Do you think you could pick the eventual winner of the X-factor out of 14,000 contestants upfront? Do you think an expert like Gordon, one of the Dutch jury members, can pick the winner upfront? And lastly, would you put money on his ability to pick the winner upfront? Personally, I wouldn’t bet much money on his ability to pick the right one out of the more than 14,000 candidates. The funny thing is, that a lot of companies take these low-chance-of-success-bets in regards to their innovation processes. The X-factor program however, has a very efficient innovation process.

In a lot of companies, two or three ideas are selected out of all the ideas that exist within the company. The other ideas do not get a chance of growing or showcasing progress. The ‘innovation’ budget is divided among these two or three ideas and these ideas are developed until launch. If you would be able to pick the two or three right ideas at the start, you would be one of the worlds best predictors and you could make a lot of money at the bookies with that gift. But personally I don’t believe that anybody is that good. Apparently, The makers of X-factor don’t trust Gordon to be that good either. They have set up a process to select the winning idea/singer.

Would you put your money on this contestant, in Britain’s got talent
(the English version of X-factor), after only seeing her?

Innovation process at the X-factor
The 14,000 candidates go through a first screening phase in which a large portion falls off. But also quite a large number of contestants progress from this first phase and they start a continual process of training and showcasing progress. Each time the best ones are selected to progress to the next round. This process goes on until the best candidates reach the finals and in the last episode the ultimate winner is chosen. In the final steps of the process, public voting by text-messages is introduced next to the judgement of the jury.

Organise innovation the X-factor way
The process described above reflects the way an innovation process at a company should be as well. At the first stage of the innovation funnel, very liberal selection criteria should be in place. In that way you will not dispose a ‘rough diamond’ idea, which does not look like a good idea at the beginning, but might potentially evolve into a killer idea. In the next steps, the continuous learning process of evolving the ideas throughout the innovation funnel ensures that ideas will develop to their full potential. The lessons learned from ideas that do not make it along the process, fuel the further development of ideas that are still in the process. The public voting done at the X-factor show translates to asking your customers for input on the ideas in development. If companies organise innovation in the X-factor way, they will become more efficient in their innovation process.

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