Paving the way to Innovation with Employee Development By Herve Zenner Continued innovation is the holy grail for every company that wants to survive and be successful in the long run. Invention is a creative activity, but innovation is the very real, tangible activity of introducing something new or different. Processes for innovation include the MVP and its Build-Measure-Learn loop, and repeatable processes like the Stage-Gate system. The processes are there to screen out the bad ideas and to back the right ones. Frameworks were developed to help with idea generation, a modern and holistic one being the Ten types of innovations. But who in the organisation should formulate those ideas? Companies that are successful at continuous innovation know they should come from the people who are the closest to the technology, to their clients and to their own processes. Also, innovations that align with the company strategy are more likely to get attention and resources dedicated to their execution. There are recipes and tools that organisations can use, like OKR (Objectives and Key Results) and CFR (conversations, feedback, recognition), to ensure of this alignment and to create a culture that consistently encourages staff to share their ideas. All that is left for the innovation journey to begin is that the right people have the right ideas. This just leaves one question: can people generate winning ideas without a good understanding of the systems or markets they are supposed to bring innovation to? Companies that design today the future of payment technology, and that will be successful tomorrow, are the ones that invest in their staff development. All it takes for a company to execute on the innovation that will make it a market leader is the right idea. And that right idea is more likely to come from a company where employee development is valued.