Think big and act boldly with inVision Edge
Today’s organizations deal with many challenges daily, not the least of which is the pressure to get ahead and stay ahead. It’s no longer enough to be ‘good enough.’ Today’s successful organizations must be both strategic and innovative to be competitive. However, it can be difficult to find your competitive edge when you’re mired in the day-to-day operations of your business. Luckily, there is help available to put your organization on a path driven by strategy and innovation.
In the beginning
“When companies come to us, we rarely hear ‘we need to be more strategic and innovative’,” says Kathy Andrew, Director of Client Experience & Coach at Winnipeg’s inVision Edge. “Usually, we hear one or the other.” However, in order to be truly successful, you have to learn how the two things work in concert to generate results. “Strategy has to come first, in order to create a clear direction for innovation,” says Andrew. “You have to know what you want to accomplish and how you will get there before you can innovate.”
Companies can also stumble in the innovation space because they don’t know how to make it happen. Often, organizations will rally their teams to come up with new ideas, try one without proper preparation, fail and give up. Or they gather ideas and try nothing due to the perceived risks which can crush any zeal for creativity in the future. “Innovation needs focus and space to be successful. Innovation without a system to see it through will not work,” says Andrew.
A map for success
Ryan Ramsdale, inVision Edge Director of Operations & Coach, agrees. “You have to tie together your strategic vision and goals before you start an innovation process,” he says. “To get started and be successful, leaders need to understand their organization’s big goals, and then prepare for where to focus innovation.” At inVision Edge, that means working through the ‘blueprint,’ a carefully constructed roadmap that takes your organization from strategy preparation through to creating a culture of innovation.
Bringing it together
“The first step is to align your leadership in the strategic process,” says Ramsdale. “You need a dynamic strategic plan that can change as needed. Plus, your team needs to know what the goals are, and where they fit in
the plan.”
Once your goals and plan are in place, then it’s time to engage the team in innovative thinking and execution. “Everyone needs to be part of innovation from the top down,” says Andrew. “Leaders need to buy in, remove the barriers and then get out of the way. The best way to be successful is to have a couple of smaller projects ready to test to get quick wins. That success will set up the team with confidence as they try new things.”
It’s about building a strategy and innovation system that can generate impactful ideas and take them to the finish line over and over again. “Strategy guides innovation and innovation enables strategy…this is the fusion which generates ongoing, predictable growth,” says CEO John Ferris. “An aligned leadership team, a clear strategy, and the power of innovation will perpetually keep an organization at the top of its game.”
Take the leap
Whether you’re new to strategic planning and innovation or not, inVision Edge can drive your organization forward in a world that demands creativity, innovation, and repeated success. Learn more at invisionedge.com.
