Innovation continues to dominate as both a business necessity and a dubious buzzword. As leaders rush to build innovation pipelines and programs that work, definitions often get muddled; outcomes become the result of serendipity instead of strategy. Finally, best practices can get confused with lofty ideals and impractical goals.
That said, there is one thing that’s consistently true across the board: successful innovation pipelines are built on logic, not luck. Here are 3 examples of enterprise innovation pipelines done right.
AT&T’s Innovation Pipeline
AT&T is a multinational telecommunications company with teams in every nook and cranny of the world. That means they have constant access to thousands upon thousands of experiences, perspectives, and ideas that could change the course of their business.
Their innovation program, TIP, uses our online, crowdsourcing innovation tool SpigitEngage to enable employees to submit, collaborate, and vote on different ideas from across the entire company. Hierarchy doesn’t matter, and participants use virtual currency to “invest” in ideas they think are worth pursuing. Top-ranked ideas make their way to leaders, and approved ideas then graduate to projects. Eventually, they become reality. Forbes has reported the following results of the TIP program:
– 130,000 active participants from all 50 states and 52 countries
– More than 25,000 innovation ideas submitted
– Numerous patents
– Over $38 million invested by AT&T in viable innovation projects
This infographic from AT&T demonstrates how to properly develop an effective innovation pipeline, and how to use it.
Cisco’s BIG Legacy of Innovation
Cisco is a globally renowned designer, manufacturer, and seller of networking systems with a 30-year legacy of innovation and success. They wanted to raise awareness of their role as an innovation leader, as well as their active and growing partnerships
with various governments and global communities.
Cisco used the SpigitEngage open innovation platform as the backbone for their BIG
Awards program, with the goal of assisting in the acceleration and growth of high-tech businesses, no matter the size. The result? “After whittling down more than 300 entries to
20 semi-finalists, and letting six finalists battle it out in an exciting ‘Dragons’
Den’ style live pitch, Cisco’s first-ever BIG Awards winner was announced — SnapFashion, “the visual search engine for fashion” which combined the world of fashion with technology using a powerful search engine to find equivalent items of clothing.”
Download the case study for more details.
The Macy’s DIET
Macy’s has long been a pioneer of retail innovation, both internally and for their vast customer base. With over 840 stores in operation and billions of dollars in investments and revenue, the monolith company hasn’t gotten where it is by strictly sticking to tired practices.
Yasir Anwar, Group VP Engineering, Customer Applications & Platforms for Macys.com & Bloomingdales.com, tells Mindjet he is on a “DIET” — of Disruption, Innovation, Execution, and Technology excellence. He said, “I am a technologist at heart and an entrepreneur at execution. I drive the goal to provide a frictionless omni-shopping experience to the millions of Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com customers, acquiring more and retaining them.”
In order to achieve this, Anwar founded the Macy’s Idea Labs, an online hub supported by the SpigitEngage platform that gives users a central place for idea generation, discussion, analysis, and experimentation. “SpigitEngage helped us to quickly set up the platform—idea sourcing from an employee engagement perspective,” said Anwar. “This helped Macys.com to increase the groundswell and cast a wider net to the employees.”
Anwar wanted to build a true innovation pipeline. “Everyone in the valley claims they have an innovation pipeline going on…some do it informally, some have separate teams, such as a lab team continuously doing R&D work. What I wanted wasn’t open ended or prescribed. What I was looking for was organized and sponsored innovation.”
Learn more here, or watch the recent Innovation Cafe webinar featuring Anwar and the Macy’s Idea Labs program.
READ MORE: Creating Sustainable Enterprise Innovation Practices and Pipelines
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