How to decide what to focus on
The Goal of the Framework
The point of the TMT. Innovation Framework is to find out what innovations or improvements can have the most effective positive impact on your organization.
Our four classifications of innovation
By following the steps of the framework - more on that later! - we are able to put all possible innovations into four categories:
Golden Opportunities (GO!): these innovations will have a great positive impact on your organization and are also easy to achieve. If you can find these opportunities, you found …. Gold! (Yeah, we rock at names!)
Futuristic Frontiers: these opportunities for innovation can massively improve your organization, but they are currently out of your reach. The technology might not be ready yet, or you might not be ready for the technology. It is important to keep these in mind as you work towards making them happen at a later time.
Solid Steps: this is also called incremental innovation. The impact won’t be huge, but it is easy. These might sound boring, but if you do the solid steps right, you will move your Feasibility Wall (more on that later!) and turn what are now Futuristic Frontiers into tomorrow's Golden Opportunities!.
Worthless Wagers: these innovations are difficult and they don’t add much value. I think the name says it all. Let’s quickly forget about these and move on.
The two axes of the Framework
The TMT. Innovation Framework has two axes: Impact and Feasibility. The names say it all, but just to elaborate a little bit:
Impact: this is about identifying what goals are important to your organization. What projects will have a meaningful impact on your organization? Ideally, these goals are rooted in your company’s vision, mission and strategy.
Feasibility: not everything opportunity is available to everyone. The feasibility of any innovation or change is based on factors such as: available time, budget, technological know-how, team motivation and 12 other categories we work with.
The steps of the TMT. Innovation Framework
To find and categorize all possible innovations into the four categories, we follow these steps:
Identify what is important to your organization (your strategic goal)
Search for tactics that can be used to achieve these goals (your tactics)
Select methods and tools to pursue the tactics are feasible for your organization (your innovations)
Implement the solution either directly or find a partner who is specialized in implementation of the specific solution.
Basically, we do innovation in the right order. Most organizations get this all wrong and start the other way around. We wrote a companion Perspective on that as well: Most organizations do innovation all wrong (You might want to open it in a new tab for when you’re done with this perspective.)
1. Identify strategic goals that are most important
We have a list of 15 possible strategic goals that your organization might want to pursue. We help you whittle this down to (at most) three priorities. The goals we help you pick from are:
Improve Financial Performance
Reduce Costs
Increase Revenue
Improve Strategic Management
Optimize Data Utilization for Strategic Decisions
Foster Innovation & Competitiveness
Improve Operational Efficiency
Realize Time Savings.
Scale Operations Effectively
Build Operational Resilience and Adaptability
Improve Compliance & Risk Management
Enhance Cybersecurity Measures
Improve Risk & Compliance Management
Improve HR Processes
Enhance Employee Happiness
Optimize Talent Acquisition & Management
Facilitate Collaboration & Communication
Improve Customer Satisfaction
Boost Customer Happiness & Engagement
Enhance Quality of Service/Product
Improve Sustainability
Advance Sustainability Efforts
2. Search for tactics to pursue the strategic goal
There are usually many suitable tactics to reach one or more of the strategic goals.
For instance, firms the with explicit goals to Reduce Costs, Improve Internal Communication and Increase Operational Resilience might consider:
Selective Outsourcing
Cross-Training Employees
Continuous Improvement Initiatives
Whereas a firm focused on Enhancing Employee Happiness, Better Strategic Decision Making and Improved scalability might consider:
Training and Career Advancement Opportunities
Transparent Communication and Inclusive Decision-Making
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems
3. Select methods and tools to apply the tactic
When we have clarity on the tactics that we wish to pursue, for instance AI-powered conflict resolution or automatic meeting minutes, then is the time to look at the different vendors who can provide a solution or part of the solution.
In this stage, we usually fall back on the earlier work to select vendors or tools that can have secondary benefits, such as:
Bring us closer to Futuristic Frontier projects
Align closely with secondary goals that were not top three priorities
Match closely with the culture
4. Implement the tools to achieve your goals
As soon as we have identified the tools and methods most likely to bring your organization closer to its strategic goals, we help you implement them. We have a strong preference for off-the-shelf mainstream solutions. If we have implemented such a tool before, we will happily assist you in the role out. If the tool is very specialized or beyond our skill set, we will help you select the right vendor or consultant for the actual implementation.
During this phase it is our responsibility to make sure that you:
Get what you asked for (not less, but also certainly not more)
The implementation stays on budget and on time
Together we can turn ambitions into achievements
Don’t get innovation wrong! Reach out to us and let’s start the conversation on how you can become a more effective leader.
Our collaboration is clear:
YOU know your company, industry and customers like no other
WE know strategy, execution, communication and team dynamics
TOGETHER, we turn ambitions into achievements.