Innovation Realized

After two days of intense discussion on how to make innovation real, my head is buzzing with ideas. I was really inspired by EY’s two-day Innovation Realized event, which took place in two circus tents on an old naval base near San Francisco. 

Together with our friends from C2, we created a challenging and stimulating physical environment where our corporate and entrepreneurial participants could immerse themselves in an experience, rather than just hold conversations.

As you may have guessed from the circus tent venue, Innovation Realized is a by invitation-only business retreat with a difference. There was no conference hall and no lectures. Instead, we gave executives and digital entrepreneurs the unique opportunity to escape from their day-to-day pressures and open up their minds to new technologies and ideas.

They brainstormed what is arguably the biggest issue facing business today: how to harness the full power of the digital revolution that is transforming our society, including game-changing disruptions such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and data analytics.

One of the thought leaders at Innovation Realized was Brett Crosby, formerly Head of Marketing for Google Analytics and now Co-Founder and COO of real estate debt platform PeerStreet. He highlighted that with disruption everywhere, businesses have a huge opportunity to reinvent themselves – not just in terms of how they use technology but also in terms of how they portray their story and the story of their employees.

He suggested some key questions that business leaders should ask themselves: How can you take what you are doing and make it have greater impact on both your organization and your customers? What role can you play in preventing a backlash against technology? How can you make the world a better place?

So what did we learn at Innovation Realized? You will find out more by watching this brief video.

Personally, I believe that three strong themes emerged from the event:

1. Dual strategy – a strategy for both today and tomorrow

 Many participants felt strongly that today we need to think in terms of dual or parallel business strategies – one for today and another to position our business so that it is fit for the challenges of tomorrow. I often describe this as the difference between “being” and “becoming” – both require different approaches.

Vanessa Collela, Chief Innovation Officer at Citi, pointed out that traditional businesses have mostly built their strategies for a world that was more stable. So it is hard to for them to rebuild their strategies for an unstable world that is driven by unpredictable technology and geopolitical change. What does that world mean for businesses and customers, products and services, and interactions between different parties? Businesses must be ready to adjust their strategies more frequently and in whole new ways.

Tim Kobe, Founder and CEO of Eight Inc., observed that for most people change is “a terrifying thing”. He noted that humans tend to be “change resistant”, a characteristic that leaders should consider when driving change in an organization. Sometimes we have to “break the existing system to build a new future,” he added. He also suggested that it is better to not wait for the “unknown” but instead to actively build the strategy towards the “next known”.

2. Adapting to ‘superfluid’ markets

Participants recognized that some markets are turning superfluid. New ideas and technologies are reducing the friction and viscosity of markets across all sectors. We see that in the mobility space, with the rise of Uber and Lyft. It is also evident in the new ways that talent demand is connecting with labor supply – for example, through social media platforms and online marketplaces such as PeoplePerHour and blur.  We had an interesting discussion at the event about which industries will become superfluid next. Many thought the construction industry was ripe for change.

Connectivity is bestowing digital identities on physical items such as phones, power meters and refrigerators, which are becoming ‘smart’ enough to interact with each other via networks. As a result, there is huge potential to reduce transaction costs and identify inefficiencies – but this demands that companies react in new ways and develop new strategies.

3. Combining creativity and technology

Creativity and design thinking (a methodology used for solving complex problems) are critical in helping people to deal with the far-reaching changes that are happening. Participants emphasized that processes and technology must be humanized – not just for customers but also for employees.

Janet Balis, EY’s Digital, Customer and Strategy Advisory Leader, Media & Entertainment, put it this way: “Data is not the sole driver of a successful business. Future success will be determined by how organizations combine creativity and data. It’s all about creating a great human experience, including through seamless workflows between humans and machines.”

Participants also considered that organizations should think of themselves as ever-changing organisms within a wider ecosystem if they are to prosper in future. So increasingly, we need to figure out how our organizations can become good hosts creating new collaborations and knowledge sharing. Not only do we need to facilitate the easy transference of ideas and communication within the organization, we also need to build in permeability from the outside.

Ideas for action

Here is a set of suggested actions for those that lead organizations through today’s changes:

• Develop a deliberate dual strategy - and communicate it to the organization
• Work out whether, and how, super-fluidity affects your industry and look for opportunities to take the friction out of supply and demand
• Recognize the need for faster response times in a quickly changing environment
• Reduce the gap between what those in leadership think is happening and what is really going on in your business – get fully connected to those serving your customers on the ground and listen
• Use a highly structured approach to driving innovation – it is more about using the right frameworks than just creating free space
• Remember that progress is all about people, not just machines. We still need the right mix of talent (new and old) and technology as we pivot to new business models

Finally, Professor Hal Gregersen, Co-Author of The Innovator's DNA and Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center, reminded us how important it is to get out of our comfort zones and seek opportunities to really listen. As he has rightly observed: “No successful CEO, or country leader, is right 100 percent of the time. The best CEOs embrace being wrong, because the faster they recognize their faulty thinking, the faster they reframe their questions and unlock better solutions.”

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From 23-26 April at Innovation Realized and Convergence Lab, EY is convening leaders that are at the forefront of disruptive innovation and industry convergence. Join the conversation by following #BetterQuestions and visiting betterworkingworld.ey.com.

For more insights, please visit www.uschischreiber.com and follow me on Twitter: @UschiSchreiber.