How to Kill an Idea

Whether they currently run their own business, or are in the process of starting one, entrepreneurs recognize the need to innovate in order to establish, maintain, and increase their market share.

As Charles Darwin said, "It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Due to today's climate of rapid change, largely due to advancements in technology, Darwin's words stand as true in business as it does in the animal kingdom. This has led author and prominent corporate consultant Ram Charan to call these times "the era of the renaissance of innovation", in a recent article from Fast Company.

"If you don't do innovation...you will be left behind," said Charan.

In the article, Charan explains that in order to turn an idea into a business success, it must be a "social process". He also explains that the team should recognize when an idea should be killed.

Some key points from the article are provided below:

"The key to turning an idea into a business success is to gather all players around the table from the beginning."

"The conversion of an idea for most companies, if not all, requires more than one person to make it happen."

In regards to involving the various members of the team simultaneously and not linearly:

"When multiple disciplines sit together, they see the total picture, isolate the major hurdles, and work together to solve the problems. The principle of working simultaneously is huge in making breakthroughs in innovation. Any handoff linearly is going to reduce your success."

"Any handoff linearly is going to increase your cycle time, and you're going to run into problems."

Speaking about looking at multiple ideas and knowing which ones to kill:

"First you look at the whole portfolio and you prioritize it. Some things fall in the bottom priority. That's the time you know you have to kill it because you don't have resources."

As it is common for multiple ideas to run rampant in the mind of the entrepreneur, it is important to prioritize those ideas, and killing those not currently worth the resources needed to commercialize that idea.

Once a worthy idea has been identified, converting it into revenues and profit is best done by simultaneously involving each member of the team.

Posted by: W. Garrett Myler