Rosabeth Moss Kanter HBR Innovation The Classic Traps PDF

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Rosabeth Moss Kanter HBR Innovation: The Classic Traps - Each wave of enthusiasm has encountered similar dilemmas → tension between protecting revenue streams from existing businesses critical to current success and supporting new concepts that may be crucial to future success Strategy Mistakes: Hurdles Too High, Scope Too Narrow - Managers may reject opportunities that appear too small, and people who aren’t involved in big projects may feel marginalized - Forgetting process - Too many minor product extensions - Companies often screen out ideas that can’t result in revenue within 2 years - Big companies such as quaker oats were vulnerable to smaller companies that could quickly roll out new products - To get more successes, you have to be willing to risk more failures - A related mistake is to act as if only products count, even though transformative new ideas can come from a range of functions, such as production and marketing - Too many trivial projects may result in nothing Process Mistakes: Controls Too Tight - Company funds may be already allocated in a given time and refuse potential big ideas - Performance reviews are a danger zone for innovation, making plans that managers must stick to reduces employees’ aspirations and driving out innovation. - Companies may invent their own metrics such as one based on customer satisfaction and loyalty opposed to just transaction time and profitability per customer Structure Mistakes: Connections Too Loose, Separations Too Sharp - Innovation from different enterprises of a corporation may sometimes fail to be implemented, there needs to be closer separation and connection - Ex. Gillette had a toothbrush unit (Oral B), an appliance unit (Braun), and a battery unit (Duracell), but lagged in introducing a battery-powered toothbrush - Ex. Arrow.com and its traditional sales force shared a same facility but because of their many differences in culture and style caused extreme conflict - Creating two classes of citizens - fun (innovators) and money-makers (mainstream business managers) Skills Mistakes: Leadership Too Weak, Communication Too Poor - Top managers frequently put the best technical people in charge, not the best leaders - These leaders often neglect external communication or emphasize tasks over relationships - Lack of attention can make it difficult to embrace collective goals, take advantage of different strengths and communicate well

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Studies show average length of time company took new product idea to commercialization was 24 to 26th months but time spent on product teams was only 18 months Innovation efforts lowered when communication and relationship building outside the team are neglected, project teams that create closed environment causes problems Innovators cannot work in isolation, discussion and getting support is necessary. Groups that work in secret then present their ideas full-blown may sometimes kill the project. Seagate started training employees in common methodologies for team building and started promoting people with strong relationship skills rather than just great technical skill.

Innovation Remedies Strategy remedy: Widen the search, broaden the scope - Few big idea, a portfolio of midrange ideas and a lot of small incremental innovations “Innovation pyramid” accelerates innovation - Secret success for companies that demonstrate high rates of innovation is that they simply try more things. Innovation Jam allowed contribution of 37,000 raw ideas - An innovation strategy that includes incremental innovations and continuous improvement can help to liberate minds throughout the company, making people more receptive to change when big breakthroughs occur.

Process remedy: Add flexibility to planning and control systems. - Reserve pools of special funds for unexpected opportunities - IBM established a $100 million innovation fund to support the best ideas arising from its Innovation Jam - the innovation process requires exemption from some corporate requirements; after all, there are numerous differences between established businesses and new ventures - It is required to follow the rhythm of a project rather than a fixed quarterly or annual calendar Structure remedy: Facilitate close connections between innovators and mainstream business - Tighten human connections between those pursuing innovation and others in the rest of the business - Conversation needs to be taken place with innovators and mainstream business managers - Companies should facilitate informal conversation - Flexible organizational structures, in which teams across functions or disciplines organize around solutions, can facilitate good connections.

Skills remedy: Select for leadership and interpersonal skills, and surround innovators with a supportive culture of collaboration - Select innovation leaders with strong interpersonal skills - Cultivate leadership skills important for successful innovations - Value relationships, mixture of diverse employees and new skills - Snowden’s creativity, vision, teamwork, and persistence helped this group succeed and become a national role model...