Innovating To Win

Failure to Innovate

There a nice post on Innovate on Purpose, Jeffrey Phillips blog, pointing out that “Nobody ever got fired for failing to innovate.”  While that’s not entirely true (I known a few who have), the core message is definitely on the mark.  Most of the time, short term urgencies create pressure that creates an environment that suppresses innovation.  It is far easier to do what is needed to nominally meet our performance metrics than to take the perceived risks of finding an innovative way to exceed them.

This is wrong-headed thinking.  While nobody gets fired for failing to innovate, plenty of people do.  They also find themselves pushed aside into dead-end positions.  Just think about it for a minute.

Imagine you are the CEO of a company and your task is to turn-around the company, or double revenues over the next three years, or attain any other similarly lofty goal.  You aren’t going to achieve that objective by doubling down on the strategies that have created the status quo.  You need to change course.   Perhaps, the answer lies in new products or a new business model.  You need to find a new recipe for success that is not only different from what you have done in the past, but you need one that is compellingly different from what your competitors are doing.  In short, you need an innovation.

These demands for innovation happen all the time in today’s ultra-high pressure business climate.  We may not see it directly, but the failure to innovate is punished quite severely in the work place.  The next time you read a blurb about a high profile CEO being replaced by fresh talent, ask yourself on what opportunity to innovate did the outgoing CEO fail to capitalize.

More importantly, as you pursue your own objectives are you failing to ask yourself what opportunities for innovation you are passing over in the rush to address the daily urgencies.  Remember to keep your eye on the important issues as well—these are often where innovation opportunities are hiding.

You may not be overtly punished for failing to innovate.  But, the big rewards will come to you only when you embrace innovation as essential to your personal success.

Keep Innovation Simple Stupid

I’ve been checking back through all the great innovation blogs I like to follow, and I found a nice post on InnovationManagement.se by Chuck Frey titled “The Surprising Connection Between Simplification and Innovation.”  It seems rather serendipitous to stumble across this article reviewing Matthew E. May’s book The Laws of Subtraction because just last night a colleague approached me about a new interface in a product update he had just received.  He told me how very much he liked the new interface.

What my friend didn’t know was the debate that had gone on behind the scenes during the design of this interface.  The designer had put together a very visually compelling, but very different design for the new interface.  The design included many components and provided for a rich interaction model.  My concern was that users don’t always value richness in interaction; they do like directness and ease of function.  So, I asked for an alternative design that drew upon familiar data visualization paradigms to provide a simplified interaction model and that the two designs be tested with actual users.

In the end, the simpler design was selected based on user preference.  This was no surprise.  The value of simplicity in design has long been recognized.  The very essence of this notion is captured in the discipline of value engineering through value equations and codified in various systematic innovation methods such as TRIZ.

Every journey of innovation should include several stops along the way to ask if the current solution can be simplified.  This question alone has the power to drive high value innovations.

Clearing Out That Innovation Baggage

I’ve been renovating a house for quite some time now and have run out of projects to work on.  So, now it’s time to move in.  In preparation for the big event, I am working my way through the accumulation of stuff that has accreted over the twenty eight years I’ve been in my current abode to determine what is making the move with me, and what is going to be left behind.  It’s amazing to see how much we hold on to that we don’t actually need.

Often, holding on to old ideas and outmoded ways on thinking that no longer serve the interests of an organization can be a serious impediment to innovation.  Psychological inertia about what is important, what drives our markets, and our products can blind us to the new vision we really need.  You should make it a regular practice to periodically sift your foundational assumptions and clear out the innovation baggage that blocking your view of what’s next.

Here are five questions to ask yourself:

• What are my core competencies around which to build value?  This is different than what are your products or offerings today.  Your product might be roofing shingles, but perhaps your competency is in woven mat technologies.

• Where are my current products and technologies on their evolutionary s-curve?  Is there still plenty of runway for innovation and growth, or is it time to start looking for a way to jump to a new s-curve?

• Who are my future customers and does my current innovation agenda put me on the right trajectory to in meet their future needs?

• How well am I balancing investment in current revenue producing products versus building the revenue channels I need tomorrow?

• Why do I believe some of my assumptions are true?  What opportunities could I find if I throw all the assumptions out the window and re-think my strategy starting with a tabula rasa?

These are simple questions that are not so easy to answer.  But they can help you identify your innovation baggage.

What other ways do you use to clean out your closet of innovation baggage?

A Belated Apology

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here on my blog.  I feel like I own my readers a belated apology for the unexplained absence even though many of you may not see it.

Unfortunately sometimes the obligations of being a corporate officer can get in the way. I was asked to stop blogging when my company became involved in a M&A process.  The good news is that the process came to a good outcome when Invention Machine was acquired by IHS.  The synergies between the companies make this a great outcome for both companys' customers and the shareholders.

For me, I will chalk this one up in the win column.  That makes five in a row.  Yes, there’s a reason I call this blog Innovating To Win.

Frankly, I’ve missed blogging here and the great conversation.  Thanks to all of you for your readership, your support, and the conversation.  If you’d like to continue the conversation, leave a reply and let me know.

Starting Over – Spreading Innovation

One of the great things about my job is the conversations I get to have with top-flight innovation practitioners from around the globe.  It’s exciting exchanging ideas with people who are passionate about innovation and understand the import and impact of innovation when strategy, innovation, and execution converge.

Unfortunately, this convergence is still a rarity.  Too many organizations remain trapped in the quagmire of the accidental innovation paradigm.  They cling to the misguided notion that simply talking about the need to be more innovative will somehow unleash the torrent of intellectual potential within their companies that years of anti-innovation practice and cultural reinforcement have been so effective at suppressing.  This is sad state of affairs that I am committed to changing.  I am glad to say that I am not alone in this conviction.

Over the past nine months I have been rethinking how to help others to benefit from repeatable innovation best practices.  This has been a challenging process demanding so much energy that it has kept me away from blogging here.  But, it has also been very rewarding.  Recently, I have talking with innovation leaders at companies around the globe.  The response to these conversations has been tremendous.

In the coming months, I will return to posting here regularly, and I will share with you what I am seeing on the front lines of innovation in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.  I think you will agree that the outlook is very positive.  Despite a continuing economically challenging climate (and sometimes because of it), companies globally are reinvesting in innovation.  But more importantly, these companies want to learn from the mistakes of the past and relaunch their efforts around innovation.

Innovation continues to be a critical part of driving business success.  I am very fortunately to have the opportunity to explore its boundaries in new ways every day.

In closing, I’d like to thank Jim Kimball of SC Johnson for giving me just the push I needed to find my way back to my blog.  I had the immense pleasure of spending some hours with Jim when he popped into my office after the Front End of Innovation conference in Boston.  Of course, we talked about innovation.  But as Jim was leaving my office, he mentioned that he subscribed to Innovating To Win and that he had missed seeing any new posts.  His kind feedback reminded me of how much I miss the conversation with all of you.  Thanks, Jim.

Connecting Innovation Dots

On his blog Medinnovation, Dr. Richard Reece discusses the interconnectedness of innovation across domains of innovation activity in this post.  It’s interesting to see his commentary on 10 coming medical innovations in this regard.  It is doubly so because this phenomenon is not unique to medical innovation.

Great and transformative innovation stem from the confluence of many different advances and observations.  The accumulation of knowledge into the global pool of information provides the water of life for innovation.  People seeking to find novel and valuable solutions to needs draw upon this fund of knowledge to synthesize new answers.  This is the act of innovation creativity in its pure form.

We should understand the consequence of this as it relates to driving sustainable innovation in the enterprise.  Knowledge worker need knowledge with which to work.  Connectedness to knowledge of all types is an essential ingredient to create the working environment needed to drive continuous, value creating innovation.  This must include seamless access to the enterprise’s internal knowledge, global knowledge from both inside and outside the company’s domain of expertise, and the tacit knowledge of team mates.

Have you ever noticed the degree of innovation serendipity?  It is not by chance that different people seem to be creating the same innovation at the same time.  Any really interesting, high value challenge is going to attract many potential innovators.  Don’t flatter yourself and think you are the only one working on your great project.  Also, many potential innovators have access to the same informational resources that you do.  This means there is a reasonable chance that when you find a great solution, you won’t be alone.

Yet, it is also the case that most potential innovators have the same poor access to knowledge that you do.  This means that you have an opportunity to create an innovation edge.  By investing in establishing the best innovation intelligence infrastructure—one that provides seamless access to all sources of knowledge when and how you need it—you can tilt the scales of innovation providence in your favor.

This is a key lesson that innovation leaders must take to heart.  You can influence the frequency and value of your innovation outcomes by making the right strategic investments in innovation infrastructure and methods.  As we begin to emerge from the past years of economic malaise, companies are all beginning to renew their innovation agenda.  Will you take the right steps to ensure that your innovation workers have the right tools to deliver the goods?

Innovation and Labor

Today is Labor Day in the U.S.  Many people have today off as a day to rest and bid a fond farewell to summer as fall is creeping up on us.  If you’re like me, you’re thinking about grilling up something good to eat.  (I’ve got pork chops resting in a lime juice, garlic, ginger, and cumin marinade.)  Yet amid the festivity, we should take a moment to reflect.

It’s interesting to think of the impact that innovation has had on labor over time.  Some of the effects have been good.  Worker safety has improved substantially.  But in some cases, workers have felt pain as innovations devalued or made irrelevant their jobs.  Think of the evolution of the economic landscape as each new wave of innovation changed the rules of engagement and selected new winners and losers.  This cycle continues today.

Usually, there are unforeseen outcomes produced by innovation.  This is what I’m reflecting on today.  What unintended consequences were produced by the innovations you drove?  On balance, were these innovations positive or negative?

We often say innovations are by definition good because they deliver value to an audience in the form of a solution to a need.  The adoption of the solution by its intended audience is proof of its merit and hence its status as a good innovation.

What we sometimes forget is that these same innovations may affect audiences other than their intended adopting audience.  The great benefit we deliver to one group may create problems for another group.  In truth, there is nothing wrong with this.  This is simply the way of the world.  Change is always happening.  Changes favor some and bring hardships to others.

Nevertheless as innovation practitioners, we should give some thought to the constituencies that our innovations may touch.  There will always be someone disadvantaged by the change we create.  Insofar as we are able, we should consider the entire system of benefit and detriment that our innovations will create.  We won’t be able to foresee all these elements, but perhaps by considering these things, we can improve our innovations.  Perhaps, we can become better innovators.

Five Reasons You Don’t Have the Time to Delay Innovation

“We just don’t have the time.”   How often have you heard this familiar refrain?  Just yesterday in a conversation with a leading company in the petro space, I heard a manager say, “We have a lot of stuff going on for the next two months.  I really want to get moving on innovation, but we don’t have any time to spare. I hope we can get to it in a couple months.”

If you are procrastinating with respect to innovation because you think you don’t have the time, think again.  Here are five reasons you can’t afford to delay your journey toward building a high-performance innovation organization.

Eat your own lunch before someone else does it for you.
The pace of innovation is getting faster in every industry.  Product teams that were stretching to meet 7 year delivery cycles are now being asked to compress the cycle to 3 years.  A few things that one can always count on in business are that markets evolve, requirements changes, and competitors are looking for ways to leverage these changes to their advantage.  If you are not looking at the ways in which your market and customer needs are evolving, the macro trends that influence these changes, and thinking about where these factors will converge in the future and what you need to do today to be positioned for that future, you are headed toward a serious business problem.

Eliminate business risks
Much of business success is about managing risks.  It is because of this that many people who don’t have a clear understanding of the power of innovation best practices will avoid pursuing innovation.  Unfortunately for them, this is wrong thinking.  Sustainable innovation practice is not about taking on greater risk, it’s about eliminating risks.  By doing the right things to identify and assess new opportunities, by using proven methods to drive aligned and precise opportunity and technology down selection processes, by pre-validating conceptual designs before moving them into downstream processes, companies are able to make better choices and invest with higher confidence that they are targeting the right product and market futures.

Saving time

“What may be done at any time will be done at no time.” – Scottish Proverb

If you are not integrating innovation best practices into you value creation and delivery processes, you are wasting time.  People waste time every time they pour effort into solving a problem that someone else in the organization has overcome.  Valuable time is wasted with each prototyping cycle that could have been avoided with proper feasibility analysis and validation in advance.  Time is lost when mistakes of the past are repeated for the umpteenth time.  Conversely, time is saved by using repeatable methods that drive speed to solution and identification of the optimal strategy the first time.  When you really look at the full scope of impact achievable through sustainable innovation, there is a net gain of resource time efficiency.  It is not an accident that high performance innovation companies seem to move so fast—they do.

Saving money
The net result of making the right choices, eliminating risks, and saving time through innovation is that you will be driving a more efficient and effective organization.  Your teams will be doing more with the same resource footprint.  Your company will be finding the lowest cost approaches to delivering the highest quality solutions for your markets.  This in turn will give you greater latitude to manage your strategic investments.

Making money
While there are cost saving benefits that companies derive from innovation, it is in the dimension of revenue, market share, and profits that innovation delivers its greatest benefits.  What is the value of successfully opening a new market?  What is the value of grabbing a couple points of market share from your biggest competitor?  What is the value impact of increasing your EPS?  How important is driving strong top line growth?  These questions speak directly to the impact point of successful innovation.  But while companies can occasionally stumble into successful innovation, driving corporate value over time requires being able to successfully innovate on a repeatable, sustainable basis.  This is the value of building a high performance innovation enterprise.

Why Companies Need Pervasive Innovation

It’s hard to keep up with all the articles on innovation these days.  There are so many outlets now where people are volunteering their experience and advice.  A lot of the advice is quiet good.  But, every now and then an article appears that assaults the senses like fingernails against a blackboard.  Such is the case with “Why Companies Need Less Innovation,” by Pat Lencioni which appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek.  I feel sorry for any company that takes this advice seriously.

In this article, the author begins with a very reasonable observation.  Many companies do a great job of talking up innovation, and then disenfranchise workers by not doing what is needed to establish a productive and sustainable innovation culture.  This is a horrible mistake that many executives make.  Simply proclaiming that your company is building an innovation culture doesn’t make it so.

Unfortunately, the article takes a very wrong turn.  Lencioni suggests that if workers are innovating, the result will be chaos.  What tripe!  Does Lencioni really misunderstand innovation so much as to equate innovation with workers gone wild abandoning their mission and acting on impulse?  One hopes not, yet this is the message that comes through.  Lencioni goes on to suggest that innovation should be the sole domain of the leadership team.

It is well understood that the ivory tower approach to innovation is a failed model.  The leadership team doesn’t have the full perspective to be the sole contributors to the process.  Yes, the leadership does have the best understanding of the company’s business needs and objectives.  And their position gives them a perspective that the rank and file employees can’t share.  But there are too many proof points that teach us that executives acting in such an insular manor are detached from the practical realities that the workers see every day.  There are equally many examples of companies benefiting greatly from worker led innovation.

The leadership needs to play an active role in the innovation process, and as Lencioni rightly points out, they need to set the innovation agenda and ensure alignment and execution.  However, it is a grave mistake to exclude the workforce from the innovation process.

Worried that innovating workers will cause disruption?  Don’t be.  Innovating doesn’t mean doing whatever strikes your fancy.  For rank and file workers, it means thinking about your job as you do it.  Asking yourself questions about what’s working and what’s not working.  If something’s not working, what could be done to correct it?  If something is working, could it be better?  These thoughts and analysis must then be given a path through the company’s innovation process so that positive change can be initiated.

Will every worker contribute a ton of ideas?  No.  But, building a constructive process to tap into the collective wisdom of the organization will yield strong benefits and fuel innovation.  It will not erode execution. Quite the contrary, it will lead to higher levels of execution.  As a senior manager, I will choose thinking workers over mindless robots every time.

Bottom line… Execution, passion, and focus are not in conflict with innovation.  Successful innovation requires brilliant innovation; winning business execution requires continuous innovation.

In Defense of Improvement

A colleague pointed out a post by Patrick Lefler that appeared on Chuck Frey’s Innovation Tools site this week.  In this article, Patrick proclaims that improvement is not innovation.  Of course, in the purest sense, the author is correct.  While all innovation seeks to deliver an improvement, not all improvements are innovative.  But, there is a very important aspect of improvement that, in his fervor to make his point, Patrick has ignored.

Coincidentally, I presented a webinar just yesterday on the topic of harnessing innovation creativity to drive corporate value.  One of the key points I touched on was the importance of incremental innovation.  Yes, incremental innovation is a good and necessary part of building a sustainable culture and environment for continuous innovation.

Breakthrough innovation, incremental innovation, minor improvement—these are all points on a continuum of value creating solution generation.  Incremental innovation is very beneficial to an organization trying to develop the core competence needed to support a high-performance innovation system.  Specifically, incremental innovation delivers both short and long term benefits.  In the short term, immediate business benefits can be realized—extended revenue life of a product, increased market share, better contribution to margin, etc.  In the long term, incremental innovation provides a low risk platform to hone the basic innovation skills needed for successful, repeatable breakthrough innovation practice.

This last point, honing basic innovation skills, is too often overlooked.  Most organizations lack these basic skills and the knowledge of innovation best practices.  These skills must be developed and practiced constantly.  Even seasoned innovation workers should take a page from Basketball legend Larry Bird’s play book.  Larry was well known for his work ethic and diligence in maintaining his skills.  He would arrive for a game hours before anyone else and warm up by taking hundreds of practice shots.

Efforts to improve, even modest ones, are opportunities to practice innovation thinking and skills.  The adept application of innovation practices can move a change further along the continuum of novelty and value creation so that what might have been a minor improvement becomes an incremental innovation that creates strong competitive differentiation.

So while Patrick is correct in the assertion that simple improvements are not innovations, one should not eschew incremental achievements.  In fact sometimes the road to breakthrough innovations is paved a brick at a time.  In my own research team where we are constantly pushing the limits and redefining the concept of the possible in the area of applied computational linguistics, we often use the expression “step by step” to describe the path to innovation success.

Of course, it’s important to remember that you must be constantly trying to reach further up the novelty-value ladder in order to find the breakthroughs that will provide you optimal market position.  But don’t forget to embrace incremental innovation, too.  It’s a good thing.