Innovation Governance: How Do You Manage Innovation Successfully?
What is the innovation process? It's not about idea generation or creation of something entirely new. It’s the process of taking new ideas from the start to the finish.
Most companies today can easily come up with brilliant ideas. Unfortunately, they fail at execution. That's because they don't know what to do with those ideas. Most of the best ideas ever are, hence, lost in the stages of implementation.
This is why we need innovation management in the workplace. Let's learn how to manage innovation successfully.
How to manage innovation successfully?
Innovation is the process of putting together ideas, methods, offerings, or business models that positively impact the business. It’s about turning concepts into tangible outcomes.
The innovation process is how we generate and implement new ideas. Effective innovation management, then, is about what your organization wants to accomplish. It should address the problem you are seeking a solution to and link it to your organizational goals.
Innovation management is not about following a framework or copying a successful business model. Effective management defines the stages of innovation. It illustrates the process and the roles each person plays to achieve the desirable outcome.
The innovation management challenge
Innovation never works the way we predict. It is uncertain, and that’s why most organizations are not equipped to handle it. In fact, as per research 83% companies rank it as a top-three priority but only 3% are ready to deliver1.
Most companies want high innovation returns, yet 60% are actually cutting/freezing the innovation budgets. So there’s a wide gap between their goal and resources2.
Their leaders are still struggling with setting their priorities and balancing the process.
Four pillars of innovation management
Innovation management is all about creating an environment where ideas thrive. Here are four strategies to make innovation work.
1. Treat different ideas differently
Not all ideas or innovations are equal. In fact, only a few are bold and transformational. Most of them are just incremental. So you need to treat each idea as it is. If each idea is put through the same process, it not only shuts everything down, but it also leads to a lot of frustration.
The best way to go about it is to balance the portfolio. On the one hand, nurture the big ideas. On the other hand, resource the promising ones. While doing so, make sure to keep the core processes running smoothly.
This way, your efforts will be directed where needed, aka less confusion and frustration.
2. Clear decision making
There must be a clear ownership of who gets to decide which ideas to keep and which to discard. Someone must have the authority to make that decision. Of course, they must consider the budget and resources to decide.
So you need to appoint a strong leader who has the authority to decide but also empowers the team.
3. Resources allocation
An innovative idea without dedicated attention or resources is likely to die down. We need strong leadership, as well as the right people who can carry out the process of implementation. Apart from the team, we also need to decide on the budget and timelines before getting to work.
4. Building a culture
The culture is very important for the innovation process to be successful. We need to ensure we have psychological safety. No one should feel ridicule or fear punishment when sharing their ideas.
Encourage everyone equally and model the behavior.
Practical management structures
The thing about innovation is that there isn’t a pattern or blueprint for it. But the only thing that makes it successful is that it should be designed to encourage movement, not slow things down. Here are some practical ways companies structure innovation:
Chief innovation officer: Many companies appoint a dedicated Chief Innovation Officer or CIO. They are the dedicated authority that protects ideas and keeps the leadership in place.
Cross-functional innovation committees: Some organizations create groups to facilitate innovation. These committees prioritize ideas and provide the needed resources. They also work on removing barriers to innovation.
Innovation teams: Some companies have dedicated innovation teams that experiment and learn with ideas. These teams are not micromanaged but operate independently within the company.
Venture model: In a venture model, big ideas are tested in a controlled environment. The learnings are observed, and tweaks are made to see if the project can actually be successful.
Managing the innovation pipeline
Often, we think that coming up with a brilliant idea is the hard part. It’s not. Turning the idea into a practical outcome is the difficult part.
This is the point where we need a well-managed innovation system. A strong innovation system keeps communication open at every step. Here are four stages of the innovation process
Ideation: In this stage, creativity flows. Brainstorming sessions are held with ideas flowing freely, and are welcomed.
Validation: In this stage, the feasibility and impact of the ideas are tested.
Development: Here, the concepts turn into solutions.
Commercialization: This is where successful projects enter the market or organizations.
Key success metrics
Innovation success is about looking beyond the ideas and going towards tangible outcomes. We need to look at the key metrics like innovation, success rate, and time to market.
The innovation success rate gives you the correct measure of how many initiatives move from concept to the actual market. Whereas the time to market shows the speed and efficiency.
The financial impact of innovation can be seen by reviewing the percentage of revenue coming from the new products or services. Then we have ROI that enables us to see that the resources are delivering measurable value.
Conclusion
Most of the time, innovation efforts do not fail because of a lack of creativity. They usually fail because the system or process is not facilitative enough.
Remember, innovation is a journey, not a one-time initiative. The key is to create the right environment and processes. Once you have a supportive culture in place, ideas on the whiteboard can actually come to life.
Work Cited
Boston Consulting Group. “83% of Companies Rank Innovation as a Top‑Three Priority, Yet Just 3% Are Ready to Deliver on Those Innovation Goals.” 2024.
McKinsey. “Investing in Innovation: Three Ways to Do More with Less.” 2025.