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The Innovation Umbrella Offers a full range of Innovation Tools and Services
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Strategic Planning
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A strategic framework to maximize ideation 

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A clear strategy is the foundation for successful innovation.  Establishing the right strategic inputs for your business and brands prior to ideation will focus resources, speed time to market and maximize success.

The Innovation Umbrella can help with the following Strategic Inputs to maximize the success of your ideation efforts.

 

  • Target Consumer: Segmentation, Identification, Prioritization

  • Strategy: Brand and Portfolio Purpose and Positioning 

  • Jobs to be Done: Setting Objectives, Goals and Resource Management

  • Competencies, Capabilities and Opportunities: Identify, Clarify, and Focus

  • Competitive and Market Assessment: Uncover and Mine Competitive and Macro Trends

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Insightful Ideation​
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Igniting creativity within a strategic framework 

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Consumer-centric ideation is at the heart of innovation, but balancing consumer needs with competitive activity and company capabilities can be overwhelming and chaotic without the right tools to navigate the process. 

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The Innovation Umbrella can lead and facilitate a range of forward looking ideation approaches and exercises designed to identify, validate, and prioritize ideas to fill your innovation pipeline:

 

  • Criteria for Innovation Ideas: Identified in the Strategic Planning process

  • Meaningful Consumer Insights: Forward thinking consumer needs that can be uniquely met by your brands/business

  • Innovation Platforms: Springboards for growth of individual brands or entire portfolios 

  • Journey Mapping: Pain points identified in the consumer path to purchase 

  • Concept Development/ Testing/ Validation: Concept articulation & visualization; qualitative & quantitative evaluation 

  • Pipeline Development and Prioritization:  Innovation plan management for near and long term

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Disciplined Execution​
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Innovation Project Management for any size organization

 

Without the right system in place, managing a portfolio of innovation projects can be a cumbersome, risky process that wastes resources. Successful innovation companies leverage a project management tool commonly referred to as “Stage Gate Management”. The Innovation Umbrella has extensive experience with this gold-standard approach and have experience adapting it to organizations of all types and sizes.

 

This disciplined approach improves use of resources, and reduces risk, while increasing speed to market, and likelihood of success.  Specific benefits include:
 

  • Task and Decision Management:  Logically grouped tasks ensure actions are taken in the right order, and informed decisions are made before allocating more resources.

  • Portfolio View:  Allows management and prioritization across a portfolio of projects to avoid work and decisions in silos. Informs tradeoffs and resource allocation, including when to stop a project.

  • Flexible System: Easily adapt for organizational cultures, portfolio size and type/risk of project.

Scenario Planning, Risk mitigation and sell-in plans 

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With promising ideas identified, validated, and ready to go, it is easy to rush to launch, ignoring red flags, or blind spots. The Innovation Umbrella can help manage risk and ensure flawless execution with the following tools:

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  • KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure and monitor success

  • Risk Scenario Planning (sometimes known as “War Games”)
    - Marketplace and competitive actions/reactions; risk mitigation options
    - Stress test and evaluate plans;  confirm resource allocation

  • Sales materials:  A compelling "sell-in" story is critical to bring innovations to market

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