How do you focus your innovations?

With so many new technologies out there, a burning question remains: which ones should you implement in your own organisation?

For de Jong, the key is focusing on potential benefits and organisational strengths.

» For every innovation that we develop, we ask ourselves whether or not we’re going to make somebody happy with it. I don’t know if there is a market for it, or if there is really a problem. It’s driven by productivity, cost-effectiveness and competitiveness. Another aspect is that it must be something we are capable of doing, something within our scope, something where we can contribute to the development. We stay with what we’re good at and pick our specific innovations,« he explains.

For Birkan Güneralp, SVP of Quality Assurance at Turkish Technik, the goal is doing more with less.

»We are trying to do more with what we have existing. We’re just planning better, making post analysis better, so it can enlighten us better in terms of customers,« he says.

Getting organisational buy-in

Just because implementing a certain technology or innovation can offer benefits doesn’t mean your organisation will necessarily be ready to adopt it. A huge concern when talking about new technologies is how to get stakeholders to make the switch.

Here, Whitehead makes a good point:

»Make friends with somebody who is very close to the office of the CFO. If you are doing business cases, get someone from the CFO’s office on your team, so you have that person plugged into your regular team meetings. That way, when that business case hits the desk of the CFO, there are no surprises, all of the numbers are rock solid and nobody can pick it apart,« he explains and continues:

»Everyone knows who the informal leaders are in the business. They’re the guys that don’t have the fancy titles, but when you ask the technicians they always know whom to go to and they follow these individuals. Those are the guys that you need to tap into and bring onto your team. Often times the rest of the workforce is looking for a signal that this guy approves.«

Güneralp agrees.

» Management plays the biggest role, but I would say the technicians are playing the crucial role because they’re the ones that will be using it. If they see a benefit in something, they stick with it. It’s all about explaining it to them – not by email or letter – but by working together with them, right next to them, on the hangar level. They have to understand that this new stuff is a benefit for both them and the company,« he says.

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Executive perspective: Fostering technological innovation in organisations