In “Robert’s Rules of Innovation”, Net Result and Reward is about motivating your people with the right incentives. Motivation does not necessarily mean rewarding with money, and quite frankly it is about recognition for a job well done. Give your NPD team incentive to produce innovative ideas. What type of rewards can you give your team, beyond bonuses? Here are some ideas for non-financial motivation.

• You want your employees to feel a sense of loyalty to the company. Reward high performance with opportunity – to sit on a panel, a team or attend a business conference.
• Recognize a job well done with an award program. Give an award to a NPD team member who has achieved a great accomplishment.
• One of the best ways to highlight an innovation champion’s achievement is to give them exposure. Introduce them to a client, or invite them to lunch with an executive of the organization or face time with the boss.
• Simple praise will boost morale (so long as it is deserved)! People like to know that their success was noticed by the head of the company.

These non-financial rewards can benefit an organization by increasing an employee’s loyalty and commitment to the company, boosting company morale and reinforcing ideal outcomes in the future. Motivating employees to reach their top performance is a win-win situation for everyone involved and equates to Innovation ROI. Actually a November 2009 study by McKinsey concluded that recognition and these types of rewards were appreciated more than just financial rewards.

For additional tips on how to drive a successful New Product Development team, look for “Robert’s Rules of Innovation”. Robert Brands is the founder of InnovationCoach.com and the author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival,” with Martin Kleinman published by Wiley.

Innovation is successful when positive outcomes result in return on investment (ROI). That is why Value Creation is so important. Adding perceived value to a new product or service will drive ROI. The value proposition is the key to successful innovation. Develop an innovation with high perceived value to your customer, and strong sales will follow.

It’s all about understanding your customer and giving them what they want. Customer input and feedback is key. Look at Ford for example. The car manufacturer observed and listened to their large customer base on what they wanted in a car. They launched the “Your Ideas” initiative that invited people to make suggestions for improvement in all areas of comfort, convenience, connectivity, performance and safety. The result? Ford added iPod, MP3 player and USB connections, touch screens, voice activated communication systems, intelligent push-start buttons and more. Sales are soaring – not because of the traditional four wheels and performance but because of perceived value added features. Ford Motor Company now has the highest customer satisfaction rating among all major automakers.

When was the last time you tried or experienced your product or customer experience? Create value and not just onerous processes. Consumer input should be considered at multiple stages of your new product development process in order to increase perceived value. Enhanced product value means higher margins, greater returns, improved loyalty and increased stakeholder value.

Finally, when you find that delicate balance between cost, manufacturability and consumer perceived value, be sure to protect your intellectual property (IP) portfolio through patents. Invest the time and money into constantly updating patents and managing your product or service portfolio because it will lock in the value of your Innovation IP.

For more tips on Innovation and Value Creation, look for Robert’s Rules of Innovation. Robert Brands is the founder of InnovationCoach.com and the author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation”: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, with Martin Kleinman, published by Wiley.

Over the past several weeks and 10 posts on the Vistage Blog , we’ve reviewed key imperatives that formed “Robert’s Rules of Innovation” and that together create the foundation upon which to build, improve, sustain and grow an organization’s innovation mandate.

Consider this the closing chapter in an 11-step treatise on putting what you’ve read into action. First, a brief summary…

Consider the lesson on the first imperative – Inspire and Initiate – to realize the steps necessary. The power of inspiration cannot be over-estimated in the process of innovation. Inspire your people, and then hit the throttle.

With inspiration as the wind in your sails, next comes the realization that with No risk, there can be no innovation. Companies must be willing to take some risk to potentially realize the benefits of innovation.

We discovered how important innovation is to the New product development process it, and how Ownership across the organization – from the CEO to the rank-and-file employee – fuels buy-in to successful innovation.

Innovation, we learned, fuels Value creation, yet Accountability, Training and coaching, and Idea management bring value to the process and its individual elements. Finally, the mandate to Observe and measure every step of the process brings quantifiable metrics to the process, which – hopefully – delivers Net results / net rewards.

Together, these imperatives drive Innovation.

With these imperatives in place, now visualize the role they play in your organization and issue a call to action: Innovate to thrive.

How should you start? Here are three final tips to get you started…

• Just Do It. Like the Nike commercial, it’s all about execution. You can read books and blogs on innovation. You can write plans for your next innovative pursuit. Yet as the Chinese proverb says, “Every long journey begins with one small step.” With the plan in hand, work the plan.

• Communicate. This cannot be stressed enough. From the CEO to the Chief Innovation Officer to every team member involved in the process, communication is essential to relaying key information about goals, intent, progress (from the biggest success to the smallest setback), and lessons learned from any failure. Whether by email, IM, a collaborative whiteboard, or recurring meetings, communicate your milestones.

• Get committed. Personal involvement from the CEO means, “No Lip Service.” From the highest levels, there must be a hands-on presence in update meetings, project rankings, and troop motivation. You must set the example. You must walk the talk.

You’ve been given the tools and insights. Now, it’s time to implement an innovation initiative in your organization. You don’t have to start big; in fact, like so many first-time projects, a beta may be the best way to test the initiative without investing too much time, manpower or resources – only to later discover whether the concept was worthy of pursuing further.

The key, though, is to kick it off. Create a personal action plan, follow it through, get engaged with personal involvement, and be there.

Don’t hesitate to drop me a note if you need encouragement or want to relay news of your successes, robert@innovationcoach.com

For more information and useful content see “Robert’s Rules of Innovation“,

LOOK INSIDE for more chapters, insights and tips on Innovation.

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Robert Brands is a professional Speaker, the founder of InnovationCoach.com, and the author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation“: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, with Martin Kleinman published in March, 2010 by Wiley.

The Stage-Gate innovation process has two key elements.

1. Stage. The “stage” refers to the critical activities that need to take place during a certain stage of product development. It is important that the New Product Development process be cross-business to give balanced ownership. So “stage” content should be divided amongst all business functions.
2. Gate. The process of “gating” involves ownership, decision makers, degree of flexibility, criteria and prioritization. This includes a selection of ideas and concepts from the hopper.

During the New Product Development process, build a system of metrics to monitor progress. Include input metrics, such as average time in each stage, as well as output metrics that measure the value of launched products, percentage of new product sales and other figures that provide valuable feedback. Important for an organization to have agreement of these criteria and metrics.

Even if an idea doesn’t turn into product, keep it in the hopper because it can prove to be a valuable asset for future products and a basis for learning and growth.

Remember that it is possible to nurture both creativity and structure! Here are some tips for how:

• Open Wide: Keep the idea funnels wide open, find and fill the product “white spaces” – untapped marketplace opportunities.

• Sharpen Those Teeth: Make sure your Go/No-Go decision checkpoints have “teeth.”

• Widen the Innovation Highway: Make the system lean, adaptive, flexible and scalable, in order that you can simultaneously process different types and risk levels of projects and increase sped to market.

Robert Brands is a professional Speaker, the founder of InnovationCoach.com, and the author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation”: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, with Martin Kleinman published in March, 2010 by Wiley.

Some of the most successful product development managers are often successful salespeople in the company, because their talent is building consensus around a brand new, untested idea and convincing others to wholeheartedly work towards that cause with an uncertain outcome. It is the champion’s job to empower and inspire the team towards Innovation.

That’s why it is essential to have a leader for every product development team – a powerful, respected champion for the cause, a passionate leading advocate and ultimate decision-maker.

Next, it is important to establish and maintain regular New Product Development meetings. Here are some key points for these meetings:

• Face to face (in person) is best.
• Keep a regular date, time and duration.
• Clearly state the meeting objectives in a written, predistributed agenda.
• Include cross-functional teams in the meeting: marketing, sourcing purchasing, sales, operations, quality assurance, etc.
• Review New Product Development by priority level (high/medium/low).
• Set next steps and a clear-cut action plan. Follow through and instill accountability.

Everyone on the team should feel like they are part of the process to get a sense of Ownership. To test Ownership, here are some questions you should ask:

• Who’s Driving This Thing?: Your program for sustainable Innovation must have a champion, a true driver of the process.
• Where’s the Passion?: Select associates who care and are truly passionate about the product and the effort.  Kick disbelievers off the bus – this is too important for naysayers to derail.
• Different Strokes for Different Folks: Assign a specific task to a dedicated “owner” – this is critical to unleashing the best performance out of each member of the project team.
• Is incentive compensation aligned? : Make sure the incentive and recognition programs are supporting and rewarding the results and those involved.

Ultimately, Ownership must extend beyond a single person to be embraced by the whole organization. The true test of Ownership is simple. Ask them, “Excuse me, is this yours?”

Robert Brands is a professional Speaker, the founder of InnovationCoach.com, and the author of “Robert’s Rules of Innovation”: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, with Martin Kleinman published in March, 2010 by Wiley.