Learn more about strategy with this collection
The importance of innovation
The power of perseverance
How to think big and take risks
Management committees are often dominated by routine. They believe their mission is to keep operations running smoothly. They look at proposals for new ideas that are brought to them, but they don’t come up with any initiatives of their own.
Managers need to understand the environment in order to see opportunities and dangers. They have to know where the market is going, but it’s not easy to predict future consumer behaviour. It’s also not easy to take care of operations and manage change all at once. Between these two, innovation management suffers.
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MORE IDEAS ON THIS
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People should structure their lives so they have the tools to be professionally successful in a world of constant change. They should aspire to continuous education. They should be ready to make changes in their career direction as needed.
Like innovation, destruction can be incremental, su...
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Change requires us to change our mental models. But it can take companies a long time to overcome cultural lock in. Adjusting to corporate change is like adjusting to terminal illness — the psychological process is similar. There is a sequence of emotions, including denial, anger, bargaining, dep...
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Companies mostly start out full of creative energy. Eventually they become more rational and make decisions based on careful analysis. At some point, however, they slip into denial that prevents them from seeing that they are becoming uncompetitive. But this trajectory isn’t inevitable. Some comp...
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Companies think the name of the game is continuity when they should really embrace discontinuity. The trick is to balance continuity and change, pursue destruction and creation at the same time. It’s hard to get the balance right, and people in the company, the board and the shareholders will res...
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To survive in this rapidly changing environment, companies must act like the market. Not only do they have to change as quickly as the market, but they also must broaden the decision making processes to include more of the collective wisdom of the company. Companies should sustain multiple mental...
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If change is considered more valuable than continuity, then change will happen. If it’s believed that change will bring less value, then continuity is embraced. Many corporations follow this path. If the values of change and continuity are perceived to be roughly equal, then the tendency is to f...
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Corporations have all kinds of control systems, elements that make sure things stay on track (for example, rules and processes, standards, checklists). The control systems in a company can be complex, and can sometimes come in conflict with one another. Control systems can also inhibit performanc...
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Convergent thinking is a process of immersion in details. The situation is broken into its smallest components to find novel ways of bringing the pieces back together again — or perhaps to switch some of the components for new ones.
Creativity is the foundation of all innovation, and the en...
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To prepare the team for discussion on one of the issues presented, you might need to do some fairly deep research. For example, managers at Nike go to basketball games or visit schools and meet street basketball players. These activities allow them to understand the needs of their customers so th...
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There are several tactics that can be used to help stimulate discussion. For example, you can change the context, looking at the problem from a different angle. One way to do this is by including a mix of participants with unique perspectives, perhaps inviting managers from different divisions or...
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The opposite of control is permission, which means being able to make decisions and act without having to check with upper management. Managers need the freedom to take risks and explore new solutions. But to give permission is to give up control, so it’s hard for people to do, even when they say...
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There are any number of causes for discontinuity. Basically, change happens. Change is not new, but the rate of change has been accelerating in the past 90 years or so.
Creative disruption is inherent to capitalism. Discontinuities create under and over performance. Companies need to keep u...
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There are two ways to discover things: divergent thinking and convergent thinking.
Divergent thinking means zooming out to look at the big picture, examining the entire context of a problem. This process includes three phases.
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Mental models are the biggest obstacle to change. While such models are useful, they can be liabilities. Our model of the world is based on experience, meaning it is backward looking. When change happens, we are working from old models. So sometimes we have to change our models. It can be hard to...
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The decision making process includes elements like planning systems, calendar management, agenda setting, decision criteria and so forth. These systems need to be consistent with mental models. For example, consumer retailers typically make decisions based on seasonal considerations, deciding whe...
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Control processes include things like operational control processes, compensation systems and capital allocation. A company with slim margins will strive to control costs on a day-to-day basis. A company that relies on innovation is likely to give more rein to engineers and scientists as they dev...
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Of all the companies listed on the Forbes 100 list in 1917, 61 of them no longer existed 70 years later. Only 18 companies had managed to stay in the top 100, and none of these 18 were very good performers. Looking at the S&P 500 over the last 50 years shows similar results: few companies sur...
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Since the dawn of the first industrial revolution, companies spend their energy and other resources on production, logistics, selling and billing. These are the activities that are supposed to make the company run smoothly.
Managers are focused on operations, sometimes because they don’t k...
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Established companies that want to stay innovative must master divergent thinking. This is the key to creativity. The objective is to find new ideas at the pace and scale of the market. It’s a process of discovering unmet needs and potential solutions. And it helps to look to the periphery for ne...
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Managers think the challenge lies in keeping their existing operations running smoothly while fostering an environment where new ideas can flourish and old ideas can be put down. But they cling too tightly to the idea of continuity.
Some companies won’t make needed changes even when there a...
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CURATED FROM
Corporations need to change at the pace and scale of the capital markets in order to stay competitive. This is accomplished not only by creating new businesses and products, but also through paring off functions that no longer facilitate growth.
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