What you can learn from successful innovators

The key to innovation in rapidly changing times is being able to keep up with new developments. You may have to be willing to throw out your old models of working and revamp your processes. A good exercise is to make sure you are following the best practices of successful innovators. Ask yourself these questions.

How do you keep pace with the changes in your industry?

To become more flexible and respond faster to shifting dynamics in complex environments and prioritize challenges, you must accelerate your innovation while building critical capabilities for the future. This requires organizations to create the space for asking questions and conduct rapid experimentation and testing of hypotheses. Read the four key steps companies need to take to ensure they are accelerating their innovation processes here.

Have you mastered an innovation mindset?

For business leaders who seek the holy grail of innovation there is good news on the horizon; there is an innovative way of thinking that can be taught and learned. Through exhaustive research, IMD professors have identified the core principles that can help executives change their mindsets and foster positive innovation for themselves and their teams. 

The framework, dubbed ALIEN Thinking, illustrates the five key patterns of thinking that distinguish innovators. Learn the core principles here.

Does your company’s leadership share the traits of agile leaders?

At IMD’s Global Center for Digital Business Transformation we studied the leaders of digital transformations and the qualities they needed to succeed. Our research found that effective leaders in environments characterized by significant disruption shared some common characteristics and we labeled them as agile leaders. Learn their four common characteristics.

Do you know how to move from an idea to action?

There is a seemingly obvious idea that has tripped up many an entrepreneur: ideas are not the same as opportunities.

A venture idea can only turn into a venture opportunity if an entrepreneur has a favorable combination of circumstances that make it both desirable and feasible to exploit the venture concept and introduce a potentially value-adding offering into the marketplace. While the exploitation of one business may be an opportunity for one entrepreneur, another might not find it all that interesting, simply because they do not see it as an opportunity. Learn the three vital steps to turn an idea into an opportunity.