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Innovation strategy

Innovation Strategy & Management

We help institutions build the strategy, systems and capability to innovate repeatedly — rather than rely on one-off activity that fades once the event is over.

Running a one-off innovation activity is different from building a repeatable innovation capability. That capability is a mechanism: a strategy saying where innovation should focus, a system that collects and develops ideas, the capability to take them forward, and the recognition that keeps people taking part. Yomn works on that mechanism.

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One-off activity is not an innovation capability

An ideation session produces ideas. It does not produce the route those ideas travel afterwards — who assesses them, who develops them, who is recognised for them, and how the next cycle starts. Without that route, innovation stays an occasional event rather than something the organisation does.

We work on the mechanism: where innovation should focus, how ideas are generated and developed, who inside the organisation is capable of carrying them, and how the organisation recognises the people who do.

How we work

Not a branded methodology — this reflects how our innovation work has typically progressed.

  1. 01

    Set the innovation strategy

    Where innovation should focus and how it will be managed. At the National Water Company we defined the overall strategy for innovation and R&D management before any mechanism was built.

  2. 02

    Design the system

    The innovation centre, lab or programme itself: how ideas enter, how they are developed and assessed, and what happens to the ones that succeed.

  3. 03

    Build the capability

    Training and structured development so people inside the organisation can run the mechanism rather than only take part in it.

  4. 04

    Run the mechanisms

    Ideation workshops, challenge and hackathon formats, and the supporting platform where participation has to be managed at scale.

  5. 05

    Recognise and sustain

    Certification, recognition and reward, so innovation has visible standing inside the organisation and the next cycle has participants.

What we help build

  • Innovation strategy
  • Innovation and R&D management strategy
  • Innovation systems and mechanisms
  • Innovation centre, lab and accelerator design
  • Ideation mechanisms and workshops
  • Challenge and hackathon formats
  • Innovation capability building and training
  • Professional certification pathways
  • Recognition and reward mechanisms
  • Prototyping and market validation
  • Design thinking
  • Innovation governance and ownership

Selected work

Wabel Innovation Center

National Water Company (NWC)

Institutional innovation-system design for a national utility. We defined the overall strategy for innovation and R&D management, organised and ran internal ideation workshops, and developed the centre's identity, training programmes and supporting strategies.

1,027 employees took part in ideation workshops, 26 earned professional innovation certifications alongside SAR 600,000 in awards, leaving a sustainable ecosystem for internal innovation.

View project

Aseer Hackathon

Aseer Region Development Authority

A regional challenge format used as an innovation mechanism. We developed the overall concept and organisational structure and designed and managed the participant journey across every stage.

1,500 participants and 2,000 training hours delivered.

View project

Innovation for the Elderly Hackathons

Family Affairs Council

Two national challenge programmes with a supporting platform including its training, judging and filtration modules — the mechanism through which ideas were generated and assessed.

View project

From strategy to implementation

An innovation strategy only matters once the mechanism exists and people use it. Where it is in scope, Yomn can stand up what the strategy describes — the centre or programme itself, the workshops, the training and certification, the platform and the recognition scheme. We do not provide every capability on every project; the scope is agreed for each one.

  • Standing up the innovation centre or programme
  • Facilitating ideation workshops
  • Training and capability-building programmes
  • Professional certification pathways
  • Challenge and hackathon delivery
  • Platforms for participation, assessment and judging
  • Recognition and reward schemes

Who we work with

Large public-sector institutions and national companies; innovation, R&D and strategy functions; government entities and authorities building innovation capability; and funds and councils running challenge programmes.

Why Yomn

We build the system, not just the session

At the National Water Company the work ran from innovation and R&D management strategy through to the centre's identity, training programmes and an innovation rewards scheme.

Capability that stays behind

26 employees earned professional innovation certifications, strengthening internal capability beyond the engagement.

Participation at real scale

1,027 employees took part in ideation workshops at the National Water Company, and our challenge formats have run with 1,500 participants and 2,000 training hours.

Mechanisms, not events

Hackathons and challenges appear in our work as ways to generate and assess ideas inside a wider system, not as the product itself.

Questions we are usually asked

What does an innovation system actually include?

Where innovation should focus, how ideas are generated and assessed, who develops them, what capability people need to carry them, and how the organisation recognises the results.

Do you set up innovation centres and labs?

Yes. Innovation centre, lab and accelerator design is part of our offer, and we established an in-house innovation centre for the National Water Company.

Do you run hackathons?

We do, as a mechanism inside an innovation system rather than as an end in itself. The value is in what happens to the ideas afterwards.

Do you work on transformation?

We work on the capability side of it: innovation strategy, systems, capability building and new ways of working. Broader organisational or digital transformation programmes are an adjacent area rather than the core of what our published work demonstrates.

Related services

Strategy, Policy & Programme Design

We help institutions turn strategic objectives into programmes, initiatives and policies that can actually be implemented — from diagnosing the challenge and designing the model through to the roadmap and delivery support.

Social Impact Strategy

We help institutions decide what impact they exist to create, for whom, and how to pursue it — from impact ambition and theory of change through to the portfolio of initiatives that delivers it.

Building an innovation capability?

Book a meeting with the Yomn team to talk through where innovation should focus and what mechanism would support it.

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