There are four powerful and competing forces operating in all organizations today: (1) the turbulence of daily work, (2) incremental process improvement, (3) sustaining innovations, and (4) disruptive innovations. All are essential but truly different in most respects. In a perfect environment, with finite resources, an organization would have all operating together in harmony, with the right proportion of resources devoted to each. How do you get the balance right in your organization?
2. Are you tuning the Performance Engine or innovating?
The Performance Engine An Innovation Initiative
Day-to-day
Sustaining, incremental
Repeatable, predictable
Occasional
Disruptive, radical
Uncertain outcomes
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3. Can you create an organization that embraces
continuous innovation? Why now?
Drivers
Social, mobile, “Big Data”, cloud,
sensors, cameras
Software is eating the world
Threats
Shorter produce lifecycles
Opportunities: Role Models
High tech disruptor: Google
Retail and high tech disruptor:
Amazon
Product disruptor: 3M
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4. Amazon’s Approach to Continuous Innovation
Innovation Examples
Kindle
Web services
Amazon Prime
Drones?
Management System
Think big: the everything store
Focus on customer value
Disrupt yourself (used books,
Kindle)
Set up lab in Silicon Valley (A9,
Lab 126)
Acquisitions (Zappos)
Missionary (relentlessly
disruptive) and mercenary
(calculating and ruthless)
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5. Google’s Approach to Continuous Innovation
Innovation Examples
Driverless car, maps
YouTube
Google Glass
Google Fiber, Project Loon
Google Goggles
Management System
Google[x] (moonshots)
Acquisitions (Makani)
20% time
Quick demos
Run lots of experiments and let the
market decide
Fail fast and learn, scale up quickly
if it shows promise
Culture of openness, analytical
rigor, and respect for workers
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6. 3M’s Approach to Continuous Innovation
Innovation Examples
Scotch tape
Post Its
Thinsulate
Management System
15% rule (free time)
Innovation centers, labs
Technical council, forums
30% rule (new products)
6% rule (R&D spending)
Seed capital
Technical career track
Rewards (Carlton Society,
Golden Step)
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