Cultural Aspects of Innovation

• The ultimate tinkerer – Dyson of vacum cleaner fame

  Evidently, Dyson, the inventor of the high-end vacum cleaner which has ‘cleaned up’ the market with the application of new cyclonic technology, built 5,271 prototypes, before he was fully satisfied. This is an example of professional tinkering which, in this case, has made a significant difference. Read the article in The New Yorker, September 20th, 2010, Annals of Invention. Fascinating article!

  Posted on Sunday, October 24th, 2010 at 7:27 pm in Cultural Aspects of Innovation, Economic development, Rewards for Innovators, The role and place of R&D in innovation..

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  Tags: development, research, tinkering

• Tinkering and economic development? Compare the U.S. with 3 countries.

  U.S. innovative economic success is based largely on four notions; ‘tinkering’, materialism, a flexible financial infrastructure and a high tolerance for failure at both the corporate and individual level. Tinkering puts ideas into action. Consumer-driven materialism ensures a ready market for new ideas. A flexible financial infrastructure facilitates the relatively easy establishment and destruction of enterprises. An open attitude to failure encourages individuals and corporations to try new ideas, gadgets, and business models. All four are most prevalent in the United States economy while only one, two or three may be present in other economies.Compare the presence of these four notions in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Japan. Download ‘Tinkering etc.’

  Posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 1:33 pm in Cultural Aspects of Innovation, Economic development.

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  Tags: failure, infrastructure, materialism, research, tinkering, tolerance

• The Economist annual Innovation Award (1of 8) goes to Reckitt Benckiser. Explore some of the reasons why!

  Reckitt Benckiser (RB) was awarded The Economist’s very prestigious annual Innovation Award on October 29th, 2009, for its “innovative and entrepreneurial corporate culture”. We set out to parse RB’s culture and we get about 50% done based on the information which we can access. Perhaps others can help? You can download a copy for free – from this web site – of the ‘Draft work in progress’ and see how far we got. Comments welcome. How would you describe their corporate culture? Is it a culture which will – on an ongoing basis – better RB over its competition? For the free copy go to Innovation Culture Profiles and download the report – which includes a comparison with the better-known competitor, Procter and Gamble.

  Posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 7:28 am in Cultural Aspects of Innovation, Discussion.

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• GE – the decision to off load its media assets

  It should come as no surprise that GE is off loading its media assets. Why? One major reason is that the culture of GE is dramatically different from the media business and, over the long term, just does not fit. GE thinks long term, its initiatives are based on an understanding of R&D spending, and the company is steeped in technology and,  even more so, in its understanding of the role of science. No surprise here. It is just too bad the acquisition happened in the first place. A lot of investment and management effort would have been spent, wisely, elsewhere.

  Posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 6:39 am in Cultural Aspects of Innovation, News.

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• Nucor Corporation

  A new Profile explores the culture for innovation which, once set in motion by Ken Iverson in the 1960s, contributed to Nucor becoming the largest steel company in the United States and all this without an R&D department per se. The Founder’s legacy carries on!

  Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 6:46 am in Best Management Practices, Cultural Aspects of Innovation.

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• A Profile of GE’s Culture for Innovation is now available.

  Following the lead of many CEO’s these days Jeff Immelt has, in his latest book – The New GE Way, let us in on a lot of previously closely held information about GE. By carefully examining this book, as well as other recent and older publications about GE, we have been able to construct a picture of the culture within GE from its beginnings (Reference Innovate Like Edison) to the culture under Welch and Immelt. The styles are different and are intended to achieve different results in certain aspects of GE’s business.

  See what you think and provide a comment.

  It is becoming increasingly clear to me, as I examine the ‘culture for innovation’ in many of the most innovative companies, that the culture of the founder(s), even from 100 years plus back, has a profound effect on the company.

  Posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 1:47 pm in Best Management Practices, Cultural Aspects of Innovation.

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• Compare your corporation’s culture for innovation with 3M.

  By taking the time to complete the Check-Up (part of this web site) you can now compare your company’s culture for innovation with one of the most innovative companies in the world; 3M. Based on the Profile of 3M, which outlines for each of 25 Factors, the culture for innovation in 3M, you can now compare your company with 3M. Go ahead. See how your profile matches or is out of line with 3M. Go to http://corporateinnovationonline.com and download 2-page instructions that will, with 6 easy steps, provide insight into the culture for innovativeness in your company.

  Posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 6:28 pm in Cultural Aspects of Innovation.

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• Culture profile for P&G now available as a download.

  Viewers may be interested in this most recent profile as it provides insight into many new management practices at P&G which have been implemented to improve corporate performance through focussing on innovation. 

  P&G might once have been characterized as being rather closed mouthed about how it has managed to be so successful. No more, thanks to recently published articles, a book [The Game Changer] authored by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan, and interviews with senior executives. The changes introduced over the last 8 years represent a step-function in how to improve innovation. 

  Companies and consultants can learn a lot from taking the time to understand more about the changes which have been made. Visit the web site; www.corporateinnovationonline.com, go to the QuickIndex and download the profile.

  Comments on the profile are most welcome. 

  Posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 6:28 pm in Best Management Practices, Cultural Aspects of Innovation, Reviews.

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• Six Essential Elements for a Culture Which Supports Innovation.

  There are 6 absolutely essential elements which need to be in place for a corporation to begin to think that it has a culture which supports innovation; 1. leadership at the top and from the Board, 2. spending on research and development, 3. rewards and incentives, 4. tracking the ‘innovation dynamic’, 5. tolerance to being different, and 6. people management. Each of these is further outlined below.

  1. Leadership at the top and from the board.
  Management needs to state explicitly that they support innovation (which implies encouraging change and accepting risk) and in their actions reinforce the spoken word. It is important to ‘walk the talk’. Board support is an integral element in this cultural driver since management has to be, and be seen to be, in sink with the boards views and visa-versa.

  With the current emphasis on corporate governance where corporations are encouraged to have ‘independent’ members of the board and a chairperson who is not the CEO, this coincidence of thinking is perhaps not so easily accomplished as in prior years where internal boards were more the norm and where the chief executive role and chairperson role were often held by the same individual.

  2. Spending on research and development.
  Without investment in R&D, and obviously the requisite generation of product margins to support an appropriate level of spending, there is only a ghost of a chance that a company will be successful over the longer term.

  High-tech companies like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Oracle, spend an average of 11%* of sales revenue on R&D. Other innovative companies, more in the industrial sector such as John Deere and 3M, spend close to 5% and sustain that level of funding through good times and bad. It is the life blood of the company. But it isn’t just about the level of investment it is also about the focus, efficiency, and expectations associated with the spending. Differentiated and focused investment is the key.

  Part of the investment in R&D should focus on developmental projects which one would expect to come to the market within 5 years, while another part should be allocated to longer-range science-based initiatives that support the corporation’s product line and ideas for future growth. Particularly for the longer term, the corporation needs to have a deep knowledge of the science behind its product initiatives. This can be done through the use of dedicated organizations or sometimes with careful management of the portfolio of R&D projects, thus applying different success criteria for short-term and long-term initiatives.

  3. Rewards and incentives.
  There is little debate about the role played by rewards and recognition for those who are innovators. While the style of rewards may vary by country and corporation, it is recognized that some form of very specific recognition is required to reward a job well done.

  While the term innovation has often been confined to activities which take place only on the technical side of a business, it is important to open up the definition to all functions in the corporation. Differentiating rewards for technical innovations from non-technical initiatives is a good idea since the criteria applied can be dramatically different. Having at least two types of rewards also make it clear that innovation is not confined to only technical and product-related initiatives.

  Full and open transparency regarding awards; the communication of the availability of the rewards, the criteria to be satisfied, and the identification of the award recipients are all essential.

  4. Tracking the ‘innovation dynamic’.
  Within the corporation there needs to be a sense that things are working out for the better. Some form of measurement(s) need to be put in place to track progress.

  In product-related companies this measure has traditionally been the number of new products introduced versus products on offer, from, say, 5 years before. In service-related companies the measurement can be the number of new services offered and a measure of their success in the market place. The number of successful acquisitions can also be measure of progress. Measurements vary by industry.

  No matter what the measurement(s) might be, a regular communication of progress is almost as important as actual progress. Keeping people informed can in itself lead to positive momentum.

  5. Tolerance to being different.
  Tolerance by management and the organization as a whole, whether for failure, risk, for mavericks, or for deviations from the corporate norm is important. Tolerance establishes a culture where personnel have a sense that they can be forthcoming, and can be more adventurous and take initiatives which ultimately, combined with ideas and appropriate management, move the corporation ahead.

  Tolerance for risk in the planning process means that not all decisions need to be based on highly researched and totally predictable outcomes. There is some room and acceptance for ‘gut feel’. Such tolerance can be seen to be overcoming the possible impact of ‘disruptive technologies’; a phenomenon well described in Clayton Christensen’s book, The Innovator’s Dilemma.

  6. People management.

  Encouraging people to share ideas, supported by systems which facilitate collaboration, is an essential element of corporate culture. Open communications, minimal hierarchy so as to encourage communications, are good approaches to people management. Moving people around the corporation has been and remains to this day one of the best ways for providing next-generation management with the requisite experience for future responsibilities.

  Open communications result from; encouraging informal meetings with the use of project rooms, arranging ‘show and tell’ neetubgs, hosting forums for both staff and customers, and a host of other approaches which can be used as a way of breaking down the silo mentality often associated with larger corporations.

  What do you think? Let us know.

  For additional ideas on management practices that work, go to:

  www.corporateinnovationonline.com.

  *FT Research, March 17, 2008, High-tech companies focus their R&D spend. Sample includes; Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Cisco, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Texas Instruments, Google and Sun.

   

   

   

  Posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 8:26 am in Cultural Aspects of Innovation.

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