The organization's response to unsuccessful risk taking

A risk, in fact anything new, involves the possibility of failure. The path to successful innovation may pass through a period when nothing seems to work. The organizational response to an unsuccessful innovation holds the key to whether the company will develop into an innovative company or not.

The 10 Commandments of Innovative Thinkers

• The capacity to truly respect another’s ability to think. • To create a positive field where others can think • The capacity to explore alternatives rather than supporting existing facts. • Never to hold non-negotiable opinions • The capacity to see the useable parts of the most radical ideas • Becoming aware of your prejudices and assumptions and eliminating them • Create movement in a situation like throwing a pebble into a pond • Love, respect, appreciate yourself • Learn the mathematics, the tools of innovation. • Involve all through, participation and commitment

Happiness is a choice

Contentment with whatever you have is the greatest path to happiness. Comparison with those better than us makes us discontented. Comparison with those who are worse off makes us proud and arrogant. Shanti or a peaceful, calm mind, suffused with affection and compassion, makes our field a happy one while spreading like a fragrance to embrace all those around us. Everyone has only two choices—life-enhancing and life destroying. An event is not as critical as is your reaction or perception of it. It continues its life inside you, a nuclear landmine of memories that wreak far more destruction than the actual event. The more mindspace you allocate to unhappy memories, the more time you spend in the past while being a spectator in the living present, the more you miss the joy the present moment offers. At any given time, the past should not inhabit. The ability to planning our future, should be devoted to a rational planning exercise, not aimless daydreaming that nibbles at your day like a rat in a godown of rice. All of us need a tender, loving caretaker within who nurtures us, not an internal drill master who victimises us in an insulting and disparaging tone, sucking out all our energy, enthusiasm and happiness.

Top management’s relevance to risk taking

Taking risk is key to innovation. The more formal a company is, the less likely people are to do anything to rock the boat. Doing new things does involve some professional risk to the person leading the initiative. A lot of handholding by top management can encourage people to take risks. Innovation happens on small budgets as proved by Velvette Shampoo, sold in one-rupee sachets for the poor.

Allocating time for new product development

New product development is the best way to reap first mover advantage. Time has to be budgeted for new product development. While many traditional companies have their own R&D teams, there are fast moving IT giants who have outsourced innovation to smaller, less expensive, outside teams. They have vice-presidents of External Innovation. Whatever the strategy may be, time has to be allotted for New Product Development. A lack of resources can result in extraordinary innovation  Toyota’s Kanban system of Just In Time management was the direct result of acute space shortage in Japan.  Holland with limited land and water resources became the foremost exporter of cut flowers, capturing a major share of the market. They grow flowers on rock wool and recycle all the water.

Listening to all members

There is no doubt that each person in an organization has ideas. If there is one thing the quality movement has taught us, it is that it makes sense to listen to everyone, particularly the workman who does the work. People who feel that they are heard are more likely to solve problems. There is no incentive to think outside the box when no one listens or cares. Positive affirmation is the key to ensuring that people stretch to think innovatively. Participation is the reward we give to those who respect us.

Interacting directly and consistently with customers

Tapping customer creativity is a tool to help negotiate new products with customers. It is the kind of process that reinvents the future. For instance, customers were not even aware of the possibility of a Walkman. Only an intense negotiation between top management, manufacturing and customers could have created it. Proctor and Gamble has a Connect and Develop hub (C&D hub), which helps to harness the creativity of consumers, employees, trade partners and others. Customer interaction can be induced by the following: • Management by Walking Around (MBWA) is the most appropriate way to ensure that the customer’s voice is built into products and processes. • Advisory committees of opinion leaders can be an effective method of keeping one’s finger on the pulse of public opinion. Focus group interviews enable customers to explore ideas with skilled facilitators, trained to go below the surface of suggestions and complaints.

Appreciation for diversity

Innovation is more likely to occur in a melting pot of exotic diversity. Homogenous groups are less likely to spark off innovative ideas. Corporations that celebrate diversity and respect it are more likely to create a stable of innovators. Using an inexperienced outsider or a naïve resource can create major breakthroughs in traditional industries. In some cases, companies that network with competitors have benefited more in terms of innovation.

Constructive performance feedback

Productivity depends on performance feedback, as does innovation. 360-degree feedback provides young innovators the opportunity to give their bosses clear feedback on a less than conducive environment. A system to clearly map individual competencies and provide consistent, timely feedback, can result in providing appropriate training when required. The immigrants of diverse races who moved to the USA, created a dynamic flow of new ideas and thus helped in forming a leading economy.

Investing in new technologies

Investing in new technologies can happen rapidly by global scanning. It can provide instant innovation from an outside source. The only problem is that it is quite expensive. Often foreign technologies also come with strings attached: sometimes Indian corporations are not given key secret processes. In India, this has resulted in cheaper import substitutes, using easily available local resources. India, with its vast human resources, would do well to invest in developing innovation in its own backyard instead of buying it readymade. Innovating internally would also make India globally more competitive.

Driving creativity in star performance

The way a company treats its top performers provides role models for all others. If such fast track performers are innovative, then others will see creativity and innovation as the path to success. If most star performers are cautious and rule bound, the clear message would be, “Be careful and just follow rules if you want to move up. Creativity does not pay”.

Developing alternatives in good times

Many management teams are involved in fire fighting and solving urgent matters that have developed into critical situations. Time needs to be set apart to study alternative solutions for the problems that lie under the surface of a running organization. ‘Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke,’ say the Americans, meaning, do not change something that is working well. This is disastrous advice in the present context of rapid change. Status quo is the gateway to overnight obsolescence. Innovation should be planned when things are going well. When things are going badly, when survival itself is an issue, no one has the time or energy to look for alternatives. Ashok Leyland has a YES program to harvest new ideas from young executives.