Rise-Fall-Rebirth-Fall again | A new day, A new Idea

When I decided to write an article on Innovation, something other than my comfort zone of Customer Experience (CX), I logged on to the almighty- the world of “internet” to check for some nice one liners, and I found these two rather a good fit for my thoughts to follow on innovation.

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“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.“ -Andy Warhol, Artist

?“The enterprise that does not innovate ages & declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present, the decline will be fast” -Peter Drucker, Management Guru

?A leader’s job is to look ahead when it comes to innovation, which isn’t limited to product features, better services or streamlining processes, but innovation also encompasses setting a vision, crafting a competitive strategy, developing your team, ensuring better outcomes. So rather than waiting for a “remarkable turnaround”, the leader has to start somewhere and make it right.

Innovation - or any type of progress for that matter - cannot happen without change. This means that it’s not only important to accept that change is necessary part of creating anything new, but in fact you must proactively drive it.

Relatable? Do read on!

Once a company successfully transforms itself, its still vulnerable to external risks- markets shift suddenly, new technologies emerge, economic shocks, geo-political tensions emerge & escalate- well we have seen it all in the just gone by 2023 era. And once you have braced this storm like a Hollywood flick super-hero, wait wait wait, now comes the internal conflicts (believe me a bigger tsunami)- myopic vision, inward focus, “we don’t do that here” attitude, ignorance, arrogance, inertia- well the list goes on.

Overcoming these challenges is critical, whether you are the CEO of a blue chip company, manager of a mid-size firm or launching a startup. While the old age saying is true- practice makes a man (women) perfect, more critical is to build innovation skills and the right mindsets. In fact opportunities for innovation exist at all levels of a company. Let's do away with the approach of top-down or invented by a R&D department (well its their job!), in reality the front office team members can teach us better the future of our business, as they are in constant touch with their clients and know the market trends, as they happen. Seek out for opportunities that assist to reform processes or restructure costs, to sustain long-term.

?Here are some simple steps: We need to focus on 3 specific practices:-

• Balancing the present and the future: While we maintain a high-performance daily job where we all need to be effective and efficient, have the bandwidth to focus on the future, don’t lose focus on your organization’s vision and mission statement.
• Get really ready for the future: Change your mindset and that of your team, invest wisely in future oriented, yet customer centric areas of doing business.
• Shaping innovation: Drive the future, experiment, fail, succeed, fail again. That’s the game! Keep moving your learning to new territories and areas of business.

To seamlessly plan, manage and implement these 3 points, most critical is to harness and build a future-focused culture. Infuse your brand with skills, right set of people, beliefs, team bonding, avoiding silos, values and recognition for good innovations. Above all have the ability and bandwidth to do this again and over again.

Shaping the future with disruptive innovation is what counts. Listed below are the major approaches, while you may prefer one over the other for the current stage you are in, your priorities, budgets, timelines, its worthwhile to explore the other 2:-

1. Disruptive Innovation: Develop a new business model, to shift competitive dynamics. This happens when you still keep your focus on the main business, but assemble a separate team/ function to drive this, and make them accountable.
2. Corporate Venturing: Invest in path-breaking tech entrepreneurs/ startups. That’s the easiest one, someone has already taken the start, come out of inertia & the idea or maybe the working prototype is even ready, its about partnering with the team.
3. Lean Innovation: Rapid experimentation with real customers, explore an idea / strategy with actual customers, capture their feedback, behaviour, early reactions, pain points, workarounds. Go back to that drawing board, make necessary changes, post launch you will notice relatively lesser chances of failure.

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Glad you made it till the end, so I will leave you thinking with this classic one:-

?“Be an innovator, not an imitator.“ - Audrey Carballo, CEO at Phoenix1