Get inspired by Asia

In my previous blog I argued that a reduced amount of budget for innovation does not automatically mean less successful new products or services for your customers. It’s about how you manage your business innovations. Unfortunately this challenge doesn’t have the attention of all of us. This weekend I read in a Dutch newspaper that the innovation power and the spirit of commerce disappeared from the European continent. European organizations are cutting cost in technology and marketing budgets and renegotiate with suppliers. They stick to their strategy while in Asia Indian, Japanese and Chinese organizations are rearranging their business model and bring new products and services to their customers. European organizations don’t use the current circumstances to reposition themselves, they have faith in the measures of their government and just wait for better times.

One industry that doesn’t have the time to wait and maybe thanks to the crisis has to change even more rapidly is the newspaper business. Newspapers are making huge losses, they have to quit jobs and face structural problems in their share of the advertisement market and print run. Publishing companies need to reconsider their business model in order to survive.


Free newspapers for 18 year olds, support from the government for salaries and distribution but also cross –media advertising and new journalism 2.0 are ideas which are proposed in order to survive. Although these ideas don’t appear to be comparative, I think they are. They all give a idea for a part of the business model but don’t beat the essence: what is the value proposition?

What is the value of publishing companies with their core business in newspapers? Do they have a core capability which can be configurated into a new value proposition? In the discussion experts are still convinced that newspapers have a function which can’t be taken over. New media have no rationale without the traditional media. Whether this will be true for the future, the question remains what is de core capability of traditional media and are they able to create a profitable value proposition.

For now, publishing companies analyze your history, define a future perspective from trends which impact your business and determine your business drivers. I will give you one hint: get inspired by the Asian innovation power, you already know the consequences of sticking to your strategy!

Less innovation budget = Less succesfull innovations??

In a world where the economy in different parts of the world is in difficulty, where large amounts of people, like in the automotive industry, are in uncertainty about their jobs and organizations have to ask the government for support the time has come where we will see the results of the ‘survival of the fittest’

In an environment where there is less money to be divided in a lot of organizations, also the innovation budget will be less than in better circumstances. A reduced amount of money for R&D means less amount ideas in the innovation pipeline. Despite the fact that more people will be (or forced to be) aligned about which ideas will be successful, still not every idea will turn into a (financial) success.

So does a reduced amount of budget for innovation always means less successful new products or services for the market?

The answer is NO! Not only the amount of money for R&D and the ideas which are in your pipeline are guarantee for success. Success depends most of all on how you manage your business innovations!

But how do you manage you business innovations in a world where everybody has high expectations? How are you going to beat the competition? Imagine that you have the right innovation strategy with a high potential project portfolio. An important question will remain: how will these projects be executed?

Besides having a integrated team which has members from different parts of the organization (R&D, Marketing, Sales and Operations) and is able to get a dialog going up and down the firm (X-teams); coordination, measurement and especially different types of time are very important.

Of course the manager of a innovation project will know the time to market and lead time. A lot of organizations have an innovation process with different tollgates. But does he or she knows ‘time to understand’ and ‘time to respond’?

How does the project manager coordinate? Is the project manager only coordinating activities or also the results? In my opinion, a manager of an innovation project does not only coordinate, he or she has a special profile. He or she has ownership and is passionate about the goal. I experience that a lot of people (not only project managers) are not passionate and are not willing to give that little bit of extra. Be frugal on those who are because they will create an environment in which in the organisation can make a difference.

Are you the 'new worker'?

In my last blog I stated that innovation is not a one-person-game. But I still believe the attitude and mindset of individual is important to make innovative projects a success. What I don’t believe is that new employees are getting educated with capabilities of the new worker. At least not in the vocational education system. Last year, in my master thesis I developed criteria for apprenticeships. These criteria were based on what employers ask from every ‘new worker’. They need to be creative, innovative and adaptive to changes. Every actor that was involved in the research acknowledged that the criteria were important but they didn’t take the responsibility to educate the students with the ‘new worker’ competences. Here I see a large gap between the To-Be and the As-Is situation. If actors involved in educating students, especially the employers can bring innovation in the DNA of the student it also brings innovation in the DNA of the organization.

Not only in the industry innovation is an important topic, also in politics innovation is on the agenda. A few years ago the Dutch Centre for Social Innovation (NCSI) was founded. Their core function is promoting and initiating social innovations in the field of management, organization and labour in companies and industrial relations to dissolve the ‘innovation paradox’. The ‘innovation paradox’ refers to the practical application of innovations. The Netherlands excels concerning technological innovation and development, but much can be improved regarding the practical application of such knowledge in companies and organizations. The human aspects of work are taken into account. Now, employees need to be participative, proactive and ‘work smarter’. One way to realize this is educating new employees with the right competences. The ministry of OCW where education belongs to, needs to play a vital role. Also organizations need to give their current employees the possibility to (learn how to) practice these activities. Organizations need to show leadership, have a vision on innovation, develop a innovation strategy and the competence to share the vision and organize their activities along their strategy.

And of course there many ways to establish innovation in your organization. This week I will attend a master class of Peter Senge, founder of the learning organization. Hopefully he will have a nice contribution on this topic.

If you like to know more about my research on the 'new worker' you can read my article (unfortunately only in Dutch) which is published in Management & Organisatie (No. 1, 2008) or send me an email for a copy.

Organizations look for teams that lead, innovate and succeed

Every organization needs teams who bring innovative ideas to reality and make them a success. This is not an easy process. How do you get people who are already overwhelmed with day-to-day work to focus on new directions for the future? And how do you move leadership to lower levels within the firm?

According to Deborah Ancona and Hendrik Bresman organizations are looking for X-teams. An X-team is an agile group of people who can bring innovation to a company and satisfaction to themselves. An X-team differs from a traditional team in three main ways: external activity, extreme execution and flexible phases. Their tasks are:

• to provide the vision, creativity, and entrepreneurship needed to come up with new ideas and to link them to the strategies at the execute level.
• to be the interpreters of the environment. Teams must be increasingly responsible for understanding what the current technical, market, cultural, and competitive situation is and where expertise and information can be found. They must find the knowledge they need outside their environment and bring it in.
• to carry out the organization’s necessary but increasingly complex coordination activities resulting from new strategic imperatives. These strategic imperatives are bundling offerings across products and of pursuing cost savings by working on similar platforms across products.

The X-teams have spirit and offer both a vertical and horizontal integration mechanism to get a dialog going up and down the firm. The focus on the environment gives them also a external perspective. Deborah Anocona says: “The top group is creating the strategy, but they don’t always have people who can implement their ideas. People at the bottom know the customers and the technology, but that information isn’t always fed back up to the people formulating the strategy. X-teams form a solution.”

Besides X-teams there are also individuals who lead, innovate and succeed. Abbie Griffin calls these individuals ‘Serial Innovators’. These serial innovators invent in the fuzzy front end, champion ideas and concepts into the organization and manage the project once formalized and legitimized in the organization. Griffins’ research focuses on this special group of people and find that they operate in the organizational context in a manner very different from most development employees. But can innovation be realized by one person? It depends on what you mean by innovation.

But I think nowadays innovation is not a ‘one-person-game’. In the early days inventors like Einstein, where able to realize a invention by themselves. And the X-teams, I don’t think they are a success in every organization. Your organization needs to have culture where employees can create a fit and acceptance with an X-team otherwise they won’t lead, innovate and succeed.

Now employers ask from every individual to be creative, innovative and adaptive to changes in order to get innovation in their DNA. These employees then need the possibility to execute their ideas and from that moment the activities of the X-team can become important. In my opinion the willingness to innovate starts at the individual and the execution lies in the hands of a team and the culture of the organization.

What do you mean when you say innovation?

My last blog ended with the question: what is the state of your mind? When you can conclude with the answer that your mind is mostly a growth mindset, I don’t think the word ‘innovation’ will scare you. After all, you have a desire to learn and you embrace challenges. But my second question I’d like to ask you is: what do you mean when you say innovation?

Nowadays it is impossible to see your organization as an entity which faces little influence from the environment. Every management book, business consultant, business school or manager will tell you that doing nothing is no option. Your organization needs to adapt to changes, it needs to INNOVATE! But what do you mean when you say innovation? In literature there are several definitions. Most of the time people use the word innovation for process improvement, product or service renewal. There are also several combinations with the word innovation, for example: business (model) innovation, serial innovation, open innovation, social innovation, process innovation, or technological innovation.

Besides thinking about what is changing, I think it is important to know the scope of the change. What is innovative to one person can be a minor change to another. When you are talking with your colleagues about innovation think about the perceived degree of novelty. Is it a minor incremental improvement, a radical change or maybe a transformation?

Maybe it is completely clear to you what you mean by innovation but in my work I see people struggle with the word. It has become a buzz word. Sometimes when they only hear the word innovation they get nervous because they know they can’t ignore it. No one has ever said innovation is easy. But you can make it easier for yourself and your colleagues when you say what you mean by mentioning innovation.

And don’t forget to ask the people around you about their definition. You will find out that it isn’t as clear as you thought it was.

What's the state of your mind?

Have you ever thought about the state of your mind? Do you avoid or embrace challenges? Do you feel threatened by the success of others or do you find lessons and inspiration? Answers to these questions can give you insight in the state of your mind.

Last month I joined a master class of Carol Dweck. She wrote Mindset, the new psychology of success. For 20 years she conducted research in what makes people successful as a student, manager, leader and partner. In her opinion the mindset determines the degree of success. People with a growth mindset have more success than people with a fixed mindset. But what is the difference?


People with a fixed mindset think intelligence is static. It leads to a desire to look smart and therefore a tendency to:

• Avoid challenges


• Get defensive or give up easily


• See effort as fruitless or worse


• Ignore useful negative feedback


• Feel threatened by the success of others

The people with a growth mindset think intelligence can be developed. It leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to:

• Embrace challenges


• Persist in the face of setbacks


• See effort as the path to mastery


• Learn from criticism


• Find lessons and inspiration in the success of others

The results of people with a fixed mindset is less than of people with a growth mindset. They may plateau early and achieve less than their full potential. People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, see their qualities as things that can be developed through their dedication and effort. For them their brain and their talent are just the starting point. People with a growth mindset understand that no one has ever accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or Einstein—without years of passionate practice and learning.

The good news is that a growth mindset can be taught. It are convictions that can be learned. I am happy about that because I think the state of your mind is very important in executing innovations. Executing innovations is difficult because innovations need to deliver tangible results and the changing business environment requires quick adaption. It is essential to keep people motivated and committed. To know the state of mind of your team members can be very important in making your innovation a success.


And of course you need to know…what’s the state of your mind?

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!



Soon I will publish my first post. I think you already can imagine what my blog is about. It is about innovation. When you are interested in topics like culture, leadership, people, attitude, behavior, motivation and knowledge from an innovative perspective, soon this blog will give you thoughtful material.