How to Structure Your Business for Continuous Innovation

Here, I am looking at innovation through the lens of process improvement. The value of most organizations is defined by their intellectual capital rather than their physical assets. The intellectual capital of your organization can be traced through the process maps that enable your business operations.

Process innovation is not achievable unless you already have distinct process maps in place. Without process maps consisting of predetermined procedures, it is impossible to discuss measurement and improvement in business operations.

Maturity in business practices is achieved when you operate according to predetermined process maps. For example, you can enhance your human resource practices only when you already follow predetermined processes for hiring and retaining employees. Similarly, you can improve your customer service, marketing, product development or other practices, depending on your business context, only when you already have distinct process maps to follow.

An effective business practice is one that satisfies the requirements of all interested parties, including your personnel, shareholders, suppliers and regulators. Innovation means meeting the requirements of business operations through effective process maps consisting of efficient procedures.

Related: The Power of Innovation

Implementing an innovation management system

The implementation of ISO 56001 provides an organization with a structure that enables continual innovation through the iterative remapping of business processes within the given practice domain.

ISO 56001 is the requirements standard for the implementation of an innovation management system based on global best practices. It empowers entrepreneurs and businesses to respond to changes in their market in a timely manner and to maintain sustainability.

First of all, you need to change your mindset, as innovation doesn’t mean creating a completely new concept from scratch or developing something people have never heard of before. Innovation is about transforming existing products into a unique solution to address a real-world problem.

To be an innovative business or entrepreneur is a must in modern economies. Innovation is no longer an extra feature to distinguish businesses — it is a necessity. Without innovation, there is no business. As an entrepreneur, you need to structure your business venture by integrating innovation-supporting principles into your governance policies and practices.

Innovation-supporting principles drive continual improvement in your business operations, which is now essential for survival. When I say continual improvement, I mean that innovation is not something extraordinary or unattainable — even minor changes in business practices that lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness qualify as innovation.

The top-most innovation-supporting principle is a systematic approach in business venturing, from conception to exit. A systematic approach means conducting operations using consistent, conformant and predetermined process maps.

The implementation of an innovation management system, ISO 56001, is the first step in pursuing a systematic approach. The implementation of an innovation management system adds structure to your business, creating a structured business venture that systematically works on continual improvement.

The boundaries of an innovation management system lie within a practice domain (e.g., human resources). From a systematic perspective, a practice domain consists of processes that enable the practice. Predetermined processes are those that map the procedures enabling the process. These procedures are associated with different types of actors, including internal human resources, machine-based services and suppliers.

As an innovation management system operates based on the PDCA cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act), when it is integrated into your business venture, the business practices will be structured to ensure consistency through the PDCA cycle. This PDCA approach is the enabler of the continual improvement principle and will ultimately enable innovation in your business operations.

Related: The Power of Continuous Innovation — and 3 Easy Ways Your Company Can Achieve It

Risk management

An innovation management system is risk-driven for the continual monitoring of the conformance of business practices with the requirements of those who have an interest in your business.

Risk management in the context of an innovation management system involves ensuring the conformance of each procedure and the entire process with the requirements of the respective business operations. The way in which the enhancement of each procedure may lead to a more efficient execution of its respective process, resulting in a more effective fulfillment of a requirement, constitutes an innovation-based risk control.

The system enables effective risk management by applying innovative process mapping to business practices, helping to maintain your competitive edge.

A systematic approach to process innovation

The innovation management system, in the context of process enhancement, empowers you to iteratively pursue innovation through a systematic approach, from identifying improvement opportunities to deploying solutions in the form of enhanced process maps.

Identifying opportunities becomes possible when you have a thorough understanding of the requirements that your business operations need to meet within the boundaries of the targeted business practice. The procedures of the current processes must be traced back to all internal, external and regulatory requirements that need to be met.

Gaps should be identified by ensuring the relevancy of each procedure. By cascading the requirements and their respective process maps to each other, you can identify alternative procedures and flows that may enhance a process map.

The next step in this iteration is concept validation, where you assess the resulting process map from the first step for compatibility with the maps of other processes supporting the respective practice to identify any incompatibilities.

A validated process map needs to be developed as a new component to be integrated into the relevant practice domain. In this step, all the enabling inputs and outputs, as well as the required interfaces to other processes, need to be identified and linked to the process map.

Related: Innovation Vehicles: The New Innovation Concept That Shouldn’t Be New At All (And That Might Just Save Your Innovation Agenda From Failure)

The final step is deployment, where you integrate the new process map into your practice domain and optimize the practice by ensuring that the enhanced process collaborates smoothly with other processes.

As part of the implementation of an innovation management system, you need to develop a portfolio of innovation, which, in our context, refers to innovative process maps. This portfolio will serve as a repository for your process maps. These maps are intangible assets, and standard methods exist for the valuation and monetization of such assets. Additionally, innovative processes have the potential to be patented.