Innovations drive companies’ development. In most cases they don’t just happen, but are the result of a continuous process. We design innovation programmes together with our clients. Systematically, sustainably and sometimes ‘out of the box’. Because fresh thinking makes ideas fly and often brings about changes in company culture.
Most companies report dissatisfaction regarding levels of research and innovation. There is a growing awareness that they neither look sufficiently beyond their own horizons nor adopt a systematic approach to developing innovations. Another point of criticism is that innovations are not brought to a testing stage in time and/or are rejected too late when there is no prospect of success. The latter sometimes costs a company dearly in terms of wasted resources.
This is where innovation programmes come into their own, providing companies with a way to systematically anchor innovations within their organization. This provides a clear framework to ensure that ideas are developed quickly and tested at an early stage, so that only the most promising ideas are pursued.
The core value of innovation programmes lies in the creation of measurable added value for the company. Innovation programmes ...
We support our clients in the conception, setting-up and implementation of innovation programmes - in both large and medium-sized companies. In doing so, we make use of a systematic and successful structure involving so-called funnel logic: Ideas pass through various phases, from idea development, to project design, to commercialization.
This phase includes the generation, evaluation, prototype development and testing of ideas based on various factors. The teams receive technical and methodological support over a defined period of several weeks. At the end of this phase, a pitch or quality gate is used to decide whether an idea should be pursued further or rejected.
Ideas that have been assessed as being worth pursuing are developed further until they are ready for market testing. The teams implement the subject at hand agilely and quickly. After the development of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), alpha and beta versions are developed and tested on the market.
The working method is based on agile principles and the teams receive the necessary support, e.g. in respect of marketing, networking, resource procurement and executive backing. At the end of this phase, a final decision is taken regarding commercialization based on certain criteria and KPIs.
The product is given its market launch in this phase. Depending on the circumstances, this takes place within the existing organization or in a separate unit.
Peter Tschernes special strengths lie in accompanying development processes and designing internal communication architectures.
Hands on instead of endless talking, shaping instead of reacting: A modern innovation programme points out new ways to design the future of a company - with many positive effects:
An innovation programme makes a decisive contribution towards enhancing the diversity of ideas through the participation of managers and employees. In addition, the degree of innovation is increased by bringing external impulses to bear. These include learning journeys, experts from outside the industry and the use of tried and tested methods for generating ideas.
Systematic development of ideas is an important basis for a continuous improvement process. Within the framework of an innovation programme, suitable methods (e.g. Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design, Lean Startup) ensure sustainable success.
Mistakes in the innovation process cost unnecessary time and money – typically when the development is going in the wrong direction. A professional innovation programme reduces such risks through rapid prototyping, the integration of customer views and short testing periods. This produces benefits in terms of early learning. The procedure also includes the use of quality gates to filter out the most promising ideas.
Innovation programmes help to improve a company's internal innovation culture and encourage employee participation. Their specific adoption within the company’s organizational structure and making successes visible and measurable also have positive effects on the innovation culture.
Many of our clients also use innovation programmes to pilot and establish a new area of innovation or combine them with internal funding programmes.
For the successful establishment of innovation programmes it is important to provide the right framework conditions:
The work of the teams should be backed up in all phases by appropriate methods and formats. The basic process already presupposes an agile approach. This is supplemented by suitable methods for generating, developing, conceptualizing and piloting ideas as well as appropriate testing (e.g. Lego, Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design, Service Design). During the innovation programme set-up phase we help the teams involved to apply these methods successfully.
Defined success criteria, deliverables and key figures give the teams clear orientation and goals. These are based on best practices and experience from numerous innovation programmes.
Fresh ideas thrive on new impulses. That's why we take our clients on learning journeys as part of an innovation programme (e.g. on topics such as digitization, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, blockchains and cryptography) as well as relying on our broad network of experts and industry partners.
Fresh ideas thrive on new impulses. That's why we take our clients on learning journeys as part of an innovation programme (e.g. on topics such as digitization, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, blockchains and cryptography) as well as relying on our broad network of experts and industry partners.
Another essential ingredient for strengthening the innovation culture in the company is communication beyond the programme. This also includes sharing results. We provide advice and support in communication regarding all aspects of the programme as well as in concrete stakeholder and expectation management.
