TAKE ACTION!

            1.    Know and serve your customer.

                       Everything you do must be focused on bringing more value to your customer—and, to do that, you need a steady flow of new ideas.

            2.    Perform a self-assessment.

                       Take an honest look at yourself, your people, and your organization, and judge how prepared you are to ramp up your innovation pipeline.

            3.    Identify and empower an innovation champion.

                       The buck must stop at someone’s desk. Innovation is a people-powered activity, and you need people to take responsibility for it.

            4.    Plan, build, and deploy your innovation operating system.

                       Innovation is the transformation of ideas into reality. Start by taking your idea of an innovation operating system and making it real.

            5.    Review, review, and review again.

                       Persistence is the key to success. Innovation is a numbers game—there will be many sparks, but few will ignite. That’s okay!