The second in our series of ‘innovation brakes’…the importance of building the right innovation team.
Size is important. Too few team members and it’s likely nothing will happen around peoples’ day job commitments. Too many people and you risk death by indecision.
Get the right balance of perfectionists and pragmatists. The perfectionists will set high standards but the pragmatists will realise that getting things done is more important than getting things perfect. Together perfectionists and pragmatists encourage a healthy approach to constant development and optimisation.
Cross-functionality is important too. Key functions should be represented from the beginning to stop anyone killing the idea dead at later feasibility stages. Marketers need to lead from the front as the champions of ‘long term demand creation’ but they will struggle to bring a product to market without the support of sales, trade marketing, finance, production and supply chain.
A senior stakeholder can be invaluable to push through budget and resource debates. A senior stakeholder can also provide clarity of vision and focus on the end goal as they won’t be distracted by the day-to-day tasks of developing the project.
