When it comes to corporate innovation, there’s no cut and paste option – successful innovation teams are built to reflect the context they operate in – but as a guide, we’ve created four broad innovation function archetypes to inform the focus of your function and the capabilities needed to deliver it.

Find out which archetype is right for your organisation.

You don’t have to rely on your innovation team for all the solutions. There are other valuable sources of innovation to tap into, but you’ll only reach them if you have the right structures – what we call innovation vehicles – in place. There are two types of innovation vehicles, internal, which source ideas from inside your organisation, and external, which source ideas from outside innovators. Both have specific benefits and trade-offs; it’s about knowing how and when to use them to help deliver your mandate.

Find out which vehicles are right for your organisation.

CEO support is critical to the innovation function’s success. Having innovation cheerleaders with organisational clout is the best way to get traction and support from the wider business. Getting all senior leaders on board is important, but success lies with the CEO championing the innovation cause by strongly advocating for the role and value of the innovation function.
 
Find out how to get your CEO on board and the benefits that come with CEO spotlight.

So, your CEO’s on board, but what about everyone else? From the outside in, the value innovation brings to an organisation isn’t always obvious. For the business to embrace it and stay on board throughout the innovation journey you have to connect and engage with people across your organisation and prove its value to them and the work they do. It takes time and effort to build connections, but there are effective ways to draw people in and show them the positives of innovation.

Find out how to pull people in and how to resource your team.

The value of innovation goes beyond money. Innovation functions must demonstrate the value delivered to the business through financial and other broader metrics, early and often. Setting the right performance metrics is about finding balance – balance between financial and non-financial metrics at portfolio and individual initiative levels that represent actual performance. The most successful way to do this – and enable a more comprehensive and balanced conversation with leaders on performance and impact – is by using six key categories.

Find out the six key categories and how to unlock innovation funding.