A great metaphor that innovation is perceived as a sport, and analyzed as such in a very good article on the HEC Montréal website (see reference below) by François Normandin. The comparison comes from the technical designer of the Swatch, Elmar Mock, and as in any sport, innovation has its own rules of the game, its own culture (tennis is not the same as soccer), its own players and training centers. Its own “mercato” also where brilliant innovators - whether designers or developers - buy themselves at a golden price.
But above all, like many sports, innovation would be a team sport. In this respect, she would have nothing in common with individual sports - we think of boxing, tennis, Formula 1: contrary to popular belief, she would not be the prerogative of a solitary creator, a kind of mad scientist whose ideas would spring like lightning from Professor Frankenstein's laboratory at the time of the birth of his creature. Certainly the initial idea may come from individual brilliance, or from the observation of a need realized by a unique and insightful observer. But the hardest part, as Michael Dell, founder of the brand of the same name, said, is not having ideas: it's turning them into a business. “Innovating is easy. The difficulty is to transform an innovation into a real business.”, he said.
” Innovating is easy. The difficulty is to transform an innovation into a real business. ” - Michael Dell
And that's the real subject: how to go from an idea - however imperfect it may be at the beginning - to a project that holds up economically, and that fits into the logic (the DNA) of the company where it was born? It is rarely an individual fact, but rather the result of collective work. And to stimulate the collective, there is first of all a collective will, often embodied by management - or a leader: for Laurent Simon, director of Mosaic - an innovation research group - “lThe manager must establish a culture; he occupies the function of “gardener”“. Gardener for his own teams therefore. With the leadership label. Teams on which water and fertilizer must be gently poured?
Instead of this top-down logic, we could also cite the work of the intrapreneur who acts bottom-up, energizing teams from the ground up... and which is more than an individual logic!
In any case, in both cases, innovation cannot happen if it does not become a cultural fact. However, as one of the leaders quoted in the HEC Montréal article says,”It's often the most experienced people who can tend to resist change“The solution according to him? The training. Or...”Finding new candidates when the need arises. If the people in place refuse to accept the tools offered by the organization in order to progress, we must find other workers who can move forward.” We read in the article. Not sure that replacing is the best strategy for creating a collective...
source article: https://www.revuegestion.ca/l-insoutenable-legerete-de-l-innovation
