Planning an innovation strategy.

"Innovation on call" - this well-known phenomenon can be observed in many companies. Because a large customer expresses special wishes. Because a new trend inspires everyone. Or because someone happens to have a "great idea". Someone who has a lot of persuasive power internally.

But before you start a complex project, you should make some fundamental considerations and clarify preliminary questions so that innovations do not miss the needs of the market. The same applies if the development department has just enough products in the pipeline, but it is still unclear which innovation strategy you will use to meet the needs of the market.

What is an innovation for your company? Which markets, which trends, which technologies are relevant for you in the long term? To what extent should and may your products be innovative from a market perspective? Do your customers expect new products or complete solutions? Will the service sector become more important in the future and even merge with your products? How will the industry and its environment develop in the next 15 years? What suits your brand, what do you think it can do?

Which product groups need to be rejuvenated when and in which rhythm? Which resources are necessary to successfully position the planned innovations in the market? Is your sales department also ready? Does your market tolerate a breakthrough innovation, or does further development in small steps promise more success?

Advantages of a Roadmap

A new development is always only an innovation when it brings a company more than it costs. This calculation sounds quite simple at first. It is, however, only if costs and revenues can be allocated to exactly that novelty and, above all, can be objectively presented.

As practice shows, this is rarely the case. Because a new product always has an effect on the turnover of the existing range as well as on the cost structure of the company. Therefore it is easily possible and customary to calculate the costs and success in the opportune directions.

Why are roadmaps so important?

An innovation strategy is the core of innovation management and a basis for innovation success. There are thousands of innovation topics that an organization can deal with. But only a part of it can really bring the company forward and has a high potential for success and turnover.

A strategy process is used to identify the issues that harmonize with the company's business model on the one hand and are a great lever for future success on the other. But an innovation strategy is only successful if it is put on the right track. This requires commitment from all internal stakeholders so that everyone pulls in the same direction and supports the development and implementation of the issues. This is precisely where the Innovation Roadmap comes into play.

Innovation history

No future without origin. First of all it is important to understand what has made a company successful in the past in order to gain valuable insights for the future.

Trends of the future

Knowledge of future trends and their effects on your company is indispensable for successful road mapping.

Search fields

From the knowledge of the past and the future we derive your future search fields for product, process, service, market and business model innovations.

read more about search fields

It is not uncommon for an innovation project to generate ideas that are immediately thrown off by the client with the words: "We already have. It was a flop! What was once dropped does not get a second chance. Psychologically this is understandable. From the point of view of the innovation manager, this is a serious mistake. Top or flop are not qualities that are magically inherent in the new product. Rather, they are the result of a large number of factors, both internal and external starting conditions. But no matter what was decisive, the innovative product is automatically found guilty.

One of the most important factors for the success or failure of an innovation is time. Of course, a product can come too late. But it may just as well come too early. To ensure that it comes at the right time, innovation management uses the "roadmapping" method. All influencing factors are determined, evaluated and put into a temporal order that covers several years. The strategy can then be developed on this map. And to represent the path that leads innovations to success. All you have to do is follow this path at the planned speed. Then one does not come too early and not too late. But you will be first, not in a race, but on the market.

The modules of the LEAD Roadmap consist of 4 steps.

Analysis of the past:

Key figures and success models are derived from previous innovation activities and an innovation family tree is created.

Trend survey & trend evaluation:

Through appraisal interviews including recommendations and secondary research. Internal team and respected industry experts in the context of a panel of experts as well as a panorama of assumptions.

Search fields:

The currently relevant search fields result from the information from the past and future.

Roadmap 365: Actualisierung:

The roadmap must be updated every year in order to be able to use the project results for concrete development projects in the long term. In 4 quarterly meetings, the search fields are steered and trends are continuously monitored.