When "Enough" Is Not Enough

 

In my previous article, I posed a simple question:

    "We already innovate!" …Enough?!

The answer depends on how leaders assess innovation.

Most organisations measure innovation by what they have achieved.

Successful innovation leaders also measure how those achievements are strengthening their ability to innovate in the future.

That subtle shift changes the conversation from measuring innovation outcomes to building innovation capability.

But how do you know whether your organisation is genuinely becoming more innovative?

The number of ideas generated doesn't answer that question.

Neither do the number of patents filed, products launched or AI tools implemented.

Innovation leaders need a way of assessing whether their innovation capability is actually improving.

That's where the MijS Innovation Compass™, one of the frameworks within the MijS Discipline of Innovation™, comes in.

The same Compass can be applied at multiple levels—individual, team, functional, business unit and organisational—creating a common language for assessing and strengthening innovation capability.

At first glance, it appears to be a simple three-dimensional framework. It isn't.

It represents three questions that every innovation leader should continually ask.

Source

Where does our innovation come from?

Are we primarily adopting innovations created elsewhere?

Or are we progressively creating more innovations ourselves?

Both have an important role.

But organisations that consistently shape industries progressively strengthen their ability to create, not just adopt.

Impact

What level of impact do our innovations create?

Are they largely incremental?

Or are they increasingly transformational?

Both are essential.

Incremental innovation strengthens today's business.

Transformational innovation creates tomorrow's business.

The danger lies in becoming satisfied with only incremental innovation.

Over time, that creates a culture of incrementalism.

Organisations become exceptionally good at improving what already exists, while competitors redefine what comes next.

Time

Are we becoming more innovative than we were a year ago?

This is perhaps the most overlooked dimension.

Innovation leaders don't compare themselves only with competitors.

They compare themselves with themselves.

Year after year.

There is no universal innovation portfolio that suits every organisation.

The right balance depends on strategy, industry, organisational maturity, competitive context and risk appetite.

The important principle is to consciously strengthen innovation capability across all three dimensions over time.

At any point in time, the innovation portfolio can be viewed as a mix of incremental and transformational innovations originating from both external and internal sources.


The MijS Innovation Portfolio™ provides one way of visualising and managing that balance.

While the MijS Innovation Compass™ helps leaders assess innovation capability across Source, Impact and Time, the MijS Innovation Portfolio™ helps them visualise how their innovation efforts are distributed at a given point in time.

For example, one organisation may choose to build a portfolio resembling A : B : C : D as 5 : 3 : 2 : 1 across these four categories, while another may adopt a different balance depending on its context.

The numbers themselves are not the message. The trajectory is.

The overall innovation impact of the portfolio should continue to increase over time—for example, by at least 10% year on year.

When "enough" is no longer enough, it's not just about innovating more.

It's about becoming more innovative.

That's the journey the MijS Innovation Compass™ is designed to guide.


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