Corporate innovation: beyond the toddler years

On May 8, 2014, MakerLab was founded. Makerstreet partner Joris van Heukelom and aspiring entrepreneur Roderick Martens saw an opportunity in supporting corporations with their innovation ambitions.

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Meanwhile, it's been 5 years, and something calledMakerStreet Innovationnow exists, with MakerLab having acquired two siblings in the form of Unplugged. Over 30 men and women are working on various projects related to product, process, and marketing innovation.

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Five years might not seem like a long time, but mind you, what was considered innovative back then is no longer the case now. In just a few years, this hot topic has left behind its "aww, how cute" toddler years and has reached the age where it needs to learn how to read, write, and calculate with lasting impact. Backpack on, and off to school it goes!

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A good example is the shift in innovation budgets. In 2014, the innovation budget often lay with the communications or strategy department. This meant that realizing innovation projects within organizations often involved a lot of PR, marketing communications and mass participation.

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In other words: a focus on the (perception of) company culture. In 2019, budgets are often found within the business lines or in a sandbox (a lab). Incremental innovation such as process improvement, product offerings, and marketing innovation is more frequently leading the way, and the starting point to find a 'million-dollar' idea is rarely seen anymore.

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For us, this meant that we had to proactively adapt. It's a valuable lesson, especially when that's exactly the principle you want to teach your customers as well. A great example of this is our relationship with a semi-governmental organization within the healthcare domain.

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In the beginning of our relationship, we defined clearly framed projects only to find out afterwards whether the outcome of these projects was at all realizable within the organization (i.e., no).

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We then decided to innovate from within, with the help of a validation team consisting of operational staff and some of our colleagues. Together, we ensure that internal operations become more efficient with a focus on what truly matters, ultimately making us more relevant to our customers. It was a bit of an adjustment in the beginning, but now we wouldn't have it any other way, and we are achieving impressive results.

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Corporate innovation is growing steadily. Three examples in which this manifests are:

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> Language: innovation becomes 'business design'

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Certainly, in our lingo, we are changing as well. Let's say 'Jantje' becomes 'Jan.' And that's a good thing. Because serious innovation means being open to adapting your business, and that requires more than just a good idea. In our opinion, it's a fine linguistic adjustment.

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> The search for the right skills and tools

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We often speak to managers of an (innovation lab of some sort) who tell us that hiring a group of creators for their team, such as a business analyst, a UX designer, or a visual designer, was quite a challenge.

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And now that they are here, the results don't come automatically. That's not surprising. These skills provide a solid foundation, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Believe us, we've had to learn it 'the hard way' over the past few years.

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To successfully work on business design - here it comes - you need to, in addition to your practical skills, thoroughly understand what is required in the various stages of lean product development. Customer discovery demands an entirely different focus (and thus skills and tools) than a product-market fit phase. This is a skill in itself and constitutes the distinction between creators and business designers.

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> The focus on governance

More and more frequently, we receive requests from our clients to assist them in setting up a governance model to work efficiently on innovation within certain guidelines.

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Focus and expectation management, both in terms of costs and output, are important concepts in this regard. As agencies, we are pleased with this, not only because it provides control over our work but mainly because of the final step.

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The transition from a validated prototype to implementation in the ongoing business is often the most challenging. The fact that there is increasingly more attention given to this in governance makes the 'business design life' just a bit easier and, consequently, more enjoyable.

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De-risking is employed in all types of organizations, from small to large. Risk management can be useful in both corporates and startups, for example. In startups, in fact, even before the company takes off. Does the product or service actually solve a problem? If there's no problem: why do customers want to spend money on it?