It is no secret that innovation is difficult for most organisations , who tend to rely on optimising their process to improve performance rather than game-changing creativity. Innovation is often a complex and business-wide activity which will only succeed in a supportive environment that encompasses eight essentials.

The eight essentials of innovation are:

Aspire
A far reaching vision can be a compelling catalyst provided it is realistic enough to stimulate action today. Inspirational words are not enough, no matter how often a CEO repeats them. Innovative targets need to be quantified and made an explicit part of future strategic plans. The target must be sufficiently large to force managers to address it and be proportionately cascaded down the management chain in order to discourage inaction or the belief that innovation is someone else’s job.

Choose
For many businesses the problem is not so much about the scarcity of new ideas but the difficulty in deciding which ideas to support. Since innovation is inherently risky, the challenge is more about managing the risk than eliminating it. Creating processes that as well as setting out the potential benefits of an idea, identify the resources needed to develop an idea and the stages at which this can be evaluated, are vital.

Discover
Few organisations have their own genius who produces a constant flow of world-changing innovative ideas. The rest of us need to methodically and systematically focus on three areas. The first is to identify valuable problems to solve. The second is to identify a technology that enables a solution, and the third is to develop a business model that generates money from it.

Evolve
Implementing innovation usually requires changes, often of a significant nature, to the current business model. Established companies need to regularly reinvent their businesses before technology-driven newcomers overtake them. Many established businesses are reluctant to tamper with their core business model until it is visibly under threat, by which time it might be too late.

Accelerate
Over cautious governance processes make it easy for stifling bureaucracies to find reasons to slow or halt innovation. Many impressive innovations come from mavericks who succeed in bypassing the early approval processes. However there is a need to maintain a balance which holds bureaucracy in check whilst preventing a reckless rush to market.

Scale
Some ideas, such as for luxury goods, are aimed at luxury niche markets, whilst others, such as social networks, work at a global scale. Identifying the appropriate magnitude and reach of a given idea is crucial in ensuring that the appropriate resources and risks involved are understood and available. Scaling up over time rarely succeeds.

Extend
In today’s business world, very few successful innovators manage to do it alone. Smart collaboration with external partners goes beyond sourcing new ideas and insights and regularly involves sharing costs and finding faster routes to market. Becoming a “partner of choice” for other innovators significantly increases the flow of ideas and talented people.

Mobilise
The most successful innovators stimulate, encourage, support and reward innovative behaviour and thinking amongst all of their people. They do this with aspirations that forge tight connections between innovation, strategy and performance, and focuses minds by setting financial targets for innovation and defining market segments to be achieved.