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Today we will share with you our learnings about scaling innovation initiatives, all based on working with numerous fashion companies across the globe.

The process of innovation often starts with ideation and believing that the more ideas you have, the better the innovation will be. Well, it doesn’t work like that. After countless brainstorming sessions and successful strategic workshops with creative teams, we can tell you that’s not quite how it goes. Coming up with new ideas is fairly easy. You choose a topic and ideas just flow. The hard part starts when you must turn those ideas into a profitable business concept.

At the brainstorming stage, around 80% of ideas come from analogical thinking or finding inspiration. Companies first look at competitors, existing business models, new tech and trends, or the other industries. But what this lacks is inward vision, looking within the company itself, and analysing what assets and goals you have.

And there are many reasons why new ideas fail. The business model doesn’t work or the go-to-market timing is off. Some fail due to a lack of validation. If you are lucky and the idea finally gets developed, it often gets stuck once it has been implemented. A lack of oversight or management of the innovation portfolio is usually the root of the problem.

Another reason is quite simply that brainstorming is fun, and the ‘not-invented-here’ syndrome prevails (a tendency for people to avoid things that they didn’t create themselves; an organization believe that they can solve a problem in a better way than pre-existing solutions already do).

Leverage the past

Many sources admit that learning from past mistakes and successes is by far the most powerful lever for increasing revenue from new, innovative initiatives. So instead of making some sort of innovation theatre, it’s time to apply what you’ve already learned within your organization. And based on that decide whether or not to invest in an idea.

Innovation initiatives can be tricky. We saw organisations that believed they came up with a revolutionary solution, therefore our research showed that there are numerous companies already commercialising that solution. Another client had five different solutions in place all to address the same problem. And bear in mind, that these are not isolated incidents. What we see more often, the bigger the company, the more difficult it is to maintain an overview of all innovation activities. We mentioned that in the previous article.

A clear framework is a must

At infuture.fashion flagship service, we have a clear framework for scoping meaningful innovation, already in place, within a client’s organization, to refine the explicit criteria for scaling in other areas and capture everything learned to maximize client’s outcomes. This really allows us to successfully create new concepts at a significantly lower cost than creating them from scratch.

You can also share your challenge with us. Is your organization looking to step up and leverage profitable opportunities? Leave an email address. Our consultant will reach out to you to schedule a 15 minutes call.

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    Patrycja Franczak

    Author Patrycja Franczak

    She runs infuture.fashion company where she cooperates with many fashion companies helping them to strategically define, move toward and manage the future amid the challenges of uncertainty and change - to improve business performance and manage change.

    More posts by Patrycja Franczak

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