By Eric van Niekerk. Despite innovation’s success in the business realm, with specific innovation strategies rocketing companies like Tesla, Unilever, Netflix and Amazon into the global spotlight, the term is often met with scepticism. With less than 50% of South Africa’s top companies sporting a dedicated innovation department, it seems that local organisation have not [...]
By Eric van Niekerk – Research Lead, Innocentrix The invention and widespread use of the internet as a communication and networking tool has had a serious impact on how we go about our daily lives. The ability to be constantly connected, to have access to vast amounts of knowledge, and to be directly linked to [...]
By Eric van Niekerk, Innocentrix Research Lead Previously we discussed what employee innovation is, and gave some tips on how to successfully implement an employee innovation drive within an organisation. This article will look at how to reward employees for innovative behaviour. Rewarding innovative employees Any organisation aiming to build a culture of innovation will [...]
Eric van Niekerk – Research Lead, Innocentrix In Part 1, we had a look at Employee Innovation – what it is, and why it is beneficial to large organisations. We also touched on some examples from Google and Adobe. As promised, in this article we will discuss how to actually get your employees innovating. Which [...]
By Eric van Niekerk – Research Lead, Innocentrix The innovative employee Innovation is often seen as ‘thinking outside of the box’, where a more accurate metaphor may be ‘expanding the box’. Innovations do not have to be brand-new, radical ideas that forever change the way we do business. An innovative idea may be a small [...]
Lets step away from the present and into the future to answer an important question: How do I keep innovation alive once it’s established? Quality over quantity An analysis from Accenture shows that how organisations innovate is indicative of their innovation success. According to their analysis, almost 50% of R&D investment is wasted due to [...]
By Eric van Niekerk, Research Lead, Innocentrix Successful innovation does not only require a strong leader, it requires a strong team. Often various teams are working on different lifecycles of the potential innovation. This spans from gathering additional insights and research, building business cases and experimenting, through to piloting and implementation. The innovation team is [...]
By Eric van Niekerk, Research Lead, Innocentrix A recent investigation into innovation in the South African context showed that, amongst South Africa’s top companies, “Leadership and Ambition” is one of the greatest local, innovation-aligned strengths. According to Vodacom’s Executive Head for Innovation, Jannie van Zyl, having buy-in from company leaders is key to innovation success. [...]
By Eric van Niekerk – Research Lead, Innocentrix The importance of an innovation strategy All planned innovation activities within an organisation should begin with the strategic goals of the company in mind. Without a firm, strategic backbone, innovation can be anything from difficult to impossible. The development of an innovation strategy is one of the [...]
By Eric van Niekerk – Research Lead, Innocentrix When the brief is to build a house, the vision of the outcome is quite clear: build a large structure with a few walls and a roof and probably some doors and windows. When asked to innovate though, the final outcome is almost completely undefined, since innovation [...]
