Building a Sustainable Innovation Champion Network
The Challenge
A New Jersey-based manufacturer was tasked by their new head of manufacturing and supply chain to build a sustainable “culture of innovation”. Specifically, he required that that their innovation capabilities would be “owned” across the global supply chain organization.
The Approach
We began by designing an innovation champion program that was tailored to the organization. Working with the leadership team, we profiled, identified and recruited internal candidates to become Supply Chain Champions. Subsequently, we trained 2 “classes” of Global Innovation Champions and coached them on designing and delivering internal innovation sessions.
The Outcome
The Champions helped develop several solutions/experiments that were fast-tracked for development by the internal governance committee. We continue to work with the client to strengthen and expand the Internal Champion Committee, and to encourage the Champions to internally freelance on other innovation challenges.