Aug 14, 2012 | Innovation, Management
Just as we manufacture antibodies in our blood to combat infection, so do enterprises construct antibodies in their cultures to combat risk, change, and therefore innovation.
This antibody construction normally happens by default, after all, why change things that have given us what we have? (This resistance to change when all is well is why the best time to change anything is when the poo poo has really hit the fan).
The management task is to administer the innovation drug to enterprises in order to change the culture that exists to enable innovation to occur.
Here is a list of innovation antibodies I have seen at their deadly work, in no particular order:
Ego
Hubris
Disciplined processes replacing thought
Old habits
“NIH”
Not listening
Concentration on narrow data sets
Happy to be a follower
Group-think
Believing managers are innovators
Weeding out the deviates, outliers and heretics
Ambition trumping capability
Rampant self interest
Believing the old adage that information is power, and holding it all close
Ignoring what is happening on the fringes of a market and technology
Not understanding who the customer is
Not listening to demanding customers
Not understanding why you are losing customers
Believing doing something well is good enough, instead of it being the price of entry
Failing to make intuitive connections
Believing the financial statements tell you all you need to know
Autocracy and fear as a management tool
Non investment in the intangible assets of a business
The list just seems to go on and on…………….
Aug 13, 2012 | Innovation, Leadership
Being different is the guts of innovation, no matter how good, how big (or small) how effective, how cheap, if it is not different, none of the rest will matter a whit.
Why is it then, that we have processes and disciplines that weed out the deviances from the norm?
Who is to say the norm is right?
The bloke who always disagrees, has an odd view of the world, irritates, and creates discord is usually the first to go when times are tough, and when the boss needs to demonstrate his machismo, but sometimes, just sometimes, the deviate is right.
Those who see the world differently to most are usually those who have the potential to come up with something new, something that disrupts the status quo, they may also just be a pain in the arse, so the management task is to balance the odds, moderating the risk while cultivating the environment in which the whackos will flourish.
As George Bernard Shaw said, “all great things start as blasphemies”
Jul 30, 2012 | Innovation
Bet that got your attention………
Successful Innovation is almost always the end result of many experiments, resources expended that deliver no result, lots of huffing, puffing, moments of excitement, and from time to time great let-downs.
Just like sex.
And just like getting pregnant uses millions of sperm, with only one getting the prize, so does innovation require the expenditure of lots of resources to just get one “home”, and that one makes all the rest seem irrelevant.
Jul 4, 2012 | Innovation, Leadership, Marketing
Contrary to much common usage, these two concepts are not synonyms, they are very different.
Creativity is the process of dreaming up something new, while Innovation is the process of making use of the new stuff.
How often has Van Gogh, or Beethoven been accused of being innovative? Just sometimes, when the discussion is about the way an artist wields his palette knife, or the structure of a symphony. Usually they are described as creative, because what they created opened a door that had not been opened before, made connections in a new way.
Make no mistake, creative and innovative need each other, one does the art, the other brings in the benefit. Van Gogh after all died mad and broke, must have been creative without innovative, but his brother recognised the value of his work, and made a buck. He was innovative.
Most artists create something for the intrinsic value, it sounds great, looks good, or feels right, whilst the innovator finds a role for the art to add some monetary or exchange value.
To be creative, you need, according to John Cleese who knows a bit about this stuff, Space, Time, Time, Confidence, and Humour. Yes, I know “Time” got two mentions, to understand why, you will have to listen to Cleese’s presentation, which should not be a problem, in fact to my mind, should be compulsory.
Jul 3, 2012 | Change, Innovation
Fast Company’s 50 most innovative companies of 2012, a pretty impressive list, but most are tech companies in one way or another, which I guess reflects the domain of Fast Company magazine.
However, I think the omission by implication of a broarder definition of “Innovation” does a disservice by making light of business model or process innovation, both of which add enormous value. Google may have started as a disruptive technology, but the reality is that it succeeded because it was a disruptive business model, as was Facebook, Alfred Sloans divisionalisation of GM in the 30’s to customer based categories, after Ford totally disrupted the horse and buggy industry, the list can go on.
Then there is this WSJ article that addresses the “what is innovation” question, and presents a view hard to argue with, but is still a narrow view.
We can present stories about disruptions that changed existing industries, or about the many ways in which the network effect, and collaboration that creates the environment for innovation, and all would by themselves be right, but wide of a basic grasp of the nature of innovation.
My view is that innovation is a process that adds value where none existed before, anything that adds real, new value to a market or opens a new market, can carry the tag “innovation”.
Jun 4, 2012 | Change, Innovation, Management, Marketing
On a flight from a regional town last week, the attendant went through the nonsense of the “safety speech”. Instructions on how to do up the seat belt as if nobody knows is pretty dumb, but of total irrelevance is the instructions on how to use the life-jacket. I remain unconvinced that a little whistle and light will do much good if the engine stops at 20,000 feet, and the only water within 100km is in farmer Browns property dam. What about a parachute?
However, it is all taken so seriously, passenger jokes are not appreciated at all. Surely an example of a mould that needs busting.
Another mould more likely to be busted by the avalanche of mobile and electronic payments innovation is the banks credit card and cheque business model.
I have observed the missed opportunity by banks before, and the pace of change is accelerating rapidly picking up as Apple, Google, Paypal, and a host of startups like “Levelup” “Square” see the opportunity in disruption, and are chasing hard, often using technology that evolved in an ecosystem with nothing to do with banking.
These changes pose a huge problem for banks, one that their legacy structures and business models are apparently having big problems addressing. The role and performance of banks around the world over the last decade, and in the current European mess has removed any residual loyalty consumers may have had, and opened them up to non bank competition that will change the nature of banking in the coming decade. Opportunities abound to bust the current mould.
