Tackling your innovation challenge

BLINKLANE CORPORATE GARAGE

GarageIn Silicon Valley, the Californian hotbed of technological inno-vation, many start-ups werestarted out of a garage. Why? Because the owners invested all their available resources in developing innovative products, they had no money left to rent a descent office. Both Google and Apple, now multinational giants, started in in this modest way, thereby illustrating their relentless focus on what really matters: building and testing new products.

Garage

In Silicon Valley, the Californian hotbed of technological innovation, many start-ups were started out of a garage. Why? Because the owners invested all their available resources in developing innovative products, they had no money left to rent a descent office. Both Google and Apple, now multinational giants, started in in this modest way, thereby illustrating their relentless focus on what really matters: building and testing new products.

 

Just like start-ups, corporates want: • New ideas and innovation • Entrepreneurship • To be a market leader • New customers and growth • Investments for the future

What they usually get: • Small improvements • Bureaucracy • Me-too market position • Competition and survival • Cost-cutting

Join the BlinkLane Corporate Garage to get a fresh perspective

Corporates have what it takes to deliver cutting edge product and service innovation: talented people, financial resources, infrastructure, brand awareness. The methods to deliver disruptive value like start-ups are teachable. New roles such as ‘innovation catalysts’ are leading the way at early adopting corporates.

IS THE BLINKLANE CORPORATE GARAGE RELEVANT?

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Optimization In their pursuit of low risk and continuous profits, large organizations are permanently searching for new ways to incrementally optimize existing processes and structures.

Rigid structures The consequence is that organization structures become more rigid and tight, making it hard for employees to explore value creation opportunities that are off the beaten path.

Low adaptability In an ever faster changing external environment, this corporate rigidity leads to forgone opportunities and growing threats from competitors and new business models.

No Exploration Evidently, breaking this pattern requires experimentation and exploration. However, uncertainty of outcomes drives larger organizations towards the safe routines that offer short term consolation.

Only exploitation As often in the face of change and adversity, people resort to doing what they are best at to gain short term peace of mind, while the root causes of the issues remain unresolved.

Vicious circle

 

DOES THE BLINKLANE CORPORATE GARAGE WORK?

In a nutshell: BlinkLane Corporate Garage is a 4-day program that tackles a concrete corporate product or service innovation challenge with an interdisciplinary team, and focuses on disrupting the traditional mindset with regards to the exploration of new opportunities.

Just like new ventures, corporates should recognize that: • A focus on doing is better than one on planning. • Investors are looking for validation of ideas. • Opportunities are outside the building, where your stakeholders are.

Start Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. BlinkLane prepares your organization for an intense exercise. Together, we define the challenge, make a selection of the adequate tools and techniques, and select the participants using both testing and interviews. On top of that, we focus on finding the right environment for the BlinkLane Corporate Garage to take place.

Day 1: Setting the innovation scene Participants learn about innovation challenge they have to tackle. They shed the known and are pushed off the beaten path in their search for new ideas. They unveil the assumptions behind their initial ideas, and discover the importance of iteration.

Day 2: Validation and pivot Armed with a newly discovered array of observation and analysis tools, the teams are challenged to profoundly question their ideas, and to (in)validate the underlying assumptions on which the ideas are built. Getting new inspiration along the way, the teams develop a growing awareness regarding the benefits of validation and pivoting towards new opportunities. Homework: Developing a validated idea (approximately 2 weeks)

Day 3: Prototyping New and validated ideas deserve real testing, and nothing provides feedback like a working product or service. BlinkLane teaches the appropriate prototyping techniques, and participants choose a technique that matches both their idea and the dimensions they want to test. Homework: Developing and test a working product or service (approximately 2 weeks)

Day 4: Building a business case The teams have developed a thorough understanding of how to polish an idea into a working product or service. Now, they learn how to make it an investable business case. Moreover, participants get a set of tips and tricks to help their ideas succeed in the corporate jungle that follows. Communicating and developing a support base for the business cases are key. Homework: Developing the business case (approximately 2 weeks)

Finish Presentation of the business cases to the investment board

 

IS THE RESULT OF THE BLINKLANE CORPORATE GARAGE?

Validated business cases A business plan often appears as a catalogue of product and service promises based on implicit assumptions, littered with misleadingly exact numbers with regards to market share and ROI. Considering innovation is a leap in the unknown by definition, this predictive approach often leads to deep disappointments on both the investment and executive sides.

Validated business cases, on the other hand, focus on factually stating the results of implementing ideas in the real world, thereby testing the underling assumptions. They provide the necessary information for an investment board to make a solid go no-go decision, for instance: • An overview of tested, and yet to be tested assumptions • Conclusions of customer interaction with a prototype • Next steps and milestones identified • Intended use of the funds invested • An overview of available options • Maximum downside of the investment decision

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Learning experience A new perspective on ‘the market’ Considering the focus on getting out of the corporate offices, participants get in touch with the stake-holders that matter. Therefore, the development of new market insights that challenge current beliefs are a long lasting result of the experience. Participants will constantly contrast the current state of affairs with the events and opportunities in the external environment. Iteration and experimentation Participants learn to break with the vicious cycle of incremental optimization by experiencing the importance of iteration and experimentation. They learn to profoundly understand the importance of experimental learning in the discovery and exploitations of new opportunities. Interdisciplinary teams Participants work in interdisciplinary teams, there-fore greatly enhancing the learning experience. Knowledge currently residing in different outposts of the organization will have to be shared.

Relationships within the company are streng-thened because the teams take part in a “pressure cooker” event that yields tangible results. New Tools and Techniques Participants in the BlinkLane Corporate Garage learn new tools and techniques, many of which are used in the design and start-up world. They often have a visual component that greatly helps communication and team work. These tools and techniques can be used later on during other innovation related engagements. Intrapreneurship Participants learn to act like entrepreneurs in a corporate setting by ‘watching over the fence’ and by focusing on generating, validating and promoting ideas. Challenging the status quo and creatively fixing problems are key aspects of the BlinkLane Corporate Garage. Participants learn about the importance of becoming corporate catalysts in their quest for innovating the business.

 

Contact us for more information

 BlinkLane Consulting is an advisory firm that was founded in 2007. It has its origin in IT management, focusing on improving the value of IT. In our 6 years life span, we have evolved together with our clients. We continuously innovate our services to keep delivering the value to our clients to deal with today’s challenges. Our focus is on the following 4 themes: • Business Model Innovation • Business Agility • Business & IT Fusion • Strategic Sourcing Our purpose: ‘to succeed beyond ambition’. Our mission: As a leading advisory on business model innovation and technology management, we strive to have a significant and meaningful impact on organizations we work with. We are committed to: • Introduce creativity and thought leadership • Establish expert communities and valuable relationships • Inspire, engage and develop exceptional people • Succeed together with passion and trust

BlinkLane Corporate Garage fitness checklist

• BlinkLane Corporate garage is a 4-day program on average, and it spans at least six weeks. • It is important to succeed together. Collaboratively preparing the innovation challenge,

organizing the program, defining its scope, and finding corporate sponsorship are corner-

stones for delivering successful business cases. Working together starts from day one. • BlinkLane Consulting does not do window dressing. It is important for the participating

organization to be serious about innovating products and services. Using the outcome as a

marketing matter alone backfires by definition and is a waste of resources. • In between the program days, participants will need time to work on the business cases.

BlinkLane Consulting is available for coaching and assistance, but participants do the work.

This is important to guarantee a learning experience.

SPACES Zuidas, Barbara Strozzilaan 101 | 1083 HN Amsterdam T +31(0) 20 4080860 | info@blinklane.com | www.blinklane.com