How do you design and implement your company's innovation strategy?
Do you have a genuine innovation strategy for your company? In an environment where new players, concepts and trends are constantly shifting the boundaries of the market, how do you create a place for yourself as a company and assert yourself in an ever-changing ecosystem?
In the face of competition, companies have every interest in giving themselves the best chance of staying in the race. Defining an innovation strategy is therefore essential: it maps out the path to creating and strengthening a sustainable competitive advantage, so as to ensure your company's performance and longevity.
How do you develop your innovation strategy, in line with your corporate strategy? Whether you're a manager, a marketing analyst, or a watchdog in an innovation or R&D unit, what methodologies and tools are available to help you structure your approach?
What is an innovation strategy?
For a company, an innovation strategy is the implementation of a formalised innovation approach with a view to achieving predefined objectives, generally to boost its competitiveness.
💡 Innovation in a company can be found at various levels:
- technological: introducing innovative products or services onto the market ;
- marketing: deployment of an innovative pricing policy or a new sales method, for example;
- organisational: introducing new processes to improve organisational efficiency.
An innovation strategy is an expression of the vision of the company's management. It is essential for :
- set a course for the actions to be taken,
- ensure cohesion in achieving objectives and setting priorities,
- make good use of the key resources available.
Why innovate in business?
The aim of innovation is to break with what already exists while creating value. It's not just about inventing a new product or service. It also involves rethinking the innovation process, research management and business model.
There are many reasons why companies need to innovate:
- rapidly changing trends
- changing markets ,
- a growing number of competitors
- changing uses by increasingly connected consumers,
- increased pressure on social finance and profitability,
- the need to respond to new social and environmental challenges.
To avoid losing its competitive edge, an organisation must rely on its ability to lead a solid innovation project:
- constantly adapting and reinventing itself,
- detect and seize new opportunities,
- strengthen its innovation strategy to anticipate future needs,
- become more attractive, more successful and more innovative.
Strategic innovation then becomes a key lever: it guides teams in their choices, aligns objectives and maximises the impact of collective work.
Which strategy should you choose? The 4 different types of innovation
Incremental innovation
Incremental innovation aims to make gradual improvements to an existing product or service. It does not overhaul the innovation process, but optimises what is already working. For a company, this is an effective way of remaining competitive without taking excessive risks. There are two main approaches: the Market Reader strategy and the Technology Driver strategy.
The Market Reader strategy
In this approach, the focus is on the market and the needs expressed by consumers. Innovation project decisions are based on concrete data: market research, customer feedback, marketing analyses.
🎯 The aim is to respond quickly to expectations that have already been identified, while improving the user experience. The champions of this model? Samsung and Hyundai, who are constantly fine-tuning their ranges thanks to cutting-edge competitive intelligence.
The Technology Driver strategy
Here, the driving force behind strategic innovation is the ability to anticipate future needs. The R&D teams rely on research management to imagine uses that do not yet exist, but which have great potential. The aim is not to follow the market, but to anticipate it. Apple and Tesla are perfect examples of this philosophy: they design solutions that create new consumer behaviours. In this way, they maintain a leadership position and a resolutely innovative brand image.
Fundamental research
The immediate aim of fundamental research is not to create a product or service ready for the market. It explores the scientific and technological foundations that could one day transform a market. This is the very beginning of the innovation process.
This approach requires time, resources and a long-term vision. It often involves :
- partnerships between companies,
- public laboratories
- and academic players.
The aim is not to meet an expressed need, but to push back the boundaries of knowledge. It's a gamble: investing today in an idea that may revolutionise an entire sector tomorrow.
💡 Examples: research into artificial intelligence, nuclear fusion or ultra-resistant materials. These strategic innovation projects may seem far removed from everyday life, but they create a reservoir of opportunities for future innovation projects.
Radical innovation
Radical innovation turns the rules of the game on their head. It doesn't just improve an existing product or service: it creates a new one, often capable of redefining an entire market. This approach requires a strong commitment to research management, as well as the ability to take calculated risks.
The Need Seeker strategy is characterised by massive investment in R&D. The objective is clear: to develop high added-value solutions that can meet needs that are sometimes still invisible to the general public. Here, we don't follow trends: we create them.
Companies that adopt this model seek to be at the forefront when new opportunities arise. Google and Siemens are emblematic examples: their innovation projects go far beyond current expectations, to pave the way for new uses and markets.
👉 Adopting a Need Seeker innovation strategy means investing in the long term and accepting that some ideas take years to bear fruit... but when they do, the impact can be colossal.
Disruptive innovation
Disruptive innovation often arrives where you least expect it. It introduces a simpler, more accessible or less expensive product or service that ends up redefining an entire market. Initially, it appeals to a niche. Then, gradually, it replaces established offerings.
This approach is based on a detailed understanding of unmet needs. Companies that rely on this strategy often target segments ignored by traditional players. They offer solutions that break the mould: less complex, but perfectly adapted to the expectations of certain customers.
We can see this with Netflix, which has swept away the physical rental of films, or Airbnb, which has transformed the hotel sector. These innovative projects were not necessarily more technologically advanced, but their innovative model changed the game.
☝️ It's worth remembering that opportunities for innovation lie not only in new technologies, but also in rethinking your business model.
While this panel reveals the directions that can be taken, the innovation strategy that you develop is specific to your context and the issues that you propose to resolve. Let's take a closer look at how to put it in place.
[Bonus] Free download of our White Paper
To find out all the keys to making your business more innovative, as well as the tools that can support you in your innovation process, download our free White Paper, How to innovate in business? The 7 key factors, co-written with Planisware Orchestra.
Building an innovation strategy in 6 key points
1. Define clear objectives
Wanting to innovate is a good start, but it's not a good enough reason. Knowing why you are innovating is an essential prerequisite for success.
To determine the objectives of your innovation strategy, identify the issues that have the greatest impact on your company's future. Ask yourself what results you want to achieve, link your innovation policy to your medium- and long-term strategic vision, and define the steps you need to take to get there.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What specific issues are prompting you to redefine all or part of your business?
- How can innovation bring value to your potential customers?
- What difference will my innovation make in my target sector?
- How will my company receive part of the value generated by its innovation?
- What types of innovation will enable the company to create value, but also to reap the rewards?
- What resources need to be mobilised for each project?
2. Identify business development opportunities
Knowing that your innovation approach will serve the company's strategic ambitions, you are on the lookout for business opportunities.
To roll out new offers and solutions, you need to diagnose the ecosystem in which you operate. Innovation isn't a chance occurrence; it's aimed at an identified market, characterised by demand.
🛠 To identify new prospects for developing your business, use market intelligence tools to study both risks and opportunities.
An economic intelligence solution can also help you to deepen your strategic analyses, like Geotrend. This advanced digital platform maps your market's key information so you can understand it quickly and easily. By detecting competing innovations and major trends, your decision-making is made easier.
3. Understand your customers and their environment
As with any marketing strategy, focus on your target group. To ensure that your new offer is relevant to your customers and attracts their support, you need to get to know them better. To do this, you can start by using the definition of marketing personae.
To go further, make sure you don't make assumptions about your customers' needs, but rather understand them by asking yourself the right questions:
- What problem are you trying to solve?
- What is the environment in which your targets operate?
- How do you want to contribute to your customers' success?
- Are you receptive to the reality on the ground and do you solicit their feedback?
🛠 Here too, there are tools that can help you to be as close as possible to your customers' expectations, to design the best possible experience, even in a digital environment. For example, with Marketing Cloud from Salesforce, you can create intelligent, personalised customer journeys that take into account all your marketing channels and segments, and do so automatically. The different data centralised in the software then enables you to steer your innovation strategy in the right direction.
Marketing Cloud
4. Survey your resources
Carry out an audit of the resources and processes at your disposal, and more broadly of your ability to perform.
In formulating your strategy, you should take into account :
- the processes in place
- human capital, i.e. the skills and talents you have,
- technical knowledge and know-how,
- physical assets
- financing,
- communication resources and technologies, etc.
5. Getting the players involved
Who should be involved in the innovation process?
The role of the company director is vital in creating the framework and instilling the motivation required for innovation.
Then it's your employees who need to be involved in the process. Giving them space allows ideas and initiatives to emerge in every department and at every level.
You can set up systems to encourage the ideation and creation process:
- idea boxes
- brainstorming sessions
- design thinking processes
- test and learn methods, etc.
In addition, setting up a knowledge management system will help you make the most of ideas.
🛠 Tools such as collaborative platforms or ideas and innovation management software help to support this innovation process.
Also think about the other stakeholders you can include, such as partners, experts, or any entities likely to contribute to the success of the approach.
Make sure that you bring the players together and formalise their roles as early as possible, so that you can then move into project mode.
6. Managing innovation projects
A dedicated innovation manager or project leader can be appointed to lead innovation projects and define the resources needed to implement them:
- an action plan
- team composition, including key skills and profiles,
- KPIs and indicators to monitor, etc.
🛠 You can turn to project management or project portfolio management software to steer your innovation projects.
Reinventing your strategy
As we have seen, corporate strategy and innovation work hand in hand. To ensure that the innovation process is aligned with your company's objectives and strategic vision, it must involve all the key departments: marketing, finance, R&D, etc.
Just as the overall strategy is subject to review and readjustment, so too is the innovation strategy, which needs to adapt to new economic, legal, technological and other challenges.
To remain competitive, innovation strategy, like any innovation process, must itself be renewed, experimented with and adapted.