Innovation & Your Business

Mississauga Board of Trade

September, 2012

Bradley Munro

President, RS4 Marketing Group

www.rs4.ca

A little About Me

20+ years of corporate experience

Telecom & CPG industries

Extensive new product development

Principal, RS4 Marketing Group

SMB strategic planning & product development

Course Instructor

Marketing & Brand Management

McMaster, York U, Seneca

2

www.rs4.ca

Innovation

“Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two – and only these two - basic functions :marketing and innovation”

Peter Drucker, Management, 2008

3

www.rs4.ca

Why Innovate?

Innovation = Growth

4

Growth = Survival

www.rs4.ca

Failure to Innovate

5

OR

Who would you rather be?

www.rs4.ca

What is Innovation?

The constant pursuit of change

Surprising your customers

A disciplined and committed process

Embraced at the CEO level

Everyone’s responsibility

Takes a lot of effort

6

www.rs4.ca

Big Innovation

7

www.rs4.ca

Tim Horton’s

8

www.rs4.ca

Tim Horton’s

9

www.rs4.ca

Innovation vs Product Development?

= RISK

10

www.rs4.ca

Innovation Product Development

• High risk • Moderate/low risk

• Uses new technology/capability • Uses existing capabilities

• Lower success rate • Higher success rate

• Idea • Commercialization

• Change the game • Incremental

• Creative & collaborative • Process oriented

• Corporate • Functional

• More with less • More with the same

11

Innovation vs Product Development

www.rs4.ca

Minimizing Innovation Risk

Adopt a portfolio approach

Asset/investment allocation

Don’t bet the farm

Mix of small/medium & large projects

Be disciplined in how you allocate resources

Set clear objectives/goals

12

www.rs4.ca

Successful Innovation

Four key success factors:

Strategy

Structure

Skills

Process

13

www.rs4.ca

Innovation Strategy

14

CEO has a clear vision

Establish some objectives

Set some parameters/scope

Not too narrow

Performance criteria

Failure is expected & supported

www.rs4.ca

Innovation Structure

Integrated teams

Avoid isolation

Encourage dialogue

Loosen formal controls

Get creative in your thinking

15

www.rs4.ca

Innovation Skills

Strong leadership

Good communicator

Relationship building

Team approach

Look for partners

16

www.rs4.ca

Innovation Process

Idea Generation

Screening/

Conversion Development

17

www.rs4.ca

Innovation Killers

Rigorous financial hurdles

DCF/ROI/NPV criteria

Unreliable projections/forecasts

Expectations are too high

Home Run syndrome

Mismanaged stage gate process

18

www.rs4.ca

Summary

• Successful innovation is a disciplined process

• Establish objectives & parameters

• Focus on the customer not profits

• Start small.....test & learn

• Manage the risk – use a portfolio approach

• Expect failure

19

www.rs4.ca

Thank You

Questions?

20