Page 262 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation
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Appendix B     247


                 Concurrently, new metrics and methods for monitoring
              innovation projects and programs were devised, particularly
              for the early stages of the innovation process: the so-called
              fuzzy front end.  Companies instituted formal practices for
              generating, collecting, and evaluating new ideas. Phase-gate
              (also known as stage-gate) methods became popular, as
              researchers and practitioners recognized that innovation could
              be rationally managed with deadlines and deliverables, per-
              formance tracking, and standardized procedures across proj-
              ects. Effective implementation of phase-gate processes
              enhanced innovation performance through more efficient allo-
              cation of resources, smarter early-stage development, and
              greater management visibility into progress. Not that there
              weren’t problems. Heavy-handed implementation of such
              processes, with metrics that are inappropriate for early-stage
              concepts, can prematurely kill promising new opportunities.
              For instance, it is often not possible to define the return on
              investment of an early-stage concept. Inflexible stage-gate
              processes don’t work well for truly new concepts, but well-
              adapted stage-gate applications can add significant value. It
              takes companies some time to develop the capability at vari-
              ous horizons.
                 As U.S. and European firms implemented and adapted the
              quality control and product improvement methods pioneered
              by Japanese companies, they began to look for new ways to
              achieve competitive advantage, beyond incremental innova-
              tion. Unaided, few people are naturally good at thinking
              beyond what already exists. Substantial, game-changing inno-
              vation often arises from discovering needs that customers don’t
              even know they have until they are fulfilled. To develop more
              substantial new business concepts, leading companies have
              become more deliberate and sophisticated about uncovering
              customer needs. Examples include empathic design, ethno-
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