How do you effectively start the innovation engine?

Managing the present and the inevitable firefighting that arises from the present consumes oxygen required to invent for the future. Today’s leadership challenge can therefore be framed around how we can simultaneously manage the present while inventing for the future. (Osterwalder,. Pigneur, 2017) In order to survive companies must continuously innovate and grow, yet many companies frequently miss opportunities to adapt and take advantage of changes through innovation. (Anthony et al., 2018) Companies that do not continue to innovate can fail to grow, eventually eroding profits away until decline.

The decline of a company

A recent consulting report delivered to a company I worked with defined their greatest strategic challenge as: “how can the organisation continue to innovate and reach the maximum number of people it works with in order to fulfill its purpose?”. Often in the social and health services sectors it is a numbers game; that is, in order to fulfill purpose, it is essential to reach the maximum number of people an organisation can within consideration of its resources.

Companies that survive the creative destruction do so through innovation in areas such as new and improved products/services, new business models, new processes, paths to new markets, and new customer segments. (Anthony et al., 2018; Dodgson, 2017) In order for companies to be successful, leaders need to view execution and innovation as being parallel but distinctly different. (Osterwalder,. Pigneur, 2017) The execution engine relies on linear processes where failure is discouraged or not an option; it is detailed and rigorous and promotes efficiencies in search of operational excellence. (Osterwalder,. Pigneur, 2017) Conversely the innovation engine focuses on growth and promotes a culture of iterative searching, experimentation, and insights; where failure promotes learning, exploration and pattern recognition. (Osterwalder, & Pigneur, 2017)

The execution engine versus the innovation engine

Innovation is thus a fundamental activity for firms in realising their objectives; irrespective of motivations such as profit, impact, growth, or survival. There is growing recognition of the importance of innovation in the social services sector but there is still considerable ignorance or skepticism about the role of innovation. There is generally insufficient resources dedicated to innovation and/or poor resource allocation. Social services can lack skills and competencies required for innovation, particularly abilities required to assess and evaluate relative value and the impact of different innovations. The challenge for the company then is to set a clear innovation strategy; supported by an action plan capable of implementation.

Assessing your company’s current innovation performance is essential to understanding the benefits of improving innovation performance

In our next blog we will take a look at how a firm might be able to assess its innovation performance...

#innovation #innovationinsocialservices #innovationportfolio #growth #innovate #EdgeBig

References

Anthony, S. D., Viguerie, S. P., Schwartz, E. I., & Landeghem, J. Van. (2018). 2018 Corporate Longevity Forecast: Creative Destruction is Accelerating. Innosight, February, 11. www.innosight.com/insight/creative-destruction/

Dodgson, Mark. (2017). Innovation in firms. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 33(1), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grw034

Osterwalder, A. Pigneur, Y. (2017). An Open Letter To CEOs. Straegyzer Blog. https://www.strategyzer.com/blog/an-open-letter-to-ceos?hs_amp=true

Porter, M. & Kramer, M. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review [HBR]2, 89(1–2), 62–77.