Planet Innovation’s market-centric approach to innovation has again been recognized as the Best Innovation Program in Australia by the AFR.
The Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies list, which is now in its sixth year and is judged and compiled by innovation consultancy Inventium, attracted more than 1,000 company nominations in 2017. Planet Innovation was voted to have the Best Innovation Program in the country for the second year running.
PI, which offers all its staff innovation training and dedicates a large proportion of its annual revenue to innovation each year, has built a multi-faceted innovation program, including its proprietary BRIGHT Innovation Process. The program is designed to identify market opportunities and generate market insight that PI then uses to create successful products and business, like Zen Ecosystems and Lumos Diagnostics.
Stuart Elliott, Co-CEO of Planet Innovation, explained, “We have a ruthless focus on commercial success at Planet Innovation that aligns all our innovation efforts. One of the greatest dangers any tech company can face is the allure to keep playing with the tech rather than getting in market. For us, some of the most innovative ideas are the simplest. We rate innovation on how well an idea satisfies a genuine market need better than the competition. For an innovation to have an impact on the world it has to be commercially successful. And it’s okay if that commercial traction comes through a different path to the original intention.”
The process all organizations must go through to be a part of the annual awards consists of three parts. First, entrants must describe two innovations they have implemented in the past 12 months followed by several open-ended questions about how they have integrated innovation into their organisation, followed by an online survey.
Planet Innovation has six times been rated in Australia’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies, three times been voted Australia’s No. 1 Most Innovative Company and twice been awarded Australia’s Best Innovation Program.