Just when the Accipiter innovation team is finally ready to start scenario planning they realize that no one on their team understands any of the trends that might shape the future of their industry. How will they find the demographic, technological, governmental and social market trends?
When one of the team members expresses concern about his ability to balance the demands of his regular work with those of the innovation project, Marlow is quick to respond. Will the team be satisfied so that the innovation work can continue?
With Accipiter's new innovation team and communications under way, Marlow sets out to establish their first focus area. In this case the pressure provided by their competitors' advantage turns out to be a guiding light.
Any experienced consultant knows that effectively communicating the goals, purposes and outcomes of an innovation effort to the workforce is vital to the project's success. Can Marlow manage to convince Accipiter's management of the importance of their communication plan?
Marlow is eager to get his client new products and services to stave off a lot of overseas competition. Now he just needs to identify the most significant challenges or opportunities and begin to define their risk tolerance.
Everyone is for innovation until someone has to be innovative. Marlow and Susan are searching for one of the core business units to step forward, with the hope of creating interesting new products and drawing the attention of the rest of the company. Who is willing to be Accipiter's innovation guinea pig?
Susan and Marlow are busy recruiting people who will take a proactive stance and push against the status quo. Slowly the outlines of the central innovation team start to take shape.
Susan and Marlow are off to do what could be the most trying task of all in their innovation effort – finding the right people who are willing to work on an innovation project. How will they get the necessary connections, ideas and passion in their team? Marlow has a plan.
Marlow combines his plans and experience with Susan's knowledge of the organization to create a rough outline of the innovation game plan. Can they refine the details to make sure their plan aligns with the goals and budget they’d been given?
Marlow and Susan start to build the momentum around the innovation project by tackling several important issues simultaneously. They desperately need to demonstrate short-term, actionable results in order to lift off.
While working hard to push the innovation plan forward in record time, Marlow is surprised to find he has been assigned a new team member. He discovers quickly that the new colleague is very invested in the existing processes and methods. They've thrown him yet another obstacle instead of a much-needed catalyst.
After reaching their first peak of convincing Accipiter to implement an innovation program, now begins the actual work of creating and executing a plan that will make the organization more innovative. The path seems daunting at first, but Marlow has enough experience under his belt to guide the way.
Bright and early Monday morning Marlow heads back to Accipiter hoping that the executive promise of a full commitment to innovation has not died down over the weekend. Will all his hard work finally pay off?
With Accipiter's innovation project launch date set for Monday, Marlow spends the weekend ruminating about all of the possible outcomes. Will all go as planned?
With Marlow's time heavily invested in one potentially big client, his colleagues have been picking up the slack on the other running innovation projects for months. Will Marlow's persistence and investment in the Accipiter project pay off for the firm?
