Innovation Cell: Agile Teams to Master Disruptive Innovation

143 Pages·2005·1.57 MB·English

by  Professor Dr. Burkard Wördenweber

Burkard Wördenweber • UweWeissflog
Innovation Cell
Burkard Wördenweber • Uwe Weissflog
Innovation Cell
Agile Teams to Master Disruptive Innovation
^ Sprin ger
Professor Dr. Burkard Wördenweber
Global advanced
Visteon Deutschland GmbH
European Corporate Office & Innovation Centre
Visteonstr. 4-10
50170 Kerpen
Germany
[email protected]
Uwe Weissflog
Pathway Guidance - Europe
Rinnengärten 1
34516 Vöhl-Marienhagen
Germany
uwe. [email protected]
Library of Congress Control Number: 2004118097
ISBN 3-540-23559-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York
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In Gratitude
To Janet and Gerda
Without their patience, encouragement and continuous support we would
not have finished writing this book. For this we are gratefiil.
Foreword
There are many ways to describe the gap, which a lean company has to
jump to become innovative. Some people see the gap between research
and design for production, where people with different mindsets find it
hard to communicate and work for the same goal. Other people feel that
the gap is the schism between effectiveness and efficiency, i.e. trying to do
the right thing is not compatible with trying always to doing things right.
Other people believe the gap to be caused by the different paradigms of
exploitation and exploration. The financial constraints of globally compet
ing companies striving to become more and more lean are leaving fewer
and fewer resources for the necessary experimentation to find successful
innovations. Whatever the explanation one thing is certain: globally acting
companies have to marry short term success with long term sustainability.
They have to be at the same time competitive with current products and
services and innovative to prepare future products and services.
This book offers a novel view for management to address and imple
ment innovation. It shows that innovation can not be ordered but has to be
lived. It illustrates with real life examples, how innovation requires cour
age to do the right thing and not always just the safe thing. And it shows
that courage can be its own reward.
I wish you stimulating reading.
John F. Kill
Senior Vice President - Product Development
Visteon Corporation
Visteon Village, December 2004
Contents
Index of Essays XI
Index of Examples XV
Introduction 1
1 Disruptive Innovations - and how to master them 3
2 A growing awareness of being stuck 5
2.1 Collective avoidance 6
2.2 Comfortable versus hungr\^ 13
2.3 Caught in displacement activities 14
3 Reaching a new perspective 23
3.1 Frame shift: effectiveness versus efficiency 24
3.2 Looking outwards 29
3.3 Looking for the new and unexpected 41
4 Taking the plunge into the unknown 49
5 Change is hard work 61
5.1 Prepare forthejoumey 73
5.2 Focus your effort 76
5.3 Remaining uncomfortable and agile 89
6 Selling innovations 105
6.1 Allowing things to happen 116
6.2 Continue with efficiency 117
6.3 Remaining true to yourself 119
The story of this book 127
Further reading 133
Acknowledgements 137
Index of Essays
The essays used in this book describe our personal views and understand
ing of certain key questions. They are the distillate of experiences we gath
ered on our journey towards self-organisation and innovation. The essays
represent individual viewpoints, and can be read independently from each
other. They are connected through the author-reader dialogue of the book,
and represent the different facets of innovation found in market and prod
uct hfecycles.
What is changing? 7
What lies at the root of change today? 8
What makes the digital world so significant? 8
What makes unrestricted distribution so significant? ..9
How do unrestricted distribution and digitalisation affect us? 10
What new opportunities may emerge? 11
Does progress matter? 15
Disruptive product and technology 15
Disruptive structure and organisation 16
Disruptive people ..18
Being successful in disruptive environments 25
What characterises disruptive environments? 25
Exactly what is our dilemma? 26
What is your main role as amanager? 27
How do you ensure the smooth running of the company? 27
What makes your company innovative? 28
What is it that the successful really do? 31
The successful sharpen their senses 32
The successful are aware of their habits and addictions 33
The successful rediscover values beyond the material 35
Taking risks and being courageous 36
Successful Innovators enable others to engage 38
XII Index of Essays
Can you learn disruptive Innovation? 41
Are you happy with your future? 41
Feeling right, but somehow unsuccessful? 42
Do you want to be master of your own success? 43
Are you prepared to go where there is no right and wrong? 46
Do you have to do everything yourself? and who guides you? 46
Go with the flow - the courage to take the plunge 49
What do you need to let go of? 53
Non-linearity 55
What should you take on the journey? 56
Your first step as an Innovation Manager 57
Practical aspects of creating an Innovation Cell 62
Where do you set up an Innovation Cell? 62
What is special about the Innovation Cell? 63
What skills are needed, and what will you receive in return? 67
What are typical results achieved by Innovation Cells? 67
How does an Innovation Cell differ from a standard organisation? 70
How will you and your organisation benefit from the Innovation
Cell? 73
Can I manage change and stability side by side? 76
How to bridge the natural incompatibility of the hierarchical
organisation using self-organisation 76
How to deal with the unknown in a deterministic environment 77
How do you resolve power issues of manager and team autonomy?... 79
How to encourage failure tolerance in a lean company 80
How to accommodate the real possibility of personal failure 81
How do I learn a sense of timing? 82
Why one room? 84
Group dynamics 84
Learning 85
Address 86
Selective access 87
Spontaneous communication 88
Why autonomy? 91
Simplicity of organisation 91
Trust in accountability 91
A fresh start through independence 92
Index of Essays XIII
A 'tour de force' with speed of decisions 92
Aiming at success with dynamic failure tolerance 93
What do I gain? - Path of Innovation leadership 94
Seeing with new eyes 94
The possibility of new types of leadership and professionalism 96
Being an entrepreneur of Innovation....C^. 98
Rediscovering our creative forces 101
What creates sustainability? 106
Interface to organisation 106
Co-dependence Innovation Cell and production 109
Pipeline 110
New Ventures 112
The end is the beginning 120
Innovation Cell is one answer to disruptive environments 121
What's beyond Innovation Cells? 123
Index of Examples
We have used examples to illustrate the validity of the points made in this
book. All the examples are derived from the authors' own experience, but
names, places and contents have been modified to protect the privacy of
the original sources. Any resemblance to other actual cases is purely coin
cidental. You will recognise examples in the text by their indentation and
the accompanying line along the left edge.
Who are you trying to impress? 5
Be prepared for the unexpected 7
How the fear of the unknown limits our scope 13
A creative research organisation 16
Dedicated teams can handle high risks projects 20
Common misuse of power 23
Inter-divisional Innovation 29
The need for path finding 30
The power of risk assessment for Innovation projects 40
Technology looking for a product 44
The challenge of a contradiction 45
Successful product strategy in 2 days 51
Wide goals can generate spin-offs in other areas 53