Part 1 of 2
The
CEO’s Innovation
Playbook
Idris Mootee
CEO idea couture inc.
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Copyright 2007 by Idris Mootee All rights reserved. Without limiting the right under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means, without the prior written permission of the author. This book is for
limited circulation only and is not available for sale. A version of this book is available as special order for corporate training and executive education. To
2
inquire about quantity order with your organization logo printed on the cover and limited customized content, please contact the author.

\"The only source of profit, the only reason to invest in companies
in the future is their ability to innovate and their ability to
differentiate.\"
- Jeffrey Immelt, GE
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This is a manifesto for those
of us who believe innovation
is the heart of business and
strategy. Design Thinking is
the new Management
Practice that fuels innovation.
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strategy consultants + experience architects
left brain + right brain
The design approach to business strategy and
management problem solving
d school + b school

In the next 10 years, almost
every theory we’ve learned about
“management” in b-school will be
retested.

Looking back the last 50 years we’ll quickly
realize that “management” was designed to
solve a very different kind of business
problem -to perform certain tasks in a
repetitive fashion and a controlled manner
while increasing scale and scope both
locally and globally.
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Faith- Apple
Google
based
Mgmt. Toyota
Starbucks
system
-based
Bottom-up Top-down
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Throughout history, seismic shifts have
wiped out market leaders and created
entirely new industries. Today, conditions
are remarkably ripe for innovation—capital
is ample and disruptive new technologies
are springing up everywhere.
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Yet many businesses are missing out—
over-managing and under-innovating.
What these businesses need most is need
a new way of seeing.
They need to the ability to look
beyond the status quo and see the
seeds of opportunity—the
disruptive collisions that innovation
is built on. That’s what this
playbook is all about.
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Why innovation?
Innovation is now the No.1 priority on
the CEOs' agenda. Whatever industry
you’re in, it’s gone from a \"nice to have\"
to a \"must have\". And as it moves from
the fringes to the center, the way we
understand and approach it must shift
as well.
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Why innovation?
Companies today gravitate towards one
of the two cultures, the innovation-driven
or the execution-driven. They need both
to succeed.
Forget innovation as a serendipitous art. It’s
time for innovation as a science—something
organizations can develop, execute and
measure like any other business initiative.
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There's a common—and mistaken—belief
that innovation needs to be radical, edgy, a
little bit crazy. But in a business strategy
context, there’s nothing crazy about it. In
fact, it boils down to doing three things
well.
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1
Looking for great ideas that can be
brought to market in order to meet a set
of well-defined but previously unmet
customer needs
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2
Committing and investing in these ideas
and maximizing payback on that
investment
17

3
Figuring out how to manage risks and
customer adoption and navigate through
different strategic options along the way.
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Today, many organizations are feeling
inadequate. They desperately want to
innovate, but they’re not sure where to
start.
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Here’s the good news—if your
organization has survived this long
you’ve probably innovated fairly recently
and fairly successfully.
20

The real issue, then, is not whether you
can innovate. Instead, it’s a question of
where you are positioned on the
innovation spectrum.
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In other words, the fundamental
question you should be asking yourself
is not “how do we become serial
innovators?”. It’s “how do we take our
track record of innovation (however
modest it might be) and really crank it
up?”
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Innovation is about discipline, but not of
the six sigma or process-centric
variety. It requires a different type of
training and different kinds of tools. It
requires a structured approach to
experimentation.
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\"I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's
proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our
time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core. Push for innovation
and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all
others.\"
- Howard Schultz
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Here’s some good news—the
process of creating purposeful and
profitable innovations is not as
inherently unpredictable as you
might think.
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Four early signs of market vulnerability
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1
You are the market leader
Sometimes a cause for celebration is also a
warning sign. Market leaders still need think and
behave like challengers—even if they are
dominant players in their categories.
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2
You generate 80% of your
revenue from your existing
product offerings.
Remember what they say about eggs and baskets.
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3
The word “Google” does not
show up in your strategic plan
If you’re not moving ahead, you’re standing still.
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4
The tenure of your average
CMO is 12 months
Scapegoats can distract you from the real
issues . . like the fact that you need a
scapegoat.
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Watching for shifts
Companies can only sustain
strong growth via breakthrough
innovations—changing the rules
of the game.
As a company grows larger, the
question of where it should compete
becomes critical. Here are two tell-tale
signs that it’s time to shake things up:
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Watching for shifts
your customer value
proposition is becoming
less clear
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Watching for shifts
your organization is
becoming less and less
responsive to market shifts
Whatever you do, don’t let yourself be
caught off guard my major shifts that
happen while you’re busy developing
your three year strategic plan.
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Four shift-spotting tips
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Look anywhere but the
leading incumbent
Like a cruise ship in a storm, they’re
probably too big to notice the waves-
much less make them.
36

Look down and sideways —
not up
Watch for low-end players making
upward moves. Or players from other
industries making sideways
advances (think Tower Records vs.
Apple’s iTunes or Salesforce.com vs.
Siebel System).
37

Watch out for start-up
democratizers
A new breed of innovator is throwing open the doors of the R&D
echo chamber, inviting customer communities into the mix and
democratizing the innovation process.
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Don’t underestimate the
power of socially-minded
innovations
More than non-profits in new clothes, this new
breed of game-changer inspires strong loyalty in
customers and employees alike. It’s all about the
power of the double bottom line—with
shareholders and society as a whole sharing the
benefits.
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Part 1 of 2.
Idris Mootee
www.mootee.typepad.com
www.ideacouture.com
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Copyright 2007 by Idris Mootee All rights reserved. Without limiting the right under copyright reserved above, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means, without the
prior written permission of the author. This book is for limited circulation only and is not available for sale. A version of this book is
available as special order for corporate training and executive education. To inquire about quantity order with your organization
logo printed on the cover and limited customized content, please contact the author.