5 Important Innovation Change Questions

Rob Berman — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 14:00:00 GMT

In our experience at the DeSai Group, when dealing with innovation as a major change initiative, employees seek answers to these five questions:

What is happening with the innovation program?
Why are we pursuing innovation as a major change?
When is it going to happen?
How will I be impacted during the rollout and after implementation?
Where can I go with more questions, issues, and concerns related to the innovation program in my area?

What if we do not communicate to staff?

If these questions are not answered, you are leaving it to chance for employees to create their own interpretations, leading to possible negative consequences and waste of your valuable resources.

Communication Plan Template

Your high-level communication plan may include these points:

Develop answers to the five questions. Then make sure the questions are addressed in every innovation initiative communication document, meeting, and webcast.
Develop a one-minute message--your elevator pitch about the innovation program. It should describe the business case and vision for the future.
Demand consistent dialog at all levels, especially middle management.
Use multiple media to teach and tell--remove uncertainties and doubt from day 1.
Clearly identify the objective of each communication: awareness building, skill development, network development, employee engagement, and so on.
Check often for alignment of process objectives and productivity for the parties in the communication activity.
Be open to examine and test for what people hear.
Actively respond to feedback and make adjustments to the plan as required.

Communication, Communication, Communication

Don't underestimate the need to repeat the messages even when you know everyone has heard them time and again. Even with your best efforts, there are always many who will not understand the importance of the innovation change initiative.

There have been stories where after six months of implementation activities, senior executives have publicly asked, "Why are we doing all this innovation stuff?". Although this raised a few eyebrows, the question was taken seriously and led to rather thorough discussions of the whys that had not surfaced before.

The Takeaway

Innovation is about approaching products and processes in a different way. The communications surrounding the innovation effort require different methods as well.

Over to you. Please comment below.

How do you disseminate information about your innovation change program?
What else would you add to the communications plan template?
What other questions do you find that employees tend to ask?

Strategic Acquisitions - Telecommunications Case Study

Rob Berman — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 14:00:00 GMT

Everything is connected to everything. Everything is moving from large, to small, to micro, to nano. That means computing power in the palm of our hands and soon in our blood cells.

In order to turn data into information and knowledge, we need telecommunications. As an example, one of the largest growing fields is the convergence of 2-D data and entertainment. The convergence requires much larger and more efficient communication pipelines. Not everyone needs the same pipeline of services. Therefore, the Telecommunications industry must respond with customized communication services for any rich-media object. That means, for anyone in the world, at anytime, all the time, in any direction.

Client Situation

Let’s take a look at a US Based, Telecommunications company with 9,000 employees, operating in 34 states plus one international operation.

They sought DeSai’s help to develop new service offerings. Organic growth was their focus although they were open to acquisitions that would bring capabilities the company sought for wireless communications. The company asked DeSai to validate the targets before it spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the acquisitions.

DeSai Approach

The DeSai team dug deep into what jobs customers were really trying to get done in the target market by conducting interviews, implementing surveys and performing observational research.

The work resulted in the conclusion that customers were seeking to accomplish a set of jobs involving much different performance dimensions than what the client had originally envisioned.

DeSai Recommendation

DeSai recommended acquiring the capabilities to address the jobs from one of several struggling (and inexpensive) firms, rather than the high-priced acquisition target the firm was considering. Why? Because of the different capabilities identified during the vetting process.

Results Are The Measure of Innovation Success

How did applying the DeSai Body of Knowledge impact the company?

DeSai’s recommendation saved the telecom client millions of dollars in acquisition costs while showing the company an inexpensive route to acquire the capabilities it really needed to address the right customer jobs-to-be-done.
Client achieved 22% top-line growth in first three years.
15% net contribution to the bottom line during the first three years resulting from the innovation program/process.

The Takeaway

Change your innovation culture to allow validation of key assumptions before committing large amounts of resources to a project.

Your Turn. Please comment below.

What is your system of checks and balances for vetting possible acquisitions?
How is convergence impacting your business opportunities?
Do you prefer organic growth or acquisitions to increase the size of your business?

How to Define Innovation Objectives and Innovation Goal

Rob Berman — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:00:00 GMT

To help facilitate a strong leadership conversation about innovation objectives and innovation goals, here are some examples of why you might choose to enable an innovation engine for your organization:

To differentiate your organization in the marketplace
To build customer loyalty
To identify savings potential
To achieve revenue potential
To accelerate exploitation of new business ideas worthy of pursuing
To a build climate and culture of innovation as per the organization’s innovation mission
To become a leading innovation brand for products and services in the markets served and new markets you may serve
To improve and expand current products and services
To access new technologies
To access new markets
To identify market trends
To improve product quality and associated core processes
To improve employee attraction, engagement, and retention
To develop new competencies

Defining the Innovation Goal

The innovation goal should be visionary and exciting. It should be something that has not seen before, measurable at least once per year (eventually more often), customer focused, and ultimately delivering value (top line, mid line and bottom line).

Following are some examples of innovation goals:

Increase the product pipeline from x to y, to grow the top line by 5% better than your sector’s GDP.
Annually achieve 25% additional margin from new customer-driven services.
Increase the top line every three years by 25%.
Double the top line and bottom line every three years.
Achieve 25% of the top line from new services created within the past 24 months.
Develop new customer-driven products from the top ten customers that will increase net margins by 5% every year.
Build a new S-Curve: Invent a completely new business with a new category of offerings.
Improve customer acquisition ratio by 15% every year for the next three years.
Achieve a customer satisfaction index (CSAT) (or some other best practices method such as net promoter score (NPS) score of 6.0 out of 7.0 (85% or better).
Achieve 25% net profit from 3 new businesses and 25 new current product enhancements in the next five years.
1% profit before income tax (PBIT) above the current PBIT targets.
Top customers rate us as most innovative in markets and categories we serve.
2x/3y: Grow 2x every three years, both top line and bottom line.
3/30/3: Within three years achieve a rate of 30% new revenue from products/services introduced in last three years.
20/20: 20% of new business (top line) should come from 20% of new customers every year.
10/20/30: Ten new offerings that yield 20% growth in revenue and 30% growth in profitability.
50% of all products should be engineered or should include technologies from outside the firm by 2020.

These are good examples of innovation goals to consider. Use the list to engage senior leaders in dialog, debate, and consensus. Then, define innovation goals for your company and for each business unit.

If your innovation initiative is for the entire enterprise, one goal should be directly linked to the business strategy.

If you are rolling out innovation only in your own business unit or information technology department, the goal should be aligned to the area’s business or operational strategy.

Whatever you choose as your innovation goal, it should be fixed for a minimum of three years. At the end of three years, you can always enhance it or pick an alternative.

The Takeaway

To communicate the innovation agenda to your organization you must first clearly define the innovation strategy, objectives and goals.

Over to you. Please comment below.

How do you plan to motivate your company’s employees to generate innovative ideas and products?
What is your goal for company innovations in the next 12 months?
What other items would you add to the above lists?

22 Principles of Innovation

Rob Berman — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 14:00:00 GMT

Based on the last 25 years of working with local and global firms, The DeSai Group we has identified a22 Principles of Innovation. We have divided them into three categories: Organizational Success Principles, Individual and Team Success Principles and Leadership Success Principles.

When embraced, these principles create a significant difference when searching for innovations or venturing for new businesses. These principles are industry agnostic. Based on your industry, company culture, and business context, some may have more importance than others. They are all crucial in a great program design. You will need to uphold these as truths and make sure they take deep roots from day 1.

Organizational Success Principles

1. Seek innovation to alter or identify new business models. Due to the abundant number of convergences in products and industries, there is more white space today (in every sector) than ever before. Old business models are dying fast. Challenge your current business model, and perform acts of creative destruction. Work from the future back.

2. Listen for 360-degree voices. Your customers and partners are communicating their unmet needs faster and through a variety of media. Learn to listen faster. The voice of the customer alone is no longer enough. You must empathize with customers and gain new insights for their emerging and unmet needs.

3. Develop an innovation charter that defines innovation for your business. Tell everyone why it is important and what is expected of each individual at all levels as behaviors of innovation. Allow everyone to see themselves in your innovation vision.

4. Focus on developing microclimates for innovation, not the culture of innovation. This means you must find ways to make teams innovative. As more teams become innovative, culture will take care of itself.

5. Integrate innovation behaviors into your human resources performance management process.

6. C-suite and senior leaders should role-model innovation behaviors expected of others.

7. Provide basic innovation education to as many people as possible, and provide extended training to help build intrapreneurs. A good target ratio is 1% to 2% (develop 50 intrapreneurs if you have 5,000 non-factory employees).

8. Focus on fast experiments. Develop 90-day experiment plans for ideas that come from teams across the organization. Some of these ideas will surely drive powerful outcomes for your customers.

9. Define stretch challenges with a vivid vision of a future that is believable. Bigger challenges bring the best innovators forward. Real intrapreneurs are those who need stretch challenges and the freedom to test their wacky ideas—that is their currency. Liberate them to fail fast and discover ways to serve your customers. Give them candid feedback and recognize them quickly, no matter what the outcome for an experiment or a pilot. When they produce results, reward them handsomely.

10. In the beginning, provide access to off-budget funds for those who can work on challenging problems and produce fresh new solutions for growth.

11. Manage the idea bank closely—the bigger the pipeline (quantity and quality), the better the future.

Individual and Team Success Principles

12. Promote cross-functional volunteerism. Research shows that the majority of your employees bring only a portion of themselves to work. This means there is unharvested organizational potential waiting to be leashed. Allow anyone to form cross-functional teams for their great ideas. Diversity of thought is the catalyst for ideas. What any one person sees is only apart of what needs to be seen.

13. Teach people how to make what is invisible visible. No one person can see the future as clearly as a team of intrapreneurs can. Humans can see only through a lens of their past experiences. This means they never see a full reality of a situation. This thought can be humbling and, at the same time, very energizing for your best talent.

14. Learn to ask new questions before generating new ideas. Most organizations are solving the wrong problems in today’s fast-paced world.

15. Prototype fast—think design on day 1. Always promote action over analysis. Sitting in the corner office idealizing issues and solutions is less effective than two people role-playing the situation for new insights.

16. Diverge then converge. Then do it again. Then do it once more. Three cycles will improve the clarity of an idea as it moves along the innovation pipeline. The very best ideas will survive.

17. Greenhouse ideas. At the very early stages, ideas must be protected just like a seed has to be protected for a plant to grow. Never dismiss an idea. Put them all in a greenhouse and protect them so they don’t get shot down. Keep playing with them. It might take a few weeks or months before they are ready to be shared.

Leadership Success Principles

18. Show everyone how to derisk the future. Taking no risk can lead to stagnation. Not taking enough risk can create commoditization and price wars. Taking just enough risk at the right time can lead to market differentiation; that is called derisking the future.

19. Create healthy discontent. Provide stretch challenges and demand breakthrough solutions—once in a while. Most work is incremental. Your best innovators get bored easily. Often they are most sought after for all incremental challenges. Manage their intellectual capital between easy and complex assignments. This will keep them engaged and at peak levels of performance.

20. Communicate how innovation decisions will be made. Create an environment of transparency for idea generation, evaluation protocol, funding and experimentation.

21. Implement a reward and recognition policy that encourages proper behaviors for all, especially middle management.

22. Exhibit personal passion for innovative thinking and creativity.

The Takeaway

Innovation is a large opportunity in all organizations. However, it requires persistence, a plan and engaged employees to succeed.

Your turn. Please comment below.

1. What other innovation principles would you add to the list?

2. Which category do you feel is more important than the other two categories?

3. Do you find these principles to be industry agnostic?

Five Power Skills For Discovering Radical Ideas

Jatin Desai — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 14:00:00 GMT

On October 22, 2013 Professor Vijay Govindarajan and I co-authored a blog about Discovering Radical Ideas for the Harvard Business Review Blog.

In the article, we outlined a five-step process to create a consistent flow of “big” ideas to transform your business for the challenges it will face in the coming years. Here is the beginning of it:

Innovation starts with new and novel ideas. Over the last 20 years, we have worked with many world-class brands to help find their next “big thing.” During the initial phases of our work together, it becomes obvious that they have plenty of good ideas. Finding ideas is never the problem — initially. The challenge is finding radical ideas consistently year after year.

When we surveyed over 300 global executives between 2008 and 2009, one of the primary concerns they expressed was their inability to compete long term without a solid innovation engine that can grow their top line. In order to do this, your company needs a process to source radical ideas that can catapult your business to new heights, open up new markets, or bring in completely unfamiliar profit streams.

Read the entire article at Harvard Business Review >>

Intrapreneurs Must Reference World Authorities To Build Proposals

Jatin Desai — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 14:22:00 GMT

Intrapreneurs are the purple horse in the room. They are working as entrepreneurs within a larger enterprise. Gifford Pinchot III coined the term Intrapreneur to describe them. They want to innovate. Often, corporate culture limits or prevents their ability to succeed.

Business Cases and Proposals Need Research

When I teach intrapreneurs to certify them in the DeSai body of knowledge they learn to create a business case. To turn that case into a full-blown, well researched proposal the intrapreneur needs to reference credible worldwide authorities.

My Favorite Sources

20 of my favorite sources are shown below. These sources are universal. They can be used by for profits and non-profits, large companies as well as small ones. Good luck and may “the force be with you” during your research process.

1	Worldmapper Project Provides cartograms – maps where countries are resized according to a range of economic, social, demographic and resources criteria

2	World Trade Organization Trade statistics, trade news, economic research and publications

3	World Economic Forum Research on wide range of issues related to its agenda; also organizes Davos summit annually dealing with global issues

4	World Bank Economic and financial statistics, including commodity prices

5	Wikipedia Open-source based online encyclopaedia, which is a good first lead for information on many topics BUT always check references and data wherever possible

6	US Bureau of Labor Statistics Research and statistics on all aspects of the labor market in the US, plus international comparisons

7	United Nations Data and reports relevant for many trends including economics, demographics, Millennium Development Goals

8	Strategy & Business Surveys, articles, publications on a range of business topics, on both the Booz site and Strategy & Business site

9	RAND Corporation Research areas include security, international affairs, science & technology, health, infrastructure

10	PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Consulting/Accounting firm offering research/publications on range of business topics

11	Org. for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) Publications and statistics on economic and social issues, including macroeconomics, trade, education, science, innovation

12	McKinsey Quarterly Surveys, articles, publications on a range of business topics

13	McKinsey Surveys, articles, publications on a range of business topics

14	International Labour Organization (ILO) Information and news on international labour standards and human rights; provides international labor statistics and research

15	IMF Range of time series data on GDP growth, inflation, unemployment, payments balances, exports, imports, external debt, capital flows, commodity prices, more and other economic and financial indicators

16	IMD Research, articles and information on critical business topics and issues; and home of the World COmpetitiveness Center

17	IBM Range of research, particularly related to technology industry

18	European Commission Eurostat Publications and statistics on economic and social issues, including macroeconomics, trade, education, science, innovation

19	CIA World Factbook offers basic but useful country information; other reports cover security related matters e.g. fuel use

20	Boston Consulting Group Surveys, articles, publications on a range of business topics

The Takeaway

Excellent research sources help an Intrapreneur change an idea from “I know I am correct” to “of course our company must adopt your proposal.”

It is your turn. Share your wisdom. Please comment below.

What are your indispensible research sources?
What techniques help you best prepare a persuasive proposal for higher management?
What is the relationship between the perceived risk of the opportunity and the length of the proposal you submit?

Microsoft Innovative - YES according to AD in WSJ

Jatin Desai — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Microsoft is famous for its back story of a couple of nerds who changed personal computing for the entire world. They went from a few thousand dollars in revenue to$70 billion in revenue each year. They must have been innovative to accomplish such a feat and have $77 billion in the bank. They just spent $7 billion of that hard earned cash to buy Nokia’s Devices & Services business.

READ MY LIPS – WE ARE INNOVATIVE

Then, why did they have to point out not once, but twice about innovation in their full page ad on the back page of Section A in the Wall Street Journal? Here are the two quotes with emphasis and commentary added by me.

“By bringing together these great teams together, Microsoft will be able to deliver more choices and faster innovation to consumers in phones and smart devices of all kinds”

I thought a couple of years ago that Microsoft gave billions of dollars to Nokia and its CEO Stephen Elop (a former Microsoft executive) to accomplish the task already. Microsoft and Nokia were already joined at the hip as partners when Nokia gave up its own operating system in favor of Windows.

Staples has the “Easy Button.” Perhaps, Mr. Elop has the “Innovation Button.”

“Together, we will create more unified development, manufacturing, and marketing efforts to bring innovation to market with greater efficiency and speed.”

The market did not think so, and erased 4.6% of Microsoft’s share price after the announcement. That decline in share price pretty much wiped out the nice bump in Microsoft shares after CEO Steve Ballmer indicated he would retire within 12 months.

A THIRD EXAMPLE OF PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS

Ballmer went on to say in a Wall Street Journal story on the same day,“For us to really fulfill the vision for what we can do for our customers, we have evolved our thinking.”

Very recently Ballmer announced the “devices and services” approach at Microsoft after a major reorganization of the 100,000 person company (now 132,000 after Nokia acquisition). Sounds like he is going all in for devices. Other than the X Box gaming device, Microsoft does not have a successful record creating hardware. See Surface Tablet and Microsoft’s recent $900 million write off for unsold inventory.

The Takeaway

You need an Innovation Engine to help create an ecosystem of innovation. You cannot decree it, you must work hard to create it.

Your turn. Tell me what you think. Please comment below.

Does your business have a culture and climate of innovation?
What is the most innovative new product or service your company has created in the last 5 years?
Do you feel that Microsoft and Nokia can out innovate Google’s Android platform and Apple’s iPhone platform?

Convergence Drives Strategic Planning in 2013 - Part 2

Jatin Desai — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:50:00 GMT

Part Two: Global Scale “Convergent Thinking”– The New Main Course?

The need for “convergent thinking” is not only still on the table, but may well become the centerpiece of strategic planning for many organizations. But, just because this trend is rapidly growing, doesn’t mean it’s an easy road to success.

Markets are fickle. They can seem to arise overnight and die off as quickly. Studies indicate 60% of employees are disengaged and frustrated with their work and too many executives are still relying on management practices rather than leadership. This only serves to complicate the risks of innovation, not to mention what it can do to a new market entry strategy. Many organizations need to begin right here with a leadership strategy to create a more engaged, innovative and stable workforce.

Add to that the need for an aligned vision and necessary support structures to navigate the convergence of commercial enterprise with governments and NGO’s, and the risks of moving into new consumer groups, platforms and new geographies, can be daunting. What shifts are necessary to consider when moving globally and what internal support is required? How ready are you to innovate?

When moving from marketing partnerships on local levels to sustainable global markets, any undertaking in international development must consider the growing role of cross-sector convergence. This entails not only possibilities for new and broader markets as technologies and business sectors converge, but must also consider how convergence is playing an increasingly key role in forming solutions to the world’s most pressing issues in developing countries.

Commercial self-interest, NGO’s and governments are increasingly coming together to find solutions. These hybrid organizations are challenging today’s sector boundaries and outdated paradigms as never before, shifting the emphasis away from income, organizational structures and stereotypical roles. With a growing awareness that markets are inextricably linked to solutions for problems such as extreme poverty, drought, and disease in developing countries, considerations of impact and outcome are coming to the fore.

To satisfy business self-interest in new markets, a global sense of community must emerge from the global development of markets. Success in the Emerging Market Economy is a combination of access to customers and resources plus willingness and a plan to help build sustainable communities.

When it comes to the global marketplace, business, government and NGO’s all see global development as the best way to create opportunities for millions of people to secure a decent life and increase prosperity. If you want the resources and the market, you must help build the surrounding sustainable community to support it.

License to operate must contain certain elements to succeed, varying by region and company size, including:

Compliance with law
Risk management
Reputation enhancement
Value added to communities

Companies must address sustainability factors from human resource management and respect for local cultural values to eco-efficiency and social responsibility including helping to limit climate degradation and loss of biodiversity. For example, as viewed on the Chinese cable network in the past few weeks, workers are rising up in protest of environmental degradation. Very simply, they too want to breathe clean air, drink clean water and be treated with respect. Good working relationships at all levels help create a more even road for sustainability.

The business case for sustainability in emerging markets can actually work to pinpoint opportunities in Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, but be aware responsible business conduct needs to step up. To develop new global markets built on ever expanding cross-sector convergences, strategy must now include linking to the communities involved. It’s looking like these markets will arise from the convergence of solutions built on innovative relationships responding to converging challenges and employing new approaches. Hiding behind outdated management practices – no longer an option.

What are your challenges and what value do you see in utilizing an Innovation Readiness Assessment for strategic planning?

Convergence Drives Strategic Planning in 2013 - Part 1

Jatin Desai — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:37:00 GMT

Part One: What’s on Your Strategic Menu? – Some Factors to Consider

Domestic and international politics, finances and markets loom large in organizational planning in 2013, but the trend towards global development remains a constant in this convergent economy. Global development is expanding, and an important factor to consider when planning and developing strategy for new markets and sustainable innovation models. With resources and markets scattered all over the globe, if you’re in business, you’re global, at least on some level.

When it comes to planning and global markets, leadership needs to consider the driving forces of convergent economies. For businesses with traditional organizational structures and stereotypical roles this brings continuing challenges. To facilitate forward movement they will likely be required to allow new ideas to find form and implementation. As convergence gains momentum, this primary leadership competency of strategically allowing flow and change becomes no longer optional, but necessary to design an organization’s desired future.

With commercial businesses, governments, and NGO’s increasingly finding the need and desire to converge to facilitate global development, grow the global economy, attain global resources, and manage suppliers, customers, employees, partners and technologies, these new strategic alliances will continue to blur lines. These collaborations will for instance, create new issues and challenges for stakeholders, funding, competition, growth opportunities, to cite just a few.

Within old markets innovation is essential to survival. New ideas are copied so easily across single sectors, that far from being a fad, innovation is vital to existence. Whether talking automobiles in the US market, opening new Asian markets for products, or even fundraising for non-profits, new ideas become global property in a sense, as soon as they see any form of media, so acting fast and decisively is a priority; and then be ready to do it again and again. In other words, keep acting like an entrepreneur, Think Small and Fast.

Customer driven innovation is apparent in the new Ford Escape with it hands-free lift-gate. What a great idea for the owner out shopping, without a hand free to open the hatch. Campbell’s 2013 growth strategy includes expanded presence in emerging markets. North America will see increased offerings in soup, simple meals and healthy beverage choices – more aware consumers want quick, but nutritionally better choices. President and Chief executive Officer Denise Morrison stated that Campbell’s will carefully attend to its core business, "while we shift our center of gravity toward new consumer groups, new consumer needs, new consumer platforms and new geographies."

Keeping ahead of the curve means harvesting innovative ideas from all available sources, including customers, suppliers, and adjacent sectors as well as your in-house intrapreuneurs. We’ve seen enormous growth in cross-sector convergence giving rise to new products and markets. Cosmeceuticals, Nutricosmetics, Nutraceuticals and Digital/Analog are just a few examples of scientific advancements and markets converging, and these are huge new markets.

As technologies and markets continue to advance there is every reason to believe this is just the beginning. Identifying your core competencies, keeping inquiry going on all fronts, adjusting to sector trends, recognizing convergences and knowing how to position products are all essential for innovation, growth and sustainability.

Targeting new opportunities requires both innovation and branding strategies. Take for example how Mazda has chosen to structure and innovate in the global market. Recognizing that larger rivals tend to aim for market center, where size alone gives them an edge, Mazda adjusted its aim and found success targeting "inside high" for their cars. Mazda continually identifies and tweaks their "strike zones" for cars, sports cars, minivans and B-cars in the US, Europe and Japan, where markets are always changing and evolving, as well as in emerging markets.

Effective innovation for consumer goods, while challenging to come by, is always the key to sustained competitive advantage. Convergence presents challenges, but also many more opportunities. Take for instance, two brands teaming up. Pepsi Max Citrus Freeze and Doritos Jalapeno Fire launched a "complementary flavors" joint promotional campaign. Reportedly there was a significant increase in sales for both products as it drove consumers to purchase both together.

Co-creation as best practice has its place, when well placed. Customer communities and co-creation must figure ever larger in the strategic planning process. The process must create brand value and customer value for further innovation to continue to deliver sustainability.

So, what does your plan look like for the coming year? Does it include new global markets, new cross-sector markets, better customer out-reach, new alliances, niche markets, or still undecided?

What about the role of developing emerging markets, global development and the global convergent economy?

Watch for:

Convergence Drives Strategic Planning in 2013 - Part Two: Global Scale "Convergent Thinking"– The New Main Course?

Get your workers to embrace social innovation

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:08:00 GMT

The McKinsey Institute published the results of their fifth annual survey on how organizations use social technologies, it surveyed 4,200 executives to understand the developments and progress throughout the years and benefits of these social technology applications. They are being deployed for the purpose of process enhancements and operations. Secondly they’re being used to find new growth opportunities. Surprisingly, a large percentage of organizations did not maintain the benefits of using social technologies that they had achieved earlier.

Companies use social technologies to drive innovation and knowledge-sharing, but often do not sustain the momentum, according to a McKinsey survey. "Management needs to facilitate bottom-up ownership in order to let the organization innovate on processes with the multitude of available social technologies," Gianluigi Cuccureddu writes.

Source: InnovationManagement.se (Sweden)

Innovation is about “Getting Out of the Box”…So what?

Jatin DeSai — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

What do we mean by “The Box”? Is this outside or inside of us? If you think about it The Box is who we are today – made up of deep beliefs and assumptions from our life’s experiences so far. Everyone’s boxes are different and unique. We tend to associate with and hire people who have a box similar to ours: not a good practice if one wants to expand and grow.

To help you discover your own box, here are some questions for you to think about.

Where is this Box? What material is it made up of? How tall is it? How big is it to others?
Who can come in your box? Who cannot?
Does everyone have a box?
When one is born, did the box exist? How does it get created?
What is the role of parents in creating the box for their children?
What is the role of a manager in crafting a box for new hires, especially new graduates?

The Box is one’s “context” or “point of view” about what is right and what is wrong.

Most of us are happiest when we are at the center of the box. We don’t like to be pushed to the corner of the box. We get scared. What does that mean?

The center of the box is where the left brain is most happy. It is where everyone around expects us to be in order to do “the work” assigned to us. Most of us work from the center of the box on a daily basis – routine patterns, nothing new, boring, etc.

The best innovators are keenly self-aware of their own box and its characteristics. They also have trained themselves to go to the edge of the box on daily basis. They also “jump-out of the box” often to find new ideas, see what others don’t see, and are not fearful. They are “lost” (deeply loving what they do) when they are away from the center of the box. They in fact hate being stuck in the center of the box. Most people look at them as “different.” They become innovators because of their out of the box qualities along with an ability to navigate organizational systems and overcome deeply rooted orthodoxies. They can be considered corporate missionaries.

Finally, the very best, the world-class innovation leaders are fully aware of their box and also the boxes of others around them. They also love to get outside the box. So what is the difference between the best and the world-class? The world-class innovators also know how to pull others outside of their respective boxes as well.

Organizations must learn to create a pipeline of such leaders to deal with the complex and fast changing world.

What is your organization doing to institutionalize out of the box environment and reward out of the box thinking?

How Innovative is your Organization?

Jatin DeSai — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:00:00 GMT

You must be having certain parameters or yardsticks to judge the performance of your organization and exactly calculate the return on investment (ROI) vis-à-vis the planning, the performance and the potential. Despite all the available mechanisms of analysis, most leaders fail to understand the immeasurable gap between speculations and reality. The root cause of this immeasurable gap can certainly be tracked down to a few intangible factors. Primary among them is the capacity to innovate for a particular brand, organization or a corporate entity.

Innovation Obstacles

The major problem faced by an organization is the absence of a clear directive or formula to innovate. The work force, which is a major decider of innovation, largely works as a cog in the machine rather than a radical unit intelligent enough to innovate as hierarchical processes are better preferred by a linear human resource.

Another area which makes innovation a difficult process to be imbibed by your workforce is lack of liberty to express in a highly structured system. Whenever there is lack of liberty at an individual level, an organization fails to innovate on the whole. More structured-driven the culture, harder it is to embrace innovation; which by its nature, is somewhat unstructured.

Organizational culture is a result of inherited and tolerated past behaviors of the staff; especially the leaders at the top. Organization suffers from lack of innovation due to contemporary business practices and the nearby environment it operates in. Thus, innovation as a process should begin at the level of an individual with full support of the leaders. This can lend a character to an organization where performance, profit and potential grow manifold by significant innovation on intangible, impromptu research, and management decisions.

How ready is the culture for innovation?

How adept your workforce is with a dynamic knowledge system or how porous they are with circumstance fluctuation are simple questions which help you to approximately understand how innovative your organization is. However, to ensure that your organization is ready for such innovation trials you need to first make sure that your organization is innovation-ready.

At The DeSai Group, our innovation consulting processes are deliberate and drastic. They are designed to be transformative in nature. We believe in a sustained innovation strategy instead of piecemeal innovation. This means that our consulting techniques rely heavily on a dramatic change to completely undermine forces of resistance and new growth opportunities. As necessity is the mother of invention, we facilitate an environment in your organization where necessity is induced to alter psychological performance and create a climate of innovation. The process makes your workforce rehearse find measures of self-innovation. This means there are real entrepreneurs working on their passions in an environment that promotes experimentation, risk-taking, and future thinking.

The right brand image within insiders of an organization is a necessary precondition for any kind of innovation. If a nagging employee has a negative attitude toward the organization’s optimism the result is not only affecting the performance of the concerned individual but the overall environment as well. Such individuals can be motivated through vigorous team-building and venturing skills.

The process of innovation is largely a psycho-social process wherein knowledge transfer and experiential methods are largely employed to achieve the goal. We, here at The DeSai Group, clinically approach the intangibility quotient of innovation through hard-core rational, analytical science we call “Innovation Execution Methodology”, while keeping in mind that innovation is also very much a form of art and it is the artistic and unpredictability that actually gives rise to new ideas for commercialization and value generation.

Nine Excellent Ways To Stifle Innovation

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:17:00 GMT

Innovation doesn't just happen…it comes from awesome intrapreneurial teams. Are you or your company guilty of killing good ideas?

Yes, everyone at the top is interested in innovation. It has become a business mandate in many organizations. But are the leaders serious? We find that plenty of companies are not walking the talk. They want innovation, but also don’t want to recalibrate the organizational systems. These systems are where a good idea has as much opportunity to succeed as me going to the moon. Why so?

For starters, organizations do not have an internal muscle for a creative process. The creative process is not well understood and it is truly a fragile process. This situation promotes uncertainty; something most leaders do not want to spend time on. Additionally, there are very few internal experts who can support it and nurture it like there are for project management processes, customer service processes, budgeting processes, etc. This is very tough in today’s short-term focus surrounded by the fear-inducing environment of rapid technological change and dynamic markets—but this also makes innovation essential.

So what to do? First, kill the innovation killers. Here is our list of innovation killers that will need significant moderation if not surgical removal. You can discover for yourself if you have an environment that is crushing good ideas or allowing growth and change to be welcomed.

Clear(?) and cumbersome approval processes, rules, regulations for every action at every level within the organization. Making decisions takes forever and when they are made, they take forever to implement. Too much process everywhere.
Silos are promoted. The organization loves to allow departments and individuals to compete against one another for resources and protect their areas.
The truth is one-sided the truth comes mostly in the form of criticism without praise. The glass is always half-empty. The focus is so much on execution, that the culture often forgets the impact on human spirit.
Don’t trust new ideas. All ideas are evaluated with great suspicion and ‘yes, but’. When someone contributes a new idea, the first thing someone says is ‘yes but…’ followed by ‘not sure if we can do that, or we have never done that before, or management will not approve it, etc.’ Moving away from the status quo is very difficult and not often welcomed.
Control and calibrate everything. The organization is very systematic, dashboard driven, precise, and project managed. Although all of that is very essential, the system does not allow for any quick experimentation of new ideas or technologies with spontaneity. Missing target goals is frowned upon more than the lessons gathered through failure.
Organization is very secretive. Restructuring, product launches, competitive news, and executive changes all occur in a secretive manner. Leaders believe that “the less people know, the better they can stay focused on the day-to-day job.” The firm does not like to share bad news with employees until the last minute.
Promote class-based relationships. There are seniors and inferiors. Seniority and tenure are heavily used to promote fear-based execution. The culture perpetuates the idea that seniors know everything and they should get the best of everything. The higher you are up in the ladder, the more you are allowed to look down at others. Unpleasant duties can be delegated to inferiors.
The pyramid is inverted. The higher-ups know everything important about the business, and the bottom does not need to know how the business should be conducted; as long as they do what they are trained to do.
Leadership is invisible. Leaders are not able to connect to employees. Employees do not have confidence in the leaders based on their action and those of the top management team.

Innovation Tatva(Truth) #2: Put a ceiling on time.

Jatin DeSai — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:01:00 GMT

By setting time limits, things get done. Time is one of five most critical resource. Protect it with passion - no matter the size of the challenge.

Put a large clock in every meeting room and make it your team's best friend for every meeting. Some of our client's estimate that they spend almost 75% of their time in meetings - and half of them are unproductive and not needed.

In our work, we have found innovators who love to experiment all day, just for the sake of learning and broadening their insights. This is a critical activity, but when compounded with other innovators who also love to learn, the team may collect lots of insights and new knowledge, but no results.

Make sure all innovation is tied to strategic results - hard or soft. Hard being financials such as revenue, profit, EBITDA, etc. Soft goals can be customer satisfaction, knowledge of new technology, lessons learned from a pilot project, market variables that worked or did not work, etc.

Innovation requires "Corporate Freaks"

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:42:00 GMT

In today's crisis we need out of the box thinking to move ahead. Looking at the past on how we got this horrific financial melt down is critical. Everyone is asking how are we going to get out of this mess? Who is going lead us out? Who will rise as the leader? Will it me the world bank? National Treasury Leaders? McCain? Obama? Or will it be the (God forbid) "W"?

To get out of this mess, every business is going to have to become more innovative and drive new ideas to the market. Harvesting on old ideas and incremental thinking is going to kill you sooner then you think. So, what will you need to do first?

Hire some 'freaks'. Yes, you heard me! Hire 'freaks' to shake up your organizational culture.

Here is what Tom Peters (http://www.tompeters.com/) says about freaks:

Why Do I love Freaks? - By Tom Peters:

(1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was a freak who did it. (Period.)

(2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are never boring.)

(3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint: These are freaky times, for you & me & the [fill in whoever you want here]....)

(4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst automatically make us-who-are-not-so-freaky at least somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky times—see immediately above.)

(5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in, make it into the history books.

(6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most of us—and our organizations—are in ruts. Make that chasms.)
-----------------------
Tom is one heck of a communicator, isn't he? Most people in corporations are 'most people' and not 'freaks'. If we had 'freaks' as per Tom, our corporations would not have been normalized to the level of greed, manipulation, selfishness, and chaos that has resulted into a global financial meltdown.

Feel free to view a short clip of Tom Peters speaking on Innovation by clicking here

CEO Bottom-line: Go hire some 'freaks' and fire all the 'ruts' that got you in this mess.

-Jatin

Building Living Organizations

Jatin DeSai — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:15:00 GMT

Recently I spoke at a conference that had about 150 human resources, talent management and talent development executives. I asked them how many of you are offering and teaching explicitly today creativity and innovation classes to your employees. The answer was 2 out of 150 raised their hands!

Unfortunately, we as businesses are not giving time and attention to creativity and innovation.

First and foremost, the journey to becoming a Living Organization is not a short, quick or fast journey. It is hard to find organizations that have demonstrated what it is like to be a Living Organization and create a living culture.

The following steps are fundamental towards building a living organization:

1) Recognizing that this is a journey. The book, Innovation Journey provides a good account of this journey.

2) Realizing that it is not something you can go outside for and bring it in for implementation such as Six Sigma which can be brought in to optimize of your business process. Living organizations are geared towards unlearning which helps to provide more time and reflection towards creativity. Realizing that is a creativity and innovation journey about being alive.

3) Recognizing that this approach is top-down. It starts from the top of the ladder at the level of the CEO, board of directors and senior executives who must demonstrate what it is like be a part of a living organization. Authentic leaders in the organization must start out by clearly demonstrating their leadership. Once they have succeeded at that you can tell others about it. Individuals at the top of the organization must become fully aware of what a living organization is all about through personal education and new-scar development.

For more on Authentic Leadership, please click here.

Got thoughts? Want to learn more? Go to http://www.desai.com

Want to hear a podcast version of this blog? Go to http://www.strategydriveninnovation.com/podcasts-links/

Role of Personal Vision in Innovation

Jatin DeSai — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:57:00 GMT

Many world-class companies cannot survive without a great vision. Especially in the current climate, how can an organization survive without a well-defined vision? I don’t mean vision-statement alone, I mean a real vision – a vivid enough picture of the future that has no boundaries, it is larger then the organization itself, it is far enough in distance to want to work hard for. A great company vision, everyone can see a clear direction, not the exact path, but a focused path to the future.

Good organizations have a vision; Great organizations are living their vision. Any strategy guru will tell you, without a company vision, the company will fail.

Therefore, if company must have a good vision to be successful, why don’t every individuals have a vision? Do you? Do you have it written for your self?

I don’t think it is possible to be ‘tuned-in’ to our work without having our personal vision connected to our work. Is it? Without this connection, doesn’t it just feel like ‘work’?

Who loves to go to ‘work’ everyday? Not too many. Work can become our own worship only if is fun and exciting. How can we be creative in our work if we don’t have a vivid picture of our own future?

For innovation to work, I have already argued that employees must be fully engaged – more often, everyday, in every project they contributing to. ‘Engaged’ being - more creative in their work, more passionate, more meaningful, less stressful, collaborative etc.

Most people I know haven't thought to do a personal vision statement for themselves. The great athletes, as we watched Olympics in Beijing recently, all spoke about how they got there, how they envisioned their accomplishments, how they visualized their success, how they even ‘watched’ the medal ceremony and their dreams coming true years ago.

Aristotle observed that "the soul never thinks without a picture."

Creating a compelling vision for our lives -- one that includes not just a vision of our professional accomplishments but also a vision for family life, education, health, community engagements, travel, and adventures -- can point us in new directions and provide the drive we need to get there. A personal vision statement asks: what do I want to be, do, and contribute in life -- and who do I want to share it with?

Many people struggle with the concept of defining a vision of the good life because it sounds too abstract and distant. Fortunately, authors Richard Leider and David Shapiro have come to the rescue with an elegantly simple definition of the good life: "living in the place you belong, with the people you love, doing the right work -- on purpose."

It is important to realize that a vision is very different from purpose ("mission") and goals. Our purpose is our reason for being, and we should think of it as timeless. Our goals are the targets we want to accomplish, and they are best conceived in near term; usually within 1-3 years. By contrast, our life vision is a vivid description of what we will do with our lives. It’s best thought of over a decade, or even a lifetime. Our life vision should give goose-bumps, make us cry, and take our breath away with its boldness. It should roar with passion and set markers for what we plan to do with our days on the planet.

A personal vision for yourself, may take long time to arise in your consciousness. But, once you have it, it will become your ‘being’, the creative and catalyzing force in your life.

Carl Jung says that "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." In essence, our vision statement is an authentic expression of how our purpose and values play out in the world.

C-Suite Bottom Line: To drive enterprise innovation, and create a remarkable living organization, one of the easiest action you take, is to help every employee craft their personal vision statement. This will allow every employee to put their dreams on the line of their own vision of the good life. Once they can see the line of sight between their purpose, values, and work, then let them go – see what happens to your culture for innovation. Creativity will overflow, ideas will come from everywhere, continuous innovation will become the food for sustainable growth, and therefore business strategies will become reality – faster.

-Jatin

What is definition of Integrity and its relationship to Innovation?

Jatin DeSai — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:39:00 GMT

Recently a friend asked me what is my definition of integrity. It was an exciting interchange because it helps me deepen my views and obstacles that I am working on within my inner world.

Here is what I said:

1) At the level of highest Universal Truth, it means tight alignment of my thoughts, words, and actions. What I think, must be what I say, and what I do. So, by definition it is Spiritual Integrity - within my self. Many people define integrity from the point of others and not first within themselves. That is fine, but lacks depth and meaning - for me. Integrity therefore is firm adherence to code of personal values - especially moral values. So depending on one's value, virtue and belief system (their level of consciousness), what they think, what they say and what they do, might be quiet different then for others. This does not mean they are not acting with integrity. As long as one is fully aligned from their own internal and higher self, they are acting with integrity. I have to be very careful that I do not judge others in their own integrity. They very well might be acting with full integrity. Does this makes sense?

So how do I know I and others around me are acting with full integrity? That is, how does it show up in my life?

Integrity is a result of three components - Honesty, Respect and Courage.

Acting with integrity means being honest, respectful, and courageous. If I do that correctly, it leads to Trust within myself and with others. Without Trust, we cannot maintain or build relationships with each other. Without relationships, life may have very little meaning - for us mortals that is. Without good relationships, we generally cannot bring our highest self in our work (no matter what we do or what part of our life) and serve others with meaning.

So, I know integrity exists, if my relationships with others have strong bond of Trust and that all three dimensions are active in that relationship. If I lack courage to say the truth to someone, or I have lost respect with someone or them in me, Trust dwindles in our relationship. If trust dwindles, I should feel lack of integrity and I should do something about it.

Integrity is cornerstone for personal creativity. When one is creative with integrity, they are filled with passion in their work and work-teams. There is enough evidence that shows that individuals and teams who act with full Trust (honesty, respect, and courage) with each other, consistently achieve breakthrough results.

Bottom Line for C-Suite and HR: To drive innovation in your organization, simply create an environment of Highest Integrity. Don’t just declare it and talk about it, teach people how to integrate the three components of Honesty, Respect, and Courage in to their work, in to their teams, and with customers. Offer a class on "Integrity 101" and maybe another class on "How to bring Courage in your work 101"?

Are you born to be a leader or can you learn to be a leader?

Jatin DeSai — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:29:00 GMT

It depends on your definition of leadership.

In my experience with building leadership capacity for an organization and coach C-level executives, I would highly suggest you first distinguish between what is Leadership and what is Management for your organization – at the top.

Once you have this definition then look for following traits to build via experiential learning(you can't teach leadership in classroom alone).

One of the best teachers of this subject is my friend Mel Toomey of Generative Leadership Group(www.glg.net). He has taught me very important lessons about the topic of leadership, and I regard him as one of the best in the world. He says that most leadership education in Corporate America is Management Training. Leadership is a form of art. Management is a form of science. You cannot teach leadership in a scientific manner. You can create leadership literacy in class – but that is all.

I asked Mel, what is the one most important thing to teach (or learn) for different levels of leaders in a typical organization. Here is what he said:

1) New leaders: learn to TRUST THEMSELVES - a leader's capacity for trusting others is bounded by their trust for themselves.

2) Experienced leaders: learn to PREPARE TO MAKE MISTAKES... One cannot lead unless they are willing to be wrong... the handmaiden of original thinking are mistakes.

3) For senior leaders: learn that they WILL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH INFORMATION TO MAKE THE DECISIONS THEIR JOB CALLS FOR... By definition, the decisions leaders make involve creating... bringing new things into existence, dealing with matters that are unique. While history will inform a leader, a leader’s decisions involve maters for which they must write the history.

4) Finally for the top level executives: they need to learn to BE A "LEADER EDUCATOR"... the source of growth and innovation in your organization will come from those you educate, develop and mentor as leaders. Be "the coach" and clear the field of play for your "experienced leaders."

If you look at the list above, the question you asked no longer matters. The answer becomes - all human beings have the capacity to be a leader. The difference is, what in the ‘context of leadership’, the ‘play arena for leadership’ are you talking about and what needs to be developed between where they are now and what level of leadership they need to practice. As a side note, most organizational cultures are not tolerant enough for the craft of leadership to be learned fast and safely – en entirely different issue, but an important one.

It is very unfortunate that, many “Leadership Programs” are just that – one brush fits all. Total waste of time and money – most of this stuff does not work.

Cheers,

-Jatin

Global Warming inside Busineses

Jatin DeSai — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:18:00 GMT

Did you see the movie Incoveniant Truth by Al Gore?

How do you 'power' the business and still fight the global warming (corporate intangible assets) inside of your business?

Does your business have the 'energy' to create peak performance?

What are you going to do when your 'internal natural resources(people)' run out (the door) caused by X-Gen middle management shortage and the Boomers leave for retirement?

Looking at the X-Gen and Y-Gen value systems, what "alternative resources" are you experimenting with to keep the G&A expenses low?

Most businesses have a huge 'climate' problem in their culture. Global Warming in a business culture is reality. Innovations to create Living Organizations fueled by creative energy from with-in, strong leadership at the top, and holistic corporate policy are sorely needed if we are to cope and compete in the new(but getting old fast) flat-world.

Here is brief Mega Story and my Purple Cow (Seth Godin expression-my American-Marketing Idol) solution. Ready? Here it goes:

Mega Story on Global Warming(GW):

1) A prerequisite for life on Earth, the greenhouse effect occurs when infrared radiation (heat) is retained within Earth's atmosphere.

2) Most of Sun's solar energy reaching the Earth is absorbed at the Earth's surface.

3) The warmed surface emits infrared radiation back up into the atmosphere and keeps us warm.

4) Like a blanket, atmospheric green house gases absorb and reradiate the heat in all directions, including back to earth.

5) Human activity has increased the green house gas in the atmosphere and thus at the amount of heat returned to the surface. In consequence, global temperatures have risen.

Mega Story on Global Warming Organizations(GWO):

1) A prerequisite for sustainable life of a company, the 'living' effect occurs when the cultural fabric of any organization, explicitly, integrates human values(the heat energy) into all processes and products.

2) Most of company business (solar energy) reaching company turns into extraordinary compensation for the top, and unequal regard to the rest of the organization.

3) The over cost-cutting and focus on rear-view mirror items, such as process automation, continuous improvement, etc., has created workforces without a clear alignment to the purpose, vision, values, and the brand of the company (the warmed surface).

4) This warm surface, creates unwritten rules and misunderstanding with unplanned constant change initiatives in the climate. This climate emits infrared radiation(unclear, unwritten communication) back up into the atmosphere(culture) and heats up the environment, causing stress, anxiety, and lack of accountability.

5) Like a spiral downwards, atmospheric 'black' cloud of negativity in the air, reradiates and begins to impact your top talent back into other parts of the organization.

6) Human activity in the workplace, in form of pride, jealously, attachment to personal gains, lust, anger, and selfish acts has increased the 'black' house gas in the atmosphere and thus the amount of innovation and creativity is reduced. In consequence, organizational temperatures have risen.

Are you feeling the heat? You may not be. But just like Global Warming, its real and its there in your company.

What is your plan to keep your Organizational Carbon(negative culture) in check?