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Booz Allen Hamilton proposed the concept of intelligent innovation as a new approach to innovation combining the analytical rigor of the control regime with a softer side encompassing creativity, curiosity, pattern recognition, cultural sensitivity, leadership, agility, and a learning organization.
In the next decade, innovation will supplant cost reduction and mergers and acquisitions as the competitive battleground. Ninety percent of executives recently surveyed by Booz Allen Hamilton say that the introduction of new products and services is crucial to profitable growth. On average, they aim to improve their innovation performance by 30 percent in the next three years.
Intelligent innovation enables companies to exploit four major sources of advantaged innovation:
- Customer Insight and gathering of information about and from customers, and distribute this information widely within the company.
- Global Networking and leveraging knowledge that may be dispersed across the globe, and that may be inside or outside the organization.
- Future Foresight and identifying tomorrow’ s market opportunities and risks requires working with senior management to assess the strategic and tactical implications of trends, and sharing information throughout the organization.
- Innovation Organization and use of the innovation potential residing in an organization’ s employees. These principles must include a clear innovation commitment by senior management, opportunities for autonomy, cross-functional teaming, and aligned incentives.
The Four Sources of Intelligent Innovation framework is particularly appropriate in industries where growth through innovation is critically important, such as high technology, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and consumer goods.
Sources
- Booz Allen Hamilton: The Four Dimensions of Intelligent Innovation – Winning the Race for Profitable Growth
- Download the paper (PDF file)