How to Innovate to Emerge from COVID-19 in a Stronger Position

Governments are signalling the easing of restrictions, and organisations now need to consider the critical steps and plan how to innovate and build the organisation to emerge from COVID-19 in a stranger position.

How an organisation responds to the COVID-19 recovery phase is the number one factor that determines success or failure. While decision making is tough in challenging times, indecision or taking too long to respond can have the most detrimental impact.

In the current COVID-19 business conditions, innovation is flourishing because it is driven by need and necessity.

We see many examples of innovations driven by the necessity to survive and to save as many jobs as possible. For example;

Restaurants are pivoting from a "dining" experience to the "take away" experience.
Cafés are pivoting from the "coffee" experience to the "produce" experience.
Manufacturers are pivoting. One Sydney manufacturer is pivoting from producing masks for the mining and industrial markets to producing masks for surgeons and anaesthetists.
IT businesses are pivoting. One computer recycling business is innovating and pivoting to produce UV-C light devises that sterilise office workplaces.
Consultants are pivoting from face to face meetings to video meetings.

The common theme amongst these examples is that organisations are innovating to quickly create new products and services to save their businesses and as many jobs as possible.

Stages In Responding And Emerging From COVID-19

We see three phases in responding and emerging from COVID-19, as highlighted in the diagram below.

Stage 1 in March and April 2020, many organisations were focusing on responding to the immediate crisis.
Stage 2 is planning and implementing projects for near-term outcomes, the next 3 to 6 months.
Stage 3 is planning and implementing projects for long-term outcomes, more than 6 months.

So in this quarter 2 of 2020 calendar when projects start finishing, new projects and business cases may slow to start, and the forward pipeline of new projects is looking a little thin.

What is crucial now is to start thinking about mid-term planning and longer-term planning. The longer there is uncertainty, the longer the impact on new projects and innovations. Now, most organisations see that there will be a significant level of restrictions for this calendar year, one example is that international travel will be heavily restricted by the required to self isolate at each destination point for 14 days.

Stages in responding and Emerging from COVID-19

Stages in responding and Emerging from COVID-19

Innovation Quick Wins

Our recent Innovation Research Study [Page//1] and our best practice visits to highly innovative organisations have highlighted the critical role innovation quick wins play with new insights into how they are delivering outcomes fast. In one organisation, where we explored their innovation outcomes in a private session, their fastest time from ideation to first revenue was 17 days and their most significant innovation (which went through 134 iterations), generated $130 million of new revenue within 12 months.
One of the critical enablers in these highly innovative organisations is that they have an innovation management system with a repeatable process. Innovation is not an ad hoc process which is reliant on the heroics of one individual.
Innovation quick wins are essential in an organisation’s innovation portfolio. They are crucial to earning credibility and trust and providing evidence that the innovation strategy is heading in the right direction. They also create momentum for the ground-breaking and cutting-edge breakthroughs over the medium and long-term horizons.

Creating The Culture For Innovation Quick Wins

An organisation's culture cannot, and the role it plays in delivering real value from innovation be ignored.
Our recent innovation study identified that the most important enablers of organisational culture for innovation are:

Executive support and encouragement
Our strategy and vision
Every employee is empowered to innovate

Innovation quick wins play an essential role in building the organisation's culture for innovation through demonstrating progress to the executive leadership team and communicating throughout the organisation through internal newsletters, awards, social media channels and videos.

New Ways For Innovators To Innovate

What does the recovery look like for your industry or sector?

Will the recovery be a U shape, with a long lag between decline and recovery?
Will the recovery be a V shape recovery, with a steep decline and quick recovery?
Will the recovery be a W shape recovery, with a slow and staggered recovery?

For example, the Australian consulting market is expected to shrink by up to 20% over the next 12 months. In the recent Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) webinar, 57% of consultants identified that more than 25% of their consulting revenue is at risk if they do not innovate. In this context, organisations need to find new compelling ways to DELIVER extraordinary VALUE.
The COVID-19 crisis highlights the need for an innovation mindset, culture, skills and capabilities. With so many people working from home, we see how critical innovation skills and capabilities are in a remote working from home environment.
We can't hold back on innovating new or improved products, services, programs, processes, systems and capabilities to deliver improved outcomes for our consultancy practice and clients. Helping our clients get access to the right skills and capabilities enables them to develop innovations faster and to deliver enhanced outcomes.
There are several new ways for organisations to innovate, including:

Shifting to online delivery: services / coaching / consulting / training
Productising our services – to existing client markets
Developing new products and services for adjacent markets
Transforming your business model from prior model activities
Developing innovations skills and capabilities

In the recent IMC Webinar, 74% of consultants identified that less than 25% of their consulting revenue comes from innovation-related activities.
A critical question for organisations is where you should prioritise and allocate your innovation efforts?
As innovation managers, we can also facilitate innovation with our organisations, including

Helping with idea generation and prioritisation
Developing their innovation strategy, systems and process
Building innovation capacity / innovation coaching
Supporting them in transforming their business model
Creating the culture for innovation
Implementing the Innovation Management System

How Innovation Sprints Build Innovation Skills And Capabilities And Deliver Outcomes Fast

Innovation Sprints are an essential initiative within an organisation's overall innovation strategy. They are used at the front end of the innovation journey, to develop, test and strengthen business ideas. Successful innovation sprints reduce the time to create strong business ideas into days, not weeks or months.
Innovation Sprints accelerate the early phase of the innovation process; they clarify the concept and the milestones to undertake innovation projects.
Innovation Sprints are suitable for a variety of business ideas and opportunities; identifying and developing incremental improvements in key business areas, simplifying a business process, building a new capability, launching a new offering, reconfiguring the business model, or entering new marketplaces.
My consultancy, Chase Consulting has recently developed the Innovation Sprint program based its experiences over the past seven years mentoring and guiding some 37 organisations who have received innovation seed funding, and the innovation best practices identified in our innovation research studies and best practices with high innovation organisations

Innovation Sprint – Innovation Professional Development

The Innovation Sprint program is a professional development program to help innovators and professionals develop and strengthen their business ideas and to develop innovation skills as they navigate through the impacts of COVID-19.

The Innovation Sprint is an online, remote access innovation program. It takes 3 to 5 hours to complete. The innovation sprint will provide you with a deeper understanding of how to identify, develop, test and validate business ideas.

About Craig Peacock

Craig Peacock (PhD), Director Chase Consulting Group and has over 20 years' experience in innovation, strategy and business planning projects.
Craig helps organisations get the best out of creativity, ideas, opportunities and the latest discoveries, to improve performance and outcomes and people's lives through innovation
Craig is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC). Craig is also an experienced Board Director and is recognised as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD).
Craig Peacock (PhD)
Chase Consulting Group Pty Ltd
M 0412714549
craig.peacock@chasegroup.com.au
www.chasegroup.com.au

Free Innovation Resources and Professional Development Programs

Innovation Research Studies – https://www.chasegroup.com.au/research
Innovation Benchmarks - https://www.chasegroup.com.au/benchmark
Innovation Programs - https://www.chasegroup.com.au/innovation-strategy
Innovation Sprint – https://www.chasegroup.com.au/innovation-sprint

[Page//1] https://www.chasegroup.com.au/research
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