Innovation Resolutions

At the end of the year, it's traditional to look ahead into a new year and make some resolutions. For those of you who are interested in innovation, here are some resolutions to take with you into the new year.

1. Our innovation team will ensure our work is aligned with and supported by the senior management team.
2. We resolve to take bigger risks and disrupt at least one product or market this year
3. We'll incorporate innovation as a regular component of our strategy and treat it as a standard operating procedure, rather than something we "bolt on" to existing operations
4. In 2008, we'll move from purely product innovation to seek opportunities for innovation in processes, services, business models and other intangible solutions
5. As our innovation capability improves, we'll seek ideas and inputs from our business partners and customers on a regular basis
6. We will implement a more consistent, sustainable innovation approach across our organization
7. Innovation will take on a customer focus. We'll eliminate technology led innovation and seek instead unmet or undermet customer wants and needs
8. We'll spend more time understanding trends and looking over the horizon to ascertain what's happening so we can respond more effectively or alter the course of what happens
9. We'll provide the necessary resources for innovation to flourish. After all, if innovation is so important, then we should provide the people and dollars necessary for it to work effectively
10. We'll stop worrying about making it perfect and just do something radical.

Now, I don't expect that everyone will be able to adopt all of the resolutions on this list, but if you read through and decide you can implement even just a few of them, you'll have a much more innovative 2008.

And, realizing that most resolutions don't last through January, if you are serious about making and keeping these resolutions, put them on the corporate website or the innovation portal where you work, so that your teammates and executives can be reminded and hold your team accountable for the important work you do in innovation.

Here's to an even more innovative 2008.