close window 
Typical attempts at innovation fail more than 95 percent of the time; fortunately, there are ways to boost the odds of success, said Larry Keeley, cofounder and president of innovation consulting firm Doblin, Inc. Start by throwing out nearly all the conventional wisdom about innovation, from brainstorming to the emphasis on product performance, he told alumni and friends of the GSB at an event hosted by the Innovation Roundtable January 9 at Gleacher Center.
Innovation can be thought of as an instrument with ten main notes from which to choose, ranging from such categories as a company’s business model to customer experience, he said. Knowing which to play and how to combine them is the key.
“If you use these notes and compose some new and fresh way to do business, go to market, and astonish customers, the world will notice,” Keeley said.
Usually companies approach business innovation by first brainstorming a hopper of ideas and then subjecting them to the process known as stage-gating, where ideas are winnowed out, until, Keeley said, CEOs come in like Roman emperors to give a thumbs-up or -down.
A better method, he said, is to start by diagnosing a business or industry’s conditions to find weak spots, which offer the first hint at what keys to play. Business leaders should declare an intent and set conditions before teams of workers begin to foster initiatives.
It’s also best to work on a small number of big ideas rather than expending time and effort on a large number of small ideas, Keeley said.
— Mary Sue Penn