1 Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that it refers almost solely to the application of a new process, service, product or technology as opposed to the actual creation of those processes and products – change. Innovation can be found in culture (a culture of innovation), process, products, services, business models, marketing, or your supply chain. It can be disruptive, substantial or incremental innovation.

2 The Innovation Journey Slide DeckThe purpose of the Innovation Journey is to enable you to map and plan an innovation strategy that will accelerate the achievement of your business goals in the most effective way. Ultimately, there is no predetermined direction or end goal for this Journey, those choices are yours. The Journey simply provides you with a map. You chose the routes and whether or not to use the guidance materials. The Innovation Journey is broken out into four distinct sections – Plan, Implement, Manage and Embed. At the end of each section of the Journey, you’ll be asked to set some Milestones. These are particularly important to you because they will determine the end of your Journey, the results of your Journey and the commencement of your next Journey. The Innovation Compass Workbook has been designed to help you navigate your Innovation Journey with minimum resources and effort. Feel free to use it (or not use it) in any way that you see fit. What’s important in all of this is that you are taking an Innovation Journey. You’re implementing something new or revising something old; but you’re implementing positive, profitable change in an area or by a means that you normally might not. This deck will help you build consensus about innovation strategies, and create a forum for communicating progress. Each slide highlights critical decisions being made at that stage and ultimately the milestones set by you and your team. Feel free to utilize your own tools or systems, there’s no pre-requisite to use the tools that the Alliance provides; we can all learn from each other. The slides are colour-blocked into four sections. The first three colour blocks (red, gold, green) can be presented sequentially, or all at once. The final two slides, (blue), should be presented some time after you have completed the ‘Manage’ section. You’ll find a set of slide templates for your Innovation Plan Presentation at the end of this deck.

3 Pre-Thinking Prior to commencing the Journey here are some questions that you may wish to think about … start with yourself … examine yourself … you probably already have the answers but it wouldn’t hurt to review them in light of the Journey you are about to embark on. Remember there’s no requirement to answer ANY of these questions, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to have the answers before embarking on your Journey. Am I prepared to change and grow? Why am I in business? (High level, not just “to make money”!) Where do I want our company to be in 3 to 5 years? Where do I personally want to be in 3 to 5 years? What do I have to change going forward in order to fulfill my objectives? Am I really ready for growth?

4 Pre-Viewing Thought you’d answered all the questions … consider viewing these video resources prior to commencing your Journey. Start with Why - Simon Sinek Where do ideas come from? – Steven Johnson

5 Pre-Reading If you have some time or just enjoy reading, we highly recommend the following reading resources prior to commencing your Innovation Journey The Lean Start-up – Eric Ries Five Questions of Strategy – Harvard Business Review Blog How to build a Strategy and the ‘how-to’ for completing it - Gazelles How do you connect innovation to business strategy – Innovation Management Build innovation into your strategy – Balanced Scorecard Institute

6 Glossary of Terms challenge - a test of a company's abilities, or a situation that tests a company's abilities externally facing innovation - an innovation that almost always is directed at/to the customer. It usually refers to the improvement or creation of an existing or brand new product or service. Externally facing innovations can be the most disruptive as well as the riskiest and can require the greatest amount of investment, time and resources however, that risk can also be proportionately rewarded. innovation - innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that it refers almost solely to the application of a new process, service, product or technology as opposed to the actual creation of those processes and products – change. Innovation can be found in culture (a culture of innovation), process, products, services, business models, marketing, supply chain, substantial or incremental innovation. internally facing innovation - an innovation that usually doesn't involve the customer. It usually refers to the improvement of a process, business model, or supply chain. Internally facing innovations usually deliver the greatest % ROI. milestone - scheduled event that indicates the completion of a major deliverable event (or a set thereof) of a project. Milestones are measurable and observable and serve as progress markers. strategy - a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or set of goals or objectives all within the challenges of each situation

7 Use of The Innovation Journey Slide DeckTo use the Slide Deck, simply work through the Blue content guidelines. The first instructional point on each slide will provide you with a sense of purpose for the slide. A greater understanding of the content for each slide and additional help can be obtained by working through the Green tables which can be found as part of the Innovation Compass Workbook. (Author’s Warning: The Excel spreadsheet is perhaps not as user friendly as it could be and tends to use terminology that is directed at product innovation rather than the broader sense of implementation, however, this use of language does not make it any less effective in providing direction along your Journey.) References to previously completed tables are indicated in Red.

8 The Journey Implement Manage Embed PlanThe Innovation Journey is a continuous process, once you’ve made it to the end you then start the process again! The point at which you choose to start your next Journey is up to you!

9 Plan: Identify ChallengesExamine competition, technology, market changes, SWOT and internally or externally facing resources to identify challenges in your business. Resources The Fishbone Chart 1.1 (pg 13-14) can help identify challenges (i.e. competition, technologies, market changes) that impact viability A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) Analysis (pg 16-23) provides focus on leverage and vulnerability internally as well as environment Table 2.1 (pg 18) using Tables 2.1a/b, 2.2, 2.3 & 2.5 (pgs 20-24) Prioritize new business opportunities (using chart on pg 23 and “Prioritize SWOT” in excel worksheets)

10 Plan: Identify StrategiesUsing data from Slide 1, identify ALL possible strategies, then list specific outcomes that you hope to achieve through implementation. Don’t overlook doing a ‘reality check’ to make sure you have the resources and business model to get you where you want to go. Ask yourself: What do we have to do differently going forward in order to fulfill our objectives? What resources (capital, human, operating) are we going to need that we don’t have now? Does our present business model get us where we want to go? If not, what changes do we need to make? Are our business processes aligned with our goals? Are our processes an enabler of our goals or a hindrance? Resources Analyze four core innovation strategies (pg 26-28) – customer intimacy, product leadership, market disruption or productivity – for your particular innovation Table 3.1 (pg 27) Prioritize strategic options in Table 3.2 (pg 28) and highlight impacts Use the ‘reality check’ model (pg ) to make sure your present business model can get you where you want to go.

11 Plan: Prioritize and Select Innovation Strategy(ies)Using data from slides 1 and 2 – prioritize your innovation strategies, then select which Innovation Strategy(ies) you will implement. Resources Review the typical drivers for innovation (pg 32) to help focus your selection of innovation strategy Use the Innovation Strategy Criteria (pg 34 and “Innovation Criteria” worksheet in Excel) to develop the key elements of your innovation strategies

12 Plan: Milestones This is the final slide in the first section. Present your milestones, or move on and present the next set of slides (to the Implement Section). If you are stopping here, your milestones will be recorded by the Facilitator for future follow-up by the group. Be sure to include what you hope to accomplish with follow-up dates, as well as a date for your next presentation.

13 Implement: CommunicateCommunicate to your team why you chose your strategy, how you will implement, and how you will track results Resources Identify the message you want to communicate with your team using the Communication Template (pg 36) For the innovation strategies selected, ensure that the actions are aligned with Resource Requirements, Process Capacity and Culture Compatibility (pg 29)

14 Implement: Ideation Create a Roadmap for your strategy ideation, idea evaluation and final implementations of ideas Resources Review the sources of innovation (pg. 38 – 42) Create a custom Innovation Assessment framework to explain precisely how new ideas will be assessed (pg ) Complete an Innovation Evaluation (pg 46) to choose between opportunities Explain how each project will be managed and the role of the gating process in managing each project Table 9.2 (pg 48)

15 Implement: MilestonesInclude next steps and milestone dates including date of next presentation

16 Manage: Process Create a project plan include who’s responsible, timelines, resource management and gate keepers. Be sure that your management process is open and accountable Resources For each approved project, complete Table 10.1 (pg 52) to identify individual responsibilities, timelines and stage gate-keepers For each approved project, complete Table 12 (pg 57) to identify milestones and gate decisions

17 Manage: Measure and CommunicateMonitor outcomes for each project and overall impact Communicate process implementation, outcome expectations, and how progress will be measured to facilitate feedback Resources Use the communication framework offered in Table 11 (pg 54) to reinforce process implementation, build accountability and feedback For each approved project use Table 13.1 (pg 63) to identify outcomes At each milestone, use Table 13.2 (pg 64) to identify go/no go decisions, how timelines shift, or additional resources to be allocated (cont’d on next slide)

18 Manage: Measure and Communicate ...continuedResources Consistently communicate outcomes using the framework in Table 14.1 (pg 67), highlighting: The achievement (or not) of anticipated outcomes How outcomes improve the business What implementation challenges were faced and how could they be overcome How should the implementation process be changed

19 Manage: Track PerformanceResources Consistently communicate outcomes using the framework in Table 14.1 (pg 67), highlighting: The achievement (or not) of anticipated outcomes How outcomes improve the business What implementation challenges were faced and how could they be overcome How should the implementation process be changed

20 Manage: Milestones Include next steps and milestone dates including date of next presentation

21 Embed Embed innovation into the company to create a culture and capacity for ongoing innovation and learning Reinforce the companies core innovation strategy Demonstrate how implementation of the innovation strategy influences overall business performance Show how allocation of resources to innovation achieved results Recognize individuals who contributed to the innovation and in order to inspire future contribution to ongoing innovation Resources Use the modified Communication Strategy (pg 54) to share progress, and revisit how initial challenges were met

22 Improve Use feedback from current process as a basis for continuous improvement Was the initial innovation strategy appropriate? Were the innovation projects selected achieved/achievable? What could be done to improve the ideation process? Was the decision making process appropriate? Were timelines and resources appropriate? What could be done to improve implementation? Can aspects of the overall process, including the communication strategies and decision criteria used, be improved? Resources Use the framework in Table 15.1 (pg 69) to review the process and identify opportunities for future improvement

23 Date of next Innovation JourneyMilestones Results of your Innovation Journey Date of next Innovation Journey

24 Your Slide Templates

25 Identify Innovation Challenges

26 Identify Innovation Strategies

27 Select your Innovation Strategies

28 Develop a Communications Strategy

29 5. Milestones – Track Performance Milestones – Track Performance

30 Link Your Innovation Strategy

31 Ideation and Implementation Process

32 Milestones – Track Performance 5. Milestones – Track Performance

33 Management Process

34 Monitor and Communicate

35 Milestones

36 Embed the Innovation Process

37 Use Feedback for Improvement