What are other companies doing to be more
innovative? Many of you have asked me this
question. To find out, I attended a
recent event which hosted two
speakers - Rich Vincent (CLO) and Ivars
Ozolins (Executive Development)
from Nestle U.S.A. to learn the Nestle answer
for you. They titled their presentation,
"Bend it Like Nestle".
Nestle is a very successful global company -
$100 billion last year. We all know success
can hinder the quest for innovation. So, to
reinforce the need
for innovation, Rich and Ivars started by
researching changing American business trends
from the birth of modern organizational
science in 1948 to present times - global
hyperflux.
In essence they did the background work and
created a presentation that painted a
compelling business context for product
innovation at
Nestle U.S.A. They had to grab the attention of
senior executives. This took persistence.
They wanted top level CEO/President support.
They got it.
The Nestle U.S.A. process: A "3
Level
Innovation Creation System" which is
supported by the business units who hand
select high potential employees to
participate, and a venture capital
board who
review new ideas and approve funding
to move selected ideas forward towards
commercialization.
Level 1 - 5-Day Introductory
Experience: The
focus is learning about innovation and
working on developing a new idea. Towards the
end of the workshop new product ideas are
pitched to the VC board.
Level 2 Short Term VC Project: 90-day
single person projects start for those whose
idea was approved by the VC board in level 1.
Level 3 Explorer Project: For ideas
advanced by the VC board to this level, the
individual works on a 6-12 month
"garage" project. A support structure
is in place to provide help with
commercialization.
As usual, the toughest part of the system is
creating a high performance environment
driven by skills, accountability and
commitment.
A key learning: Terms can paint pictures of
expectations. The Nestle innovation
terminology is now
making its way through the
organization which assists others in becoming
more innovative: "change the game",
"burn the bridge", "rapid prototyping"
are some examples.
The Nestle Approach: create the
business case
for product innovation, get the support of
the top executives, create a VC board that
has to fund ideas, put in place a system for
innovation, provide support for those
individuals whose ideas are advanced through
the system, and provide world class
innovation training.
Future Forward: What can you learn
from the Nestle system? Can you identify gaps
in your system? If so, what are you going to
do about closing those gaps? Until next time...
