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The earlier that innovation occurs, the greater its value in terms of product or service development and lifecycle management.  This is because innovations that happen later in the development process (a) have slighter impact on the outcome and (b) require greater investment to implement.  Early innovation is therefore called “front-end innovation.”

Carrying out front-end innovation is a risky proposition.  Front-end innovations often do not survive the vetting process that organizations use to eliminate innovations that do not serve their strategic goals or that are too costly to develop.  Also, facilitating front-end innovation is more an art than a science, since how we invent is still a mystery.  Some experts claim that innovation is an intellectual behavior that can be cultivated, even taught; others maintain that innovation is highly intuitive, best conducted by adepts who whose talent is uniquely their own.  This difference matters, as resources properly should be deployed differently – for training or for support – depending on which position is correct.  Of course, most organizations mimic sectoral leaders, creating self-fulfilling prophecies.  The result is a case of The Emperor’s New Clothes:  for two decades, training for innovation has trumped support for innovators, although the pendulum seems to be swinging back in favor of supporting innovators with inherent invention skills.

The LinkedIn Front-End of Innovation newsgroup hosts several forums in which this and similar controversies are debated, civilly but not without passion.  Current topics include:

• Do you believe in real win-win relations/scenarios?
• In what companies does marketing research spending correlate with levels of innovativeness and company performance?
• WEB2.0 Connection tools for fostering innovation
• Hear an FEI Conference Keynote speaker! Dr. Peter Koen presents "Top Quartile Practices in the Front End"

The Front-End of Innovation is affiliated with the annual Front-End of Innovation conference of the same name to be held in 2009 in Monaco from January 26-29; and in Boston, Massachusetts, from May 18-20.  The conference is hosted by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and by the Institute for International Research (IIR).  The IIR hosts several innovation-related conferences each year.  There is also a blog associated with the conference.

Another resource for professional training in front-end innovation management is the APQC, the American Productivity and Quality Center, a nonprofit membership organization that helps with benchmarking business processes, and identifying and teaching best practices.  It annually offers courses in innovation management – including front-end innovation – and relevant cognate practices.

Whirlpool has created a corporate innovation culture that results each year in thousands of proposed innovations, a kind of self-sustaining front-end innovation process.  In response, Whirlpool was forced to initiate an rigorous evaluation and gating system to keep its innovation portfolio from exploding out of control.  The whole story is recounted in chief innovation officer Nancy Tenant Snyder and consultant Deborah L. Duarte’s business bestseller, Unleashing Innovation:  How Whirlpool Transformed an Industry, published in hardcover by Jossey-Bass in October 2008 (also as an e-book).  The story is told in summary fashion in Business Week, March 6, 2006, “How Whirlpool Defines Innovation.”

GEMBA Innovation facilitates front-end innovation for its clients, including the dozen service companies who have volunteered to participate in the ongoing. longitudinal DESINOVA project sponsored by the Danish Chamber of Commerce and the Danish Development Agency, and project managed by GEMBA.  While it’s too soon to draw definitive conclusions, it appears that the capacity to innovate is indeed inherent – but also, that innovation can be systematically managed and supported for maximum effectiveness.  Contact Tomas Vedsmand for further information.