In the innovation world, how much is hearsay and how much is truth? Is innovation only about building a culture or about creating tangible value? Should innovation be free flowing or structured? Through its active and successful innovation program, Deloitte has learnt firsthand what is myth and what is reality.

1. Myth:  Innovation is only about building a culture.

Reality:  Innovation is about creating tangible value.

It is true that to get the most out of innovation you need to build a positive and thriving culture of innovation, but that is only part of the story. Innovation must be disciplined to contribute to competitive outcomes. For an innovation program to be successful it must not lose sight of the bigger picture. It must stick to the task in hand.

“Creative ideas are only innovative when they drive tangible returns for an organisation,” says Matt McIntyre, Innovation Program Director. “Innovation is crucial to the growth of business. Deloitte is driving innovation as a key to rapid growth – it is integral to our firm’s strategy. To keep on target we ensure that the Deloitte Innovation Program has clear targets for revenue growth and that performance is measurable.”

2. Myth:  Innovation is a departmental initiative.

Reality:  Innovation must have senior leadership support and span departmental boundaries.

The success of innovation depends on its people to drive and contribute innovative ideas. And not just a handful of people – it has to embrace and enthuse everyone in an all-encompassing innovative culture. 

“Innovation starts at the top,” says Gerhard Vorster, Head of Innovation and Managing Partner of Consulting in the Asia Pacific region. “It is important that the leaders in the business are committed and understand how critical innovation is to increasing the bottom line and competitiveness in the marketplace. With targets in mind this ‘vision’ needs to be consistently communicated across the whole business with everyone’s role clearly outlined.”

To build a successful innovative culture it is necessary to breakdown barriers. “It is important as a manager to provide the senior sponsorship necessary to drive ideas through organisational barriers,” says Gerhard. “The best ideas are derived from teamwork and the combination of diverse skills and disciplines – that’s how you push the limits and create the ‘big ideas’.”

3.  Myth:  Innovation should be free flowing and unshackled   

Reality:  Innovation requires structure and process to ensure value is achieved

Some of the best inventions in history have come from spontaneous ideas but to build a consistent and generative innovation culture Deloitte has learnt that a process is needed. “A framework is needed for all aspects of the innovation pipeline,” says Jenny Wilson, Partner and leader of our Innovation Service Offering. This covers idea generation, project development, funding, implementation and going to market. To keep the processes in check and moving, one of our most important initiatives has been to introduce firm-wide innovation ‘champions’ and ‘coaches’ to encourage and support participation and keep up the momentum in developing ideas and getting them to market.

“As W Edwards Demming says, if you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

4. Myth:  Organisations need to create more ideas   

Reality: The hard work is implementing them

It’s true that quality cannot be achieved without quantity and to get one good idea you need hundreds to work with, but the idea generation is sometimes the easy bit! The hard yards are in how you implement the ideas.

“It is important to kill bad ideas early and fast-track good ideas,” says Peter Williams, CEO of the Eclipse Group and member of the Deloitte Innovation Executive. “It is also important that your investment in time, money and resource is commensurate with the value of the opportunity.”