Peter Drucker’s book in 1954 “The Practice of Management” has an elegant definition of leadership that indicates an effective Manager is great at – setting objectives, organization, motivation, communications, and getting results – by establishing metrics and developing people. In reviewing this today, it’s amazing how these principles apply more now than ever – especially in the context of real corporate transformation and innovating for impact to meaningfully improve business outcomes.
Extending on this, to help understand how enterprises can increase the rewards from innovation to effect real corporate transformation, consider the following:
1. Would ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, or Chevron exist today if the kerosene companies –
– Were much more innovative at addressing issues with the fuel ?
– Understood the changing nature of the energy industry over a century ago ?
– Were much more aggressive about developing an ecosystem and products around kerosene and their core competencies ?
2. A person says ” Let’s go on a cruise ” where they mean let’s go far away on a luxury ship for 10 days – versus – another who thinks a cruise is an evening trip around the city water front !
Question : While many Enterprise Executives believe they are doing the former in innovation – how do you know it’s not the latter ?
3. Does your enterprise today have a high competency in the many aspects of innovation to have a bright future ?
– and avoid the huge opportunities lost by Polaroid, Kodak, Xerox, etc.
– see Examples of Disruptive Innovation in Enterprises Being Very Difficult
4. To win the MLB World Series you need to hit singles, doubles and home runs.
Many enterprises believe they are winning at innovation since they’re good at incremental and sustainable innovation – which has worked well for a long time and meshes well with their culture.
With this being equivalent to hitting singles and doubles, where are the sluggers ?
…. the people and the projects that do disruptive innovation
In this context, to clarify enterprise innovation capabilities – In recent years, what disruptive innovation has resulted in your organization meaningfully gaining traction in new markets with new products / services ?
5. While recognizing many enterprises in established industries are cognizant of the need to be agile and more entrepreneurial by investing in innovation resources, labs, strategy, education, startups, etc. – what more is needed to win against a technology based competitor where innovation is integral in the culture and they have a digital platform that delivers a great User experience ?
And given increasing User expectations as well as the advantages of User self-service and convenience – is your business sufficiently equipped to innovate for impact by being more sophisticated at monetizing value creation and managing risk ?
If interested in learning more about increasing the rewards from innovation for a successful corporate transformation, please visit www.cail.com/BI or contact CAIL at info@cail.com or call 800-668-5769 / 905-940-9000.