How to Support Innovation at Scale

14 December.2022

3 min.

Innovation is a wonderful thing that can be the driving force to help your business introduce new products or improve existing offerings. As the company grows, however, it’s imperative that your innovation strategy can be scaled to reflect your evolving company demands.

Damning reports show that 84% of companies lack confidence in their current innovation processes. Inferior innovation strategies that do not scale alongside changing business requirements are often the root cause. Here’s how firms - from startups to global organizations - can innovate with sustained success in mind.

Innovate at Every Level

Perhaps the most common mistake that prevents organizations from innovating at scale is that they only encourage a small group of people to innovate.

A company-wide approach to innovation will statistically yield more ideas, while the added diversity of having employees from every department in the organization involved, ensures that ideas and products are analyzed from every perspective. Furthermore, when all employees feel motivated to find solutions to company challenges, the impact of innovation becomes far greater and wide-reaching.

Embrace a Collaborative Approach

Just because you have a great idea, doesn’t necessarily mean you are the best equipped person to make it a reality. And that’s fine. A collaborative approach to innovation promotes better up-scaling opportunities because teams can tap into the strengths of different members to move a project further.

KICKBOX Intrapreneurship, for example, allows different employees within an organization to connect. The online platform offers a digital space for team members with various skills and specializations to reach out and assist one another with their innovative projects. This can dramatically cut down on length of time it takes for innovation to flourish.

Utilize the Power of Technology

Technology continues to change virtually every aspect of modern business landscapes, and the most successful companies of the future will be those that leverage emerging technologies to drive their innovation efforts at scale.

The KICKBOX online platform, for instance, offers employees (many of whom may never have innovated before) a hands-on approach that helps them tap into the latest technological tools to create innovative solutions. In this way, it can support disruptive innovation, such as Wohntraum’s - a service aiming to disrupt the traditional German housing market model.

Be Prepared to Evaluate

Spoiler alert: not all strategies will be the perfect match forever. Sadly, you will never identify the areas that require improvement unless you regularly review the situation.

It is one of the many reasons why the physical KICKBOX toolbox can become so valuable for a company. It can make innovation tangible, measurable, and physical. By analyzing data to understand how strategies are currently performing within the context of a company or project, convince innovation to adapt and evolve in ways that ensure sustainable results. If nothing else, it allows the company to learn from mistakes and remain on the smoothest path to its desired outcomes.

At the heart of a successful, scalable innovation strategy is the willingness to embrace a collaborative approach, leverage new technologies, and be prepared to evaluate your efforts periodically. Whether you are a startup or a global organization, with the right mindset and tools in place, your company can successfully innovate at scale and continue to thrive in today's fast-paced business environment.

rready provides scalable innovation management tooling for business and innovation leaders to encourage cross-company innovation. If you're rready to transform your business in all aspects, then reach out to us.