Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine phần 9 ppt

The Spirit of the Garage 171 How can you duplicate in a big company the conditions conducive to the creative connections that existed in the garage? Most creativity paceset- ters bypass hierarchy in favor of “ad hoc innovations pockets.” “Ad hoc” refers to team formation on an as-needed basis, with members disbanding when a project is completed. These pockets are free from rigid departmen- tal and hierarchical affi liation so the right talent is able to bring their exper- tise and perspective to a project. To foster the conditions expressed in these pockets of innovation you will need to: • Develop perspective-rich work teams. The wording is important here. The familiar business jargon of “interdisciplinary” and “cross functional” work teams doesn’t adequately refl ect the range of perspective required to stimulate innovation. Since divergent perspectives are essential in the early creative pro- cess, innovation is best accomplished by bringing together people with different academic training, work experience, professional affi liations, proximity to customers, and genera- tional and cultural affi liations. • Elicit the input of outsiders. At appropriate times, it is necessary to actively include the viewpoints of customers, wholesalers, suppliers, and strategic alliance members. • Play the best players available. In sports, a coach wouldn’t think of resting the team’s superstars on the bench during a cham- pionship game. When the stakes are high, you play the best players available. The rule is the same for trendsetters: elite people work on elite projects. Why confi ne top talent to a busi- ness running on autopilot where their contribution is slight, when they could be participating in a newly conceived venture with incredible upside potential? Departmental affi liation takes a back seat to penetrating potentially golden opportunities. • Mix and match to achieve the right group chemistry. Divergent per- spectives are only a starting point. Managers must balance team diversity with supportiveness. Supportiveness includes features like: shared excitement for the team’s goal; willingness to help Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 172 teammates through setbacks and diffi cult periods; and respect for the unique knowledge and perspective that other mem- bers bring to the table. Supportive fi t among team members combined with a diverse array of talent produces the ideal combination for sparking creative endeavor. • Allocate time for creative thinking. A sad but true fact for the time-conscious businessperson: Creativity takes time. Many busy work teams settle for the best idea arising out of a brisk brainstorming session and then move on to what- ever is next on the to-do list. Unfortunately, brainstorming largely surfaces ideas people already have contemplated, not the ingenious ones that come from unexpected connections of ideas. Original thinking is the product of holding out for better solutions, looking at problems from different vantage points, mixing knowledge from different fi elds, using dis- agreements to shake up entrenched positions, and allowing incubation time for creative ideas to emerge. • Honor creative dissent. Intel is famous for its use of confl ict as part of its self-questioning culture. Would-be innovators do not present their ideas before an assembly of polite yes- men. They must face a barrage of intense grilling and sav- agely frank feedback. While the ensuing confl ict is blunt and at times brutal, Intel team members learn to disagree without being disagreeable. By allowing their people to air strongly held differences, Intel believes the eventual solu- tions are likely to be of better quality. The group norm of harnessing contention to reach consensus on a quality idea opposes the tendency to settle for a watered-down compro- mise to preserve the peace. • Share great ideas. Can we really afford to throw up our hands in concession to hectic circumstances to explain the lack of cross-functional conversation and intellectual isolation? What is the opportunity cost in terms of connections that stimulate creativity? Barbara Waugh, Worldwide Personnel Manager of The Spirit of the Garage 173 HP Labs WBIRL (World’s Best Industry Research Labora- tory) program, took small steps in the process of transforma- tive change by facilitating people talking to each other. She organized informal Friday afternoon talks to discuss what- ever technological issues happened to be on people’s minds, and regularly drew between 50 and 150 participants. Self-scrutinizing questions 1. What is the “solitary confi nement factor” in your company? In other words, to what degree do people work on tightly bound departmental projects without a chance to share new ideas with colleagues working in a different functional silo? 2. How many projects are going on in your company where indi- viduals from different departments are regularly collaborating? What practices can you develop to inform people about inno- vative projects being entertained throughout the company and ways they can nominate themselves to participate? 3. Are you comfortable leaving the interdepartmental exchange of knowledge up to chance meetings at the water fountain or coffeepot? 4. What simple ways can you devise to get people talking with each other to increase the likelihood of creative connections occurring? 5. When your people discover a practice that works, do they routinely think, “Who else can benefi t from this learning?” 6. What communication vehicles can you offer your people to effi - ciently share their best practices company wide? Think of video- tapes, e-mails, data banks, company wide voice mail messaging, or even site visits to see the new ideas being implemented. Assessing Your Own Company’s Spirit of the Garage The following questions are for assessing how well your existing cul- ture supports strategic innovation. Each question has two parts, a simple rating (circle the number) and a space for comments. Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 174 For best results, please answer these questions with “ruthless honesty.” Compare your answers with other team members to notice the specifi c observations of culture that are refl ected in your answers. 1. What percentage of your senior management team’s time is spent on conversations about strategic thinking aimed at creat- ing new business opportunities and new value for customers? <10% 10-20% 20-30% 30-40% >40% Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 2 Does your organization have a strategic plan in writing that establishes direction and priorities for at least 2-5 years ahead? No 1 2 3 4 5 Yes Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 3. To what extent does your company have a formal strate- gic planning process that surfaces, develops, and supports innovation? No formal process 1 2 3 4 5 Formal process in place Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ The Spirit of the Garage 175 4. Do you have processes in place that encourages front line employees to offer customer insights and ideas for new busi- ness opportunities to senior management? No 1 2 3 4 5 Yes, a formal process Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 5. Do senior executives have roles and responsibilities defi ned in such a way that they can prioritize suffi cient time for work- ing on strategic long-term issues as opposed to operational/ tactical issues? No 1 2 3 4 5 Yes Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 6. What percentage of senior management’s time is spent exe- cuting a prepared strategic plan (as contrasted to time spent putting out fi res or reacting to customer requests)? <10% 10-20% 20-30% 30-40% >40 % Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 176 7. What percentage of time is spent in meetings with customers/ key accounts discussing long-term strategic issues (as opposed to progress reviews and short term goal setting)? <10% 10-20% 20-30% 30-40% >40% Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 8. Does your company have any reward or recognition pro- grams explicitly tied to innovation (as opposed to process improvement suggestions)? No 1 2 3 4 5 Yes Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 9. Is strong disagreement acceptable in your culture? Do con- versations tolerate no-holds-barred disagreement in the inter- est of improving innovations rather than settling for watered down compromises in the interest of being nice to one another? Disagreement discouraged 1 2 3 4 5 Disagreement encouraged Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ The Spirit of the Garage 177 10. What percentage of time at your annual strategic planning retreat is typically spent on developing an original strategic position for the future (as opposed to reviewing last year’s results, extrapolating goals based on recent numbers, etc)? <10% 10-20% 20-30% 30-40% >40% Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 11. Does your company use different methods for understanding the needs of tomorrow’s customers (about 2-5 years ahead) compared to how you go about understanding the needs of today’s customers? No 1 2 3 4 5 Yes Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ 12. Has an individual been assigned formal responsibility for man- aging your organization’s innovation performance/results? No 1 2 3 4 5 Yes Comments: _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 178 Off the Org Charts Great strategies are worth no more than the paper they are printed on unless you have the organization to implement them. Now you know why so few companies become persistent trendsetters. Not every company is willing to seek out the best people, to inspire them with a task worth doing, to risk giving them autonomy and freedom to make mistakes, and to facilitate independent project teams. Not every company develops the kind of organization that can be the only one to do what it does. This is why developing the spirit of the garage pays off so profoundly both in net worth and self-worth. Chapter 9 Strategic Planning for Innovators [...]... no competition or where you can bring new value that your competition can t match In strategic innovation, trendsetting strategists systematically explore a broad range of potential customers, including such categories as: • Customers whose needs fit our products but whom we’re currently not serving 187 Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine • Customers who no competitor is serving well... dramatically new value offering.” Operating with an honest sense of uncertainty, management can take several constructive actions First, they can give up the false safety net of relying on fuzzy and debatable financial projections The simple assertion 1 89 Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine “the data doesn’t suggest a market for this idea,” no longer delivers an instantaneous thumbs-down... designed for strategic innovation ????? • 181 • Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine Strategy plays too vital a role to tolerate planning processes that can t meet your trendsetter goals So let’s boil them down to essentials If you can say yes to these four questions you are in great shape: • Does your process increase the chances of conceiving a blockbuster idea? • Can you repeat the process... for academics and techies, and relegated it to a fifth 183 Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine or sixth strategic priority Who turned Gates on to the potential of the Internet? No, it wasn’t Al Gore The inspiration came from university students and a number of newer, non-management employees at Microsoft It started with Steve Sinofsky, Gates’ technical assistant, who was blown away by... has shifted, because any strategy is based on a set of assumptions about 191 Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine leadership, profit-making, and competitiveness Consequently, special attention should be given to exposing these assumptions so they can be judged in each strategic planning cycle In my strategic innovation consultations, clients keep a log of their foundational strategic... incorporated into the strategic plan Focus on strategic health, not just financial health Replicators focus on financial health Their obsession about shortterm measures of profits, cash flow, shareholder value, and growth rates causes two problems First, financial health ignores valuable data contained 185 Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine in indices of strategic health The second problem... developing every detail of their one- year or five-year strategic plan, they scarcely bother to examine the process whereby they come up with that plan In trendsetting companies, strategic planning is a process, not a onetime event It is dynamic, not static And it involves all the people in the company, not just senior managers We can safely assume that most senior managers know the nuts and bolts How do... “Borrow money for quick cash gains, not for long term capital intensive projects which should be drawn from core business cash flow.” • “Never trade control of strategy for public money.” • “Being an effective aggregator of other businesses is a valuable core competency.” • “The best way to grow margins is by reducing costs.” • “We aim to be both low cost and value-added—rather than one or the other.” One. .. not to fall for misguided considerations that focus only on obvious short-term consequences, while ignoring the long-term impact of delaying innovation A classic example is the tendency to put off innovation during a recession or bad business cycle “Wait until the economy recovers,” proclaim the innovation nay-sayers, who resort to reaching earnings forecasts by cutting costs and praying that the core... assemble if you want to crank out a no- surprises” strategy Business history contains notable occasions where new product ideas and opportunistic vision originated from the ranks below senior management Bill Gates, for instance, is reputed to have marvelous foresight about the future of technology, but he nearly missed the initial window of opportunity around the Internet In 199 3, Gates and his colleagues . replication and one designed for strategic innovation. ????? How do you rethink strate- gic planning so you produce bold innovations? Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 182 Strategy. whom we’re currently not serving. Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 188 • Customers who no competitor is serving well because there appear to be no cost effective solutions nancial projections. The simple assertion Invent Business Opportunities No One Else Can Imagine 190 “the data doesn’t suggest a market for this idea,” no longer delivers an instantaneous thumbs-down