Innovation: Working Together to Succeed

TEAM. Together Everyone Achieves More. Successful innovation is proof positive of this old coach's adage. By pulling in players from multiple functions and locations - both internal and external to the entity - organizations are realizing positive results from their innovation efforts.

APQC's research on innovation has examined and continues to explore how organizations of all types, sizes, and industries deal with the challenge of bringing new products, services, and business models to market, while improving their operations and simultaneously providing employees with the necessary enablers for successful innovation.

The following conclusions are drawn from multiple APQC research projects, including the Open Standards Benchmarking Collaborative^sm (OSBC) innovation research and two consortium best-practices studies: Successfully Embedding Innovation: Strategies and Tactics (2007) and Innovation: Putting Ideas into Action (2006). Best-practice organizations studied in 2007 include: Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, and Hewlett-Packard Imaging and Printing Group (HP). The best-practice organizations in the 2006 study include: Bausch & Lomb, The Clorox Company, IBM, Kennametal Inc., Mayo Clinic, and Procter & Gamble (P&G).

One finding that has become increasingly clear is that collaboration across traditional boundaries within and outside of an enterprise, including the information technology (IT) function in a visible fashion, can improve an organization's innovation outcomes.

Internal collaboration to support innovation

In examining the structure and processes at best-practice organizations, APQC has found that encouraging employees to collaborate with those outside their specific peer groups can facilitate idea generation and problem solving.

To use a food image, mixing ingredients together in an unlikely way can lead to a great result. A good chef must be willing to "stir the pot" and find taste combinations that are not obvious if he wants to discover a great new recipe. In this study, the best-practice organizations believed in collaborating internally and externally to find the best recipe for innovation success.

When asked about internal collaboration, best-practice organizations collectively indicate that they have various internal disciplines working together on innovation activities more frequently than do other research participants. They are also more likely to assemble cross-functional teams to resolve specific problems or perform specific tasks related to innovation. This type of cross-fertilization among employees who have different competencies and areas of expertise facilitates the idea generation and problem solving processes within these leading organizations.

With this many internal stakeholders involved in innovation, internal alignment is a necessary preexisting condition for innovation to thrive. One way that several of the study best-practice partners have driven this alignment is by cascading measures vertically through the organization. Common performance measures for cross-functional team members, regardless of their functional identity in the company, also help drive horizontal alignment.

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