Leadership buy-in is crucial before instituting an innovation strategy because it ensures alignment of organizational goals, facilitates resource allocation, and provides the necessary support and direction for successful implementation and adoption throughout the company.

Key Questions: 
Are the CEO and C-suite committed to the innovation efforts? 
Are all leaders clear on the vision? 
Is there a sense of urgency? 
Is everyone aware of the cost of inaction? 
Are all concerns addressed? 
Are leaders involved early on in the process? 

Conducting a thorough assessment of the status quo before institifying an innovation strategy is essential to understand the existing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, thereby informing the direction of innovation and ensuring it aligns with the organization's capabilities and needs.

Key Questions:
What products, services, initiatives do we currently have in place? 
What are our strengths and weaknesses?
what are our unique resources?
What are the challenges and opportunities we’ve had in the market? 
Are we well positioned for success? 

Having a strong perspective before instituting an innovation strategy is crucial as it provides clear direction, aligns efforts, and enables strategic decision-making that caters to future trends, ensuring your innovation maintains relevance and competitive advantage in the evolving business landscape.

Key Questions:
What are the challenges and opportunities we’re seeing in the market? 
What emerging trends, technologies and buying behavior are we seeing? 
On which ones will we aim to capitalize, and on which ones will we not? 
What  capabilities do we need to develop to cover the gap? 

Having a well-balanced innovation portfolio while instituting an innovation strategy is essential because it diversifies risk, ensures a steady flow of ideas at different development stages, and allows for the pursuit of both incremental improvements and disruptive breakthroughs, fostering sustained growth and resilience in a dynamic business environment.

What is our current suite of products and services, and how are they positioned in our portfolio? 
Is our portfolio well balanced, and which horizons are we currently covering? 
‍
Horizon 1: Core
Horizon 2: Adjacent
Horizon 3: Transformational

Having a well-thought-out innovation model is pivotal while instituting an innovation strategy, as it provides a structured approach to generating, developing, and implementing new ideas, ensuring alignment with business goals and maximizing the potential for successful, impactful innovation.

Key Questions:
In what kind of ways will we drive innovation?
E.g. Innovation labs / M&A / Customer feedback / Design Thinking
How do we ensure the model is coherent and aligned with the overall innovation strategy? 
What limitations does our model have? 
What capabilities can we develop internally and what needs to be sourced externally? 

Having a well-structured innovation framework is essential while instituting an innovation strategy because it provides a systematic and repeatable process for identifying opportunities, evaluating ideas, and implementing innovative solutions, thereby enhancing the efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness of the organization's innovation efforts.

Key Questions:
How will we run experiments and pilots?
What will the Build, Measure and Learn framework look like?
What sequence of steps will the new bets need to go through to validate them?  
How will we know when things are going right or wrong? 

Involving all necessary stakeholders in the development of an innovation strategy is crucial because it ensures a diversity of perspectives, fosters a shared sense of ownership, and increases the likelihood of successful implementation by securing buy-in from those who will be impacted by the innovation.

Key Questions
Which people, roles, and departments are crucial to involve in order to make our innovation efforts a success? 
When, and how, should we involve them? 
What do they care about and how can we be great partners to them? 
How would they like to be informed and engaged? 

Having clear innovation KPIs and ways of measuring success is critical because they provide tangible targets and indicators of progress, allowing the organization to track the effectiveness of its innovation efforts, make data-informed decisions, and demonstrate the value of innovation to stakeholders.

Key Questions
What KPIs will we use to measure our innovation efforts?
When and how do we measure with soft KPIs versus hard KPIs?
Does everyone understand the KPIs and their purpose?
How can we make sure departments across the organization are speaking the same language? 
Do the KPIs suit our organization and innovation process? 

Training your teams and leaders on innovation theory and techniques is crucial in the process of instituting an innovation strategy, as it equips them with the knowledge and skills needed to generate, evaluate, and implement innovative ideas effectively, fostering a culture of creativity and continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Key Questions:
What specific knowledge and skill gaps need to be addressed to foster innovation within our teams?
Who are the knowledgeable and experienced trainers or facilitators that should lead these trainings?
How will we evaluate the effectiveness of the training and assess the achievement of learning objectives?

Training your teams and leaders on innovation theory and techniques is crucial in the process of instituting an innovation strategy, as it equips them with the knowledge and skills needed to generate, evaluate, and implement innovative ideas effectively, fostering a culture of creativity and continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Key Questions:
What specific knowledge and skill gaps need to be addressed to foster innovation within our teams?
Who are the knowledgeable and experienced trainers or facilitators that should lead these trainings?
How will we evaluate the effectiveness of the training and assess the achievement of learning objectives?