INNOVATION IN ACTION:Too often, people think innovation involves pulling successful ideas out of thin air, rather than a step-by-step process of improvement
IRISH PEOPLE are not short of ideas for new businesses. What we lack is the patience to develop them. With a few exceptions, we do not have a history of second- or third-generation companies and one of the legacies of the Celtic Tiger is the impression that it is possible to get rich quick. In business terms this mindset resulted in companies being set up with a “for sale” sign outside the door almost from day one. This is in contrast to other countries where the emphasis is on building a business for the long term.
“What has happened here is that companies grow to a certain size and then sell off,” says Pat Branigan, senior innovation adviser with Enterprise Ireland. “As a consequence they never really become serious players on the world stage. We need more longevity, especially in the IT sector.”
Being around for the long haul is a real test of a company’s depth. Those that start quick and sell quick never need to go beyond first-generation innovation. Those that stay the pace do and driving innovation in an established company is a much bigger challenge, as William Egenton discovered when he became managing director of Dromone Engineering in Oldcastle, Co Meath, in 2002.
Egenton inherited a very traditional company focused on one product in one industry and facing an uncertain future. Since then he has transformed Dromone into a dynamic, growing business with a skilled workforce developing new products for applications in new sectors in new markets.
“We never used the term innovation to describe what needed to be done,” he says. “In my experience, innovation is predominantly associated with product, erroneously in my view, and people lose sight of the fact that it is far wider. It is about the way people behave in every aspect of their job. Achieving it involves forcing the boundaries on everything – methods, tools and processes – and looking at how to work leaner or better in everything from product design to customer service to paying the wages.
“This requires a massive shift in mindset and a strong team to implement it,” he continues. “It took us 24 months to build the new team, as one of our challenges was to find bright, young engineers whose knowledge and skills would be central in developing our future business.”
Egenton was not short on ideas for Dromone but believed he needed to change the company’s culture to encourage all employees to think for themselves. Recognising they couldn’t do this in a vacuum, he kick-started the process by allocating time and resources to training and developing employees’ skill sets.
At the same time, recognising that product innovation was critical, he also introduced a weekly meeting of the engineering team at which new ideas were discussed.
“I met some resistance from those who couldn’t see the value in taking people away from production for a meeting but mostly people came with me,” he says. Employees are encouraged to try new things and when ideas fly Egenton says those behind them grow greatly in confidence, which in turn sparks more ideas and contributes to the creative atmosphere within the company. He also has a policy of sending the engineers who have worked on particular projects to trade shows and to meet customers. “It’s very good experience for them and they usually come back fired up with enthusiasm,” he says.
“Our biggest initial technical challenge at Dromone was to develop a higher added-value product as quickly as possible,” Egenton says. “This was a big undertaking but having decided on the direction we were going to take we achieved it within a very tight timeframe by setting up a team of 14 people to really drive it.” (Dromone’s new high-value product is an excavator attachment with applications in the environmental sector.)
“The new product certainly qualifies as a major innovation but I see a definite divide between radical and incremental innovation and we do both. Radical ideas get more kudos even though the reality for most companies is that innovation is a step-by-step process that puts one block on top of another.”
Egenton recently showed some French customers around his plant. What impressed them most was the palpable energy in the company. “They all commented on it and they’re right,” Egenton says. “There’s a great buzz.”
Innovation starts with bright ideas and brainstorming is often used as a catalyst to get things going. But Enterprise Ireland’s Pat Branigan cautions companies about the questionable value of random brainstorming.
“It’s generally a waste of time,” he says. “Brainstorming sounds productive and active but in fact it needs to be focused. Before a company sits down to brainstorm it needs to have looked in some detail at the needs of its marketplace and to have some idea of what needs are unmet and where it might fill a gap. That’s the starting point.
“Once ideas for innovation start to flow within a company it’s important to filter the suggestions carefully, subject them to a rigorous scoring system and pick the best. There are very specific tools to help people do this,” he continues. “Having selected an idea it then has to be driven. One way of doing this is to set up a dedicated innovation team who can review progress at each stage and eventually bring the idea to its conclusion.”
Seán McNulty is managing director of Innovator, a consultancy that helps companies drive and implement innovation strategies. “Creating a culture of innovation only works if driven or authorised by the managing director and if it is properly structured,” he says.
“Companies should think about innovation on three levels: incremental improvements within the business, developing new services and products to meet customer’s unmet needs and developing new-to-world products and services. They should then decide what’s relevant for them within this and focus on that.”
