Following a standard recipe or procedure is your bread and butter. Running an innovation project which ventures into unknown territory is not for the faint of heart. Procedures can steer you off the cliff and set your auto-pilot to failure.
With 15 years of experience with innovation in the energy sector at both corporate and startup companies, I am an expert on how to innovate within a legacy environment and when starting boot-strapped from scratch.
The top reasons busy executives in the energy industry are facing difficulty implementing innovation within their companies are:
No innovation environment
No resources to run your project
Paralyzed by the unknown
You are looking for space where you can experiment, do validated learning and the current Cash Cow is not King. You want a sheltered space to grow ideas into viable business opportunities. You are looking for a Game Plan or a Sandbox for your work.
You have a business to run, and innovation is something you tried to do on the side. To give these opportunities the attention they deserve, you need a dedicated project team who will not be distracted by the day-to-day.
That uncanny feeling of venturing into the uncharted. It clashes with your regular operation where a lot more certainty exists. How do you balance your approach, using validated learning without going too boldly where no-one has gone before?