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Is there a place for innovation in corporates today? | Register To Post |
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| pontsho.lefenya | Posted on: 2008/4/8 8:34 |
Just can't stay away   Joined: 2003/9/5 From: Johannesburg, SA Posts: 64 |
Re: Is there a place for innovation in corporates today? Why am I sensing that we want to separate processs innovation from product innovation e.t.c?? I thought I learned from Systemic Logic school of thought that Strategy, Offering ( Be it Product/Service), Process and Technology are all intertwined elements of an organization. I remember from the Product Line Practice thinking that banking Offerings consits of process and software assests, e.t.c ( who are also products on their own with their subcomponent assets)...the innovation paradigm here is that innovation happens to & fro products(components) and assets(their subcomponents)...
So if you are going to talk about Organisational Innovation it should cut across all those spheres perhaps to differing degrees. I think the challenge could be that the Innovation Phenomena/Roles within organizations are not properly architected with the Organisational Architectures to provide the most effective Innovation Orchestra. Mindboggling organisational design tradeoffs though..if you want to create bigger innovation teams encompassing all organisational sphere's - the process of making decisions becomes slower as there are too many factors & personalities to manage...smaller business unit innovation teams might be easier to conduct and make quicker decisions but on the other hand could loose Viewpoints of relevance within the enterprise. No stress Peeps' Organisations are not that complicated? - they are Complex..& I believe organisations going places innovatively are doing so largely because of great, strong Leadership. I notice that a lot of fellow tend to articulate the Innovation discource and tacle on all kinds of organizational issues ( strategy, processes, architechtures, components) BUT the Agent of Innovation itself. The Innovation leader/Reframer here is the most critical CAUSE of innovation - as he/she posesses the mental freedom (unconstrained by time and space) to truly mentally deconstruct or reconstruct..EFFECT'ing alternative futures on the landscape. pontsho-at-gmail.com  |
| ben.clohesy | Posted on: 2008/5/24 17:49 |
Not too shy to talk   Joined: 2008/2/29 From: SL Australia Posts: 12 |
Re: Is there a place for innovation in corporates today? I think that it's more that it's proven difficult to pragmatically put things in place. Certainly, we've found that some of the key points of resistance are around the difficulty in establising a demonstrable trace to return on investment and putting in place an organisational structure that suits a culture of innovation.
There is a large organisation that we're working with in which an area is moving forward with both process and product innovation - and meeting immediate resistance from other arms of the business. In particular, the structure we'd like to see is one in which there is a change agent that is able to structure and articulate change without being constrained by the business. Trying to find funding for an innovation type role is a little difficult. There are ways and means that are being used to set things up, however it is a hurdle. To put things more simply - I think that it's important that anyone that's working as a change agent (or innovator) must be thinking across the whole organisation - and that the pragmatic reality is that it can be difficult to implement openly. I'd be interested in hearing of organisations that have done so (i.e. have an assigned innovation area that focusses across the organisation) and how it came about? Cheers, BC |
| pontsho.lefenya | Posted on: 2008/6/23 12:50 |
Just can't stay away Joined: 2003/9/5 From: Johannesburg, SA Posts: 64 |
Re: Is there a place for innovation in corporates today? Dear Ben,
I can relate to the challenge you are facing in trying to institutionalize the Innovation Role. A while back we put together an Insight paper published on this portal called : “The Technology Innovation Officer”. Maybe some points in this paper could help in articulating specific duties of this New Role. Honestly speaking, when we wrote that paper, it was not necessarily the case that we had seen it been done somewhere before exactly in that fashion. As far as I am concerned, companies that are entertaining the Innovation phenomena are those that are yearning for something new and different - - tired of loosing against innovating rivals. In such cases, it is easier to convince people to adopt different ways without having to prove too much history and counting beans...."something new" = never been done before…that is the innovators paradigm. If you feel like you are stuck up with a bunch of pro status quo kinda dudes, chances are that, they are not ready for such intervention. Even if you were to bribe them to accept your prescriptions, they will probably not have the character and attitude to sustain those New Ways..and wont realize the benefits..and they will still blame you. What if such an Organisation is going through Ageing Adizes down-slopes?? Sometimes it’s better to wait for the horse to get thirsty before taking it to the river. In such a situation, I would rather try and identify other needs that they might have that are easier to sell and deliver - keeping your lights on while waiting for the right time and mentalities looking for revolutions. In case you are interested, the other day I saw a hot girl called Maria Bartiromo hosting a tv show - CNBC has a programme called The Business Of Innovation where they discuss Innovation case studies of different companies. Check out http://innovation.cnbc.com/ - - - - pontsho-at-gmail.com |
| ben.clohesy | Posted on: 2008/8/4 18:19 |
Not too shy to talk Joined: 2008/2/29 From: SL Australia Posts: 12 |
Re: Is there a place for innovation in corporates today? My particular interest is on innovation within the financial sector - depending on the region this can be a hihgly regulated sector (as here in Australia) and hence this would appear to reduce the drive and more importantly the ability for regulated organisations to innovate.
If the large banks wish to retain their leadership as the economic models change (cf. the secondary non-regulated economies) they will need to be able to innovate and ensure that they can envision re-bundling of offerings. Or - perhaps the regulated environment means that they cannot truly innovate?
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| pontsho.lefenya | Posted on: 2008/8/8 10:46 |
Just can't stay away Joined: 2003/9/5 From: Johannesburg, SA Posts: 64 |
Re: Is there a place for innovation in corporates today? For Innovation (an entrepreneurial process) to happen Creativity (a mental process), is needed…& not necessarily visa-versa. Creativity is what enables one to still create value within certain constraints. In fact, the more rigid constraints you have, the more innovative (creative) you would need to be to still create value. We can site an example of South Africa during the Apartheid era: the government then was internationally sanctioned/arms embargo. Without getting into the morals of the establishment then, it is a known fact that that period witnessed peak innovations on armaments technology by the South African government itself.
But I agree with you, there are certain socio/political/economic conditions that are more stimuli to innovation...but not necessarily prerequisites thereof. Also depending on your context as an Actor, different dynamics come to play:- - If you are a consultant trying to motivate or help other players (in financial services) innovate in certain ways, it is understandable why they would want to hear winning stories from their similar industries...but - if you are an innovating Actor yourself, you will understand that creative ideas applicable to your space are most times derived from completely different spaces...so you could say for example.. How classic Madonna has managed to evolve her brand with the times & keeps re-inventing herself to still catch my attention a young soldier...if only this bank could adapt its offerings/brand in that same way then... - - - - - On a different tip' – I realize that I use the word innovation and creativity interchangeably. You might be interested in a forum post from a while back...there are arguments in there contrasting between Creativity and Innovation...often confused concepts. http://www.systemiclogic.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=54&forum=3#forumpost217 |
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