{"id":11178,"date":"2019-12-04T04:22:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T20:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.ekipa.co\/insights\/blogs\/how-to-start-an-innovation-program\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T15:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T07:38:54","slug":"how-to-start-an-innovation-program","status":"publish","type":"insights_articles","link":"https:\/\/ekipa.co\/en-sg\/insights\/blogs\/how-to-start-an-innovation-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How to start an innovation program?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Hugo&#8217;s take on why it is much harder to start an innovation program than starting an agile or digital transformation.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>The past months, I\u2019ve been talking to many large enterprises about innovation. As Ekipa, we\u2019ve started helping people with our \u2018agile innovation\u2019 programs.I started Ekipa 3 years ago in Indonesia. Our first focus was on Agile. The past years we\u2019ve trained and coached thousands of people in Jakarta. The natural evolution of our service is Innovation. Here\u2019s how I see the relationship between agile and innovation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Agile aims mainly at \u2018changing the way people work\u2019. Mostly \u2018BAU\u2019 (business as usual) processes are changed from a traditional waterfall approach to iterative, cross functional ways of working. Usually this starts in the IT department. The second pillar is a digital roadmap. This is usually created top down: companies hire one of the big consultancies to define what digital products are needed in the upcoming years. For the execution of these roadmaps, we can build on the agile teams we\u2019ve already set up.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The third pillar is innovation. This can come from many sources: bottom up improvement of processes\/services, from outside startup collaboration, by launching internal startup programs, etc. Once we have agile teams and we\u2019ve managed to spread the agile way of working across departments, we have a strong basis to stimulate innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing I have learned the past months is this: it is much harder to start an innovation program than starting an agile or digital transformation.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The agile transformation is normally started in the IT department. People there all see the need to work in iterations and producing value every 2-3 weeks. The driver can be an IT head or the CIO.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A digital transformation is also clear: nobody in a traditional organisation today would dispute the need to become digital. It\u2019s relatively easy to get support for \u2018going digital\u2019. Usually the same CIO or another C-level driver will be the captain for this transformation. The IT department builds these new digital products.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Innovation is much more intangible. What is Innovation is the first question. It can mean improving what we\u2019re doing today (process). Or improving our products and services. It could also mean investing in startups. Or starting a corporate startup program. It can mean \u2018gradual improvement\u2019 or \u2018breakthrough innovation\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Any new program or transformation starts with a driver. But where do we find that driver? Is it the CEO? The transformation office? The CIO? Because starting such program is a massive effort, we normally need a team. But who assembles the team and who will be in the team?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once we have a team together, they need to learn what the program will do. What areas will the program include? How do we get everything in place to run a corporate <a href=\"https:\/\/ekipa.co\/en-sg\/insights\/blogs\/3-major-mind-shifts-during-covid-19-that-drive-innovation\/\">innovation program<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What I have also observed is: even if you find some people who can drive the innovation efforts, the whole organisation starts working against him. People already doing innovation in their department see it as a threat. His boss sees it as a problem, because he wants the guy to do what he was hired for. The legal department starts complaining because we need to change contracts. The HR department doesn\u2019t want to add more training programs to their curriculum (unless their boss gets convinced or ordered from above first).\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My conclusion is this: to get an innovation program started, you need an entrepreneur. What does an entrepreneur do? He has a vision. And he works day and night to get that vision to reality. It doesn\u2019t matter what the world throws at him, he\u2019ll find ways to get around it. Every no makes his resolve bigger. Every setback stimulates his resourcefulness The big challenge is to find that entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs start their own businesses. Not only that; in a large enterprise you need an entrepreneur who\u2019s political savvy and knows where to find the right people and resources.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once you\u2019ve found the entrepreneur, he needs to get the power to start an innovation program. He needs resources to make it happen; to first assemble a team to help him shape the program. Then to start executing the different elements of the innovation program. Find a couple of pilot innovations to prove things can work.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the best cases for innovation in Indonesia that I\u2019ve come across this year is Telkom. 3 years ago, Telkom started firing all the innovation engines at the same time. They started Indigo: an incubator to incubate external startups. With their digital lounges, they also provide them a place to work from across Indonesia. They also started a digital division to run larger digital transformation projects. And they started Amoeba, a corporate startup program, which has already created over 100 startups.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re an entrepreneur I describe in this article and you\u2019re scratching your head on how to start or how to scale your innovation program, please ping me for a cup of coffee. <strong>hugo@ekipa.co<\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hugo&#8217;s take on why it is much harder to start an innovation program than starting an agile or digital transformation.\u00a0 The past months, I\u2019ve been talking to many large enterprises about innovation. As Ekipa, we\u2019ve started helping people with our \u2018agile innovation\u2019 programs.I started Ekipa 3 years ago in Indonesia. Our first focus was on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10799,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","insights_tag":[],"article_categories":[328,338,341,345],"insights_types":[310],"class_list":["post-11178","insights_articles","type-insights_articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article_categories-agile-innovation-en-sg","article_categories-agile-startup","article_categories-agile-transformation","article_categories-insights","insights_types-blogs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Start an Innovation Program for Business Growth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore how to start an innovation program, generate ideas, engage teams, and drive creative change to boost business growth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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