A High-Level POV on Innovation

January 1, 2014

Briefly this is how we think of Innovation, a Point-of-View that informs our work.

1. The enterprise is a system embedded in a context whose purpose is to sustainably create value and a positive surplus for its stakeholders.

2. The enterprise system comprises of the following key elements:

– Value-Creating and Capturing entities (aka Business Model/s).
– Offerings that co-produce value with other stakeholders.
– A Value Platform (aka Enterprise), that supports the business models and creates shared resources.
– Business Models also consist of various processes.

1. The objectives driving the innovation initiatives are often diverse – A business and competitive necessity, desire for distinction, growth or performance improvement.

2. All the above elements of the system – Business Models, Offerings, Processes and Platforms provide opportunities for innovation.

– While any one of these might be the subject of an innovation project – all efforts maintain the integrity of the whole system, which is why we prefer to start there.

1. Innovation is as much a discipline as it is an art.

– The Whole Enterprise must participate – It is essentially a collaborative effort.
– The Enterprise must manage the effort with a disciplined approach – ‘Total Innovation Management’ ( this is similar to the notion of TQM, an idea we have come up with).

1. We focus on the TIM discipline to ensure impact and outcomes.

– The Dynamic capabilities of Innovation are complemented by Strategic and Operational capabilities, all of which an enterprise must excel at.
– It takes time to develop these capabilities and we recommend a progressive focus on growing the maturity of capabilities to take on more ambitious innovation efforts. Disruption does not happen overnight.
– The discipline of TIM is codified in our Methodologies.

1. The basic approach to Innovating any of the dimensions of the enterprise relies on:

– Developing a deep understanding of the ideas underlying the design of particular object of focus through Modeling (Business Model, Offering, Enterprise, Process etc.) and Validating its viability in a desired context.
– Expanding and Reframing these underlying ideas and principles provide the sources for innovation.

1. Innovations are interventions in systems (Value Receiving Systems) by systems (Value Creating systems).

– We understand how change and the introduction of something new impacts the creators and receivers of value.
– This sensitivity informs the design, innovation management and execution processes of our methodology, ensuring successful adoption and impact.

1. We use techniques from the following to expand, design and innovation spaces, to find new and interesting intersections and confluences.

– Foresight,
– Insights (new developments and understanding of his things works),
– Needs (detailed understanding of the needs of those served),
– Drivers (New Developments, Drivers of Change), and,
– Looking ‘Sideways’ to other systems, in order to expand our Design and Innovation Space-Time as appropriate.