6 types of people you need to foster Innovation

A lot of people think you need to follow a specific number of steps or methodologies to create innovation within the organization. But why then a lot of corporations are failing to innovate?

From my point of view, it is because they focus on the processes rather than on the people involved in the project. Actually, in order to innovate, what is needed is the right combination of profiles.

Winning at Innovation, a book wrote by y Fernando Trias de Bes and Philip Kotler takes this collaborative view of the innovation process.

Their view is that, in reality, the stages or phases of an innovation process must be the result of the interaction of those involved in the innovation processes. Certainly, each innovation, depending on the goals and nature of the project, will require its own ad hoc process and sequence. But I would say, the profiles /roles remain de same.

The roles they identified are:

(A) ACTIVATORS: These are the people who will initiate the innovation process, without worrying about stages or phases. Essentially, their mission is to initiate the process.

(B) BROWSERS: These are the experts in searching for information. Their task is not to produce anything new, but to supply the group with information. Their mission is to investigate throughout the process and to find the information relevant both to the start of the process and to the application of new ideas.

(C) CREATORS: The people who produce ideas for the rest of the group. Their function is to ideate new concepts and possibilities, and search for new solutions at any point in the process.

(D) DEVELOPERS: People specialized in turning ideas into products and services; they are the ones who “tangibilize” ideas, who give form to concepts and develop a rough marketing plan. Creators come up with ideas; developers invent things. Their function is to take ideas and turn them into solutions. In short, to invent.

(E) EXECUTORS: The people who take care of everything to do with implementation and execution. Their function is to implement, that is, bring the innovation under development to the organization and to the market.

(F) FACILITATORS: Those who approve the new spending items and investment needed as the innovation process moves forward. They also manage the process to prevent it getting stuck. Their mission is the instrumentation of the innovation process.

If you get those profiles in your organization, the stages or phases of an innovation process will emerge nicely as a result of the interaction.

Keep innovating!

Adela Villanueva