Starting My Own Business (Again) – You have to love necessity

21 years ago, I handed my resignation into my boss and took a leap into the unknown.  I’d loved the work I was doing, it was exhilarating and intense but I couldn’t keep on working for a boss who was driving me nuts.  I was burnt out, confused and pretty angry.  Not one to hang about I got straight on it and began the usual process of looking for jobs in the papers, filling in the application forms and turning up for interviews.  Bizarrely, (I thought), despite my best efforts, nothing was coming off.  Looking back, I think the low point was failing to get an interview for a £12K/annum job to be a traffic crossing supervisor coordinator (basically rostering lollipop ladies).   I was smart, I was talented, I had a good degree – I also had a young family and I needed to make something happen.  I started my first business.

Necessity was (and still is) the mother of invention and out of the ashes of my previous education and experiences, fuelled by a passion to succeed, I was able to grow a new business.  My nascent executive coaching business was little more than an idea and some headed paper but it was enough to launch me into a new world and through begging, blagging, taking some big risks and working really hard I managed to establish a suitably successful business.  Over the next 7 years (and a couple of rebrands) I developed a viable management consulting company that taught me lots about life, took me across the world and paid the bills (most of the time).   Unfortunately most of the time was decidedly problematic for me as I now had a bigger family and a sizable mortgage.    Necessity (in the form of an erratic cash flow) kicked my arse again and I folded my business up to join the dark side.

In 2000 I joined Accenture with the sole intention of easing my cash flow and getting a couple of years experience with a “proper” management consultancy under my belt.  Having been my own boss for 7 years I was dreading it.  How wrong I was.  It was a delight, someone else did the billing, the cash collection, the marketing, the HR processes etc.  All I had to do was the selling and delivery work I loved.   I made Partner, made great friends and built a bigger business network.  After six happy years at Accenture I was approached by Capgemini to join them.  I eventually succumbed to their charms and launched into five more happy years at Capgemini. 

However, by the start of 2012 I was beginning to feel unsettled at Capgemini and was beginning to think through my career aspirations.  By the middle of 2013 I had determined I needed to leave and do something new and thus began the search for the next career step.  Not in any hurry I put out some feelers, but didn’t push it.  Like the slowly boiling frog I just couldn’t get my bum in gear.  Then at the beginning of 2014 Capgemini engaged in a restructuring process and made me an offer I literally couldn’t refuse.   A month later and I’d left with a sense of relief and excitement.  Interestingly, rather than rely solely on the talents of recruitment companies to determine my next career step, I find myself starting my own business again.  I’m very excited.

I’m 21 years older, a lot less naive, less angry and considerably more financially stable.  I also have bags of experience and a huge business network.  Ironically it has taken necessity to get me to this position again.  My new company addonova is my second services company start up, providing consultancy services on Digital Innovation and Transformation.   We already have our first contract and I have found that I still have more than enough drive and energy to ensure that I can make the business work.  I do like to prove a point.  So, once again I’m living the innovative entrepreneur’s dream and I will let you know how it goes.

Reinventing Corporate Social Responsibility – a new business blueprint

Dear Reader, this article is a bit of a leftfield departure from my standrad innovation blog fare - but hey that's no bad thing for an innovation blog. This article gives my own jaundiced take on the current western economic context and for those of you who find this a bit political I can only apologise.  Normal service on the why's and wherefore's of Innovation will recommence shortly.  Have fun reading

It is now over 5 years since the western economic machinery almost ground to a halt as a result of the entrepreneurial/cavalier/negligent/fraudulent (choose your own adjective) activities that generated the credit crisis.  Now, regardless of your choice of adjective, you would had to have been living in a very isolated bubble not to grasp, that when it comes to the conduct of business and the general public’s viewpoint on it, the world has changed.

Prior to 2008 you could describe the general public’s view on how big businesses operate as at best apathetic.  For most people the economy was delivering, house prices were rising, jobs were plentiful and savings were growing.   There was a wonderfully/tragically naive level of trust in big business as it simply got on with doing its thing.   Little did we, the general public of the western democracies, realise that the economic “good times” were only temporary and that we would be paying heavily for them over the next decade or so.   

However, after the initial shock of the crash has faded, it is clear that the public has neither forgiven nor forgotten the captains of industry as the strictures of austerity are felt across the western economies.  Far from it.  Instead the public’s attitude has become increasingly hardened and militant when it comes to the conduct of big business and its leaders. 

This hardening of heart towards big business has been further fuelled by the continuing scandals that have battered the ramparts of big business.  Most scandals can pretty much be reduced to a combination of the following headlines – (Insert the correct adjective) Incompetent/greedy/fraudulent (Insert the correct noun) fat cat/banker/boss (insert correct verb) steals from/defrauds/rips-off (insert correct noun) customers/investors/public.

This diet of expose and scandal has only been exacerbated by the simultaneous undermining and exposure of both the politicians and media who are supposed to be the guardians of society who have also been caught with their noses in the trough and the seemingly ineffective activities of the multiple regulators.

Now whilst most citizens feel little or no desire to go on an Occupy Wall Street demo or riot in the streets you only need to do a quick vox pop to discover that the public is frustrated by/angry at/loathing of those who appear to have profited from the crisis whilst others have suffered.   Nowhere is this more obvious than in those businesses that the public consider to be vital to them as they conduct their daily lives.  Specifically, located in the bullseye of public antipathy are the retail banks, the utilities and the transport providers closely surrounded by the supermarkets, public services and the oil companies with the communications providers just a bit further adrift but still in range.

The public seems to have concluded that just letting capitalism do its thing in these vital areas of societal infrastructure is both highly risky and morally wrong, but how do you do it without getting into a big unproductive mess of public ownership and a return to the 1970s.   The beast of public opinion is hungry for action but it seems only to be being served up an occasional soupcon of schadenfreude by the regulators and courts and piecemeal tit bits and solutions by the politicians who seem remarkably short on ideas but long on rhetoric.

Leaving aside the specifics it appears that when it comes to the provision of the core societal infrastructure services, what the public wants is to have well run industries that price fairly, with a view to make enough money to both survive and reinvest into their services but do not make “excessive” profits for their senior executives.  In my opinion the public is now genuinely interested in creating a framework within which a socially responsible business could operate.  Last week the Swiss public voted against capping executive pay at 12 times the pay of the most junior staff.  Now, the fact that this was even an option for a public vote is truly notable and an interesting sign of the times.

So what would a true corporate social responsibility agenda be about?  Clearly it has to be about more than the standard delivery of the raft of the good and worthy charity related activities that drive employee engagement and positive PR.   Currently social responsibility is a corporate nice to have not the overwhelming business philosophy that the public are demanding.  To my mind there are a few key aspects that would both meet with public approval and deliver reasonable economic outcomes for the western economies.  These may feel very heavy handed and a tad “socialist” but I sense that the public is only interested in having this layer of social engineering sitting over its key infrastructural services not the entire economy.  Also, having worked extensively with financial services clients over the last five years it is clear that many are looking diligently to reinvent themselves and regain the trust of the public but they struggle to persuade their senior management teams and institutional shareholders that becoming a truly “responsible” corporate social entity is in their own best interests – legislation is therefore required.

And what would be the constituent elements of a publically acceptable yet business compatible set of legislation that could be applied to those businesses that constitute our societal infrastructure?  Here are 5 ideas as a starter, all other ideas gratefully received.   NB These are all ideas that already exist and are applied by some businesses.  I’ve just bundled them up and given them a context.

1)   Customer Stewardship.  Ensuring that a company actively supports their customers in the procuring, provision and usage of their products or services – actively keeping the interests of those who rely on the products and services at the heart of their business processes.

2)   Tax Probity.  Ensuring that all taxes are paid fairly and fully in their country of origin.   Not doing deals to hide taxable money but openly and willingly contributing to the country of operation by paying tax

3)   Reward Sharing.  Ensuring that the differential between the remuneration packages of the most senior employees and the most junior employees are within a defined ratio e.g. 1;12 as per the Swiss option

4)   Long Term Management – Ensuring that any additional rewards (bonuses/pay-offs etc) are related only to long-term positive outcomes for the business. 

5)    Infrastructural Reinvestment – Ensuring that a substantial proportion of the profits generated are reinvested into long-term infrastructure projects to ensure the effective long-term, low cost, assured delivery of the service for generations to come

Of course this kind of radical reengineering would be hated by the business world but the debate shouldn’t hurt us.  Look forward to hearing your viewpoints.

The coming rise of the wearable device

If the noughties was the decade of the meteoric rise of the mobile communication device (tablets and phones) then the teens will be the decade of the meteoric rise of the “wearables” – and you can quote me on that.   For those not familiar with the concept of wearables it is the blanket term for technology warn on or carried on the outside of the body.  Wearables are related to but different from the emerging embedded and ingested devices that are both just at the start of their development cycles. 

Now wearables are nothing new, we have been living with the modern version of the wearable since the introduction of the digital watch.  However, what encourages me to make such bold statements about the future of wearables is that it just seems as though their moment has truly arrived.  Why?  Well the recent advantages in several technological areas such as Tech Portability (size and robustness), Data Analytics and Mobile Access seem to have paved the way for the creatives to begin the process of using wearables to refashion our lives with the same kind of scale and impact as they were refashioned by mobiles and tablets.  Woohoo.

Of particular interest to me, is not so much the frivolous fashion applications e.g. T-shirts that go a different shade depending on your mood or even the miniaturised wrist worn Samsungs, Sonys and soon to be apple devices but the multiple potential business applications.  My sense is that wearables will undoubtedly change the way we work and live.

Here are a few possible application areas:

Health and safety in the workplace

This is perhaps the best explored area to date and a land of opportunity for wearable developers.   Multiple applications have already been identified and some are already developed.  Today’s workers can already have their stress levels, blood pressure and postures measured (and corrected) and coming soon will be all manner of additional services and devices assessing our physical state at work.  These will include our general levels of alertness, stress, sobriety, health and energy.  A sub group of these devices, which is already gaining exposure, will focus on our ability to safely operate machinery (including company cars).  These devices will provide a composite service that monitors both our physical state and our technical capability as determined by how the machinery responds to our commands/touch.

This should in theory reduce the risk of accident and ill health at work and put us as the workers into a more competent and productive space.

Healthcare provision and health insurance

Of course a closely related branch of wearable devices to the health and safety workplace monitors described above will be the personal healthcare wearable devices that we will choose to wear in order to provide a) the medical professionals that we are interacting with an in depth and up to date view of our key metabolic indicators and b) to provide ourselves and/or the emergency services with a range of specific early warning monitors that activate at the first sign of heart attack/stroke/major accident etc.   These devices are already changing the way that companies offer health insurance with reductions in premiums becoming more and more likely for those that can prove (through the info provided from healthcare wearables) that they are living a healthy lifestyle.   They will of course transform the way GPs “see” patients, enabling them to conduct appointments remotely.  This of course is very good news for all those of us who find it nearly impossible to book a standard appointment at a time that suits us.  Wearable infection monitors could also enable companies to send home infectious employees at the first onset of infection reducing general germ spread and safeguarding overall workforce health.  Obviously this would be very “Big Brother” and intrusive but really quite logical and sensible and probably a step too far.

Facilities management through location monitoring

Just like the marine biologists tagging a school of whales to study their behavioural patterns it will also be possible to tag the entire workforce to study their behavioural patterns and building usage patterns.  The ability to tag and monitor the workforce and its patterns of usage within a building would enable a company to deduce all sorts of information that could prove useful.  Which areas of a building are utilised the most? Are these the areas that will require the most heating and maintenance?  How much desk space/room space is utilised in real-time?  Should overflow facilities be provided?  Where do people gather to talk?  Are there enough quiet areas etc, etc?

This is of course an extension of the work being done on developing smart homes/smart buildings.  What is interesting is when the users of the buildings are themselves monitored and add to the richness of the data available to the facilities managers.

Access & Security (ID &V)

A closely related area is that of the use of wearable devices to act as access, security or ID and Verification instruments.  Whilst this is clearly already a part of modern life through the wearing of ID badges and building passes the ability to have an attractive and personal “ID bracelet/dog tag” that operates via NFC technology would be appealing.  There is much more that can be imagined in this space but it’s all pretty much based on the same basic ideas that any “worn” identifier needs to be matched by a second identifier if the security needs to be anything more than basic.

Sales Effectiveness

This next idea is a bit of an imaginary leap.  I want you to imagine yourself as a salesperson asking a client to wear a monitoring device whilst you are walking them through the process of making a significant purchase (car, house, loan etc).  The reason you are doing this is to be able to prove to the industry regulators that when you sold that particular good or service that the customer was alert, sober and not under undue duress.   Too far?  Well, given the increasing need to demonstrate good sales behaviours in many industries this may not be really that far-fetched.  Meanwhile, closer to the here and now there are a growing number of wearables that are already being used to monitor interactions and train new staff (including cameras or voice recorders).  These can only get more sophisticated.

To conclude, it seems to me that it is not so much technology that is now the impediment to the rapid development of wearables but rather our imagination and eye for an application.  As a result I think I can look forward to seeing a massive surge in the quality and quantity of wearable devices and applications throughout the rest of the decade.  Bring it on.

Excited about Digital all over again – thoughts from a digital enthusiast

Whilst touring through Spain & France this summer (on what was effectively an extended wine crawl) I had the time and inclination to ponder once more the whole digital revolution concept and it got me excited about digital all over again.  Now for those of you who are quick to judge and are righting me off as a sad case, I did also think about lots of other things on hols too and I swam in the sea, played with the kids, visited art galleries, admired amazing architecture etc, nonetheless, the notion of how digital technologies could change our futures is one I do find exciting.

Ironically on arriving back in the UK I was once again confronted by a wall of negative scare stories about digitally related topics on data protection, internet safety and government monitoring.  So to maintain my enthusiasm and redress the balance this is a blog from an unashamed digital enthusiast looking at the positive outcomes the digital revolution will bring to our lives in the next 10 years.

1)      Smart Homes:  Yes our homes will be getting a brain in the next 10 years and that will change everything.  Here are a few highlights.  No more faffing around under the stairs with a dodgy torch reading your gas and electricity meters, it’ll all be done remotely.  No more walking into a cold house after work or school, you’ll have put your heating on remotely before you leave work specifying the areas of your house that you are likely to use that evening.  No more wasting money on lights you left on when you went out, you can turn them off using your mobile.  You can also monitor and change all of your energy and resource usage as you’ll be able to see it all through a simple mobile interface.   Not only that your fridge will let you know you’ve run out of milk (or anything else you regularly use) and offer to have more delivered.  Your pantry will know you need more bread, rice, pasta etc and offer to have that delivered too.  Even your cats can be fed remotely and you’ll be able to watch them via your tablet device to make sure they’re eating OK.  There’s plenty more here but I’ll press on.

2)      Health & Safety:  Not the dull restrictive stuff but the really useful stuff that actually helps us to be more healthy and safe.  We’ll be able to monitor ourselves our family members and pets in a whole new way.  Location tags will enable small children, errant pets and the “at risk” elderly to be monitored remotely on our mobiles enabling us to find them when they wander off or worse.  Our heart rates, calorie intakes, sugar levels, temperatures etc will be constantly monitored via our mobile devices giving those of us that want it the chance to spot and respond to unhealthy lifestyles and/or potentially fatal diseases.  We might even be able to cut out the nightmare of getting a Doctor’s appointment via the receptionist by booking directly online and talking remotely to the doctor via our tablets from work or home whilst he in turn reviews our latest blood pressure and temperature readouts that we’ve given him mobile access to. There’s so much more good stuff here but I must move on again.

3)      Transport:  Whilst we won’t see teleportation in the next 10 years our transport systems will be far smarter moving us more safely and often times more quickly than we can manage on our own.  The vast networks of cameras and devices capturing data on our travel habits will be better utilised to provide real time “best options” for finding the quickest routing to our chosen destination.   In addition, according to Elon Musk of Tesla we will be taking autopilot to a whole new level on our major highways too.  An array of sensors and a slew of chips will ensure humans will take a back seat being merely a back-up system for the far more capable digital capabilities built into our vehicles.  In the meantime, driven by our Insurance firms, we will be deluged with more and more information about our driving styles and flaws in an attempt to improve our driving and reduce accidents (and of course claims).

4)      Shopping: In addition to the impressive integrated high street/digital shopping experiences we are already seeing from the likes of Burberry and the order anything online capabilities available via amazon and others we will see a further shift in our shopping habits at the far end of the decade driven by a maturing of the new capabilities of 3-D printing.  The ability to order and print out at home or the office an array of goods and spare parts for our lives will be revolutionary too.  It will change the way we shop for a large array of goods.   Need a new lightbulb, print it.  Replacing a dental brace, print it.  Want some new jewellery, print it.  We will also see the mass use of 3-D printing by the manufacturers themselves to improve and speed up the manufacturing process whilst reducing the costs and hopefully the cost of goods.  Seem like sci-fi?  It’s coming.

5)      Education: As we have all long understood, knowledge is power and the ability of our best educators to package up their greatest insights and post them on the net in bite sized, brilliantly constructed, accessible packages will continue to revolutionise the way we learn not only in the UK but across the globe.  Wherever there is a power source and a mobile connection people will be able to learn.  My son recently visited China and stayed in a village with no running water but great internet connections, definitely a sign of the times.   With the costs of universities increasing the option to learn at your own pace in your own time whilst working will be increasingly popular.  Sorry Michael Gove, digital advances will ensure that teaching will finally shift from being a profession that imparts content to being one that enables pupils to access and get the best from the available content.  We will see the use of immersive technologies (google glass, virtual reality environments etc) delivering far more memorable, tailor made learning experiences.  Personally I can’t wait to do a “nature walk” whilst my google glasses identify the birds, trees and plants I’m walking past.

OK, enough already.  There’s loads more that will change in entertainment, communications, finance and every aspect of our working lives but that’s for another day.  We are only just at the start of this digital revolution and it should be quite a ride.  Finally I’ll end with a plea.  Yes, of course there are challenges that arise from a digital future relating to ethics, security, privacy and others but please let’s not skimp on providing the infrastructure and investment required to underpin the rosy future.   Maybe we should be looking to invest billions in new technology infrastructure such as universal wifi coverage and broadband connectivity to ensure rapid internet access for all with the same level of doggedness that we are looking to spend billions on the technology of the industrial revolution such as the High Speed 2 rail link.   Here’s wishing us all a happy and prosperous digital future.

Oh and for those who need some further convincing check out the words of wisdom of MIT’s Andy McAfee on the subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5ePL36BbU&feature=youtu.be

Practical Innovation in a Digital World - Building the Ideation Ecosystem

Reader Warning:  If you are looking for the kind of levity, light-hearted banter and insightful amusement I usually conjure up after a couple of stiff sherrys then this is probably not the blog for you. This one is a bit serious and is the first in a series of similarly serious blogs that will take an in depth look at the sub-processes that underpin the process of Corporate Innovation.  That doesn’t mean the blogs will be dull (hopefully far from it) rather they will be quite technical and suitable for those that consider themselves practitioners in the field of Innovation.  Warning over, read on at your peril!

This blog is about Ideation* – the elemental and almost magical sub-process at the very genesis of the Corporate Innovation process.   It is a much misunderstood process and a little explored one.  The generation of ideas is often seen to be the exclusive, secret domain of the visionary entrepreneur, the maverick R&D guy or the corporate alchemist, certainly not the result of a process that can be quantified, systematised and regularly replicated.   Now whilst these rare corporate beasts can undoubtedly catalyse and accelerate the process they are most definitely not the process itself and quite often they can actually slow or derail the process in a fit of pique.  Now I have written about the detrimental propensity of CEOs to seek out these Wizard of Oz types in a previous blog and so won’t replay that rant here.  Suffice to say, in practice, the process of Ideation itself is a bit more mundane than the magicians and snake oil salesmen would have us believe.  The generation of useful ideas is a lot more about the outcome of the hard, disciplined work, carried out by dedicated professionals than the result of a favoured kiss from the ideas muse.  Those that have been tasked with delivering Ideation will nod sagely on hearing award winning novelist Philip Pullman’s quote “Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals.  Professional know that if they relied on inspiration, they'd be amateurs.”

So how does an Innovation professional set about generating a set of quality ideas that can potentially be formed into concepts that can be prototyped and tested?  There are three key elements for the Innovation professionals to assemble.  The first essential element is having access to a rich source of ideation inputs – the thoughts, suggestions, ideas, tech and stimuli required to generate innovative concepts.  The second is having a reliable, generative ideation process through which to sort, play with, combine and recombine the inputs in a way that generates innovative concepts.  The third is having access to a creative team of stimulated professionals whose brains this ideation process will be carried out in.

The rest of the blog will look at each of these elements in detail.   Without these elements Ideation is a random, haphazard and rare occurrence, pretty much what it actually is for many corporates.

A quick but related digression, I still smile to myself when I remember working with a UK high tech manufacturer that was short on ideas.  I asked them to arrange a meeting with the senior managers to discuss the Innovation process.  “Ooh,” said the coordinator, “we can use the Innovation room.”  I replied that sounded great.  On the day of the meeting I was ushered into the Innovation room – which turned out to be an oblong, grey walled, windowless room with plastic seats arranged in rows.  Strangely I didn’t have to work too hard that day to convince the client that they needed to make changes – especially of they wanted to think outside the very grey box in which they literally and metaphorically found themselves.  So let’s get to it.

1)      Creating a rich source of Ideation Inputs

Generating rich inputs requires high quality networking and an ability to expand and leverage the relationships and ecosystems of the corporation.   Below is a table of a tiny fraction of the different ways Corporates can and do plug into a flow of ideas from the easy to access to the more hard core link ups. 

Hard Core	Serious	Traditional	Easy
Tech Partnerships	Academic Links	Industrial Tourism	Conferences
Tech Start Up Links	Commissioned Research	Staff Suggestions	Social Media Feeds
Specialist Idea Brokers	Supplier Ideas Forums/Fairs	Customer Feedback/Complaints	Guest speakers
Patent Tracking	Big Data Analytics	Internal Data Analytics	Literature reviews

The key here is to generate a manageable flow of ideas that those charged with generating Innovation concepts can handle.  Too few ideas and the Innovation hopper will be barren, too many ideas and the Innovation hopper will be overflowing and unmanageable, creating waste and disillusionment.   N.B. There is no single “secret source”(sorry),  the successful Corporate Innovators will have a whole raft of sources from which they draw ideas.  The key skills required for delivering a rich source of ideas are network building and curiosity.

2)      Developing a reliable, generative Ideation Process

Now this element is a little more complex and a source of heated debate between Innovation professionals.  Again there is probably no right answer here but there are probably better ones.   The minimum requirement is the ability to structure the time spent playing with, combining, refining and assessing the ideas.  This is serious play.   There are numerous techniques available ranging from the basic brainstorming processes, through analytical and scoring techniques to the more developed Triz process and its modifications and abstractions.   The key factor here is that the Innovation professionals actively manage themselves through a process or a series of processes.   The complexity here is that the processes have to encourage room for play, spontaneity, what if debates, flights of fancy and slack time whilst maintaining their rigour as a process.  As a result facilitation is key.  The key skills required to be able to develop and operate a reliable, generative ideation process are playfulness, curiosity and facilitation skills.

3)      Building a creative team of Dedicated Professionals

Finally it is important to remember that innovation is not some abstract event.  Humans are not just catalysts in the process they are a living Innovation substrate.   Ensuring that your Innovation team is in the best possible shape to innovate is therefore important.   This, of course, means that recruiting or renting the right people, with the right aptitudes to work effectively as part of an Innovation team is crucial, as is providing them with the right physical locations, stimuli and props.  However, it does not mean keeping them overly comfortable.  Necessity is the mother of invention and diversity and conflict (in small doses) can be excellent catalysts.   I’m aware I’m making this sound a little like alchemy and of all the elements I’ve looked at in this blog this is the one that is the most esoteric.   However, having an effective team leader that can manage the state of their team to enhance Innovation is a real find.   Whether that means exposing the team to third world experiences or cosseting them in comfy cushions, the ability to keep changing it up is essential.  The key skills required to build a team of creative, dedicated Innovation professionals are therefore team management and creativity.

Hopefully that has provided a bit of an insight into Ideation, the primary sub-process of Innovation and its base elements.  There’s much more that can be said and written about these elements but that is not the stuff of a blog.  Do get in touch if you wish to discuss.  Further blogs on the other sub-processes will follow.

N.B. I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that in today’s digital environment it is also possible to “outsource” the ideation process by setting up hackathons, hosting social media discussion groups, sponsoring prizes for innovative solutions and all manner of other mechanisms.  These are all relatively new mechanisms but are proving popular and well worth trying.  Have fun Innovating.

*The process of ideation in a corporate setting is the process for the generation of ideas that, if applied to the corporation, could have a relevance to one or more of the stakeholders of the corporation.

Innovation - Four Corporate Operating Models

This blog has recently been enhanced and published as a Capgemini Point of View but I thought it would be fun to publish it in its original format for the regular readers of the blog.  So here it is in its unillustrated, raw state. Hope you find it useful.

If Innovation occurred as a natural reaction to the expressed wishes and exhortations of the CEO on the subject of Innovation then this would be a very short blog.

However, those of us that are practitioners and advisors on the topic know that it does not.  In fact those of us who carry any kind of Innovation related title should take a good hard look at ourselves and admit we’ve let our industries down by colluding with the idea that somehow all we need, in order to generate Innovation in our businesses, are some verbal signs of support from the senior executives.  This is nonsense.  Think it through.   

If I meet up with a CEO and ask him/her to describe to me their financial management process they will have no problem in outlining the process, the systems underpinning it, its governance rules and the roles of the people who manage it.   The same will be true if I ask about the people management process and as of relatively recently, they’ll even be able to walk me through the risk management process.

But ask about the Innovation process and they’ll almost immediately flip their responses to start telling me about the specific “innovations” that have occurred in their businesses in the last 2 years or so.  Not the process, just the outcomes.  When really pressed they might be able to point to a Head of Innovation who reports into the Head of Product development somewhere and they may be able to point out that they have a more or less sophisticated employee suggestion scheme but almost none will be able to talk me through their Innovation process. The simple reason for this is, that on a corporate scale, they are highly unlikely to have one.  No clear operating model, no end-2-end process, no underpinning systems and technology, no real investment or resources and no real chance of delivering a regular flow of innovation. Ouch!

NB – before pharmaceutical and technology clients start feeling smug about themselves as they start casually pointing to their tried and tested R&D process for creating new products – can you tell me the process for corporate innovation in any area other than new product development e.g. service innovation, cost reduction innovation, business model innovation, distribution process innovation etc?  Thought not. 

So rather than rant on about how sad a state of affairs it all is and that someone, somewhere should do something about it I thought I’d grab the bull by the horns and outline four different operating models that an executive who wants to remedy the situation can think about implementing.

First off, some basics.  For any innovation operating model to work it needs to have a clearly defined end-2-end process, good funding and resourcing, clear governance, effective technology and systems and executive support.  Without these you can design what you like it just won’t work very well.  Now to the models, all be it at a very high level.

Model 1 – The Culture of Innovation.

This works great for companies that live or die by their ability to innovate and can be seen in action in companies such as Google and 3M.  In this model Innovation is the responsibility of all the members of the company and each individual is expected to contribute.  To support this employees are recruited for their creativity/entrepreneurial tendencies and are given a proportion of their week to work on developing new cool ideas.  To support this model recruitment needs to be targeted and very effective and the reward system for developing innovative concepts needs to be clear and generous.  In addition individuals need easy access to prototype developers and concept testers to support their efforts.

The strengths of the model are that it is rarely short on ideas and as long as collaboration is encouraged and facilitated the flow of new innovation is relatively constant.   The weaknesses are that this is a hopeless model for those businesses that recruit people for their ability to comply with process and follow the rules e.g. Insurers, Accountants etc.  There can also be an over focus on the development of new product rather than other forms of innovation and a tendency for innovation to peter out after the prototype has been developed and given an initial testing.

Model 2 – The Golden Thread of Innovation

This works well for those companies that are in a growth cycle and are looking to expand.  In this model Innovation professionals are deployed across the business to develop and manage the innovation process on behalf of the business units.   They work to an agreed process and are supported by the Business Unit executives who have the overall accountability for (and are bonused on) the Innovation delivered.  The Innovation professionals working in the Business Units are supported by an Innovation CoE that sits in the corporate centre to provide coordination and support (access to prototyping and testing capability etc).  Companies that have previously used this type of model include GE and RBS (pre credit crisis).  The key to making this model work is to ensure that the business unit executives are absolutely on the hook for driving innovation and that the capability is properly funded.  It cannot be seen as a nice to have by the business units.  Careful recruitment is also required to select the right individuals.  The key roles in this model are those liaising with the business unit executives to drive Innovation.  This requires both innovation skills and great sensitivity to business realities.

Model 3 – The Innovation Hub

This is a model suited to those corporate businesses that have limited investment resources and are in a cost reduction/contraction phase.  They know they need to drive innovation in order to survive but need the attention of their executive team focused on resolving the current challenges.   An Innovation hub or hubs concentrates the organisations innovation resources into units that sit outside the day to day running of the business.  The capabilities in the hubs are supplemented by external providers that enable the hubs to ramp up and ramp down in line with investment capability.   The external providers also provide access to specific skills or infrastructures that the business cannot afford to build or maintain at the current time on a permanent basis.   Innovation hubs can often be constructed as joint ventures with the corporate trading off some of the future profits from the innovation ideas in return for a reduced cost of the support from the external provider.  The strengths of this model are its flexibility and ability to leverage wider innovation ecosystems.  The challenge lies with finding the internal innovation experts who have the skills and capabilities and aptitude to work in this kind of environment.  A lot will be expected of them as they will need to manage both the Innovation process and the day to day management of the Innovation hub plus have an ability to work with stressed out, under pressure executives. 

Model 4 – Innovation as a Service

Much as you can outsource a Finance and Accounting process or an HR process you can also outsource the innovation process.  This is a model suited to those businesses who know they are not innovative in their nature and who do not employ innovative people.  In this model an external provider takes over all or the vast majority of the Innovation process delivering an agreed level of implementation ready innovation concepts back to the business on a regular basis.   The corporate does not need to worry about ideation, prototyping, testing, piloting or the building and testing of business cases.   As long as the corporate is capable of implementing the innovation concepts then the Innovation process can be outsourced.   The strengths of this model are that the Innovation process is managed by professional innovators and should therefore provide reliable outcomes at a reasonable price point.   The challenges are to overcome the cynicism and inertia that can be injected into the process by corporate executives who have an aversion to anything “not invented here”.

That’s it for the high level canter through the models – more details are available on request.  Happy Innovating.

The connected workforce - connected by design or chance

Perhaps one of the most exciting and relatively unexplored frontiers of the digital revolution is the new possibilities for workforce performance improvement through digital technology and it’s natural fit with human behaviour.

The place where bytes meet neurons.  

Digital technologies have already changed the environment we are in, creating possibilities for real-time data analysis, global connectivity, 24/7 mobile access to information, enhanced communications and on-demand digital tools and apps. Our workforces are already connected and becoming more so on a day-by-day basis.

Our new, digitally enabled, tech rich workforces are like fertile gardens. We can design the layout, plant the right digital capabilities, cultivate the right behaviours and remove the legacy of dead wood. Alternatively, we can let the wind blow in whatever direction it will, and allow our workforce to be a digital wasteland - barren in parts and populated by unwanted weeds.  Businesses should take a moment to consider whether their workforce is connected by design….or by chance?

If they’re not sure, it might be useful to think about what an effectively connected workforce looks like.   There are a number of features that are recognisable as inputs to the creation of the connected workforce. The big outcomes are:

1. The employee is able to access and use the right data, at the right time and location to make the best possible real-time decisions
2. The employer is able to generate valuable insight from analysing the data associated with the actions of their employees. This enables them to continually enhance the quality of MI, advice and support

In theory this creates a wonderful virtuous circle of learning between employee and employer, and the development of a very smart learning organisation. 

Now that is either very exciting or very scary depending on your viewpoint. 

Our work phones and tablets provide rich two-way sources of data, allowing employees to receive real time direction on their “next best action” and employers to receive real time insights into the behaviours of their employees under changing conditions.   Taken to its relatively realistic conclusion, it will be possible for organisations to make and effectively action real-time course corrections based on changing external conditions. 

This is a vision of the truly connected workforce and once we get past the Matrix/ Terminator/ Cybermen “machines have taken over” worries, we really need to sit down and think through how we build the workforce infrastructure, ethics and architecture that will enable our organisations to thrive in this fast approaching world.  This is not science fiction – recent MIT/Capgemini research into digital transformation neatly illustrates that the “Digirati” (those companies that are leading the way on digital) are spending serious time and money to get this right.  They are definitely not leaving employee connectivity to chance.

Now it’s never quite as simple in practice as it is in theory, and my experience to date says it is definitely worth breaking the concept of the connected workforce  down a bit to have a look at the component parts, otherwise it may all seem a bit too sci-fi and unobtainable.

Here are a few of the key base building blocks that are in place in digitally smart organisations which are working towards creating a connected workforce:

• Employees have easy (often mobile) access to real-time decision support tools that are supported by effective data analytics
• These tools are supported by a digital infrastructure that allows employees across the business to have a shared view of the customer and the customer issues
• Employees have easy access to a wide range of communication channels that enhance their connectivity and accessibility to their colleagues – particularly those that support teaming and knowledge sharing
• Employees behaviours (particularly around learning and compliance) are influenced and modified by the use of “gamification” and other digital solutions, they are not left to chance
• Employees can access the services that support them in their roles such as Admin, Knowledge Management, Learning and Development and Performance Management tools across multiple channels (including mobile) on a 24/7 basis
• Management have the ability to monitor and assess the multi-layered People Risks that exist in the organisation using multiple data sources
• Where appropriate, non-front line employees, have the ability to choose the devices and tools that best enable them to do their jobs (Bring Your Own Device schemes etc)  

Once these are in place, the prospect of a connected workforce is a real possibility with all the associated business benefits and ethical/behavioural conundrums.   We will need to think hard about how we feel about being “controlled by the machines”. Are we ok with the fact that our decisions will be increasingly informed by an aggregation of everyone else’s decisions?  Will I no longer be able to think independently? Inevitably the answer will be yes and no.   Philosophical challenges aside, we need to recognise the digital genie is already out of the bottle and we need to respond effectively to this new digital world.

Three steps to a digital workforce

So what has to change?  What have the smart CEOs and HRDs got to get to grips with in order to connect their workforces by design?   According to what I am coming across with my clients, there are three areas that require action.  To develop a connected workforce, organisations need to build a digital infrastructure, develop a digital aptitude and determine their digital appetite.  This takes a lot of leadership and a good deal of vision.  Let me try and unpick it a little.

Infrastructure

Firstly the organisation needs to build a digital infrastructure to support the connected workforce.  This infrastructure needs to be able to do four things really well.  It needs to be able to “sense” what employees need and require (digital senses).  It needs to be able to collect and “interpret” employee related data (digital brain).  It needs to be able to connect with and instruct the workforce on the next best action (digital spine) and it needs to be able to provide the employee with the digital tools and methods required to support them in the delivery of their tasks (digital limbs).

Aptitude

Secondly the organisation needs its leaders and workforce to take on new digital attitudes and skills (digital aptitude) to take full advantage of the digital infrastructure.  As occasionally happens in sport, new enthusiasts can be accused of having “all the gear and no idea”.  Having digital infrastructure without digital aptitude is just a bit embarrassing.  It is really important that the CEO and HRD work on shifting the culture using behavioural psychology and digital gamification to shift old school behaviours and learn new skills.  The connected workforce will require new digital skills (data analysis and basic programming etc).  Recent research by O2 suggests 745,000 additional workers with digital skills will be needed before 2017.  What an opportunity and what a challenge.

Appetite

And finally the organisation needs to determine its approach to digital risk management and governance (digital appetite).  Digital appetite is a proxy for deciding on the level of risk, security requirements, transparency and external engagement the organisation is prepared to work with.  It’s really important that the organisation is able to think through the controls required and to communicate them effectively to the organisation.  Not everyone needs to see and share everything.

So to conclude, a properly connected workforce that underpins a real time learning organisation is no longer a pipe dream but a very real possibility.  

This blog is also published in Bdaily Business News https://bdaily.co.uk/technology/03-10-2013/connected-by-design-building-the-connected-workforce/