How to be an Innovative Organization?

A Presentation made toExecutives and Managers of

Blue Star Ltd.Prof. Vidyanand Jha

IIM CalcuttaSeptember 9, 2005

Creativity and Innovation

• What is creativity?

• What is innovation?

• Any names? From what you know? From Blue Star?

Creative Organization

• Growth Strategy• Competitive Strategy• innovative scanning• structure to facilitate innovation• control to facilitate innovation• culture building for innovation• motivation• conflict resolution

Creative Organization

• External Factors– Turbulent environment– unexpected change– sophisticated and demanding customers– vulnerable– ambitious and conflicting goals– organization doing very well

Creative Organization

• internal factors– ambitious and high operating targets– conflicting goals– desire to make organization unique and

distinctive– diverse output– customized products– preference for new products, sophisticated and

off beat, calculated risks, operating flexibility, innovative and expert orientation

Creative Organization

• Expertise– technical– procedural– intellectual

• Creative Thinking Skills– flexible, imaginative, challenging status quo,

persevering through dry spells

• Intrinsic Motivation– passion and interest

Managerial practices

• Challenge– matching right people with right assignment– stretch– good information

• Freedom– concerning process not necessarily ends– stable and clearly defined goals– false autonomy

Managerial Practices

• Resources– time and money

• fake or impossibly tight deadlines• sufficient resources

– physical space

Managerial Practices

• Work Group Features– mutually supportive– diversity of perspectives and backgrounds– shared excitement to team’s goal– willingness to help others in difficult times– appreciation of other’s knowledge and

perspectives

Managerial Practices

• Supervisory encouragement– recognition– lack of negativity– no premature evaluation– acting as role models

Managerial Practices

• organizational support– leader’s role– systems and procedures– recognition and reward– mandating information sharing and

collaboration– tackling politics

Mechanisms to Stimulate Creativity

• Creative Overloading

• Creative Benchmarking

• Parallel Groups

• Knowledge Discovery

• Creative Thinking Network

• Mind Mapping

• Organizational Experiments

• Stakeholders’ Councils

• Creative Surveys

• Reverse Brainstorming

• Intraprenuership

• Kaizen

• Multiplication of Change Agents

• Creative Scenario Building

• Creativity Training

• Exnovation

Skills for Sponsoring Innovation

• Risk taking– Ability to identify what the potential pay off

from an action or venture is.– Ability to identify the significant risks in the

venture.– How the payoff fro a venture or its cost or the

risks associated with the venture can be changed by one’s actions.

– Risk preference.

Skills for Sponsoring Innovation

• Ability to spot opportunities– Knowledge of high opportunity industries,

markets, technologies, regions etc.– The ability to spot opportunities in social

adversity.

Design of Creative Organizations

• Creativogenic Management Style– Japanese Management Style

• Consensual participative decision making• High intra-firm mobility• Lifetime grooming and training of staff• Paternalism and job security• Collaborative relationship with unions, vendors and

financial institutions• staff compensation tied to corporate performance

via Bonus• Emphasis on building staff loyalty

Design of Creative Organizations

• Creativogenic Policy Framework

• Creativogenic Organizational Cultures– Risk taking, proactivity, novelty, path

breaking, traditions, development, results/rules, experimentation, values, nature, vision of destiny, pragmatism, providence, fate.

Design of Creative Organizations

• Creativogenic workplace climate– General encouragement of creativity

• Encouragement of risk taking, idea generation, valuing of innovation, fair and supportive evaluation of new ideas, appropriate reward for creativity and recognition of creativity.

– Supervisory encouragement• Making goals clear to the subordinates,

encouraging subordinates to interact freely with each other and the supervisor, and support of the superior to a team’s work and ideas.

Design of Creative Organizations

• Creativogenic workplace climate– Workgroup encorgaement to diverse skills in the

group, mutual receptivity to ideas and initiatives of members of the group, and at the same time freedom to challenge each other’s ideas; shared commitments.

– Sense of high staff autonomy in day to day work and a sense of ownership and control over their own ideas and work.

– Adequate resources.– Optimal workload pressure and optimal sense of

challenge.

Lessons from 3M

• Innovation doesn't start with recognition and applause. Dedicated innovators recognize that they know their own field better than others do. They keep on with their work while quietly communicating their confidence-and knowledge-to fellow 3Mers. The credibility they earn is based on their consistent honesty and accuracy.

Lessons from 3M

• One way to convey the importance of a new innovation is through contagious enthusiasm. Getting fellow 3Mers to support new lines of research depends both on hard work and a willingness to explain the new possibilities you see. Once support is obtained, persistence can become a team effort.

Lessons from 3M

• Innovation isn't just a one-time breakthrough event. The results of innovation flow from a lifetime commitment to learning and creative experimentation. To set the highest professional standards for oneself is the key to unlocking innovative excellence.

Lessons from 3M

• True innovators relish the process of discovery. They know that trial-and-error is part of the challenge, and that so-called mistakes can offer vital clues that lead to success. By focusing their research on real-life customer needs, the best 3M innovators make their successes count.

Lessons from 3M

• Sometimes it pays to get out of the laboratory and into the customer's workplace to find out about real-world product needs. By listening to customers, Shigeyoshi Ishii was able to fulfill a dream.

Lessons from 3M

• One sign of a true innovator is the ability to focus beyond the original goal and spot what others might overlook. In 1993, Mark Ellis, research specialist, Specialty Materials Manufacturing Division, showed that talent while he was conducting safety studies for a 3M pilot plant.

Lessons from 3M

• In order to transform their ideas into realities, innovators need a variety of skills—including the ability to build a committed team.

Lessons from 3M

• True innovators can see the benefits hidden in technological challenges. They thrive where others might find confusion and frustration.

Lessons from 3M

• True innovators can see possibilities where others see only the tried-and-true. But seeing the possibility isn't always enough. Sometimes, an innovator needs to create the materials and technologies to turn that vision into a reality.

Lessons from 3M

• Finding new ways to fit the pieces of 3M expertise together can lead to tremendous product breakthroughs -- and innovation

Lessons from 3M

• Innovation stems from the ability to face a problem head-on, assess what is needed, and then search for imaginative solutions.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M innovation is sparked by the creative freedom the company grants to gifted researchers. At 3M, patience and tenacity combine to develop existing technologies into breakthrough technological platforms.

Lessons from 3M

• Having the perseverance to back that good idea -- and ultimately to rally others to your side -- is the hallmark of successful 3M innovators.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M innovation begins in response to customer needs. Listening to the customer, understanding the customer's business – these are key starting points for transforming the basis of competition.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M innovation thrives on tenacity and ceaseless experimentation. It is "hands-on" in the ultimate sense – with 3M researchers using all means at their disposal to test their ideas.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M listens to its customers. And when employees discover an important customer need, they have the freedom to pursue a solution.

Lessons from 3M

• At 3M, innovation is everyone's job, and it is a job that's never finished.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M innovation is fueled by the needs and ideas of its customers. To fulfill customer needs, 3M dedicates itself to finding practical solutions.

Lessons from 3M

• At 3M, innovative freedom stems from confidence in the future.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M's flair for innovation isn't always predictable – to 3M's competitors, or even to 3M itself. But 3M always can be counted on to provide its innovations for the maximum benefit of its customers, partners and the public.

Lessons from 3M

• In its International Operations, 3M takes a long-term perspective. It likes to enter a market as soon as possible, then grow with the economy. When 3M establishes operations in a new location, it expects to participate in the economic, cultural and social fabric of the country.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M innovation focuses on the real needs of real human beings. It not only changes the basis of competition, it also changes the quality of life for the better. It can even save lives.

Lessons from 3M

• The course of innovation is often spurred by chance events. 3M not only dedicates itself to innovative products, but also to the ongoing improvements of those products.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M works by understanding the specific needs of customers and markets. Innovation consists not only in developing new products, but in finding new markets for them – wherever in the world they may be found.

Lessons from 3M

• The 3M dedication to innovation is always a team effort. Innovators learn that it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

Lessons from 3M

• At 3M, innovation comes from questioning the accepted wisdom as to how a product should work. The 3M commitment to new ideas means giving employees the initiative to turn their ideas into reality.

Lessons from 3M

• Both creativity and innovation involve an element of luck. Well-prepared companies like 3M tend to be the luckiest.

Lessons from 3M

• At 3M, innovation is everyone's job. Those who show talent, initiative and creativity will be given a chance to pursue their research dreams – regardless of their formal training and background.

Lessons from 3M

• 3M is willing to back long-term innovative research because it is confident that breakthrough ideas will lead to practical solutions for customers. 3M also is willing and able to innovate "overnight" to satisfy urgent customer needs.