Ten Types of Innovation by Doblin - www.doblin.com

The way business takes place in most companies is that you have people trained at the skills or functions they are working with such as R&D, production, sales/marketing, and finance. Of course, you have cross-function teams, but generally you try to excel in one area.

Not long ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Paul Campbell, who is a true intrapreneur at Hewlett-Packard. Paul is working on his fifth internal startup and is now a Vice-President in HP’s Voodoo Gaming PC business. We talked about what characterizes intrapreneurs, and Paul said that an intrapreneur must have the ability to see and pursue possibilities by piecing together innovations across three or more business functions simultaneously.  Paul emphasized that successful intrapreneurship requires this level of innovation to differentiate it from standard business growth initiatives. This contrasts sharply with most people who are only trained to do one thing at the time. But in order to be an intrapreneur, you need to think like a composer, not a musician.

Not only do you have to think and work across business functions, you also have to innovate across the key areas of business when you move from ideas and research to revenue. Doblin has made some groundbreaking research showing that 96 percent of all innovations fail to meet their targets –  not necessarily because companies perform poorly at the core product or service innovation, but more often than not because companies fail to follow through with innovation in other key areas of their business. Businesses must be able to master all types of innovation – everything from business model innovation to innovation of products, processes, and services. This “whole picture” approach is important in delivering successful innovation, and is another key part of collaboration.

On a more personal level, consider whether or not you are a “T-shape.” Innovation consultancy IDEO uses this term to describe people who are more likely to thrive with innovation. You should bring superior in-depth knowledge as an engineer, sales person or something else to the table. That is the vertical part of the T. But you should also have the breadth and empathy – the horizontal part of the T – to understand and appreciate the skills that other people bring to the table as you work as a team to become successful with your innovation projects.

As a T-shaped person, you accept that you don’t know everything and have the courage to seek help and advice from others. Gain a broader perspective by learning from those whose experience and views differ from yours.