Steps to Building Innovating Organizations
Volume 19, Number 3 Article by Kuldeep Singh September, 2007
Steps to Building Innovating Organizations : By Manu Parashar, New Delhi, Response Books, 2007, pp 141, Price: Rs 250. : Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation. :
Innovation, says strategy guru Gary Hamel, will be the quality movement of the 21st century, and this book offers a practical road-map any company can use. The book in a very lucid manner explains how to build organisational capabilities – essential both at individual and organisation levels – to create innovating organisations. The book covers the development of innovating capabilities through a step wise approach organised into eight chapters.
Chapter 1 explains the meaning of innovation with the simple example of the invention of printing press by Gutenberg in 1440. For any innovation to take place, it is necessary to combine various kinds of knowledge in a unique manner. Such a combination helps in classifying various types of innovation as illustrated in the book with the help of examples like Sony Walkman, Apple iPOD, Crest etc. Innovation can be episodic or continuous in nature depending upon various factors outlined by the author.
Every organisation desires to be innovative but only few are able to achieve this. So what differentiates those who are able to become innovative from those who fail to do so? The difference lies in having innovation as a capability or an element of culture to drive the endeavour forward, as explained in Chapter 2. Merely having a culture is not sufficient for innovation to happen. It needs to be supported by processes like the ‘innovation tunnel’, which help in efficient sieving, sifting, and short listing of potential ideas that can be taken forward. A combination of culture and process can be a recipe for developing innovation capability.
Chapters 3 through 6 outline the different elements of innovation capability building, namely knowledge capability, attitudinal capability and creative capability. In Chapter 3, the focus is on building knowledge capability by creating reservoirs of knowledge to harness the knowledge existing at the tacit, explicit and social relationship levels. The author suggests some practical ways to ensure that the organisation has enough reservoirs of knowledge to feed the tunnel of innovation, including having a diverse workforce, internal and external networks, R&D investment, tapping customer knowledge and conducting multifaceted workforce development programmes.
Attitude as an enabling capability for building an innovating organisation is the focus of Chapter 4. Attitudinal capability refers to the attitudinal state of the organisation that acts as an enabler for creating new knowledge in the firm. The Google story as explained in the book provides some clues on what it takes to build the right attitude. Four factors facilitate the creation of attitudinal capability. These include openness, awareness, curiosity and playfulness, described in the book with appropriate corporate examples.
Chapter 5 focuses on developing creative capability. It is defined as the ability to bring together various types of knowledge in a novel manner. According to the author, this capability is critical for realising the benefits of knowledge and attitudinal capabilities. Creative capability helps in channelising the various sources and types of knowledge in the right direction. Mechanisms for developing creative capability include employing techniques like lateral thinking; communication across levels and functions for mingling of ideas and knowledge in a seamless manner; and innovation space (physical or virtual) where knowledge and ideas can intermingle in a relaxed and informal manner.
Like every capability, innovation capability also needs to be built at multiple levels in the organisation to institutionalise it. Chapter 6 deals with the building of innovation capability at the individual, team and organisation level. The author provides a detailed list of methods and techniques that can be used for building innovation capability at various levels in the organisation.
To ensure sustenance of innovation capability over a period of time, it needs to be woven into the organisational architecture. Chapter 7 outlines an approach for embedding innovation capability in the organisational architecture. The vision, goals, systems, processes, and values of the organisation should reflect the priorities brought about by the need to build innovation capability. Unless this set of architectural elements reflects the innovation priorities, the organisation as a whole will not take seriously the need to build the innovation capability. Further, for an innovation capability initiative to succeed, important innovation capability led outcomes and outputs need to be measured and analysed for feeding back learnings into the organisation.
Everything has a defined life span unless renewed and the same is also true of capabilities in terms of their long lasting value advantage. Chapter 8 emphasises this point and describes ways to renew each element, namely knowledge, attitude and creative elements of this capability. Renewing knowledge capability requires constantly scanning the external environment for changes and synchronizing the internal environment with it. Attitudinal capability can be renewed by undertaking regular audits to discover fresh approaches and ideas. Staying current with techniques and technologies will help renew creative capability.
In a nutshell, this book provides a practical, ready-to-use set of innovator’s tools from which every business could profit. Those who are interested in demystification of innovation and how to build this capability in their organisation will find this book very helpful. Practitioners in particular will enjoy reading as it is sprinkled with interesting industry examples and the style of writing is very simple. Perhaps the only criticism one could make of it is that it borders on the obvious when it comes to giving advice.
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