The Synthesis

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2013

Over the course of my career I have had the opportunity to experience and work with a wide number of different approaches to IT-driven innovation in the enterprise. Each new wave brought with it a richer understanding of the enterprise.

The process dimension was perhaps the first that required a substantial revision in one’s view of the enterprise, requiring interventions on multiple facets and levels. When Knowledge Management and Collaboration related developments came about, businesses became aware of and appreciated their social side. Successful interventions necessarily had to go beyond just implementing technology, and incorporate people in the transformation equation.

In my opinion the era of social business re-design began with these developments about 15 years ago.

However, recent developments in technologies, have added several critical dimensions to the social architecture of the enterprise enabling a wider range of possible structures that can be leveraged, taking enterprise sociality to a new level. The social dimensions of the enterprise are once again in the forefront of business consciousness.

As is often the case, a confluence of developments in several domains, creates a tidal wave, and we are now in the midst of one. Opportunities are emerging on several fronts every day in the demand, supply and design chains as well as within other aspects of the enterprise. The realization that there is significant value to be realized through these interventions, is one reason this driver of enterprise transformation is here to stay. Successful enterprises will leverage this opportunity to create new business models, innovate services, and come substantially closer to realizing a long-held aspiration to become resilient and agile.

And while the promise is indeed real, social interventions are also the most challenging to execute. Unlike the other initiatives they demand a new set of operational disciplines and understanding, which perhaps even those involved with social change in the enterprise would not claim to have mastered as a science. Such challenges could easily create discomfort and a loss of interest among many business leaders.

However, we might have reached a juncture in enterprise development, where we have no choice but to explore this frontier or suffer competitively. Enterprise Social Innovation is indeed the next frontier for innovation and creating significant value, and those who master the new discipline will be well positioned to capitalize on the next inevitable wave of IT-driven innovation.

A design expert responds on Social Business strategy

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March 8, 2013

I came across this post by Idrees Mootee on his blog. It is his response to a blog post by Peter Kim of Dachis. I read through Peter’s post, and while I might differ on how I would express what he says, I agree with several of his arguments.

A good Social Business strategy cannot be a ‘me too’ one. As in the case of any substantial innovation, the strategy must be rooted in the enterprise’s own context. A friend used to say it well – “If you want to grow a rose in your garden, you cannot just pluck one from your neighbor’s garden”. That however is true of any strategic effort, and not just particular to Social Business. I prefer to look at Social Technology (more than Information Technology) -driven innovation as part of a larger domain of Enterprise Innovation. Perhaps the whole point of calling it ‘Social Business Strategy’ is to communicate with the larger conversation in the industry, where the term ‘social’ has been badly mauled in my opinion.

Any innovation strategy must be anchored within the larger strategic framework of the enterprise. Misalignment is dysfunctional in all cases, and is not true for Social Business Innovation alone. I advocate the creation of a Transformation Program which manages the Social Design product platform and brings an overall discipline to the prioritization and execution of innovation initiatives. This again is not a new idea. The typical ‘social media’ evangelists perhaps do not have exposure or familiarity with such ideas, so it is not surprising that this needs to be made explicit and emphasized. Given the general culture of the industry, there is a tendency to promise quick returns and discount the complexity and challenges involved in designing solutions that provide enduring advantage.

The other point Peter makes is one I have been advising my clients for a long time now. If this new trend is transformational, and I am convinced it is, then it must become a part of an enterprise’s business practices, just as six sigma or knowledge management have become integral to the way you do business. However, the new paradigm brings with a whole new set of practices that everyone in the enterprise is not proficient in. If an enterprise then wished to accelerate the spread of this innovation widely, it must establish a practice, a Center-of-Excellence, which provides a number of different kinds of value. It helps bring others on line with the new ideas, hand-holds them in their application, provides a place for accelerating learning, etc. Before the practice has reached maturity, an entity such as this can play a critical role in success.

What then is Idrees Mootee so upset about? (I have great respect for him – amazing pioneer in the field of design).

I think I would be upset too – if all this was positioned as something radically new, as something that was happening now. What is radical is the kind of innovation that is possible and the velocity with which new designs are emerging. There is an urgency here, an Enterprise State of Emergency, and people are trying to understand how to go beyond the popular narratives. He is right though, that some of these trends have been going on for quite some time. I have discussed elsewhere that Innovation with “social technologies” is not new – that is exactly what the Knowledge Management and Collaboration initiatives from 15 years ago were all about. I think a reconciliation between the two is possible. Idrees Mootee was most likely not Peter Kim’s audience for his article!

Predictions for the Social Enterprise

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March 8, 2013

There is a heartening trend I notice, where people are stepping off populist soapboxes and starting to look at the true implications of Social Technologies on the Enterprise. This blog post I came across by Boris Pluskowski, affirms that notion.

I am not sure about predictions, and whether these things will come true in 2011. Not all enterprises are at the same level of maturity when it comes to their applications of social innovation concepts. The likelihood of them all becoming Social Enterprises is moot. However, will there be increasing realization now that some of the initial euphoria has started to wane?

It is indeed dawning on people that the promised business outcomes involve a significant amount of work on the social facets of the enterprise, and it takes time for those results to materialize. Anyone who has experience implementing Knowledge Management or Collaboration initiatives knows that. However often one states the mantra, that this is more than technology, there is still hope that, that is all it takes. For, in general, we are still hesitant and perhaps unsure of how to design effective interventions that transform the social side of the enterprise.

This time though, unlike in the past, Enterprise Social Innovation will become mainstream and pervasive. Partly because there are no options, and because it provides a significant business opportunity too, businesses will necessarily do what it takes to incorporate the new disciplines. Will 2011 be the year they do it – of that I am not sure.

MIT and the art of innovation

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March 8, 2013

The title of my post takes from an articlein the Economist. When I saw the post in my Facebook newsfeed, I thought I was going to get some insight into what MIT had discovered were the secrets to innovation. The article begins with this quote by Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT.

“You start with some very bright people, let them hang out with other very bright people and allow their imaginations to roam,”

You might think you are going to be given some insight into the processes which have given the institution such a remarkable track record. As it turns out the article is primarily about an exhibition at the MIT museum that is part of the Institute’s 150th anniversary celebrations. You do not really get any insight into what MIT has discovered about innovation.

Perhaps the one major point I would take away was that MIT was involved or tasked with some real problems, in the process of addressing which its engineers and scientists came up with some interesting and often transformational innovations.

In that same context, it does help to be connected locally, such as MIT being connected with the city of Boston, which gave it some interesting challenges to work with. Perhaps I will go check out the exhibition as well.

Does that perhaps imply, that being local and what that brings in terms of relationships with people might contribute in some way to being able to take on and solve big problems?

Social Enterprise Maturity

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March 8, 2013

The maturity of an enterprise is always related to a Practice. Just as the original notion of maturity came from Software Development, in the case of the Social Enterprise, it should be linked to the ability of an enterprise to leverage the new models in business practices.

Here are a list of practices that I believe an Enterprise needs to master in order to progressively become more mature:

An Enterprise-wide understanding of the potential of Social Innovations – monitoring trends and understanding implications of trends for its own business. In short – Foresight, and Impact Analysis.

An enterprise must be able to build a ‘Case for Change’ – must be able to identify where in its business it makes most sense to use new approaches, what their value is and be able to create a compelling case that motivates all stakeholders. It should therefore have a practice around developing Strategies Road-maps, and mobilizing support for wide-ranging transformation.

Product Management and the introduction of Innovations in the Enterprise. This practice is not unique to Social Innovation, but if this is not a practice and well mastered, all non-trivial initiatives will fail.

Like all innovations, new ideas will need to be marketed and there must be a strategy to ensure adoption through the management of change.

There must be a disciplined approach to spreading successful new ideas throughout the enterprise, including the on-boarding of new segments of the enterprise. There must also be a disciplined approach to managing the overall road-map, ensuring that it is coherent and always aligned with Business Strategic priorities.

The Enterprise will need to master the design of Socially-calibrated solutions. Solutions must necessarily be holistic and systemic.

There are new disciplines such as Design Thinking and Co-design that should be practiced.

There is a new approach to creating Value, leveraging new organizational structures, and among other things it should all result in creating ‘experiences’ that ‘clients’ want.

Technology is just one part of this equation, certainly very important.

There is a new discipline to how these Social Solutions/Design must be Operated:

This goes to the notion of Open leadership, Community Management etc.These are new practices for most enterprises.

Operations is the heart of the value for the enterprise, for it is in Operations that the enterprise will realize intended business outcomes.

These must be systematically measured and interventions designed when desired expectations are not met.Therefore, the enterprise must master the art of designing social interventions that deliver the desired purpose.(Incentives, Motivations, Network Stimulation, Culture Change etc etc)

The entire Life-cycle of the ‘Solution/Design’ must be managed, from inception to growth and evolution.

Governance – needless to say, if this is to be a transformational initiative, then the introduction of Social Innovations must be linked to a strong Governance structure.

This includes the creation of new ‘Design Principles’ that the enterprise operates with and uses to make decisions, and things such as the creation of policies that encourage Open Participation etc.

Finally, the enterprise should commit to the Mastery of these Practices and should have some investment in a Center-of-Excellence or Practice. This practice, whether formal or informal must ensure that the organization learns from its initiatives and is therefore able to accelerate the leveraging of this new way of doing business.

These seven practices, should become the basis of evaluating maturity.

Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business

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March 8, 2013

There are certain timeless truths to the Enterprise – a desire to sustainable achieve its purpose, in an atmosphere of constant change and uncertainty. Another timeless truth has to do with the fact that Innovation provides a distinctive advantage.

We continue to learn more about what makes enterprises function better, the psychology of customers, the power of networks etc.

Every so often technology comes about that allows us to incorporate these new understandings into business designs.

Sometimes the confluence of these various drivers – new understanding and technology is such that it creates opportunities for radical innovation in business designs. Now is one such moment.

The Social Dimension of the enterprise is one such, where it is now possible to truly incorporate Social Elements, such as reputation and trust, the power of relationships etc in business designs. Portals, Content Management, Knowledge Management etc all fell short in being able to realize the Social Architecture.

Business has always been social. Historically it could ignore the human/social dimension when other models still worked. Now they do not in most cases, so we are paying attention to the social dimension, and technology is making it possible to realize those aspects.

There are a number of ideas in the new Business and Enterprise Designs, which are not just technology related such as Enterprise 2.0 nor Social. There are many more concepts being integrated.

The terms ‘social business’ or ‘enterprise 2.0’ are indeed buzzwords. They often do more injustice in the sense that they distract from realizing systemically robust solutions, that are focused on business and get obsessed with technology and marketing-speak to the point of being gimmicky and cutely prescriptive.

Fluid flows of intangible resources across the enterprise, easy and rapid re-configurability of designs, open and transparent models, etc – all contribute to the ability to innovate and build more powerful designs.

And, it has long been determined that the underlying foundation of such an enterprise is Social and Collaborative. That will always be the case even when Enterprise n.0 comes along and people tire of Social-X.