Step

Develop
a
innovation intent

clear

Assess
readiness

innovation

Create an
strategy

innovation

II. Develop an Innovation

Develop a roadmap

Build momentum

Activities
Develop a clear holistic
vision (people, profit,
prosperity,
planet).
Decide on levels of
differentiation.
Build
successive waves of Scurves.
Balance
internal
clarity
with
external
opportunity,
market research with
gut instinct.
Assess 5 indicators:
business
case
for
innovation,
sponsorship,
culture,
finance,
program
management.
Other
factors:
idea
bank,
portfolio,
leadership
dialogue, market agility.
...
Address
new/existing
products/markets.
Blend
creativity,
design,
invention,
innovation.
Balance
unfettered
creativity
with
systematic
execution.
Define
innovation
objectives
(eg. new markets) and
innovation goals (eg.
more profits)
Playbook
Write up an innovation
charter.
Define
innovation
principles.
Encourage flows across
the organisation. Define
innovation metrics for
process, resources and
capabilities.
Indentify
innovation
leaders,
remove
blockers.
Educate
everyone. Develop the
innovation
story.
Communicate
the
momentum.
Sustain
the
pace
through
rewards and wins.

Examples
Good:
Sumitomo
(established in 1615!),
Walt
Disney.Bad:
accounting scandals at
WorldCom,
Satyam
Computers

Conglomerate
strategies:
UTC,
Siemens, Tata. Honda:
car diversity ...

McDonalds Innovation
Centre
&
Council;
Whirlpool
innovation
mentors;
Himalaya
ayurvedic drugs

Shells
GameChanger
Group,
Cognizants
Innovation Index and
annual summit

ACE insurance group

encouraging inquisitive
innovators;
GE
innovation programme

Structuring
innovation

for Two-tier
structure IBMs
separate
PC
(CEO+VP), Centre of incubation group
Excellence,
Strategic
Horizons
Group,
Venturing
/
Intrapreneuring Group
Innovation
Four
processes: Air Products innovation
management processes bottom-up,
top-down, college,
Cognizants
outside-in,
inside-in. business
challenges;
Manage the innovation Boston Scientific
funnel: gates, filters,
categorisation,
assessment,
incubation.
Building intrapreneurs
Nurture a sense of Intuits lean start-ins,
practical
persistence Kimberly-Clark
and focus on value. acceleration sessions,
Promote greenhousing, Tata Innovation Forum
encourage
pivoting,
focus
on
integrity,
motivate free thinking
Sourcing radical ideas
Develop
creative Convergence
in
discontent,
promote nutricosmetics
and
convergent
thinking, cosmoceuticals
find pivots, overturn
orthodoxies,
think
frugally.
Many nimble startups have grown to become MNCs, but forget their roots and
values as they embrace stability and investor considerations. Those who
remain innovative seem to know only one bag of tricks, and are unable to
adjust to disruptive technologies, as the ICT sector has repeatedly shown. It
can be hard even for innovative companies to overcome their own dominant
logic, organisational orthodoxies and comfort zone of prior successful
innovations, eg. rise and decline of Kodak and Smith Corona; Microsofts $240
million write-off of Kin phone. This innovation playbook shows entrepreneurs
how to keep the rhythm of growth steady by creating new waves of
intrapreneurs in the company, sourcing radical ideas, ensuring strategic
revival, and keeping the business momentum. Just as the balanced scorecard
methodology has been applied with great success to monitor and manage the
key performance drivers in organisations, an innovation scorecard is needed
to guide business leaders in creating the climate and culture of innovation.
Organisations need to re-wire their DNA to include sustainable innovation as
a distinct core competence and embed it as a regular habit, Desai urges.
Since 1983, the Desai Group has been providing solutions and mentoring in
enterprise innovation. The case studies and examples in the book are drawn
from the US and India. Jatin Desai was raised in Gujarat, and graduated from
the University of Connecticut. Drawing on the metaphor of an organisation as
bicycle, Desai compares performance to the rear wheel and innovation to the
front wheel and handlebars. As compared to performance, innovation
requires a stronger focus on learning, willingness to experiment, and
gathering of insights from failures. Depending on market position, Desai
classifies innovators into six types: pioneer, fast follower, imitator,
dependent, low-cost player, niche specialist. Constraints to innovation include

dominant logic, inability to acquire and manage new knowledge, and

outdated tools and technologies. Core innovation teams should be structured
with a programme head, project manager, technical lead, prototype
developer, finance adviser, patent expert and insights planner (eg.
ethnographer). Leaders will need to resort to storytelling to create the sense
of urgency for innovation initiatives, ignite people into action, and sustain the
creative business values. I have summarised the three key phases of the
innovation engine playbook in Table 1 below, along with examples and case
profiles. Each chapter also ends with thought-provoking discussion questions
for innovators and organisational leaders.

Looking ahead, business leaders will need to adjust to fundamental changes

such as outside-in conversational styles in consumer-dominated social media,
ubiquitous data capabilities via Internet of things, and globalisation of
communications via mobiles. Desai also urges readers to take on extreme
challenges to innovatively solve major global problems such as food
insecurity, lack of clean water, climate concerns, growth of chronic illnesses,
social divides and ageing societies. The best leader innovators in the world
have figured out how to achieve joy and happiness. They see themselves in a
very grand mission at large. They feel they are co-creators of a better future
for the citizens of this planet, observes Desai. At the end of the day, its all
about people. Great innovators have both visible and invisible traits that need
to be nurtured and supported. Find them, challenge them, motivate them,
and get the organisation out of their way. Then watch what happens, Desai
advises. The book ends by encouraging people to adopt classic Silicon Valley
virtues such as playful independence, willingness to unlearn, and welcoming
the painful lessons of failure.