Sustainable Innovation: It Takes the Efforts of Everyone

Attempting to seize new opportunities and improve competitive positions, business leaders are looking for innovative solutions. In fact, research shows that innovation will be essential to both short-tem opportunistic value capture and longer-term business sustainability. The question then becomes: From where should these new ideas and innovative solutions originate?

One approach is to look to the leading edge to see what others are doing. Another option is to capture ideas as they spring up as seeds of innovation from within the organization. The challenge is there must be a catalyst, a framework, a discussion or something to generate relevant ideas continuously.

Our sustainability consulting believes the answer is stakeholder engagement. Leveraging a recent Smart Planet post, Apple’s aversion to chaos in industrial design, the author explores the technology innovator’s approach to design. Focusing on ten principles of good design, Apple has been very good at meeting consumer expectations. However they have struggled, to some extent, to meet the needs or source value from their supply chain.

Innovative ideas do not have to come from a single source. They can generate from within the company at the ground level, from the customers you service, or your suppliers. One key to success is to create a corporate culture that encourages and rewards innovation at all levels internal to the organization as well as external to the company.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development poses 4 questions in the innovation process to ensure success:

• How can we ensure sustainability is part of the creative process?

• How can we ensure that sustainability considerations are part of the management of a development process?

• When and how can external viewpoints enrich the creative and development process?

• What processes are going to leverage the value of our intellectual capital?

An open innovation approach to business sustainability offers stakeholders the opportunity to become engaged in the future of a business. Recognizing that key stakeholders have a vested interest the success of the company, creates openness to new ideas that promote business success and innovative ideas.