By guest blogger, Peter Skarzynski, a member of Doblin’s client leadership team.
If you hold an innovation role inside a large company, you may have a problem on your hands. But, before turning to the problem, let me share some good news: you are in your innovation role because most senior executives think your work is a top priority and have shown they are ready to invest in training you as an innovator.
Now the bad news: These same execs, according to our recent survey, are frustrated with current efforts and―even more―are worried their companies are not setting the right innovation priorities. They also believe they are neither aiming high enough with their innovation ambitions nor investing sufficiently in the right technologies to win.
What gives?
Both pieces of news are featured in Deloitte’s latest Business Confidence Report about which my colleague, Geoff Tuff, previously discussed in “There are no participation trophies in business.” In addition to the report’s survey results, C-Suite executives we speak with offer differing explanations for their perception of underperformance. The most common reasons we hear from leaders include the fast pace of technological change; the unique characteristics of the demanding millennial workforce; and a need to further hone internal innovation capabilities.
Root Causes of Underperformance
Most certainly the three factors cited above by CEOs are contributing factors which help to explain why innovation falls short of expectations in some organizations. However, as my Doblin colleagues and I work with organizations to objectively assess enterprise innovation, we typically find two even more significant and interrelated root causes which help to explain underperformance.
Geoff shared the first root in his previous post on innovation confidence, reminding us that relying on “the traditional levers of product innovation and customer experience” unnecessarily constrain the organization’s innovation potential. He asserts a view - grounded in Doblin’s body of innovation research generally known as Ten Types of Innovation - that high performing innovators:
- Look beyond products to include other aspects of their business system to innovate
- Open up to external collaborators to broaden and strengthen the value of a systemic solution
- Focus relentlessly on attracting the best and brightest to their ecosystem, valuing non-traditional skill sets and rewarding them appropriately
A second, and equally important, root cause lies in the C-Suite and, paradoxically, is an unintended consequence of the good intentions of creating and institutionalizing an enterprise or business unit, innovation function. My Doblin colleagues and I call it the “functionalization of innovation.”
The Functionalization Paradox
Now functionalization, per se, is not a bad thing to do―or invest in. Certainly, integrating innovation into the corporate curriculum, dedicating resources, and establishing Centers of Excellence (COEs) for innovation are each helpful and often necessary. In large organizations – especially those with global reach – functionalization is a serious investment of millions if not tens of millions of dollars. And, it is very often one of the right moves to make.
Here’s the rub: In too many organizations, “functionalization” is the beginning and end of C-Suite engagement. Taking a page out of the playbooks of lean manufacturing – six sigma - too many senior executives frame the innovation imperative solely as a resource allocation issue. “Put good people on the task, train them up and off we charge into new innovation frontiers.”
But, if the C-Suite seeks new-to-the-company or new-to-the-industry innovation, doubling down on retooled innovation processes, tools and metrics is a necessary but not sufficient action. In addition, and most importantly, the C-Suite must stay actively engaged and actually “own” the innovation efforts to be successful. And we mean own: directly lead, shape and be held accountable for results.
Getting “Hands-on”
Now, take a step back. Think about your own company context. Think about the most significant innovation opportunities your organization should be pursuing. Then, ask yourself and your innovation team: how many of those opportunities require cross-organizational collaboration within and outside of our own organization?
Collaboration is critical to ambitious innovation. And, most new-to-the-company and new-to-the-industry innovation success has required the C-Suite to break down organizational silos and foster this collaboration.
Intuitively you already know this. So now ask yourself: who in the organization has the ability to enable and sustain that type of collaboration? And ask yourself: who in the organization can secure the funding, skills and patience to smartly pursue longer-term opportunities which by their very nature are more uncertain and risky?
If you are sitting in the C-suite, the answer is: “I am that leader.”
It’s time to get hands-on and not only help orchestrate relationships across the traditional structures and hierarchies of your organization, but also to animate and foster external collaborations. Through these actions you are still signaling to the organization the importance you place on innovation while making it easier for your teams to collaborate across the organization. And, hopefully, you soon will start to see the breakthrough results you have been expecting.
In addition to his client work with Doblin, Peter speaks frequently on the topic of growth, has authored numerous articles, and written two books: Innovation to the Core (Harvard Press, 2008) and The Innovator’s Field Guide (Josey-Bass, March 2014). Follow him on Twitter @PeterSkarzynski.