Page 219 - Free the Idea Monkey

As a result, insights are passed from department to department
(from stepparent to stepparent, to continue our analogy) and are
influenced and modified along the way. Thus, by the time your idea
hits the market, it has been changed so much by so many people your
customer will no longer recognize it as what they helped create.

The solution? The best companies establish a small, core innova-
tion team—made up of all the key departments necessary to take a
product from idea to marketplace (so yes, finance and manufacturing
people are on the team)—that stays with the insight all the way from
discovery to launch.

This approach works for three reasons: the team is small, it is
focused and it is empowered. It has a budget, complete authority
to make the project happen, and unlimited access to any part of
the organization — including the executive leadership team. Having
the original parents in place all the way to market ensures that
the insight lives in the idea as well as the business, marketing and
sales strategies.

As parents, we imagine our children someday walking down
the aisle. On the day that they do, we will have been there for them
every step of the way. We will have done everything that we could to
encourage, protect and challenge them to be the best they could be.
And when they are successful, we’ll know that we’ve had more than
a little to do with it.

Ideas are just like our kids. They deserve good parenting, too.

204 T A K I N G T H E L E A D