How do I derive Innovation Fields from my trends?

Innovation Fields show you new potential for your company or business area and offer the opportunity to develop initial concrete ideas and innovation initiatives.

The Trendradar forms the basis for deriving your Innovation Fields. With the help of the Trendradar you have identified relevant trends for your company or business area and made a structural classification into the action fields Act, Prepare, and Watch. These trend evaluations can now be transferred into your individual company potential by deriving Innovation Fields. For this, the evaluated trends must be set in relation to your business areas.

Deriving your individual Innovation Fields

This way you can evaluate what significance the trends of the categories Act, Prepare, and Watch have for each individual business area and where the potential, but also the challenges, for future innovation work in your company lie.

To get an easy entry into brainstorming, it is advisable to identify the most relevant trend for each business area. This way all participants can enter the discussion and make initial considerations. Try, for example, to name concretely what impact a particular trend, such as blockchain, could have on marketing in general and explicitly in relation to your marketing activities. Work out together with your colleagues ideas for how the evaluated trends can have an influence on your business areas. Consider which concrete possibilities arise from the trends for your individual business areas and where the explicit challenges for your company lie.

Develop scenarios that could form from the relevance of the individual trends for your areas. Also include projects that are already running in your consideration. What are you already working on and how might the identified trends affect them? Proceed this way with all trends from your radar in relation to your business units. You will come across combinable ideas, similar solution approaches, or the same challenges the further you continue this method. Now combine the collected ideas, thoughts, and scenarios that offer a solution approach for a problem of your business units or promise great added value for your stakeholders. From the overlaps and intersections, the Innovation Fields can be derived.

Support from TRENDONE

This approach makes it easier for you to deal individually and purposefully with the Act, Prepare, and Watch trends. TRENDONE supports you in innovation work, including the creation of Innovation Fields. Together with your team we work out your future innovation strategies.

Worksheet for communication and transparency for the entire company

Also use the following template to further condense the identified currents and create concrete Innovation Fields. It supports you in identifying competencies and potential. You will also find this template in your Trendmanager account. When you create a new Innovation Field, you can optionally complete the fields of the template. With the help of the worksheet you can represent the relevance of the Innovation Field for the entire company transparently and easily understandably. Fill in all fields with current information to underline the value of the Innovation Field. With the help of the three dimensions Market Opportunity, Technologic Opportunity, and Capabilities and Assets, which you consider in relation to your company purpose and your strategy, you create a transparent picture of your Innovation Fields. It makes decision-making easier for you and supports you in focusing on the most promising innovation initiatives.

Consider what consequences arise for your business area from changing customer behavior and customer needs. Which trends are connected with the change in consumer behavior? Also evaluate what added value can arise for your company from focusing on customer expectations.

Then formulate what opportunities arise from technical progress to adapt the company to the changed market situation. Which technological trends are relevant for your company and your goals?

Finally, clarify which existing competencies your company can already demonstrate and how these can be configured for the new innovation initiatives in order to continue to use the existing potential optimally. Then introduce newly acquired competencies, tools, and resources that you will need for implementing the Innovation Field. This way you have created an easily traceable Innovation Field for all stakeholders.