Guiding innovation
Posted by Grant Brewer
Every business thinks that is should innovate. It is usually not good enough simply to be an innovative organisation; your organisation also needs to be capable of managing the flow of new ideas and of nurturing these ideas to life. The key to creating an innovative organisation is to make innovation a part of the culture of the organisation. A key part of this cultural change is about creating the context in the workplace in which innovation is most likely to happen. Frequently this means creating an empowered, team oriented environment. Working alongside the culture is an effective management process that guides and nurtures ideas with all the artistry of a tight-rope-walker. It isn't going to be an easy walk, but the reward at the end of the line will be worth the effort.
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leadership (7) | innovation (3) | innovation management (1)
Operations: implementing strategy
Posted by Grant Brewer
Operations is what a company does. It is the core. Strategy tells us what we're going to do and how we might be doing it - operations gets down to the doing and actually implements a strategy. It is easy in conversations about strategy to lose sight of the fact that all strategies need to be implemented otherwise they remain concepts or ideas. No business can be successful by focusing only on building strategy. At some point every organisation (even a non-commercial organisation) has to implement. Operations is perhaps not seen as the glamorous side of business strategy, but it is equally important because it is where the doing gets done.
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implementation (10) | execution (3) | innovation (3) | operations (2) | lean solutions (1) | business process (1) | agile operations (1)
Innovative strategy is more than passion
Posted by Grant Brewer
It is not unusual to see organisations that are struggling because they allow the passion and the belief in a new idea to masquerade as strategy. It is true that new ideas will almost always fail unless someone has the passion and the belief in the idea to stay with it through all the challenges. However, fresh ideas and people that are passionate about them are not uncommon, yet successful businesses built on these same ideas are a lot less common.
Innovation is more than ideas. Re-inventing an industry or a product category takes more than research and a fresh take on the business model. Managing innovation and implementing new business models is notoriously difficult -- regardless of whether you're an established business, a new business unit or a start up company. It is a common mistake to assume that sheer passion and belief will bring a strategy to life. New ideas need the passion and the belief -- they also need good strategy, leadership and implementation.
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implementation (10) | strategy (8) | leadership (7) | innovation (3) | management (3) | change (3) | project portfolio (1) | passion (1)