The Most Important Unmet Need
Curt Carlson, Ph.D.
Professor of Practice, Northeastern University and Distinguished Executive in Residence, WPI
"The better we get at getting better, the faster we will get better." ? Douglas Engelbart, U.S. National Medal of Technology awardee.
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The Drucker Forum asked a crucial question: "What is the next management?"
The critical unmet need is innovation. It defines the next management where all professionals can identify and address needs that matter to others.
The Evolving Nature of Management
Society is confronting existential challenges in poverty, healthcare, environmental sustainability, global warming, education, major demographic shifts, disagreements in values, and an era of unprecedented technological disruption. AI and robotic automation threaten to displace jobs on a vast scale. These developments, coupled with intensifying global competition, pose some of the most profound challenges for today’s management.
These factors underscore the critical need for a new mindset within management. A value creation and innovation mindset.
Adapting to a changing environment has always been a core principle of management. By analogy, adaptation is a core function in all of biology.? And like in biology, failure to adapt leads to extinction.
The scale of change we face in our emerging ecosystem demands management evolution at an unprecedented pace. The rise of the Web, for example, enabled a paradigm shift in business – direct connection between businesses and a global customer base. This, combined with network-effect business models, gave rise to near-trillion-dollar enterprises.
Today, we are adding AI, new forms of knowledge, simulators, mobile devices, 3-D videoconferencing, and robotics to global high speed networking. These capabilities will create a paradigm shift in the world’s economic and social ecosystem by enabling new businesses, business models, and organizational structures.? ?The way we manage must continue to evolve. Businesses like Tesla and NVIDIA are paving the way, but there are rapidly increasing examples.?
For example, in our work with universities and companies creating innovations, we now use AI Tutors to teach and drive value creation. An AI Tutor is a script encapsulating a core value creation concept, such as the value proposition or risk mitigation. Participants use these AI Tutors iteratively to grasp the concept, and then as “iteration buddies” to gain fresh knowledge, ideas, and perspectives. Soon, each professional will have unique AI tools, such as a “Virtual Persona,” that will collaborate with other colleagues and their AI tools. Networking these capabilities across an enterprise will exponentially enhance learning and knowledge creation, more rapidly leading to breakthrough interdisciplinary innovations.
The Foundational Mindset Shift: From Solving Problems to Delivering Value
The core responsibility of all professionals is value creation. As Peter Drucker famously stated, "The purpose of a company is to create (and keep) a customer." In essence, the purpose of a company is to innovate.
Yet, today's professionals usually lack expertise in value creation. These skills are provided in only a small fraction of university business schools and even fewer companies. They're all trained to solve problems, but not to proactively identify and fulfill the needs that matter to others – the mindset essential to innovation.
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The lack of these value creation skills and mindsets is at the root of today's widespread innovation failures. For example, a mistake that is visible in almost all enterprises is teams identifying a problem and then jumping straight to a solution. Unfortunately, that solution is often incomplete or wrong because teams have failed to identify an actual unmet need. ?The financial and human waste from just this one mistake is enormous.
A value creation mindset is focused outside, not inside the enterprise. It is the only way that a company can understand its customers and adapt to the changing ecosystem.
Equipping teams with a value-driven mindset could dramatically boost innovation across industries by 2 to 10 times. Achieving even a fraction of this potential would have a transformative impact on businesses, economies, and our ability to solve pressing societal challenges.? In addition, mastering these skills allows professionals to have a more lasting and meaningful career.?
Universities, companies, and government have a pivotal role to play in unlocking this latent potential. They must prioritize the teaching and use of value creation and innovation practices. With AI applications increasingly aiding learning, knowledge creation, and value creation the barriers to mastering these critical skills are rapidly falling.
The Most Important Unmet Need
Improving our value creation methods and helping professionals master them stands as society's most critical unmet need. It is an exponential amplifier of all progress. It defines the next management – one where innovation flourishes and creates and delivers sustainable solutions that matter to others.
References
Go here for Linkedin: https://www.dhirubhai.net/groups/1232507
Go here for Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/valuecreation