It's Never "Either/Or"

From Joyce Wycoff:

One of my favorite innovation quotes is that innovation is never "either/or;" it’s always "both/and" so it’s always interesting to see opposite ideas come into play.  This happened today as I read Amy Rowell’s thoughtful piece in Innovate Forum Daily (http://www.innovateforum.com/innovate/)  about the negative effects of process-focus at 3M and then participated in the first Ignite Innovation! web seminar featuring Carol Pletcher, former chief innovation officer at Cargill.  Amy discussed the effects of the Six Sigma program instituted by former 3M CEO James McNerney and a former 3Mer’s comment that the Post-It note would never have survived the new system.  The point of the article is that process can stifle creativity and innovation.  All too true.

However, Carol Pletcher in her presentation on innovation "bottle necks" states that companies have to look at where the bottlenecks are before developing a strategy for improving the flow of innovation.  Using an example where revenue is going up but margins are going down, she explained that the bottleneck might be efficiency and cost controls.  In that situation, the best innovation might be the implementation of a Six Sigma or lean manufacturing program.

So, the question isn’t process OR lack of process ... it’s about knowing what tools (or processes) to use when.  As Maslow said, "A man with a hammer in his hand sees every problem as a nail."  Unfortunately, it seems that McNerney tended to hit every issue with a Six Sigma-like approach rather than identifying the bottleneck that was impeding the flow of innovation and then developing an innovation approach that fits the specific situation.

The next Ignite Innovation! web seminar will be held July 17th at 1:00 pm Eastern.  "Developing an Innovative View" with JoAnn and Jim Carland, professors and experts on entrepreneurship, and Susie deVille Schiffli, founder of InnovationCompass.   Register at http://www.iirusa.com/convergence ... click on web seminars.  (Registration for this web seminar will open in a few days.)

Comments

[hmartincalle]

"Bottle Neck" is an interesting term. Where does it begin and how does it snuff out innovation?

I was in an interesting conversation with the head of HR at Adidas the other day. He'd just returned from a conference of HR professionals discussing how to innovate in HR. The net net conclusion was that there is no recruiting innovation because all of these companies sort and sift talent the same way. When you get right down to it (for example) a vice president in marketing puts in a request for a marketing director to be hired who has very similar credentials as the requestor. Intellectual incest insues and innovation in the company grinds to a halt. Like a trend that starts on the east or west coast - it takes 20 years to emerge in the midwest.

Genetically speaking, hiring someone completely different would strengthen the genetic gene and innovation pool because a quant-jock can't measure innovation, creativity or invention into existance. It takes a gregarious process, not someone professing writing some ideas in a box, and others outside the box.

Yet, insanity prevails. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Certainly (in a Matrix -Keannu Reeves sort of way) companies can claim to innovate. But in reality (what the don't or don't want to see), they more often converge on the same positions as rivals saying and executing essentially the same things their own ways with the slices of difference so small as to be measurably inconsequential in the business world. You can redesign a running shoe, you can turn a mop into a Swiffer, but at the end of the day, you have not sold an incrementally greater number of mops or running shoes. So what innovation was there? Making the old look new takes a lot of effort for sure. Pat yourself on the back for putting an old product through plastic surgery. But don't give yourself a reward. Since neither increased margins (GMROI) or market share there were no gains. So this innovation was a toothless tiger.

People over use the word innovation. Like Clara Peller said in the old Wendy's Hamburger ads, "Where's the beef?"

Martin Calle
Diruptive Consumer Intelligence Principal
Calle & Company
www.callecompany.com