Many companies make the mistake of doing too much and losing focus from what actually works and what really matters in the long run. By focusing on things where you have a realistic chance of becoming the best in the world, you maximize growth while making sure you still keep focus.

Other companies can learn from Amazon, which is now the undeniable market leader in tons of different areas, as they first started by selling books and became a market leader specifically in that before expanding to other markets.

Succeeding in innovation management is all about continuous improvement both as a company and on a personal level. To be able to compete and successfully drive desired progress, you need to become better than you were yesterday.

Fortunately, constant improvement doesn’t have to be insurmountably difficult. As in any other project, start by assessing your current state, and in which areas you’d like to see improvement. Next, set a clear goal and build a plan that will help you to keep moving in the right direction.

Develop your skills by gathering relevant experience.

Few would argue that this sounds strategic, yet somehow when the rubber meets the road, many organizations don’t link innovation and strategy together in the practical work they do. Great innovation work is guided by strategy, but it also works the other way around.

The old adage by Edison says that genius is 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration, as embodied by the thousands of attempts it took him to figure out the right materials to make the lightbulb work. The same certainly applies to innovation.

Even though there’s often plenty of serendipity involved in innovation success, you still have to make your luck by putting in the work and persisting through the challenges you’ll inevitably face.

Once the foundations have been laid for holistic innovation management, the individual processes can be supported step by step by software solutions. Digitization in innovation management is becoming more and more popular and raises its performance and professionalism to a whole new level.

Especially in the area Where to play, in which a lot of information from different areas is aggregated, processed, and evaluated, the corresponding software modules can bring a decisive time and thus competitive advantage.