FIVE INSIGHTS I’VE GAINED INTO INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION, ARTICLE 3
FIVE INSIGHTS I’VE GAINED INTO INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION,
1. If it's not right at the start, it will likely fail
2. It will likely succeed, if the desired end result is chosen to be the best outcome for the company; is fundamentally sound; is free of flaws; has sufficient value to offset deviations and shortfalls; and implementation is rigorous See Article 2. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/five-things-ive-learned-industrial-innovation-wyman-morgan-1e/
3. The End Result dictates strategy—The relevant question is, “What must we do?”—not “What do we know how to do?”
Once a commitment is made to a specific Desired End Result (Strategic Intent), it follows that there will be a necessary and sufficient set of accomplishments (Strategic Objectives, at the high level) that must be achieved in order to be reach the intent. “Necessary” set because if fewer are pursued, failure is likely. “Sufficient” because excessive activities result in avoidable inefficiencies.
Achieving Strategic Objectives entails defining and completing the narrower associated program, project, venture and functional objectives. After the Strategic Objectives are achieved, assuming they are well founded, and execution is effective, it is expected that the Desired End Result will be reached.
When an audacious Desired End Result is defined, the first reaction is likely to be, “We don’t know how to do that. Two empowering questions are, “ What will it take?” and “What must we do?’. These questions set the stage for, and demand creative solutions.
AN AUDACIOUS DESIRED END RESULT
To the moon on gossamer wings?
“We don’t know how to do that,” surely that was the reaction of many in space exploration when President Kennedy declared in 1961, the US "should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”. “How can we?”, and “What must be done?” became the relevant questions.
NASA’s set (“family”) of objectives in 1991 for the resulting Apollo program might have looked, in part, something like this:
Land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth before the year 2000
I. Determine best trajectory and vehicle configuration
a. Build a single large space craft assembled in Earth orbit for lunar journey and return to Earth
b. Or, utilize a booster rocket and specialized crafts for transit, lunar orbit, landing and return to Earth
II. Develop booster rocket with sufficient lifting power and proven reliability
a. Design, build and demonstrate effectiveness and safety of what would be the world’s most powerful rocket
b. Design and build ground facility capable of supporting assembly of the world’s tallest rocket
c. Design and build launchpad capable of sending Saturn V and its payload into space
III. Develop communication, navigation and control systems
a. Develop advanced computing capabilities (i.e., move beyond the slide rule, previously the calculation standard)
IV. Develop spacesuits to withstand the vacuum of space and the extreme temperatures that crew members would face while working outside the vehicle yet be flexible enough to allow adequate mobility especially on the lunar surface.
V. Develop hand held tools suitable for extravehicular activities
a. Develop rechargeable battery power source for portable tools
VI. Determine and produce food suitable for space travelers
VII. Demonstrate human safety in space conditions for a week-long mission—until the Apollo moon mission was begun the total time in space for US astronauts was a matter of minutes
VII. Others
At the outset, the Apollo program set objectives such as these that had to be achieved to reach the Desired End Result of a man on the moon within 9 years even though a clear pathway did not exist in 1961.
“When [Kennedy] asked us to do that in 1961, it was impossible,” said Chris Kraft, the man who invented Mission Control. “We made it possible. We, the United States, made it possible.” The Apollo mission, of course, landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon 20 July 1969, six months earlier than the target date proposed by President Kennedy.
The audacious target of the moon voyage demanded enormous creativity, that not only made the Apollo program possible, but benefited society generally in diverse areas such as: Integrated circuits, pervasive in today’s electronic systems; improved athletic footwear; improved solar panels; medical monitoring devices; cordless tools, superior water purification technology; digital imaging technology used in CAT scans and MRIs and developments that supported the practical use of liquified natural gas and a fuel.
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