Which is more important: ideas or execution?
From the Innovation Weblog - Which is more important: ideas or execution? - May, 2006
"The image of the creative, inspired entrepreneur who sees the future in a different way and develops a breakthrough idea is deeply embedded in business culture. But coming up with the killer idea is only one small part of the battle, according to Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, authors of the new book, 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators. Where most companies fail at innovation, they contend, is in the area of execution, not idea generation.
Survey after survey shows that most company executives believe they are far better at generating ideas than executing them. Despite the fact that the real leverages in the backend of innovation - in execution - most managers of obsess over the front end of the innovation process, on generating ideas. Once a high potential idea has been identified, a business plan has been written and refined, and a passionate leader has been assigned to run it, everyone assumes that the rest will be easy.
The error is in assuming that the company has already hurdled the most difficult barriers to innovation: finding a great idea and a great leader. In fact, the biggest challenges are still to come. Our research has shown that strategic experiments face their stiffest resistance once they are showing signs of success, consuming more resources, and clashing with (the parent company) at multiple levels."
Read the rest of the article ...
Technorati innovation tag
Innovating Mobile Technologies
From the Many-to-Many blog (Corante) by danah boyd.
"The next step in social technologies is mobile. Duh. Yet, a set of factors have made innovation in this space near impossible. First, carriers want to control everything. They control what goes on a handset, how much you pay for it and who else you can communicate with. Next, you have hella diverse handsets. Even if you can put an application on a phone, there's no standard. Developers have to make a bazillion different versions of an app. To make matters worse, installing on a phone sucks and most users don't want to do it. Plus, to make their lives easier, developers often go for Java apps and web apps which are atrociously slow and painful. All around, it's a terrible experience for innovators, designers and users.
This headaches have a detrimental effect on the development of mobile social software. Successful social technologies requires cluster effects. Cluster effects require everyone within a particular social cluster to be able to play. If 20% of your friends can't play because their phone/carrier won't let them, the end result is often that NO ONE plays. Of course, there's a tipping point where people buy a new phone or switch carriers, but that tipping point is hefty and right now, it's for things like SMS not neuvo apps. Switching carriers is even uglier - it requires a huge drop in price."
Read the rest of the article ...Technorati innovation tagTechnorati social networks tag
The 6 C's of Leadership
From Oren Harari's blog, April 27th
"I just came back from Mike Milken's Global Conference in Los Angeles, where I participated in a panel discussion of how small to medium sized businesses can capitalize on the opportunities of globalization. Great conference, though I confess it's daunting to be in a hotel surrounded by Nobel laureates.
But I digress. No matter what subject was discussed during the three days - national security, global warming, health care, corporate competitive advantage, etc. - the subject of leadership was never far behind. Unsurprisingly, the need for leadership today is more important than ever before. Rafael Pastor, the ex-President of USA Networks and current CEO of Vistage International, and Barry Sternlicht, the ex-CEO of Starwood Hotels and current head of Starwood Capital Group, both had some astute comments on the subject. Coincidentally, and surprisingly, both of them summarized their perspectives with concepts beginning with a "C", so it's really easy to combine their viewpoints and come up with a 'C' list of leadership attributes necessary for success in the 21st century. I wish I had enough poetry to come up with this list, but at least I can use my own words in describing the six elements:
1. Courage: Great leaders take risks. They are willing, even excited, about entering unchartered waters. They face their own fears, their own demons, the doubts of naysayers around them, the very real structural and financial hurdles before them - and they go forth anyway. That takes planning and discipline, to be sure, but most of all it takes courage.
2. Creativity: Great leaders embrace imagination. They foster innovation. If they themselves don't possess those attributes, they surround themselves with people who do. They exude impatience with the status quo. They understand that doing the same-old, same-old is a recipe for decline. Their message to the troops is-- challenge conventional wisdom and break new ground. Do it with economic logic and operational discipline, yes, but do it with creativity.
3 and 4: Compassion and Caring. Sternlicht used these words in one phrase. For great leadership, he emphasized the importance of caring deeply about what you’re doing, about the welfare of your people and customers, and about doing things with a strong moral fiber. What that tells me is that analytically detached, amoral executives need not apply. Great leaders have emotional and ethical as well as intellectual integrity. They love, and they love ethically.
5. Curiosity: Great leaders come to the party with a sense of wonder and awe. They restlessly and repeatedly ask questions like-- What’s out there? (let's check it out!) What’s behind there? What’s underneath there? What if? Why not? When can we try it? What will happen? What did happen? What did we learn? What’s our next step?
6. Consistency: Sternlicht noted that great companies “consistently surprise customers.” I believe the issue of consistency is essential for effective branding and sustained competitive success. Great leaders create an environment where C’s #1-5 aren’t a one-shot flash-in-the-pan deal, but so steady and ingrained that people inside and outside the organization can count on them. They can count on the leader, and the organization manifesting traits like courage, creativity, compassion, caring, and curiosity.
Six C’s. Easy to remember. Do you have the conviction and commitment (two more C’s?) to carry (sorry, I couldn’t resist) them out?"Technorati leadership tag
