
The problems may be evident in a number of ways:
•a leadership that expects innovation to be ‘just’ delivered
• lack of any real long term direction, resulting in many incremental projects
•often a perception that R&D is not connected with day to day business realities
•risk aversion, leading to only low risk, low reward projects, being undertaken as the ‘norm’
•individuals can ‘push’ their personal agenda so as to influence the eventual outcome to become detrimental
• never ending projects, handed from department to department, absorbing increasing time and resources
•communication breakdowns between marketing and R&D on what is priority /needed as a final result
•a ‘not-invented-here’ and constant ‘reinventing the wheel’ culture that stops creativity happening
•concern over the R&D intensity which seems to be either much higher or lower than competitors
•A real lack of good quality concepts that travel through the innovation pipeline
•a ‘stop-start’ mentality that undermines the innovation process
•no common platform to coalesce around to drive activities
•no real ‘sense of identity’ and ongoing involvement
Often something is missing here to help overcome these common problems?
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

6. Deeper dive on pressures to innovate
Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
Activity level concerns
• Getting product to the market and return at the right time
• Achieving a common consensus on what is the innovation need
• The challenge of growing the business sector
• Entering new markets- how, where and with what
• Aspirations in market share/ growth/ leadership
• A real concern that there is a “race to the bottom” in pricing, commoditizing
• Ideas are „choking‟ your pipeline and you don‟t have enough resource
• Limitations of resource and no clear innovation process disperses the energy
• Erosion of margins continues without clear solutions
• You lack a real clarity of true customer needs and constantly debate this
• You lack the ability to measure the impact of innovation on your business
• The ROI for all this innovation activity seems lost
• You are failing to keep pace with competitors
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

7. The Major Challenges in Summary
Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
The greatest innovation challenges facing
companies today
In Summary a daunting list of pressures
 A shortage of funds to invest in innovation
 Downward pressure on prices and margins from customers
 The Severe downturn and immediate financial pressures ‘stops’ innovation
 Managing R&D across globalised operations increases complexity
 Higher costs of the innovation process continue to reduce the ROI’s
 Lacking all the appropriate detail to make greater ‘winning bets’
 Shortening product cycles and increasing competition
 A loss of internal knowledge resources and experience
 Managing relationship with other players in any innovation networks
 Shortage of engineers and science related skills
 Increased complexity of innovation process slows the process down
 Shortage of management skills and time to think through the issues
 Difficulty of measuring success of the innovation process
 Need to adapt products and services to suit multiple local markets
 Regulatory pressures across borders add to increasing complexity.
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

8. What is the value you should expected from innovation?
Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
Where we can help @ Agility
Building a strong innovation framework can clearly help, bringing all the different pressures
to innovate into a comprehensive approach to make innovation happen successfully. For
example:
 Provide the framework of key innovation competencies
 Focus upon where to place your resources, time and funds
 Defines how to measure and strengthen innovation effectively
 Builds different ways to support and accelerate innovation activity
 Sets up a climate for innovation to flourish
 Calculating a company‟s innovation gap
 Define where innovation can contribute across your organization
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

9. Pressure to Innovate-successfully.
What is capability building, what does it include what
it means to us at Agility Innovation Specialists?
 Leading edge innovation tools and techniques
 Skill development that „fuels‟ ongoing innovation capability
 Processes and methodology applications that are sustainable and consistent
 Understanding of cultural aspects that support and promote capability enhancement
 Recognize and build the climate factors that influence and promote innovation
 Extending experience beyond the internal boundaries to leverage knowledge, internal
skills & technologies through a unique set of collaborations, technologies and networks
 Forming a leadership strategy and style so as to articulate, relate and align
structure, strategy and solutions with resources
 Knowing the different „needs‟ of your customers and markets
Agility Innovation Specialists believes insight stimulates, challenges, prioritise and guides our present activities.
Fresh insights and knowledge drive our innovation passion to deliver clear results that provide impact to both your top
and bottom line and energize your future through building resources that want to sustain innovation success
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com

10. Innovation needs to be viewed as a comprehensive solution
Unlocking innovation for future growth building:
 Pinpointing future profit pools
 Developing new Business Cases
 Verifying market entry points
 Identifying high-potential opportunities
 Increasing returns on investment (ROI)
 Optimizing positioning and product strategies
 Creating a new service or different business model Agility Innovation Specialists
Possible Innovation Approaches:
 Suggesting Best Practice
Integrating innovation end-to-end- a structured process
Accelerating innovation pipeline management
Assessing ideas, converting concepts, delivering solutions
Strategic innovation design that is ‘holistic’ in design
Getting comfortable with innovation- what it can truly mean
“It is not going to be the first to produce knowledge but the one that teaches how to recognize, obtain and
compliment relevant information, translate this into effective new value propositions of customers needs and
then execute these effectively and efficiently will be the sustaining winner”
Agility Innovation Specialists www.agilityinnovation.com