How Innovation Labs and Accelerators Are Driving Corporate Innovation

Many leaders struggle with whether or not to pursue innovation for its own sake or as part of strategic goals. Netflix’s rise against Blockbuster shows that innovative ideas come from all sources – not only startups with unique moonshots.

Companies looking to stay ahead of their startup and established competitors are creating innovation labs and accelerators as a way of staying competitive. These offshoots operate separately from their main organisation and serve as safe spaces where ideas can be tested out without fear of interference from within.

Creating a Culture of Innovation

Innovation labs offer an alternative approach that empowers employees at all levels to take responsibility and experiment with new concepts; this fosters bold ideas which could transform your company.

Innovation Labs typically form collaborative working relationships with outside parties such as subject matter experts, university research teams, startups and businesses from other industries. Such partnerships allow the lab access to expertise which would otherwise be hard or costly to obtain on its own.

Utilizing accelerator networks and market access, laboratories can leverage them to promote cross-pollination of ideas between internal teams and their external counterparts. For example, laboratories might invite accelerator participants to attend lab sessions so that they may share product ideas while also gathering insights that might allow them to refine offerings; the end result being an increased pipeline of innovative products and technologies both laboratories and accelerators can pursue.

Creating a Culture of Collaboration

Innovation labs bring employees from diverse backgrounds together in an environment designed to facilitate learning and experimentation, in order to identify new business opportunities and create innovative solutions. Labs also signal to employees that your organization is dedicated to supporting its workforce – making recruiting highly skilled employees much simpler.

Innovation accelerators help startups access markets and build strong networks while providing them with a structured framework for turning their ideas into prototypes that become viable products.

Innovation labs must define clear strategic objectives and select engines that will enable them to reach them successfully. Innovation labs must also take care not to confuse their mandate with that of disruptive innovation; becoming too focused on disruption could result in resistance or stalling from within their parent companies; for this reason it’s crucial that innovation labs collaborate closely with C-Suite leaders so that any disruptions are presented as beneficial rather than disruptive.

Creating a Culture of Learning

Establishing the ideal innovation environment can be challenging. Corporate departments frequently operate within siloes that limit creativity and cross-functional collaboration, with technological progress often occurring at an unpredictable pace.

Innovation labs and accelerators provide a safe space for experimentation without the pressures of immediate commercial viability. While some labs embrace failure as part of learning quickly, others establish structures to enable cross-pollination between teams and disciplines.

Accelerators and labs can also aid startups on their journey from startup to mature enterprise by offering access to markets and networking opportunities. If a laboratory creates biodegradable material, an accelerator could assist it with connecting with potential production partners and business models that enable market entry. They also offer services for crafting go-to-market strategies as well as conducting market research while connecting startups with investors or customers – an arrangement which may prove especially advantageous in highly regulated industries or those requiring specialized knowledge.

Creating a Culture of Acceleration

Innovation labs and accelerators provide businesses with a significant competitive edge, helping them quickly develop products and services to address consumer needs more quickly than their rivals.

Innovation labs often seek to break down internal silos and encourage cross-department collaboration, giving employees an opportunity to provide fresh perspectives and ideas while building momentum that drives forward business expansion.

Labs can serve to develop future leaders. PayPal’s innovation lab, for instance, features employees from non-banking industries; for instance tech start-ups, marketing departments and nuclear research labs all contribute employees with varied expertise that allows for new ways of looking at problems and leads to exciting beta products such as credit cards that double up as apps with screens that display sales data.

Innovation labs owe their success to setting clear goals and measurable metrics; otherwise, they risk becoming just another silo within an organization with a strong culture of innovation.