{"id":46794,"date":"2017-12-22T13:15:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=46794"},"modified":"2017-12-22T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:15:26","slug":"5-ways-chief-innovation-officers-foster-culture-innovation-identify-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/5-ways-chief-innovation-officers-foster-culture-innovation-identify-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"5 ways for Chief Innovation Officers to foster a culture of innovation and identify opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Startups are here to stay. \u00a0With access to endless data and more funding, start-ups will survive and therefore disrupt. Hence, the emergence of an innovation race amongst corporates. Everyone \u2013 from banks, industrials and even consumer goods companies \u2013 are obsessed with innovating. Innovation Labs, accelerators, transformation teams are mushrooming, but are\u00a0often disconnected with the real business<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 How to engage the whole company in the transformation effort?
\n\u2013 How to create a digital culture and vision among your top managers?
\n\u2013 How can your teams identify new opportunities, new business models?<\/p>\n

Changing a company\u2019s culture can turn to be\u00a0extremely challenging.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0But relax, we\u2019re here to help! Here are\u00a05 ways to\u00a0 foster a culture of innovation and identify opportunities in your company:<\/strong><\/p>\n

#1 Encourage an active learning culture by opening mindsets to new realities<\/h1>\n
\n
\"\"

For the Singaporean bank DBS, this space is where innovation will happen<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Some companies do so by\u00a0bringing inspiration to their offices and creating an ecosystem around them<\/strong>. \u00a0For example, the\u00a0Development Bank of Singapore<\/a>\u00a0(DBS) has created a\u00a0special place for innovation<\/strong>:\u00a0DBS Asia X<\/a>\u00a0(DAX). The\u00a0building is entirely dedicated to innovation<\/strong>, hosting staff, startups, students and strategists\u00a0together for better synergy.\u00a0<\/strong>The facility is hosting the bank\u2019s latest workshops and hackathons in collaboration with startups. Since 2015,\u00a0DBS has involved more 2,000\u00a0staff into human-centred experimentations<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0Unilever also launched its own coworking, called LEVEL3, in under 5 months. For a simple reason, as shared by Derrick Chiang, CEO of the consultancy Padang & Co based in LEVEL3 \u201cRather than trying to constantly think of ways to ferry our staff to a tech conference,\u00a0we can try to have a constant stream of content they can plug into<\/strong>, throughout the year<\/i>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

The working space at Level 3<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

While these initiatives may have a great impact on fostering innovation, not every company has the means to jump in these large-scale, high-cost projects. Another way to bring your team in is Lunch & Learn sessions. This is usually a 30 to 45 minutes sharing session, during lunchtime. The company brings in an expert to talk about a topic of innovation along with food, often provided by the company.<\/p>\n

However, the office may not be the ideal place to innovate.\u00a0Clients recognize<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0taking a step back from their core business and daily work is necessary<\/strong>\u00a0to enable out-of-the-box thinking. \u00a0So why not step outside the office! For example, through\u00a0Learning Expeditions<\/a>\u00a0(LEX) or Inspiration Days; companies can\u00a0meet experts, startups or innovative MNCs while keeping the costs low<\/strong>. Depending on your industry, you would be able to\u00a0deep dive into the most advanced and relevant technologies for your business<\/strong>. You could explore the most cutting-edge\u00a0Smart City solutions in Singapore<\/a>, the fast-changing Internet of Things\u2019 ecosystem in Shenzhen\u00a0<\/a>or the new retail revolution in\u00a0Shanghai<\/a>. Learning Expeditions are great ways to\u00a0mingle technology and innovation scouting with cross-industry sharing and networking. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n
\"\"

French MNC discovering Singapore\u2019s innovation ecosystem<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Learning Expeditions often go hand in hand with\u00a0tech conferences.<\/strong>\u00a0While some are very general and famous like CES Las Vegas or the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, other conferences allow you to\u00a0dive deeper into a topic of relevance for your business<\/strong>. Interested in FinTech? Be sure to attend the FinTech Festival in Singapore, and if you\u2019re into IoT, don\u2019t miss out on the China International Internet of Things Exhibition in Shenzhen. However, keep in mind that\u00a0you can only unleash the full potential of these conferences<\/strong>\u00a0(in terms of learnings and network) if it has been\u00a0prepared properly beforehand<\/strong>. Those summits can be gigantic and turn\u00a0unproductive if you don\u2019t have a clear strategy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#2 Offer free time for creative solutions<\/h1>\n

\u201cI command you to create now!\u201d is certainly not something you want to say to your staff, but you know that already. Yet, stressing that point is important.\u00a0Quality takes time and we\u2019re talking about free time<\/strong>. Employees must feel they are\u00a0given the time and space to be creative, otherwise, they will think it is just an extra burden for them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might have heard of the famous 20% rule Google implemented in 2004, allowing Googlers to\u00a0spend 20% of their time on projects of their choice, which has brought services like Gmail or Google News to life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Singapore-based DBS Bank, the winner of the World\u2019s Best Digital Bank, demonstrated this by establishing their \u201cMassive Transformational Purpose\u201d \u2013 Making Banking Joyful \u2013 which\u00a0positioned consumer-focused experiments at the centre of their change process<\/strong>. As shared by Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS: \u201cWhen you give people the freedom to go and try a few things with a rubric that says,\u00a0\u2018As long as it helps the customer, it is worth doing,\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0it opens people\u2019s minds and it opens up a lot of possibilities<\/i>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"

DBS launched \u201cdigibank\u201d for its users to manage a various range of operations<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

You can also narrow the scope to suit your needs, by doing\u00a0transformation\u00a0workshops<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Digital Advisory Boards<\/a><\/strong>. These two solutions focus on\u00a0bringing the expertise of relevant individuals in your field back to you and your team<\/strong>. They help make\u00a0new thinking possible<\/strong>\u00a0by bringing in\u00a0outside-in expertise, challenging existing views.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#3 Demystify failure and learn to reward risk-taking<\/h1>\n

Making mistakes is at the very essence of innovation<\/strong>. Coming up with new technologies or new ways of working implies\u00a0taking a risk and moving fast<\/strong>\u00a0(or at least faster than the competition). These parameters set the stage for making mistakes. But\u00a0how can traditionally risk-averse corporations deal with them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mistakes should be made, analyzed and shared as opportunities to learn<\/strong>. People should be responsible for taking corrective actions immediately, based on these learnings. Take \u201cFuck Up Nights\u201d for example. The concept, born in Mexico gives a space for people to\u00a0share business failures and learn from it with the crowd<\/strong>. It has helped \u201cdestigmatize<\/strong>\u00a0and explore the tough moments, to\u00a0create a more solid foundation for innovation<\/strong><\/i>\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n
\"\"

Fuck Up Nights are ways to both destigmatize and build on past failures<\/p><\/div>\n

Within organizations, some have found creative ways to make failure candid. A Singapore company\u00a0has implemented an \u201cimmunity card\u201d concept<\/strong>\u00a0that employees can use in case of mistakes. While the concept sounds more like a gimmick, it\u00a0formalizes the intent of the company to demystify failure<\/strong>\u00a0and helps reassure risk takers within the company.<\/p>\n

If demystifying failure is a must-have driver for innovation, the next step is to\u00a0reward those who dare to fail. Many big players have already adopted such mindset<\/strong>. The Tata Group, for example, has created its \u201cDare to Fail Award\u201d, while the software firm\u00a0Intuit holds \u201cfailure parties\u201d<\/strong>. The latter\u2019s co-founder and CEO, Scott Cook stresses that \u201cevery failure teaches something important that can be the seed for the next great idea<\/i>.\u201d Companies like\u00a0Mazars include these practices<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0long-term innovation-centric strategies to mould the corporate culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#4 Create a customer-centric culture: Get constant feedback from clients<\/h1>\n

Mark Zuckerberg declared to Harvard\u2019s Class of 2017 Harvard that \u201cthe idea of a single eureka moment is a dangerous lie\u201d, and he\u2019s most certainly right.\u00a0Innovation is powered by the customers and constantly listening to them is more important than racing for technology advancements<\/strong>. Customer-centric and design thinking approaches are, for example, at the core of companies such as Amazon or SAP.<\/p>\n

Jeff Bezos, Amazon\u2019s founder and CEO, constantly reminds decision teams of the place of the consumer by leaving an empty chair in the meeting room, where\u00a0the customer, \u201cthe most important person in the room\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0seats.<\/p>\n

To give a few examples of best practices by large traditional companies,\u00a0SAP has put design thinking at the center of its culture<\/a>\u00a0with customer empathetic cognitive techniques, enabling collaborators to never lose sight of who and why they\u2019re doing what they do for<\/strong>\u00a0;\u00a0Adobe has embraced customer centricity<\/a>\u00a0with Customer Immersion Programmes (CIP), one of which is an\u00a0experience-a-thon, organized for customers to test the company\u2019s products for employees to take note and implement<\/strong>\u00a0; and a\u00a0co-creation effort with millennial consumers<\/strong>\u00a0has enabled legacy hospitality players like\u00a0AccorHotels to disrupt their own model<\/a>\u00a0by focusing on the emerging needs of millennials.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

The \u201cHappy House\u201d in the Jo&Joe, the millennial-targeting range of AccorHotels, in Hossegor, France.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

#5 Celebrate successes in innovation<\/h1>\n

Celebrating innovation gives a very powerful message to the entire organization that innovation is an important component of the company. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Decathlon, for example, started its\u00a0own annual\u00a0Innovation Awards<\/a>\u00a0in 2005 which\u00a0rewards the most innovative products<\/strong>launched by the company each year. \u00a0It grew outside the company with more than 60 000 public web viewers in 2014.<\/p>\n

Another example is Unilever\u2019s\u00a0Young Entrepreneurs Awards<\/a>. \u00a0By\u00a0supporting young entrepreneurs<\/strong>\u00a0around the world\u00a0tackling some of the planet\u2019s biggest sustainability challenges<\/strong>, the company\u00a0spreads the message that it values entrepreneurship and sustainability.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

The Decathlon Innovation Awards in 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This article has first been published on \u00ab\u00a0Learning Expeditions Asia<\/a>\u00ab\u00a0.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Startups are here to stay. \u00a0With access to endless data and more funding, start-ups will survive and therefore disrupt. Hence, the emergence of an innovation race amongst corporates. Everyone \u2013 from banks, industrials and even consumer goods companies \u2013 are obsessed with innovating. Innovation Labs, accelerators, transformation teams are mushrooming, but are\u00a0often disconnected with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":46802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[430,75,500,501,442,249,510,77,502,171,504,407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-construction","category-corporates","category-energy","category-facility-management","category-fintech","category-fmcg","category-healthcare","category-insurtech","category-mobility","category-new-retail","category-smart-city","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}