We have all seen how one breakthrough idea can completely revolutionize a business. Apple thought a phone could be more than a phone, and now, the iPhone is a cultural phenomenon. Uber challenged the traditional taxi industry, and now nearly 200 million people use ridesharing apps. Jeff Bezos started selling books out of his garage, and now Amazon is now the go-to ecommerce destination for anything you could ever want to buy.

But what if they stopped there? We wouldn’t have the iPad, the Apple Watch, AirPods, or Apple Pay. There would be no Uber Eats, and businesses wouldn’t be able to reap all the benefits of AWS.

These are just a few examples of sustained innovation, not just pockets of it. Truly innovative enterprises don’t just push the envelope one time and think that’s enough. Here’s how to tell if you’re at risk of becoming an innovation one-hit-wonder, and how to escape the trap.

What’s holding your innovation back?

Innovation is not a nice-to-have for businesses anymore — it’s the only way to stay relevant, stable, and successful in an increasingly competitive landscape. Organizations have already cut their costs as much as possible, so evolving your business model, products, or services is paramount. But innovating just for the sake of it won’t work. Unfocused efforts lead to squandered resources and no meaningful change.

Many businesses think sustained innovation means coming up with a good idea, seeing it through, then repeating the process once momentum dies down. While this may temporarily move the needle and give the business a short-term boost, innovation shouldn’t happen on an idea-to-idea basis. Working in bursts rather than having frameworks and processes to always keep the wheels of innovation turning is expensive and won’t deliver the truly transformative change that enterprises need to get ahead.

Adopting a business model of sustained innovation makes it possible to continuously direct, accelerate, and course correct with a clear vision of the resulting impact. The problem is that most enterprises are not built to innovate this way. Most tend to be risk averse, resistant to change, or beholden to the status quo. As a result, innovation happens in silos, gets bogged down by lengthy approval processes or legacy systems, or is incompatible with the organization’s structure or culture.

Shifting to sustained innovation

How do you shift away from pockets of innovation and make sustained innovation a critical component of your enterprise with these roadblocks in your way?

• Change your mindset: Innovation doesn’t have to be some immense hurdle for your business; thinking of it that way can prevent you from ever getting it off the ground. Yes, it may cause turbulence, so plan for it accordingly. Go into it with an open mind, understand that it may not all go to plan, and be okay with failure. Unlike in pockets of innovation, sustained innovation isn’t do-or-die. Organizations that have reached sustained innovation have operations in place to withstand potential setbacks, embrace the learnings from them, and quickly move on.
• Adapt your culture: Sustained innovation isn’t a list of tactics; it requires a change in culture. Many enterprises wrongly assume that enthusiasm and excitement indicate buy-in. Yes, your team may be excited at the thought of innovating, but us humans are also incredibly resistant to change. Communication is key. Make it clear to your team how and why you are making changes, their role in your new innovation model, and the impact you’re aiming for. Make them feel like active participants in the future of the enterprise instead of being dragged along. Don’t worry if this doesn’t come easily. Every company that excels at sustained innovation put time, effort, and strategy into reshaping their culture. It worked for them, and it can work for you, too.
• Invest the resources: While it may seem extremely expensive to innovate on a sustained basis, it’s often more feasible than innovating in bursts. It’s true that enterprise-level innovation takes budgets, staff, time, tools, and other resources that need to be invested upfront and sustained long term. However, success depends less on the size of the investment than the strategy behind it. Once you have developed repeatable and scalable frameworks for innovation, you’ll be better able to make your resources as efficient as possible.
• Know the difference between innovation and improvement: Enhancing a process or two does not equal innovation. Improvement means finding a better way of doing things while innovation dares to do what hasn’t been done before. That doesn’t mean every idea needs to be entirely novel. Smartphones existed before the iPhone, and cloud computing existed before AWS. But true innovation means pushing the boundaries of your business, exploring new terrain, and looking at the future with a longer lens. Process improvement may be a component or an effect, but should not be the entire project.

How prepared is your organization for enterprise-level innovation? Answer the 10 critical questions in our ebook and determine your readiness for sustained innovation.