"Innovation models in global companies across diverse sectors, (shows) projects fail between 70% and 90% of the time."

 

To develop innovation capabilities, organisations run innovation jams, hackathons, conferences, workshops,  hire consultants, or create their own incubators.  

 

The bottleneck to so much innovation inside organisations is the cost of it. It needs to be signed off by many levels. Formalising ideas and innovation too early can be more harmful than good in establishing an innovation-culture or habit. 

 

Innovation consultants can end up being expensive relative to impact, "more and more large companies have been outsourcing their intrapreneurial efforts. They pay upwards of $300K to $1 million to consultancy firms that conduct market analyses and in-depth need-finding, identify new opportunities, generate promising ideas, and, often, develop ideas into working prototypes."

 

Innovation workshops are full of inspiration and frameworks, but very little tangible progress is made with ideas. 

 

Building internal incubators or innovation units are potentially high risk, creating the internal capacity and and learning through failure.   

 

In addition, the often neglected part, is training for the people, at the individual level, to innovate. "Yet, it is not the direction in which most innovation-seeking firms seem to be channeling their efforts."