The document outlines a framework for innovation within value co-creating systems, emphasizing the strategic and design-centric modes required for effective innovation processes. It describes multiple modes of operation, each serving specific purposes, including framing, mobilizing, assessing, and evolving, along with design-centric activities like discovering and envisioning that help expand value creation. The overall innovation effort is viewed as a complex, iterative social process that necessitates stakeholder engagement and a deep understanding of existing systems to facilitate impactful change.

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Value-systems
modes in innovating
The purpose of innovating is to bring about
deliberate change in a value co-creating system
with the intent of enhancing overall value.
Alternatively, the objective is to create new
pathways to alternative systems of value over
time.

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value system + the
enterprise
Enterprise/business
Strategic
Governance
Value System
Exploitation/
Operations
Exploration/
Innovation

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value system
offerings
process/function
business models
capabilities
Value Co-creating Systems consist of several entities, one of
which is traditionally termed ‘enterprise’ or ‘business’.
The enterprise system dimensions consist of value
propositions, offerings (products, services or some
combination), processes/functions (demand, supply,
manufacturing etc.), business models that enable value
capture, and a set of shared capabilities that support one or
more business models.
Innovation targets the value system or one or more of an
enterprise’s dimensions, always maintaining integrity of the
overall system.
Irrespective of the focus of a particular innovation effort, the whole system or a
constituent part, successful innovation is observed to display certain patterns of
activities that are described in this document as modes.
Grouped into two broad classes strategic and design-centric, the ten modes enable breaking
down the complex challenge into manageable parts, simultaneously recognizing the somewhat
fluid nature of the overall task.
Strategic modes are primarily oriented towards the objective of ensuring that the
innovation effort is targeted towards the correct challenges and have the resources and
support necessary for path-creation.
The design-centric modes on the other hand are targeted towards creatively exploring
desirable, viable, and feasible, alternative solutions, some of which might be implemented
to create new value.

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modes&classes
• strategic
• design-centric
Purposeful innovation projects
typically exhibit certain inter-related
patterns of activities, termed
modes, each directed towards achieving
distinctive objectives.
Together these modes form a grammar
for innovating.
We group modes into two broad classes,
strategic and design-centric.
Thinking about the process of innovating in terms of
modes allows us to recognize distinctive patterns of
activities related by an objective, without
constraining us to follow any pre-determined sequence
of process steps. Objectives might be and are achieved
by working through several different modes, often
iteratively.
Modes might consist of sub-modes, though these are
likely to be leveraged within the parent mode itself.
Modes and sub-modes generally achieve their objectives
through three types of activities – research, analysis
and synthesis – the last of these delivering on the
objective of the mode.
It is useful to organize the research and analysis
activities in a manner that leads to the objective of
the mode. This can be done by carefully framing the
objective in the beginning.
Various methods, tools and techniques specific to the
mode might be drawn upon depending on the needs and
constraints of a particular situation.
framing mobilizing staging assessing evolving
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing

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Value-creating
system
OR
Enterprise/business
Strategic
Governance
Value System
Exploitation/
Operations
Exploration/
Innovation
strategic modes also
provide an interface
between design-centric
modes and
the rest of the
enterprise –
strategic and
operational
Modes and the
enterprise

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interaction between
modesiterative+fluid
strategic
modes
(fr.a.m.e.s)
framing mobilizing staging assessing evolving
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
(i.d.e.a.s)
design-­‐centric
modes

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modessub-modes
Research
+data
analysis
synthesis
mode
Modes might consist of
one or more sub-modes
that are often unique to
it.
Each mode and sub-mode
h a s d i s t i n c t i v e
objectives and makes
contributions to the
l a r g e r i n n o v a t i o n
process.
Modes or sub-modes
achieve their objectives
through a series of
research, analysis and
synthesis tasks.
Research
+data
analysis
synthesis
mode
Research
+data
analysis
synthesis
mode
Research
+data
analysis
synthesis
mode

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modesmethods
Research
+data
analysis
synthesis
mode
Each mode draws flexibly on a body of
methods, tools, and techniques to
realize its objectives.
Often, the focus/target of the
innovation activity determines the
methods, tools or techniques that
might be used, even though ostensibly
the mode is the same.
Though the methods, tools and techniques used in a mode
might be different, the process of arriving at the
objective often follows some patterns – research
including data gathering, analysis, and synthesis.
Common techniques for research, analysis, and synthesis
might be leveraged in many different modes.
All activities in the various modes are to the extent
possible designed for collaborative co-creation.

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innovatingwith modes
Research
+data
analysis
synthesis
Researc
h +data
mode
modes Systems
/
Solu-ons
Offerings
/
Services
Processes Business
Models
Enterprise
framing
mobilizing
staging
assessing
evolving
discovering
envisioning
strategizing
architec-ng
implemen-ng
Researc
h +data
analysi
s
synthes
is
mod
e
Researc
h +data
analysi
s
synthes
is
mod
e
analysi
s
synthes
is
mod
e
The methods associated with the modes and sub-modes
are often shared among various objects of design as
shown in the table (illustrative only). However, they
might be specific to the object as well, giving rise
to variations within the same mode.

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strategic
modes
framing the challenge
correctly; organizing for path-creation
and impact.

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strategicmodes
framing mobilizing staging assessing evolving
The five modes, framing, mobilizing,
designing the innovation approach or
staging, assessing and evolving constitute
the strategic modes class.
They together frame, guide and assess the
effectiveness of innovation and ensure
stakeholder support.
Innovation is fundamentally a social process that happens within
and impacts social or socio-technical systems. It is important to
understand how a target system functions and will be impacted as
a result of the innovation. Framing the challenge through this
understanding is crucial to addressing the right challenge.
In order for an innovation to be successful it must mobilize the
overall social system to understand and participate in the
process of innovating, assessing and stay involved with the
evolution of the solutions.
Strategic modes work flexibly and iteratively with design-centric
modes.

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framing
System innovation efforts are often
complex and require the commitment
and participation of a number of
diverse stakeholders, each of whom
have their own interests and unique
perspectives about the issue,
opportunity, or challenge.
In particular, stakeholders use
cognitive frames that originate in
their respective practice domains.
A dominant sub-group and/or sponsor
often describes the objective of an
innovation initiative.
If the challenge is not correctly
framed, the innovation effort is
not effective or successful.
We recognize that all innovation
efforts have a bearing on value
systems irrespective of the level and
scale at which they are carried out.
Opportunities, or dysfunctions, that
motivate innovation might be based on
symptoms and not on systemic
understanding of causes.
Objectives of innovation are best
framed in terms of the desired impact
on a target system or aspirations for
alternative systems.
Framing is one of the most important modes in any
innovation initiative. Getting it right ensures that
efforts and resources are directed towards generating
meaningful impact.
It is also one of the most challenging modes, since it
requires some effort to understand the extant models
and the underlying issues that manifest as dysfunction
or opportunities.
It provides an opportunity to broaden the space of the
innovation effort from inception, enabling
consideration of a wider range of alternatives.
Framing might happen over time in the course of a
project and often requires revisiting after being in
the discovery mode, where modeling value creation might
reveal the need for a shift in the frames and the
statement of objectives.

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mobilizing
Systems innovation brings all
stakeholders to contribute to the
process of value creation.
Stakeholders need to understand the
benefits and implications of the
potential innovation and participate
in its creation and adoption.
It is critical to obtain the support,
commitment and participation of all
impacted stakeholders.
Mobilization concerns itself with ensuring the
participation of all impacted stakeholders.
Mobilization occurs over a period of time in stages.
Once identified, the critical group of stakeholders,
particularly those with influence and power, must be
made aware of and convinced of the need and planned
approach to innovation.
Stages of mobilization might include building
awareness, education, participation in the framing
mode, and in particular during the stage where a case
for change has been firmly established and resources
including stakeholder participants are identified for
project initiation.
The full-scale commitment of resources might happen at
the end of the Envisioning mode.
It is also important to keep stakeholders and resources
mobilized throughout the innovation process.
Innovation implies deliberate
change and transformation from an
existing state.
The target system that is meant to
be impacted has many stakeholders
with diverse interests, that are
invested in existing regimes, bound
by other constraints including the
possibility of potential change in
status or other losses, or simply
by the limitations of conventional
wisdom.
Successful innovation requires all
i m p a c t e d s t a k e h o l d e r s t o
participate in the co-creation of
new value. Success also requires
the mobilization of adequate
resources.

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staging
Each innovation initiative requires
the design of unique approaches, even
when it draws upon standard modes.
Co-creating participants must be made
familiar with the approach and methods
that will be leveraged and prepared.
An appropriate leadership and
management infrastructure must also be
designed and established, as must
systems, and platforms for learning.
Jumping into a complex innovation effort without
adequate preparations or readiness is a formula for
failure.
There are many approaches to innovation that vary in
scope from incremental to radical, top-down vs.
emergent, open innovation etc. A choice appropriate to
the demands of the situation must be made.
The staging mode concerns itself with readiness and
preparation of the innovating ecosystem.
A core team that leads and manages the innovation
effort is established. It designs and communicates a
unique process, organizes resources and ensures
systemic readiness.
It also puts in place a management infrastructure that
obtains and provides resources, ensures regular
communications with sponsors and stakeholders, and
manages the escalation and resolution of critical
issues.
Every innovation effort is unique
in terms of the task at hand, its
o b j e c t i v e s , a n d r e s o u r c e s
available. Standard methods and
approaches do not always work well
or could be sub-optimal.
Complex tasks and resources
requiring coordination across the
enterprise need leadership and
management.
An effective interface to sponsors
and stakeholders is critical to
ensure ongoing communication,
reporting, and resolution of
critical issues.
Stakeholders and participants not
understanding or buying-into the
process, its underlying points-of
view, and theories, leads to
conflict and misdirection of
effort.

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assessing
Learning is a distinctive feature of
co-creating/co-evolving enterprises.
A reflective and learning orientation
is important to improving innovation
practice maturity.
Regular assessment not only allows
path-correction but is an important
learning mechanism that feeds back
into practice, and contributes to
ongoing capability development.
Assessing is concerned with evaluating the impact of a
desired innovation effort on a target system.
Regular and effective assessments can provide systemic
insights into the mechanisms and causes that lead to
particular outcomes.
Learning needs to be built into the practice as an
ongoing activity, while more comprehensive assessments
might be appropriate at significant stages and
milestones.
It is also important that assessing facilitates the
learning process and does not create bureaucratic
barriers to ongoing innovating practice.
Value Systems innovate on an
ongoing basis. The process involves
m u c h e x p l o r a t i o n a n d
experimentation and is not risk or
error-free.
Learning is a critical attribute of
such co-evolving systems. Effective
learning drives maturity of
innovation practice and accelerates
time-to-outcomes.
When continuous learning is not
embedded into the value-creating
system, innovation practice does
not benefit from the experience of
prior efforts.

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evolving
When an intermediate impact in the
course of execution of an innovation
initiative has been accomplished the
approach to shaping the system through
innovating evolves to its next stage,
taking into account the co-evolution
that has simultaneously occurred.
The evolving mode is concerned with assessing the
evolution of the overall value ecosystem and the role
of the enterprise within it.
The mode revisits the desirable end-state for the
overall value system in accordance and alignment with
overall strategic objectives of the enterprise.
Through this process it sketches a path for the
evolution of the overall system to its next logical
stage, and its own role and approach to impacting the
system.
This approach to impact becomes the basis for the next
iteration of the innovation effort, in an ongoing
effort to shape its own destiny.
T h e d e s i r e d i m p a c t o f t h e
innovation process on a target
system is often not achieved in a
single stage or iteration of an
innovation effort.
Conditions might change and
approaches to creating an impact
might also need to correspondingly
evolve.

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design-centric
modes
expand value-space and
establish desirable, viable,
and feasible paths to impact

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design-centricmodes
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
T h e f i v e m o d e s o f d i s c o v e r i n g ,
envisioning, strategizing, architecting
and implementing constitute the design-centric
modes of innovating.
Together they expand the space for value
creation and find desirable, viable and
feasible pathways to generative impact.
The task of innovating begins with developing a deep
understanding of existing systems and their boundaries, so that
foundational strategic concepts may be critiqued.
There are many approaches to expanding the potential space for
new value creation, including foresight, new insights, the
understanding of shifts in need spaces, the use of technologies,
and leveraging new design principles for building offerings.
Successful outcomes create new lexicons for value, design systems
and architectures. The iterative process is sensitive from the
beginning to the challenge of introducing change and ensuring
adoption.

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discovering
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
T h e t a r g e t e d s y s t e m o f
innovation is embedded in a
context comprised of other
systems. Often designed during
other regimes, designed systems
e x h i b i t d y s f u n c t i o n o r
misalignment with purpose from
not having evolved.
Making an impact on systems
requires an understanding of
their dynamics, their history,
and forces that will create
opportunities and shape the
future.
The discovering mode provides a vital
foundation to the entire innovating process. It
is meant to develop a deep understanding of the
systems of interest and their context.
Through this process we develop insights into
the historical reasons for why systems are the
way they are, including the strategic concepts
and forces that have shaped them.
We also understand the current drivers of
change and develop foresight about emerging
futures.
The purpose is to reveal and deconstruct
structures, so we might critique them, test
their viability and loosen boundaries. An
understanding of emerging issues and forces,
shifts in needs etc., provides the basis for
creating an expanded space for exploration of
alternatives.

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envisioning
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
At the heart of the innovation
e f f o r t i s t h e c r e a t i v e
generation of alternatives in an
expanded value-space.
Building on the foundations of
discovering, the opportunity
during envisioning is the
unconstrained exploration of
non-traditional paradigms for
making impact.
The process is deliberately
provocative, playfully expanding
boundaries.
The envisioning mode postulates alternative
possibilities and avenues for value-creation in
the context of the changing realities and the
opportunities created in various dimensions of
an expanded value-space.
There are many vectors that provide the source
for new ideas and expansion of creative space.
Among them are ideas brought back from journeys
into the future, developed through foresight
scenarios and design fiction like exercises,
reimagining and reconfiguring relationships
among resources and assets, leveraging new
insights into systems and capabilities created
by technologies, shifts in need spaces and
developing denser value propositions.
The mode involves much experimentation, and
prototyping to rapidly find meaningful
convergence and plausible alternative locations
at the intersection of possibilities and needs.

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strategizing
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
The innovating enterprise is
g u i d e d b y i t s s t r a t e g i c
architecture in the path-creation
choices it makes.
From among the possible and
plausible alternatives, the
enterprise must choose options
that are feasible and viable in
its context and serve its
strategic aspirations.
The choices become the basis for
defining desired outcomes and an
approach for making impact
through innovation.
The strategizing mode develops a rubric for
selecting feasible and viable alternatives from
among the range of possibilities illuminated
during envisioning.
The extent to which these choices depart from
established trajectories depends considerably
on the culture of the organization and its
appetite for risk. Choices are also constrained
by the availability of resources.
The enterprise has an opportunity to reframe
its strategic concepts, lay the groundwork for
redefining value and become a shaper and prime-mover
of an expanded ecosystem.
Strategizing is the mode that defines the path-creation
approach to making ongoing systemic
impact and recurring emergence.

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architecting
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
The context of the enterprise
continues to evolve over its
lifetime and ever more rapidly.
The enterprise must anticipate
potential variations and be able
to respond flexibly as it co-evolves.
An architectural approach
accommodates potential variation
while providing a platform for
hosting multiple designs.
This mode is concerned with detailed
architecture and design.
The scope of architecture expands to cover
larger business ecosystems that go beyond the
traditional boundaries of the enterprise.
Architecture creates the language for a new
value design system.
The scope of design incudes the design of a new
value-creating system, value propositions,
processes and functions, shared service
platforms etc.
Most importantly, the system is designed to
create a value-surplus, the logic of value
capture being defined by business models.
The surplus is the source of ongoing vitality
and emergence of the enterprise and its
ecosystem.
As with the rest of the process, it is critical
to involve all stakeholders appropriately in a
collaborative innovation and design
environment.

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implementing
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
A l l i n n o v a t i o n s a r e
interventions in systems. They
i m p l y c h a n g e a n d
transformation.
T h e i n t r o d u c t i o n o f a n
innovation in an ecosystem must
t h e r e f o r e b e c a r e f u l l y
orchestrated in order to ensure
adoption and transition to new
states.
The design of path-creation is
as important and critical as
the design of the value-creating
system itself.
The process of realizing innovation value in an
ecosystem context requires multi-dimensional
abilities, coordinating and orchestrating value
across a diverse constellation of entities.
Successful introduction depends on a thorough
understanding of the dynamics of the system,
its levers of change, the processes of adoption
and diffusion of innovation, transitions and
creating pathways for change.
Implementation therefore is more than just
realizing designs in material terms. It include
the development of pilots, preparing and
including stakeholders in the process of
providing feedback for rapid iterations, and
scaling strategically.

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modes+innovation
value system
offerings
process/function
business models
capabilities
strategic
modes
(fr.a.m.e.s)
framing mobilizing staging assessing evolving
discovering envisioning strategizing architecting implementing
(i.d.e.a.s)
design-­‐centric
modes
targets of innovation

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thank you!
Sudhir Desai, Principal
www.livingenterprise.net