Balancing Innovation Supply and Demand

To build and sustain a robust innovation capability, a company needs to manage both the supply and demand side of innovation. When supply is low, opportunities are presented with an inflated sense of their value. Conversely, when demand is low, innovation withers. To maximize the supply side of innovation, a company can initiate specific actions to push up the quantity and quality of ideas entering the pipeline. Additionally, there are four critical enablers, including innovation training, IT infrastructure, rewards and recognition, and coaching and mentoring. To drive up innovation demand, senior leaders must take responsibility and be accountable for innovation. Creating incentives for them to mentor and nurture the prospective innovators within their ranks is a start, but other actions can create pressure on senior executives to hold them accountable for the company's innovation processes.