Reinventing your Company in 2008—Establish a Culture of Perpetual Innovation by Roy Richards
Robert Smith and Associates
January 22, 2008
Reinventing your Company in 2008—Establish a Culture of Perpetual Innovation
By: Roy Richards
www.middleagerenewaltraining.com
As we launch a new year one truth is certain: an optimal solution for 2007 is not likely to meet the challenges of 2008 and 2009. Business owners and executives no longer can afford to rest upon prior laurels, even for a moment. To paraphrase an old line from the academicians, in today´s 24/7 high-tech world of commerce the catch phrase is "innovate or perish."
A primary leadership challenge for today is infusion of the routine testing of boundaries as a company-wide standard of excellence. As business agents of change, you and I face two overriding obstacles to a favorable outcome: our own nature and our confounded fellow human beings! Most of us quite simply do not relish a world of perpetual change. We prefer to leave for work at the same time each morning, stop for coffee and bagel at the same snack bar and report to the office, store or factory facing a relatively structured and pre-planned daily agenda.
Young, old or middle-aged, most of us as employees would like to progress up the career ladder in orderly fashion one step at a time, on our own chosen terms and timetable. We kind of admire our boss´s job, his or her corner office and company-sponsored membership in the country club. On the other hand, we prefer to spend most evenings and weekends away from work, participating in church, civic or charitable functions, pursuing personal hobbies or relaxing with spouse, family and friends. Few of us relish a workplace in perpetual transition, especially when accompanied by endless hours on the job, routine demands to master new skills or a ever-present "crisis" atmosphere.
All but a few are willing to tolerate a once-in-a-career radical disruption of established routine so long as we can count upon a return to relative normalcy and tranquility at project´s end. Unfortunately, in today´s turbulent marketplace no truthful CEO or small business owner can guarantee employees a smooth and certain landing. No agent for change can realistically promise that a current or pending upheaval will be the absolute final alteration of workplace routine.
As a company leader, is it possible to remain grounded in historical accomplishments and focused on long-range strategic business objectives while continually surfing upon the waves of change? Roy Richards, noted expert on business revival and employee motivation argues that we can have it both ways:
"The secret is to remain focused upon a rock-solid statement of mission while at the same time refusing to lock in an inflexible organization structure, allocation of resources or specific methods of operation. Whenever possible, hire broad-thinking generalists and invest in multi-use facilities; limit massive expenditures on plant and equipment which can only be used for one, highly specific purpose. A worthwhile business objective is to pinpoint ultimate destination but to leave open the choice of precise route and mode of transport."
Most theorists would agree that the traditional multi-layered, vertically integrated hierarchical "pyramid" has lost its preeminence as a preferred vehicle for value creation. In its place, relatively flat, state-of-the-art enterprises today are linking up with complementary businesses to form flexible partnerships commonly referred to as "business webs." In many instances these loose-knit federations prove more cost effective and nimble afoot than their plodding fully-integrated competitors.
Modern communications technology enhances the potential for instantaneous information flow and dramatically levels the playing field. Across the globe, manufacturers are linking up to draw distributors and end-users directly into the design and production process, thus providing the option of real-time, customized product design, selection and ordering. Other manufacturers have integrated backwards to suppliers, thereby reducing the need for costly inventory and speeding response to customer orders. More than a few bold competitors have enhanced the bottom line by outsourcing inefficient support functions. Certain giant brand-name corporations have gone one step further, farming out the bulk of manufacturing and assembly to venture partners, often halfway across the globe.
Although it can level the playing field, access to the latest communications technology does not guarantee success. For every Yahoo, Amazon.Com or E-Bay, there are thousands of high-tech and Internet enterprises no longer in business. For a brief interlude in the late 1990´s, the get-rich-quick mentality of greedy or naive founders and investors distorted the truth--that instantaneous computing and networking has changed everything--into the false corollary that any business founded upon a base of information technology or the Internet is guaranteed success.
Modern technology presents today´s leaders with a challenging contradiction. On the one hand, there is no way a lagging enterprise can restore excellence in 2008 simply by redesigning the pyramid, cutting costs or returning blindly to the successful "basics" of yesteryear. On the other hand, those leaders of established enterprises able add creative innovation to a solid base of historical excellence, industry-specific expertise and cherished customer goodwill nine times out of ten will triumph over brash start-ups directed and staffed by ambitious yet naive or downright foolish entrepreneurs.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, some of our brightest and most innovative leaders of established competitors have uncovered viable formulas to teach old (and not-so-old) dogs new tricks. To sustain forward momentum within your revitalized enterprise, I challenge you to embrace both technological innovation and the cumulative knowledge and expertise of enlightened veteran employees. As needed, you can hire to fill in knowledge gaps and train computer-shy veterans to adapt to new technologies.
Early in transition, you may need to reprogram the mindsets of certain low-tech veterans, perhaps including yourself. Your clarion call for change must be unequivocal: worldwide communication and real-time information dispersal are simply tools at our disposal to help us refine tactics, initiate action and monitor progress. Business webs can enhance communication both with customers and suppliers which in turn will help us to better define and service customer needs. Our ever-present goal is to provide value beyond the ordinary. Technological innovation is an invaluable tool; we remain its master.
As a related message, computer-shy veteran employees must receive assurance that they need not become instant technology experts to survive and prosper within your business. Even CEO´s of technology-driven enterprises must continue to seek out and promote low-tech women and men with obvious leadership skills, functional and industry expertise and good old fashioned business acumen.
To establish a true "information democracy" within your business, you will need to overcome the hoarding of sensitive information, a natural tendency on the part of certain functional department heads to restrict the flow of proprietary information to other departments. In the end, it comes down to establishing a company-wide culture of mutual trust. A second, more subtle hurdle is to convince decision makers that new information made available to them is in fact timely, accurate and reliable.
In most established enterprises, executives endorse the concept of employee innovation. Unfortunately, few offer substantive employee incentives or monetary rewards for proposing and promoting new ideas. To move beyond tepid endorsement to bold accomplishment, Richards encourages a formal enterprise-wide program to reward employees for "disruptive innovation", any proposal which forcefully challenges current product design, markets or customary methods of doing business. Our most notable innovations introduce a relatively simple (at least in hindsight) or inexpensive product enhancement or problem solution that delights employees as well as present and potential customers. More often than not, a disruptive innovation produces the startled reaction, "Why didn´t I think of that?"
Certain creative innovators disrupt the market from the low end: Henry Ford´s Model-T or Dell Computer´s direct-to-customer PC business model. Others unveil a radically different method of distribution: the Sears catalogue of yesteryear or the Wal-Mart discount superstore of today. A third category creates a distinctive new market: Apple Computer´s early PC or its current iPod, EBay´s on-line auctions and AOL´s inexpensive Internet access for the masses. Not as renowned but no less essential, certain on-board innovators propose seemingly mundane disruptions to then-current production processes, office procedures or methods of inventory control, ultimately saving their employers millions of dollars.
Although your employees may not visualize the next Google or EBay, you can accomplish and sustain competitive advantage by consciously promoting and rewarding employee proposals for change. Your competitors are not standing still. A worthy 2008 objective is to disrupt the markets for your products and services before the competition does.
In today´s egalitarian, technology-driven organizations, creative suggestions for change more often than not emerge from the desks and work benches of employees on the front lines. Do your rank-and-file contributors have access to the performance data and competitive intelligence they need to make informed choices? Are they encouraged to demonstrate personal initiative? Are employees at all levels conditioned to search for upside potential in every business transaction? Are company executives open to suggestions for change?
Despite the amazing potential of new technology, we must never permit its lure to override the rock-solid business instincts that brought our companies to today. Decades of collective business and industry-specific intelligence is our ace in the hole! As was proven at the millennium´s turn, fools will be fools but winners will emerge! By applying the proper blend of discernment and creativity, experience and experimentation, expertise and imagination, your leadership team can reestablish your enterprise in 2008 as a preeminent winner. As opinion leaders, it is up to each one of us to instill a disruptive yet disciplined culture of perpetual innovation within our business enterprises, large and small!
To access additional free articles on recreating or reenergizing a lagging business in 2008 and beyond or to preview Roy Richards´ comprehensive book on the subject of collective mid-stream renewal, Wake Up Captain and Crew Restart Your Engines!, please visit our newly redesigned website:
www.middleagerenewaltraining.com
By: Roy Richards
www.middleagerenewaltraining.com
As we launch a new year one truth is certain: an optimal solution for 2007 is not likely to meet the challenges of 2008 and 2009. Business owners and executives no longer can afford to rest upon prior laurels, even for a moment. To paraphrase an old line from the academicians, in today´s 24/7 high-tech world of commerce the catch phrase is "innovate or perish."
A primary leadership challenge for today is infusion of the routine testing of boundaries as a company-wide standard of excellence. As business agents of change, you and I face two overriding obstacles to a favorable outcome: our own nature and our confounded fellow human beings! Most of us quite simply do not relish a world of perpetual change. We prefer to leave for work at the same time each morning, stop for coffee and bagel at the same snack bar and report to the office, store or factory facing a relatively structured and pre-planned daily agenda.
Young, old or middle-aged, most of us as employees would like to progress up the career ladder in orderly fashion one step at a time, on our own chosen terms and timetable. We kind of admire our boss´s job, his or her corner office and company-sponsored membership in the country club. On the other hand, we prefer to spend most evenings and weekends away from work, participating in church, civic or charitable functions, pursuing personal hobbies or relaxing with spouse, family and friends. Few of us relish a workplace in perpetual transition, especially when accompanied by endless hours on the job, routine demands to master new skills or a ever-present "crisis" atmosphere.
All but a few are willing to tolerate a once-in-a-career radical disruption of established routine so long as we can count upon a return to relative normalcy and tranquility at project´s end. Unfortunately, in today´s turbulent marketplace no truthful CEO or small business owner can guarantee employees a smooth and certain landing. No agent for change can realistically promise that a current or pending upheaval will be the absolute final alteration of workplace routine.
As a company leader, is it possible to remain grounded in historical accomplishments and focused on long-range strategic business objectives while continually surfing upon the waves of change? Roy Richards, noted expert on business revival and employee motivation argues that we can have it both ways:
"The secret is to remain focused upon a rock-solid statement of mission while at the same time refusing to lock in an inflexible organization structure, allocation of resources or specific methods of operation. Whenever possible, hire broad-thinking generalists and invest in multi-use facilities; limit massive expenditures on plant and equipment which can only be used for one, highly specific purpose. A worthwhile business objective is to pinpoint ultimate destination but to leave open the choice of precise route and mode of transport."
Most theorists would agree that the traditional multi-layered, vertically integrated hierarchical "pyramid" has lost its preeminence as a preferred vehicle for value creation. In its place, relatively flat, state-of-the-art enterprises today are linking up with complementary businesses to form flexible partnerships commonly referred to as "business webs." In many instances these loose-knit federations prove more cost effective and nimble afoot than their plodding fully-integrated competitors.
Modern communications technology enhances the potential for instantaneous information flow and dramatically levels the playing field. Across the globe, manufacturers are linking up to draw distributors and end-users directly into the design and production process, thus providing the option of real-time, customized product design, selection and ordering. Other manufacturers have integrated backwards to suppliers, thereby reducing the need for costly inventory and speeding response to customer orders. More than a few bold competitors have enhanced the bottom line by outsourcing inefficient support functions. Certain giant brand-name corporations have gone one step further, farming out the bulk of manufacturing and assembly to venture partners, often halfway across the globe.
Although it can level the playing field, access to the latest communications technology does not guarantee success. For every Yahoo, Amazon.Com or E-Bay, there are thousands of high-tech and Internet enterprises no longer in business. For a brief interlude in the late 1990´s, the get-rich-quick mentality of greedy or naive founders and investors distorted the truth--that instantaneous computing and networking has changed everything--into the false corollary that any business founded upon a base of information technology or the Internet is guaranteed success.
Modern technology presents today´s leaders with a challenging contradiction. On the one hand, there is no way a lagging enterprise can restore excellence in 2008 simply by redesigning the pyramid, cutting costs or returning blindly to the successful "basics" of yesteryear. On the other hand, those leaders of established enterprises able add creative innovation to a solid base of historical excellence, industry-specific expertise and cherished customer goodwill nine times out of ten will triumph over brash start-ups directed and staffed by ambitious yet naive or downright foolish entrepreneurs.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, some of our brightest and most innovative leaders of established competitors have uncovered viable formulas to teach old (and not-so-old) dogs new tricks. To sustain forward momentum within your revitalized enterprise, I challenge you to embrace both technological innovation and the cumulative knowledge and expertise of enlightened veteran employees. As needed, you can hire to fill in knowledge gaps and train computer-shy veterans to adapt to new technologies.
Early in transition, you may need to reprogram the mindsets of certain low-tech veterans, perhaps including yourself. Your clarion call for change must be unequivocal: worldwide communication and real-time information dispersal are simply tools at our disposal to help us refine tactics, initiate action and monitor progress. Business webs can enhance communication both with customers and suppliers which in turn will help us to better define and service customer needs. Our ever-present goal is to provide value beyond the ordinary. Technological innovation is an invaluable tool; we remain its master.
As a related message, computer-shy veteran employees must receive assurance that they need not become instant technology experts to survive and prosper within your business. Even CEO´s of technology-driven enterprises must continue to seek out and promote low-tech women and men with obvious leadership skills, functional and industry expertise and good old fashioned business acumen.
To establish a true "information democracy" within your business, you will need to overcome the hoarding of sensitive information, a natural tendency on the part of certain functional department heads to restrict the flow of proprietary information to other departments. In the end, it comes down to establishing a company-wide culture of mutual trust. A second, more subtle hurdle is to convince decision makers that new information made available to them is in fact timely, accurate and reliable.
In most established enterprises, executives endorse the concept of employee innovation. Unfortunately, few offer substantive employee incentives or monetary rewards for proposing and promoting new ideas. To move beyond tepid endorsement to bold accomplishment, Richards encourages a formal enterprise-wide program to reward employees for "disruptive innovation", any proposal which forcefully challenges current product design, markets or customary methods of doing business. Our most notable innovations introduce a relatively simple (at least in hindsight) or inexpensive product enhancement or problem solution that delights employees as well as present and potential customers. More often than not, a disruptive innovation produces the startled reaction, "Why didn´t I think of that?"
Certain creative innovators disrupt the market from the low end: Henry Ford´s Model-T or Dell Computer´s direct-to-customer PC business model. Others unveil a radically different method of distribution: the Sears catalogue of yesteryear or the Wal-Mart discount superstore of today. A third category creates a distinctive new market: Apple Computer´s early PC or its current iPod, EBay´s on-line auctions and AOL´s inexpensive Internet access for the masses. Not as renowned but no less essential, certain on-board innovators propose seemingly mundane disruptions to then-current production processes, office procedures or methods of inventory control, ultimately saving their employers millions of dollars.
Although your employees may not visualize the next Google or EBay, you can accomplish and sustain competitive advantage by consciously promoting and rewarding employee proposals for change. Your competitors are not standing still. A worthy 2008 objective is to disrupt the markets for your products and services before the competition does.
In today´s egalitarian, technology-driven organizations, creative suggestions for change more often than not emerge from the desks and work benches of employees on the front lines. Do your rank-and-file contributors have access to the performance data and competitive intelligence they need to make informed choices? Are they encouraged to demonstrate personal initiative? Are employees at all levels conditioned to search for upside potential in every business transaction? Are company executives open to suggestions for change?
Despite the amazing potential of new technology, we must never permit its lure to override the rock-solid business instincts that brought our companies to today. Decades of collective business and industry-specific intelligence is our ace in the hole! As was proven at the millennium´s turn, fools will be fools but winners will emerge! By applying the proper blend of discernment and creativity, experience and experimentation, expertise and imagination, your leadership team can reestablish your enterprise in 2008 as a preeminent winner. As opinion leaders, it is up to each one of us to instill a disruptive yet disciplined culture of perpetual innovation within our business enterprises, large and small!
To access additional free articles on recreating or reenergizing a lagging business in 2008 and beyond or to preview Roy Richards´ comprehensive book on the subject of collective mid-stream renewal, Wake Up Captain and Crew Restart Your Engines!, please visit our newly redesigned website:
www.middleagerenewaltraining.com
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