Nine Sigma: Japan World Innovation Forum

Recently I had a chance to speak in Tokyo at Nine Sigma's Quarterly World Innovation Forum.

It was truly an inspiring to spend time in another country with a set of leaders tackling the impacts of changing consumer preferences, digitalisation of virtually all types of works, changing competencies, changing work style preferences and new business models.

Japan is a country whose culture is driven to do what is "best for the community". I believe it sets them up well if they leverage the concept of "doing what's best for the community" to accelerate their work in Innovation/New Products. I saw this work exceptionally well while I was working in Switzerland for Roche. The Basel site outperformed all other sites on the acceptance and integration of innovation into their every day business and life shifts because they were able to focus at the "what's best for the community" rather than the US view of "what's best for me".

Nine Sigma Japan is on the forefront of helping industries work in new ways, particularly in the area of open innovation. For more information on them please click on this link: https://ninesigma.co.jp/english/innseekers/index.html

?The leaders who joined the conversation were from a variety of industries ranging from consumer goods, electronics, healthcare and more. We talked about both the art and science of evolving our businesses. What I found most interesting in our discussion was that we spent a significant amount of time discussing the approach to the business model centred and its impact on strategy and execution. I come from a healthcare/pharma back ground but the elements of our discussion are applicable to every industry.

Here are highlights from the discussion:

• Innovation is about sustainability and value of the business. It is the revenue generation plan for today and tomorrow. They are not separate activities.
• The pace of change is accelerating even from three years ago. If you are mot working on activities and products that are integrated (not separate and distinct) you are already way behind the market activity today.
• Today business focus is not about cost cutting in the business; but about making decisions and investments that accelerate time to market,
• Larger scale businesses have a tougher time at making the changes because their are designed for scale and efficiency; not necessarily flexibility, adaptability and effectiveness of products, processes and investments. They must adjust to succeed.
• Shifting your business and its model is not about re-organizataion but about re-definition of the business and its value, products and processes, competencies and the compensation shifts required to drive the changes.

Today leaders must steward their companies to partner and/or co develop with other companies to develop new and differentiated products quickly - we are in a collaborative/shared economy in more ways than one. It requires decisions on who those partners will be.

• It is essential to be aligned and clear as leaders and steward of companies on the following: 1) Are you driven by being a "need seeker" (design/customer centred), market readers or technology drivers; 2) Then consider if the company is going to make investment choices so that they are First in class, best is class or fast follower; and finally 3)whether or not the new products become part of your business model or become a spin off - both options have their advantages and disadvantages.
• We discuss the value of using a Innovation Landscape Map for investment choices particular based on the companies risk tolerance and need to come up with new and differentiated products. I personally like Gary Pisano's Innovation Landscape Map to determine how much change in competency and how much change in the business model and products are the leaders able to tolerate.
• As part of the shift it is essential to re-define and re-work your views and definitions on procurement, legal, security and standard processes for this new products and processes in their early stages of testing and experimentation.

I want to thank Nine Sigma Japn for this opportunity to gain experience and exposure into diverse perspectives, cultures and ways of thinking. We are all in this together.