 Note: Every warrior is unique Innovation Culture
A common CEO refrain, "We need an innovation culture." Really? It's a bit like Life of Brian. "We're all individuals". Wouldn't it be great if everyone thought the same way? While we say we are after an innovation culture, what we really need is an adaptation culture. Darwin was right. Derek Sivers was right. (http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html) Innovation Execution We need innovation leaders to innovate and strong execution teams to adapt and evolve. To engage the customer. To engage the organisation. Having a vision for a new product or business is not the same as executing it. Dreamers dream. Builders build. Ideas are cheap, everyone has them. Execution is everything. Right brain, left brain. We need both to operate effectively as human beings. The same holds true for commercial organisations. Innovation Distinction While I firmly believe everyone is creative, not everyone is innovative. (http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html). Innovation requires risk tolerant application. Like jumping out of a plane. Take the plunge ... but trust the guy who packed your parachute. Steve Jobs didn't replicate himself into a culture. He aligned his organisation behind a common vision and recognised those who could contribute to delivery and those that could not (http://kensegall.com/insanely-simple-book/). He built a team who could get behind his ideas and standards and mould them into realistic deliverables. His core team, like Jonathan Ives, aligned behind the vision, adapted and contributed to deliver a greater outcome. We clearly recognise the contribution. The sum of the deliverable exceeded the initial vision. Always the way. Innovators don't create great companies. Teams do. Teams that can recognise an innovative concept, align behind it and adapt it to a market making deliverable. I'll take an adaptation culture over an innovation culture any day.
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Porter defined strategy. Differentiation or cost leadership. Margin or market share. It used to be a choice. Dell defined low cost in the PC Industry and took the market. Apple later defined differentiation and took the market. Validation of Porter's strategy framework.
New Age. New Stage. Differentiation and cost leadership used to be considered mutually exclusive. No longer the case in the Information Age. Design is differentiation. Cost leadership is scale. Co-existance is the new norm and a powerful force. Today we design and scale experiences. Simplicity and ease drive our experience. Simplicity is cognitive. Apple made technology so simple to use, it encouraged two new generations to embrace technology. The old and the young. Ease defines effort. Amazon made it so easy to shop, it continues to empty physical retail stores around the world. Simplicity and ease go to the heart of human behaviour. It defines our experience. A powerful force for change. As we define our own innovation agenda, embracing these new rules of engagement are a foundation for success. |
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October 2016
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