​How do organizations become better innovators?


McKinsey conducted research into the attributes and behaviors behind superior innovation performance, which were validated in action at hundreds of companies. This research yielded eight critical elements for organizations to master:

1. Aspire: Do you regard innovation-led growth as critical, and have you put in place cascaded targets that reflect this?
2. Choose: Do you invest in a coherent, time- and risk-balanced portfolio of initiatives, and do you devote sufficient resources to it?
3. Discover: Are your business, market, and technology R&D efforts actionable and capable of being translated into winning value propositions?
4. Evolve: Do you create new business models that provide defensible, robust, and scalable profit sources?
5. Accelerate: Do you develop and launch innovations quickly and effectively?
6. Scale: Do you launch innovations at the right scale in the relevant markets and segments?
7. Extend: Do you create and capitalize on external networks?
8. Mobilize: Are your people motivated, rewarded, and organized to innovate repeatedly?

Of these eight essentials, two merit particular attention: aspire and choose. Without these two elements, efforts may be too scattershot to make a lasting difference. It’s particularly crucial to ensure that leaders are setting bold aspirations and making tough choices when it comes to resource allocation and portfolio moves. To do so successfully, many leaders will need to shift their mindsets or management approaches.

​https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-innovation