Craig Libby is an SVP–Innovation Engineer at Wachovia in Charlotte, NC. futurethink was fortunate to speak with him to learn what makes this seasoned innovator tick. Read on to learn why innovation teams should focus on problem–defining not just problem solving, the importance of building a foresight capability, and the need for organizations to do a better job finding their future, faster.

1. Craig Libby
SVP, Innovation Engineer
Wachovia
the
innovator’s
interview
The Innovator’s Interview highlights unique innovations from a wide range of industries, and is an
opportunity for futurethink and some of today’s leading innovations to share insights and ideas.
May 2009
Turn innovation into action
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2. the innovator’s interview 2
Craig Libby
the background
This Innovator Interview series highlights leading innovators at Fortune
500 companies. In contrast to past interviews, focusing on a single
innovation, this series examines the state of innovation at global
organizations. We spoke with both innovation leaders and practitioners,
within varying business units and organizational structures, across a
broad range of industries both for–profit and not–for–profit.
The interviews offer a unique insider’s view into the world of
innovation—what makes it work, what holds organizations back,
and what critical advice new innovators need to know to be more
successful with innovation overall.
the interview
Craig Libby is an SVP–Innovation Engineer at Wachovia in Charlotte,
NC. futurethink was fortunate to speak with him to learn what
makes this seasoned innovator tick. Read on to learn why innovation
teams should focus on problem–defining not just problem solving,
the importance of building a foresight capability, and the need for
organizations to do a better job finding their future, faster.
You like to stress the ‘practical’ side of innovation. Where does this
need come from?
The Innovation Team was started on the request of our executive
leadership about a year and a half ago, although due diligence on the team
was started almost three years ago. And what they had come up with is
almost a desperate need to get a much better handle around innovation
in a more practical sense. There are lots of conversations saying we
want innovation built into the DNA of the culture of the business, and I
think that’s all very admirable. But, the challenge is how do you innovate,
how to you make it actually happen, in a very practical way.
Where does innovation ‘fit’ within your organization?
Prior to the formation of our group, our approach was very ad hoc. We
didn’t have a handle on what innovation really was. In the beginning,
the team itself had some challenges in understanding where it would
be housed in the organization. It settled within marketing, mainly
because the head of marketing at the time, who was getting ready to
take on the role, was a big proponent of innovation and had asked
the CEO to provide some context and support for innovation in a
more formal way, both in terms of funding as well as human capital
resources, so that people could know how to innovate and could help
others do the same across the company.
There are also roles within the group called ‘insight to innovation’
because one of the things that we’ve learned is that innovating happens
well before the light bulb lights up (what I call ‘left of the light bulb’);
you have to understand what insights are around your customer and Anticipate. Innovate.
what these insights really mean. What is an insight and how do you |
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3. the innovator’s interview 3
Craig Libby
make it practical and pragmatic and usable? And so, we’re helping a
lot of our folks change from being hindsight focused to more insight
and foresight research focused. Our responsibilities cross whole lines “What we have seen with
of businesses within the organization. We try to drive the four key pillars
of innovation – strategy, ideas, process and climate – helping to mentor innovation recently is that
leaders as well as practitioners on all those things. a lot of it seems to be
Do you see yourselves following more of the facilitator model versus within the lines of business
more of an incubator model for innovation within the company? or very IT focused. And
Well, we’re here to enable, even though on our own, each one of us has
had some pretty good success in innovation itself being practitioners while IT is one aspect of
over the years. Our job is to help others be innovative. So, while it
might be a facilitation role, it’s not without the realm that we’ve had
innovation, it’s not the only
executive leadership come to us directly as saying, hey, we need you thing; we’re trying to talk
to try to solve for this strategic issue or that strategic issue. So, we’re
doing both. The reality is, while it would be great if you had enough of a more about business models
maturity model across the organization that the business units could be
self sufficient, they just don’t have the wherewithal and the knowledge
and operational innovation,
to practically apply various innovation tools and techniques in such mergers and acquisitions
a way to get an output in a consistent way. We’re here to help teach
and support them. So, what we do a lot of times is we’ll have a line of innovation, and all kinds
business or a strategic area where we do the work, but we’re teaching
them how we do the work as we go.
of stuff beyond just new
products or services.”
Do you see your role changing as you move forward and as get more
successes under your belt and really start to spread the word more?
Do you envision your role changing at all as far as how your office
and team operate?
With Wachovia’s merger with Wells Fargo, we’re 280,000+ people now “Most organizations are just
in the combined company. That’s a lot of folks. What we have seen
with innovation recently is that a lot of it seems to be within the lines of purely execution focused. I
business or very IT focused. And while IT is one aspect of innovation,
it’s not the only thing; we’re trying to talk more about business models
believe that many of them
and operational innovation, mergers and acquisitions innovation, and all feel that if you’re executing,
kinds of stuff beyond just new products or services.
you’re getting something
So let me ask the tough question: What’s wrong with innovation today? done, whether it’s right or
Most organizations are just purely execution focused. I believe that
many of them feel that if you’re executing, you’re getting something wrong or rework. They don’t
done, whether it’s right or wrong or rework. They don’t take the time take the time to do the
to do the upfront homework necessary to get a better outcome at the
back end. Short term focus may help them generate revenue today, upfront homework necessary
innovation will help them generate it tomorrow.
to get a better outcome at the
We’ve heard from others we’ve interviewed about this tremendous back end.”
pressure to focus on the short–term and to just keep showing results.
Some claim their organizations would risk being punished in the
marketplace for taking longer term bets. So they don’t do it.
And isn’t that an innovation oxymoron? It’s that on one hand, you want
short term results, but then you want consistent success. So, to me,
consistency means also having a view towards the horizon and filling Anticipate. Innovate.
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Craig Libby
fascinating that while many people don’t want to put all their eggs in
one basket in their personal stock portfolios and they want to diversify,
but yet they keep making decisions toward short term, incremental “We don’t focus enough on
gains that affect the future valuation of a company.
defining the real problem
What can innovators do better? or issues when we begin
We don’t focus enough on defining the real problem or issues when we
begin innovating – we jump right to the ideation part. But ideating on
innovating – we jump right
what? Companies try to attack symptoms rather than the root causes to the ideation part. But
of a problem. This is where they ultimately fall down. People think
that because they’re brainstorming that they’re innovative. No way. ideating on what? Companies
You’re spending time in meetings but you’re not spending enough time
actually just thinking, taking time to think. The other thing to address
try to attack symptoms rather
is that we need to be better lateral thinkers. I think is that because as than the root causes of a
we grow up, we lose being free from judgment and we judge more and
more. And so we become very critical versus thinking laterally about problem. This is where they
things: of what you liked about an idea or thought, and how you might
build upon it. We knock things down and we try to defend ourselves
ultimately fall down.”
based on argument. Such behavior, I believe, is out of fear and being
uncomfortable with anything that isn’t ‘a sure thing.’
Say the CEO were to request some sort of progress report on
innovation. What metrics would you report on and why?
I would provide metrics in four key areas: input metrics, process
metrics, output metrics and outcome metrics. Input metrics I think
are fairly straightforward in terms of the number of ideas you have, the
number of concepts, the number of concepts per employee, that kind
of thing, per month, per year, where you get them, how you get them.
Process metrics are measured in terms of yield rates and speeds. The
output metrics are the number of things that actually made it to the
light of day. There’s also number of patents, which to be honest, I don’t
think is a very good proxy –you could have great patents of creativity,
but have no value to the business. The last area is outcome metrics,
which are lag indicators such as revenue, cost efficiency, operational
productivity, OER (operational effective ration), or OEL (operative
effectiveness leverage ratios). Most leaders want to only know about
the lagging metrics: the outcome; but I would challenge them to look
across all four of these areas to be more effective.
So, what would you say is the number one indicator of a healthy
innovation program?
If you think about strategy, ideas, process, and climate and culture, I
would probably say climate and culture. I think that drives a lot of
those other things, assuming that this means you’re getting the training
you need, the support you need, the emphasis of participation versus
judgment. Ultimately, it’s a leadership issue. I challenge business
leaders to commit by behavior.
Anticipate. Innovate.
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5. the innovator’s interview 5
Craig Libby
What are the main criteria used when choosing new ideas to move
forward with?
One of the things that we judge ideas against is how well it aligned “Success breeds support. So,
to the insights that were identified at the start of the process. Did when leadership or skeptical
we address what we needed to on a customer and strategic level? I
think that there’s a huge opportunity to really blow that out in terms of business units can actually
teaching people insights so that you can then ideate better.
see concepts and actually see
Do you mean setting a theme prior to a brainstorming session or us do innovation, watch us
creating goals ahead of time?
Well, it’s more about doing the homework. We do a lot of discovery
do it, teach them to fish, that
and immersion around the area of a topic we’re interested in. So, if breeds support.”
I said I’m going to focus on small business, well, what am I going to
focus on specifically? What comes to mind when it comes to small
business owners and banking? Well, I have no idea, so I’ve got to go
out and take a look. I’ve got to spend a ‘day in the life’, so to speak.
I’ve got to do some in–depth interviews. I’ve got to understand from
an ethnographic standpoint who the small business owner is and what
they need. If I don’t do this, ideation sessions become nothing more
than brainstorming shotgun sessions. We’ll spend anywhere between
a couple months to almost a year getting those insights before we
ever walk in and do ideation because if we can film it, understand it,
decompose it, really get to the themes we’ll get better ideas.
What are some quick win tactics that you think innovators can use to
really get traction and build momentum around innovation?
Success breeds support. So, when leadership or skeptical business
units can actually see concepts and actually see us do innovation,
watch us do it, teach them to fish, that breeds support. And we’ve
seen it time again here. Work on getting your word of mouth campaign
going – make it a viral effort where people get others involved from their
enthusiasm. The lag indicators of revenue or cost saving will take time
to actually see so focus on the input and process metrics to drive the
output and outcome metrics.
You’ve led innovation efforts at many companies. Is leadership
typically a help or hindrance to innovation efforts?
They are critical to success and often the biggest barrier that stands
in the way of it. I spent a lot of time looking at other companies and
how they innovate. I’ve been at Bank of America, I’ve looked at how
several divisions of Johnson & Johnson handle innovation. And the
issues are all similar. I interviewed 56 people at this one fairly major line
of business within the bank towards the latter part of last year. And I
asked them an open ended question at the end to identify their three
key pain points. Do you know what I found? Nine–tenths of them were
leadership related issues. And I brought that back to the executive
leader of that whole organization and I just showed him. They were
aghast. And talk about a change. Within that one conversation, they set
out to change the vast majority of their organization based on
our recommendations.
Anticipate. Innovate.
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6. the innovator’s interview 6
Craig Libby
Just what makes an individual good at innovation and are there
certain skills that they must possess?
I firmly believe that you can teach people innovation techniques
and to do so in context to what they are trying to accomplish (real
world). Edison’s technique was different from Einstein, but both were
very successful. You need different ways to approach things to be
successful. Just like you need different people and perspectives. I
highly encourage every project should start off by storyboarding and
thought process mapping it before diving in. Each project is unique.
Those who take time to plan the effort and then focus the effort upfront
tend to be more successful than those who rush. Go slower to go faster.
What can you learn from Wachovia’s insights on innovation?
• Problem–defining vs. problem–solving: How much time do you spend understanding the root causes
of the problems you’re trying to solve vs. simply brainstorming and coming up with new ideas?
• Better anticipate the future and identify opportunities for growth: What methods are you using
to keep on top of long–term trends and the driving forces shaping today’s business landscape? Are
there processes or resources in place to identify and focus on new growth areas for the business? Is
there a shared vision for where the organization will be in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?
• Senior leadership buy–in: How are you ensuring that senior leadership plays a role in moving
innovation forward?
To learn more about the research, tools and training you need to better anticipate change and move innovation
forward, visit us at getfuturethink.com.
Anticipate. Innovate.
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