Separation of Lanthanides/ Lanthanides and Actinides
Sila ppt 1 4-2012
1. Module: SILA
.
Certified Innovation Leader
SILA
www.aipmm.com
2. Module: SILA
RELATED READINGS
• Booz & Company. (2011). Why culture is key: The 2011 global
innovation 1000. Available from http://www.booz.com/global/home/
what_we_think/innovation_1000_2011
• Beckhard, R. & Harris, R. T. (1987) Organizational Transitions: Managing
Complex Change (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley (p. 98).
• Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, G. J. (2004). Cultures and organizations:
Software of the mind. McGraw-Hill, New York.
• Kotler, P. (2011) Marketing Management. New York: Prentice Hall.
• Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2008).
Influencer: The power to change anything. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning
organization. Random House.
www.aipmm.com
3. Module: SILA
AGENDA
• SILA
– Overview
– Inputs
– Tasks
– Deliverables
– Tools
• Review
www.aipmm.com
4. Module: SILA
SILA: STRATEGIC INNOVATION LEVERAGE AND
ALIGNMENT
1. Strategic: comprehensive, purposeful, essential
2. Innovation: focused on product innovation to achieve
objectives
3. Leverage: power to act effectively and wisely
4. Alignment: harmonizing organizational mission, culture,
and resources
www.aipmm.com (AIPMM)
5. Module: SILA
SILA: STRATEGIC INNOVATION LEVERAGE AND
ALIGNMENT
• Concerned with how the pieces of the organization fit
together
• How the pieces support each other
• Are we staged for success?
Corporate Strategy
Mission
NPD Strategy
Vision
Organizational Structure
Systems Thinking
Values
NPD Process
Culture Objectives Allocation of Funds
Organizational Capabilities …
www.aipmm.com (AIPMM)
6. Module: SILA
WHY SILA?
• Only about half of the most innovative companies:
– Have a corporate culture that supports their innovation strategy
– Have alignment between the innovation strategy and the corporate
strategy
• Nearly 20% do not have a well-defined innovation strategy
• “…companies with unsupportive cultures and poor strategic
alignment significantly underperform their competitors” (Booz,
2011, p. 1)
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
7. Module: SILA
KEY ELEMENTS OF AN INNOVATIVE COMPANY
• Focused innovation strategy
• Winning business/corporate strategy
• Deep customer insight
• Great talent
• Proper set of capabilities
• Supportive culture
An expression of the
SILA thread necessary between
these elements
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
8. Module: SILA
EXAMPLE: 3M
• “Companies whose strategic goals are clear, and whose
cultures strongly support those goals, possess a huge
advantage. Palensky [CTO] articulates his company’s
innovation strategy clearly: ‘We call it customer-inspired
innovation. Connect with the customer, find out their
articulated and unarticulated needs, and then determine the
capability at 3M that can be developed across the company
that could solve that customer’s problem in a unique,
proprietary, and sustainable way’” (Booz, 2011, p. 4).
Strategic goals + supportive culture
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
10. Module: SILA
INPUT: MISSION, VISION, AND VALUES
Mission &
Vision Values
Purpose
•Today •Tomorrow •What is honored
•Identifies the customer(s) •Inspirational •What is avoided
•Identifies the critical systems or •Clear decision-making criteria •What is not tolerated
core competencies •Timeless
•States level of performance
“I didn’t believe this ‘vision thing’ made any impact on organizational
performance ..... My (research) data showed just the opposite ---- I found that a
clearly articulated vision, fully implemented across an organization, in fact makes
a profoundly positive difference” (Lipton, 1996. p. 83)
www.aipmm.com (Latham, 1995)
11. Module: SILA
INPUT: CORPORATE STRATEGY
• The plan that is driven by an organization’s mission, vision,
and values.
• A company's game plan for achieving its long term objectives
in light of its industry position, opportunities, and resources
Strategy = plan + objectives
www.aipmm.com (Kotler, 2011)
12. Module: SILA
INPUT: CORPORATE STRATEGY PROCESS
1. Decide what your business is
2. Decide who your customers are and what you want to offer
them
3. Decide how you will play the game
4. Identify strategic assets and capabilities
5. Create the right organizational environment
www.aipmm.com (Markides, 2000)
13. Module: SILA
INPUT: INNOVATION STRATEGY
• Need Seekers: actively engaging current and potential
customers to shape products. They are the first to market.
Example: Apple, 3M, GE
• Market Readers: incremental innovations based on closely
monitoring customers and competitors. They are the fast
followers. Example: Visteon Corporation
• Technology Drivers: breakthrough and incremental
innovation based on their technological capabilities. They
are R&D / engineering driven. Example: Google, HP
Source: Booz & Company
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
14. Module: SILA
INPUT: INNOVATION STRATEGY GOALS
Source: Booz & Company. The 2011 Global Innovation 1000 Report
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
15. Module: SILA
INPUT: CULTURE – THE SECRET SAUCE
• Culture matters! Strategy succeeds when the culture
supports it
• “Innovation should also be understood as developing an
innovative culture within the company, which is what will
enable it to produce … innovations.” – from “Winning at Innovation: A-
to-F Model.” Trias De Bes, F. & Kotler, P. (2011, p. 3)
• +++need graphic of sauce bottle with ‘Culture’ coming out of
it
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
16. Module: SILA
INPUT: CULTURE
• The shared beliefs, core values, assumptions, and
expectations of people in the organization.
– Reflects the organization’s values
– Observable in customs, rites, ceremonies, stories, heroes, patterns
– Infers how work is accomplished
– Expresses survivability: What we know to do to survive
www.aipmm.com (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2004)
17. Module: SILA
INPUT: SUPPORTIVE CULTURE ELEMENTS
Source: Booz & Company. The 2011 Global Innovation 1000 Report
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
18. Module: SILA
TASKS
1. Mission, Vision & Values: analyze implications and
define/refine as necessary
2. Corporate Strategy & Goals: understand and define/refine
as necessary
3. Innovation Strategy & Goals: define if it does not exist and
analyze alignment
4. Culture: identify “how things are done” and analyze if
supportive of innovation – reflects values
5. Alignment: conduct an alignment analysis between the
above elements
6. Change Plan: create change plan to make improvements
www.aipmm.com
20. Module: SILA
TOOLS
• Systems Thinking
• Mission, Vision & Values Evaluation
• Booz & Company Innovation Strategy Profiler
• Beckhard Change Formula
• Quinn’s Sustainable Change Model
• Hofstede Culture
www.aipmm.com
21. Module: SILA
TOOLS: SYSTEMS THINKING
• “A way of thinking about, and a language for describing and
understanding, the forces and inter-relationships that shape
the behavior of systems” (from Senge’s “The Fifth
Discipline”)
• The ability to see the big picture
• Recognize how isolated events impact the whole
• How the puzzle pieces fit (or don’t)
www.aipmm.com (Senge, 1990)
22. Module: SILA
TOOLS: MISSION EVALUATION
Source: adapted from Campbell, A. (1997). Mission statements. Long Range Planning, 30(6), 931-932.
www.aipmm.com
23. Module: SILA
TOOLS: VISION EVALUATION
Source: adapted from Campbell, A. (1997). Mission statements. Long Range Planning, 30(6), 931-932.
www.aipmm.com
24. Module: SILA
TOOLS: VALUES EVALUATION
Source: adapted from Campbell, A. (1997). Mission statements. Long Range Planning, 30(6), 931-932.
www.aipmm.com
25. Module: SILA
TOOLS: INNOVATION STRATEGY PROFILER--
ALIGNMENT
Need Seekers Market Readers Technology Drivers
Goal Advantaged products Products customized Developing low-cost
to local markets and products
geographies
Culture Openness to new ideas Collaboration across Reverence and respect
from customers, functions and for technical talent and
suppliers, competitors, geographies knowledge
and other industries
Source: Booz & Company
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
26. Module: SILA
TOOLS: INNOVATION STRATEGY PROFILER
• All three strategies (need seekers, market readers,
technology drivers)
– Goals
• Superior product performance
• Superior product quality
– Culture
• Strong identification with the customer and overall orientation toward
the customer experience
• Passion for and pride in the products and services offered
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
27. Module: SILA
Tools: Innovation Strategy Profiler
Available at time of writing at:
http://www.vcs-gsa.com/InnovationStrategyProfiler
Fast Follower First to Market
Technology First Market First
Limited R&D Big R&D
www.aipmm.com
28. Module: SILA
TOOLS: BECKHARD CHANGE FORMULA
Source: Latham, J. (2011). Causal diagram of Beckhard’s Change formula. Retrieved at time of writing from http://drjohnlatham.com/Beckhard.html.
Used with permission.
www.aipmm.com (Beckhard & Harris, 1987)
29. Module: SILA
TOOLS: QUINN’S SUSTAINABLE CHANGE MODEL
“What” of “We” of “I” of
Change Change Change
The easy part – More challenging – Unexpected or unwanted –
How the system should change Culture change Individual change
• Systems – This component is the easiest to change. While systems may be complex, organizations have the
technology and knowledge to redesign and change the systems to improve performance. Unfortunately,
experience suggests that performance improvement is often not sustainable because of cultural resistance and
individuals who push back on the new ways of doing things.
• Culture – Norms, traditions, and values are a powerful force in organizations. If the new design is not
compatible with these norms and values, the chance of successful implementation is reduced. When
organizations say that the people have to change the way they work together, people often think that others
will have to change, but not them. Consequently, the third component - the "I" of change - is necessary.
• Individuals – Individuals are the essence of any sustainable change. Sustainable change requires that the
individuals change and grow, which is often the hardest part of the change process. At the core of this change is
a typical learning process where the "gray matter gets grayer" and the "grooves get deeper." This process is
often unpleasant, but it is necessary, and it all starts at the top. If the leadership team is not learning and
experiencing personal change, lasting organizational change is unlikely.
www.aipmm.com (Quinn, 1996)
30. Module: SILA
TOOLS: CULTURE PER HOFSTEDE
Symbols: words, gestures, pictures, objects of
meaning by those who share the culture. E.g.,
jargon, dress, status symbols.
Heroes: persons who possess characteristics that
Symbols are prized by the culture and serve as models.
E.g., customer service rep who works all night to
correct a problem.
Heroes
Rituals: collective activities considered as an
Practices
essential ( but probably not meaningful to
Rituals reaching the desired ends). E.g., how meetings
are organized and conducted.
Values Values: broad-based tendencies of preference –
this is the core of a culture. E.g., evil versus good,
emotional versus rational, revenue at any cost.
Practices: the visible aspects of culture – what an
outside observer can see, but their meaning is only
understood by insiders.
www.aipmm.com (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005, p. 7)
31. Module: SILA
+++SYSTEMS THINKING: GOAL SETTING – INCLUDE
IN HANDOUTS
• Six Steps
1. Vision
2. Goals
3. Objectives
4. Tasks
5. Timelines
6. Follow-up
www.aipmm.com
32. Module: SILA
ACTIVITY – YOUR INNOVATION STRATEGY
• Need Seekers: actively engaging current and potential
customers to shape products. They are the first to market.
Example: Apple, 3M, GE
• Market Readers: incremental innovations based on closely
monitoring customers and competitors. They are the fast
followers. Example: Visteon Corporation
• Technology Drivers: breakthrough and incremental
innovation based on their technological capabilities. They
are R&D / engineering driven. Example: Google, HP
www.aipmm.com
33. Module: SILA
REVIEW: WHY SILA?
• Only about half of the most innovative companies:
– Have a corporate culture that supports their innovation strategy
– Have alignment between the innovation strategy and the corporate
strategy
• Nearly 20% do not have a well-defined innovation strategy
• “…companies with unsupportive cultures and poor strategic
alignment significantly underperform their competitors” (Booz,
2011, p. 1)
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
34. Module: SILA
REVIEW: KEY ELEMENTS OF AN INNOVATIVE
COMPANY
• Focused innovation strategy
• Winning business/corporate strategy
• Deep customer insight
• Great talent
• Proper set of capabilities
• Supportive culture
An expression of the thread
SILA necessary between these
elements
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
35. Module: SILA
REVIEW : CORPORATE STRATEGY PROCESS
1. Decide what your business is
2. Decide who your customers are and what you want to offer
them
3. Decide how you will play the game
4. Identify strategic assets and capabilities
5. Create the right organizational environment
www.aipmm.com (Markides, 2000)
36. Module: SILA
Review: Innovation Strategy Profiler
Need Seekers Market Readers Technology Drivers
Goal Advantaged products Products customized Developing low-cost
to local markets and products
geographies
Culture Openness to new ideas Collaboration across Reverence and respect
from customers, functions and for technical talent and
suppliers, competitors, geographies knowledge
and other industries
Source: Booz & Company
www.aipmm.com (Booz, 2011)
37. Module: SILA
Up Next…Project Identification
www.aipmm.com
Editor's Notes
Let’s find out what SILA is!
Each section cover uses a similar agenda. We will first provide an overview of core concepts, then discuss the inputs, tasks, deliverables, and tools central to the concepts. We conclude each section with a brief review.Let’s get started on SILA.INSTRUCTOR NOTES: SILA is pronounced “Sy-la”
Let’s start with an overview of SILA – our term to encompass the concepts that frame innovation in the context of an organization or group.Strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. We want to think of innovation as a strategic capability.Clearly, we are focused on innovation as the means to achieve our strategic goalsLeverage conveys that we are wisely uses the resources of the organization and seeking innovations that will be effective given the capabilities and reach of the organization—simply put – that the innovations make sense for the organization.Alignment is the most powerful of these – we need to create congruence between the mission of the organization, its culture, and the resources to maximize the effectiveness of innovation. We have several tools for analyzing and creating alignment. We’ll cover some in this section and others, such as using portfolio to align strategy and organizational resources, in later sections.
We think of SILA as both the philosophy and activities concerned with fitting the pieces of the organization together from the perspective of innovation. We want to set the organizational stage for success.Let’s look at why this is important…
INSTRUCTOR NOTES: this first section is not on the slide but should be shared by you.This information is from the “Why culture is key: The 2011 global innovation 1000” report by Booz & Co we recommended previously. Each year they look at the performance of the 1000 largest corporate R&D spenders.They shared, “The elements that make up a truly innovative company are many: a focused innovation strategy, a winning overall business strategy, deep customer insight, great talent, and the right set of capabilities to achieve successful execution.”However, pay attention to this: “More important than any of the individual elements, however, is the role played by corporate culture — the organization’s self-sustaining patterns of behaving, feeling, thinking, and believing…” INSTRUCTOR NOTES: the following information is on the slide content.Yet, they found only about half of the companies say their corporate culture robustly supports their innovation strategy. Further, about half say their innovation strategy is inadequatelyaligned with their overall corporate strategy.20% lack a defined innovation strategy at all.The key finding from their study is the significance of cultural alignment – look at the quote on the slide” “…companies with unsupportive cultures and poor strategic alignment significantly underperform their competitors.” As a CIL, you want to help your organization create a beneficial cultural and strategic alignment.
Look through this list of key elements for an innovative company. Which ones are the strengths of your organization?Which ones are weaknesses?SILA reminds us that not only are these needed, but they need to be aligned to be effective for innovation.
Let’s look at an example from an innovation leader – 3M. The Global Innovation 1000 report used 3M to illustrate this key point:“Companies whose strategic goals are clear, and whose cultures strongly support those goals, possess a huge advantage.”What do you see in the quote from the 3M CTO?Customer-centricLeverages 3M capabilitiesStrategic goals must be clearCulture must support goalsRemember, an organization’s strategic goals must be clear and the culture must strongly support those goals.
SILA has the following four inputs. We’ll look at each in more detail.
The first input to SILA gives us the big-picture of the organization – its mission, vision, and values. Let’s look at each.Mission – the description of the organization today, who the customers are, the critical process/systems or core competencies of the organization, and may also share the level of performance the organization expects of itself. Most organizations have a mission statement, but some may lack some of this specificity.Vision – this is future looking – the description of what the organization wants to become. It is designed to be inspirational and if not timeless, at least a future projection of 5 or 10 yearsValues – the statement of what is important to the organization – actions that are honored, those that are avoided, and those that are not tolerated.At one time the discussion of the importance of mission, vision and value statements was debated – seen by some as an expected exercise that had little real impact. However, their benefit has been well researched and do, as the quote suggests, make a “profoundly positive difference.”
This is a useful process for creating strategy:Decide what your business is. For example, is McDonald’s selling fast food or selling reliable convenience?Decide who your customers are and what you want to offer them. We need a clear understanding of our target market.Decide how you will play the game. We’ll talk about this in more detail, but some typical choices include being the low-cost provider, differentiating by providing high quality, etc.Identify strategic assets and capabilities – examine the strengths of the organization and how these can be leveraged for new endeavors.Create the right organizational environment. This reminds us once again of the importance of culture and structure – enabling our resources to be most effective.Know these five elements for creating strategy.
One of the strategy elements we just looked at was deciding how to play the game. This is the heart of our innovation strategy – how we want to play the game. There are many well-known innovation strategies. For this section, we use the one from the “Global Innovation 1000” report by Booz & Co. We’ll also explore others later and you should see similarities between them. Let’s look at how Booz & Co define each strategy.• Need Seekers “actively and directly engage both current and potential customers to help shape new products and services based on superior end-user understanding. These companies often address unarticulated needs and then work to be first to market with the resulting new products and services.” For example, Apple, 3M, and GE.• Market Readers “closely monitor both their customers and competitors, but they maintain a more cautious approach. They focus largely on creating value through incremental innovations to their products and being ‘fast followers’ in the marketplace.” For example, Visteon Corporation, which provides a variety of systems for car manufactures.• Technology Drivers “follow the direction suggested by their technological capabilities, leveraging their sustained investments in R&D to drive both breakthrough innovation and incremental change. They often seek tosolve the unarticulated needs of their customers through leading-edge new technology. The Global Innovation 1000 research did find that those perfecting the Need Seekers strategy are more likely to financially outperform their competitors. However, the key point to remember is that any company can excel with any of the strategies when strong alignment exists between strategy and culture.
This chart shows the innovation strategy goals of the Innovation 1000 companies. Superior product performance and product quality were seen as the most important by the innovators. Notice the lack of focus on the success rate of innovations. Success will come to those who deliver value customers want.
We have already seen this expressed a few ways – that culture matters. Unfortunately, too many organizations as well as leaders underestimate the importance of organizational culture on strategy.As the quote from the Winning at Innovation book suggests, our task is to develop a supportive culture.
Culture is understood as a reflection of the what organization values and the expectations or norms of employees.While it is difficult to observe values directly, we can understand culture through customs, ceremonies, and the like an organization has. Further, the stories told are very powerful way to communicate what is important – what eh organization honors.Culture also expresses survivability – how we get the job done is what we know that works. This also makes changing culture very challenging as we are asking people to try something different.
This chart shows the most important to least important culture elements of the Innovation 1000 companies. More than 60 percent cited “strong identification with the customer and 50 percent chose “passion for and pride in products.”
Based on the inputs it is pretty clear what we need to do. After analyzing each of the areas:Mission, Vision & ValuesCorporate Strategy & GoalsInnovation Strategy & GoalsCulture, andAlignmentOur main activity is to create a change plan to make adjustments where needed. Of course, any changes will be limited to our level of influence, so start with the changes that you can influence that have the most positive impact on improving innovation in your organization.
The previous tasks relate directly to the deliverables that need to be created. In many organizationsCorporate Strategy & GoalsMission, Vision & ValuesInnovation Strategy & Goalswill already exist. In other organizations one or more will be missing and will needed to be defined. In some organizations, changes to these will be needed to create beneficial alignment and synergies.Corporate Strategy and Goals is the topic of many senior leadership programs and beyond the scope of this training, so we will not specifically address it further.The most challenging work is making changes that are needed as a result of this analysis. Changes to any of these items directly or indirectly impact culture, so that will be our focus in a moment when we discuss tools.
Note that these tools are useful in creating and analyzing the deliverables just discussed.We will briefly explore each of the tools listed here.
SILA is a “systems thinking” perspective – how the pieces fit together to create an effective whole. You probably have heard that synergy is when 1 + 1 = 3. This is what happens in a well-aligned organization that has a systems perspective.Harvard Business Review named Peter Senge’s “The Fifth Discipline” as one of the most influential management books in the last 75 years. His definition of systems thinking is:“A way of thinking about, and a language for describing and understanding, the forces and inter-relationships that shape the behavior of systems.” INSTRUCTOR NOTES: Below is an illustration you may find useful.Looking at a negative example helps to illustrate the importance of systems thinking. Let’s say we have three business functions:ProductionSalesDevelopment/EngineeringThe CEO asks each to increase short-term cash flow to meet financial obligations. What actions might each business function take?Production: decrease costs but limit production capacitySales: commit to what customers want to close dealsDevelopment: implement the features that take the least timeAre we better off? A systems approach would analyze how each business function can support the organizational objective in light of other business functions.
Here is a very useful tool for evaluating mission statements. As you apply this to your organization, also consider how innovation is associated with the mission.
A similar tool for vision evaluation.
And finally, a similar evaluation for values – an expression of the innovation culture. When innovating the culture, for each question ask how innovation is or is not embedded and how it should be to create an innovative organization.
Booz & Company provide publicly availably tools to profile an organization’s innovation strategy and identify alignment issues. Through there research, they have identified patterns in innovative companies. This is a very useful tool for looking at alignment between strategy and culture.For example, the goal of “Need Seekers” is to create “advantaged products” that deviate from existing practice and offer significant increases in value to customers. To accomplish this, their culture needs to be supportive of new ideas from a variety of sources.
Further, all three innovation strategies (need seekers, market readers, technology drivers) have a set of common Goals and Culture characteristics. Goals:Superior product performanceSuperior product qualityCulture:Strong identification with the customer and overall orientation toward the customer experiencePassion for and pride in the products and services offered
To create an innovation profile for your group or organization, use the Booz & Co tool at this URL. It asks you to select your position in the spectrum between several choices. For example, is your organization more of a fast follower or more often first to market. The results will both provide a useful profile of your strategy and supporting culture and highlight alignment issues.
When it comes to making change, we must be aware of the factors involved in successful change management. If we fail to address even one, the desired change will likely not occur. Dissatisfaction With the Status Quo motivates people to recognize the need for change. They know they are not happy but don’t know how to make it better. The Compelling Vision pulls the individuals to change and provides a direction for change. A vision is a picture of the ideal organization, information system, supply chain etc. The vision pulls people to change and provides direction for the change. It is seldom that we know all the required steps to accomplish a change but it is important to have a good idea what the First Steps will be. A high level project plan with the major activities, deliverables, and benefits can help increase the motivation to change. The first three variables must form a Believable package that is supported by credible leadership - words and deeds. A vision and a plan without resources is just a fantasy. The product of these first four variables must combine and be greater than the Resistance to Change. The package of dissatisfaction with the status quo, a compelling vision, and first steps (plan of action) must be believable to create sufficient force to overcome the inertia resisting change. INSTRUCTOR NOTES: The above is adapted from http://drjohnlatham.com/Beckhard.html, which contains much more detail and examples.
Here is another look at managing change – the Robert Quinn’s model of sustainable change. We will only summarize the key aspects of the model, which is recognizing that real change is lasting when it change are made in three areas:The “What of Change” – the systems, technology, or process that must change.The “We of Change” – this is our old friend culture. We must consider how the culture will help or hinder the change and what we can do help the culture embrace the change.The “I of Change” – tells us that the change will only last when individuals change – we those impacted by the change learn new ways of working and thinking to support the change.
GeertHofstede has contributed to the topic of culture perhaps more than anyone else. He describes organizational culture as a collection of what is visible:Symbols, Heroes, and RitualsAlong with what is unseen but is the core of culture – the Values – with Practices cutting across all of them.If we want to influence cultural changes, we need to consider the symbols we use (e.g., jargon, dress, status symbols), the heroes we honor and lift up as role models, and the rituals we observe (e.g., how to facilitate a meeting).As an example, does anyone have a story of hero in their organization that conveys an aspect of your culture?
See details at: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadled.html
Let’s determine how many Need Seekers, Market Readers, and Technology Drivers we have in the room. First, a quick review.• Need Seekers are those that often address unarticulated needs and then work to be first to market with the resulting new products and services. They have very good insights into unmet needs of the market. For example, Apple, 3M, and GE.• Market Readers focus largely on creating value through incremental innovations to their products. They are the ‘fast followers’ that quickly improve competitors’ products and create more value for customers. • Technology Drivers seek to solve the needs of their customers through leading-edge new technology. They have the coolest tech tools and often healthy R&D budgets.How many Need Seekers do we have? How many Market Readers? How many Technology Drivers? Anyone not sure what your innovation strategy is?INSTRUCTOR NOTES: Tally the count for each group and record on a flip chart or whiteboard. Discuss if the distribution surprises anyone.
INSTRUCTOR NOTES: review the importance of strategy, culture, and alignment…Only about half of the companies say their corporate culture robustly supports their innovation strategy. Further, about half say their innovation strategy is inadequately aligned with their overall corporate strategy.20% lack a defined innovation strategy at all.The key finding from their study is the significance of cultural alignment – look at the quote on the slide” “…companies with unsupportive cultures and poor strategic alignment significantly underperform their competitors.”
We want to see alignment between these key elements of an innovative company.
Remember the five steps in creating or refining corporate strategy:Decide what your business is. Decide who your customers are and what you want to offer them. Decide how you will play the game. Identify strategic assets and capabilities.Create the right organizational environment.
Be able to identify proper alignment between the strategic goals and a well-aligned supportive culture of the three innovation strategies. For example, of the three innovation strategies (need seekers, market readers, technology drivers), which is most concerned with having talent that is technically advanced?
