Secret Sauce: Keeping a business innovative & competitive
In May 2021, Warren Buffet famously hurled a list of world’s top 20 companies by stock market value and asked the audience, if they could guess how many of these companies would remain in the prestigious list after 30 years.
He then invited everyone to have a look at another list from the year 1989. It contained the names of the top 20 companies by stock market value of the time.
None of the 20 from 1989 made it to the 2021 list. Zero. Nolla. Null. Sifer. Sofer. Shunye.
One common theme that could be observed was that the businesses ceased to be innovative and lost their competitive edge. Hence, they were pushed aside.
Today, however, businesses tend or pretend to operate in completely new data driven way. I strongly feel that any business that aims for the long-term with infinite mind-set, understands the sheer importance of keeping their competitive edge by staying innovative.
Having an understanding of the issue is only the first step though. Some of you may rightly point out that the?Culture?of the company provides the necessary structure that keeps the garden of innovation flourishing in the organization. Yes, true, but?Culture?needs?cultivation. It starts from an ideal rooted in reason or practicality and ends up being a process. All those who hate the word ‘process’, replace it with ‘norm’ in the previous sentence. Happy ?? ?
So what is the secret sauce that sets the stage for an organically thriving innovation culture ?
The Society of Human Resource Management(SHRM) led a study that included 500 companies across 47 countries. It was found that if the employees of an organization felt?included?they were reported to be:
Okay, we are now getting somewhere. But what is inclusion ?
Inclusion
Inclusion is providing an environment where emplyees feel valued, trusted, connected & informed.
It’s about recognizing & valuing the different lived experiences of people and leveraging their unique competencies & perspectives so that everyone expereince ownership & empowerment.
This all sounds pretty logical and is backed by data. But is that it ?
It turns out, no. That’s not it. There is more. Principle of inclusion alone, doesn’t scale as it becomes vulnerable to?Uniformity Creep. It’s a situation when a largely uniform group of people loses universal perspective as the lack of thought or cultural diversity limits their collective field of vision. We need two more principles to complement inclusion. Here is the magic trio:
In the next sections, I will explain what Diversity and Equity mean, how they complement Inclusion and how these three principles drive the innovation engine for an organization.
Equity
Equity is the fairness of access, opportunity & advancement for all. Equity looks to identify & eliminate barriers that have prevented full participation of some groups.
It’s about ensuring that policies, practices & systems provide all individuals access to opportunities, resources & recognition to be successful.
领英推荐
Diversity
Diversity is the combination of unique skills, experiences, perspectives & cultural backgrounds that make us who we are.
It’s a full range of visible or invisible identities including but not limited to gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, physical & cognitive ability, sexual orientation, military status, education, religion, age/generation, social class & language.
Individuals & groups are not one dimensional and are in fact shaped by multiple & intersecting identities.
Why Inlcusion, Equity & Diversity ?
Truly impactful organizations are invariably a microcosm of the whole world. Did you know:
This list is not at all exhaustive. Isn’t that obvious that a product or an enterprise that appeals to people without national, cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, age/generation, religion, physical & cognitive ability, social class & linguistic barriers, would eventually become a big success story ?
A dominant or ‘insider’ culture?can be based upon gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or other group identities. In organizations, the dominant culture might be based upon individuals who form the majority or have the decision making power. In this case the norms & values of the organization begin to look like the norms & values of the dominant culture. For employees in the dominant culture, the expectation to assimilate may be easy to meet with little loss of identity & individuality. This is because the organizational culture is similar to their own culture. In fact, it may feel like an expnsion of self.
A subordinate or ‘outsider’ culture?may include many things that do not look, sound or feel like the dominant culture. For employees in the subordinate culture, fitting in and feeling included is more difficult and may come with a greater sense of loss. Even after much effort to fit in, an outsider may never experience complete inclusion in the dominant culture.
But then, how does it relate to innovation ?
Human, on a basic level, is a collection of memories & experiences. By not being inclusive & diversified, we miss out on vital human experiences that would have shaped the course of actions of humanity differently. The experiences that look alien to us, look perfectly normal to others. Your imperfect can be perfect for others and vice versa. Accounting for all human experience and integrating it in your thought process and decision making drives the engine of innovation. For example, I would never be able to solve a problem, if I didn’t know that the problem existed as I never experienced it myself. Solving problems in optimal ways is innovation.
Agency, tendency or pretence ?
Many enterprises today?tend to or pretend?to operate by the principles of inclusion, equity or diversity. Please be in the realm of agency, where these principles are etched in the very character of the organization. If you are currently exhibiting tendency, please be self-aware, curious and show empathy. If you are in pretence realm, then it’s a great time to get out of the whirlpool and practice what you preach.
I love all kind of sports, but Cricket basically runs through my veins. Since 2020, South African Cricket board made a decision that left me scratching my head.
They introduced a quota system for the selection of their national team, stipulating that out of 11 players in the side 6 shall be of white origins and 5 will be of black origins. They termed it as Affirmative Action, Positive Descrimination, Transformation.
I couldn’t help myself asking the question: Why wouldn’t they pick-up the best 11 players from their country regardless of their ethnicity or race ? That question kept me thinking and reading more about the subject. It turns out that the South African Cricket was also blighted by the horrors of Apartheid and they wanted to bridge the disparity left as a reminiscent of institutional racism in the sport.
The supporters of the system would answer my questions as: “Quota, but not over merit.” The opponents would argue: “What about individual merit ?”
The results are yet to be seen. But over two years time, South African Cricket has slumped.
I cannot be a judge on their motivations and I will not question their earnestness to their cause. I will leave it upto you to decide if this action exhibits agency, tendency or pretence.
Inclusion, Equity and Diversity is not a mere statistic. It’s not about a number game, It’s a genuine, bold, belated, beautiful ideal that has the potential to bring all groups of human kind together and for once push aside our shallow differences and discords.
I believe a culture that genuinely cherishes these priciples, doesn’t need to artificially plant numbers to showcase their inclusion & diversity practices. Because the numbers come automatically without the expense of meritocracy.