The Best Business Innovation: Operational Innovation

What a concept! I remember Jim Collins in Built to Last comparing time-tellers to clock-builders. The story went like this: a genius once long ago could tell time by simply looking up at the sky. He developed such a keen sense to time that everyone around the villages, and from afar, flocked to him. On the other side of town, a man unknown to many was busy building a clock. He couldn't tell time by looking up to the sky if his life had depended on it. He wasn't a genius by any means, much less a genius like Case Study A above. But, Cast Study B built a clock that could tell time independent of him. That is, if he wasn't there, if he fell off a cliff one one day, those who had the watch would know the time precisely. That's unlike the genius above, who if he went missing, people 1000 years later wouldn't know the time. Innovation can be a great thing. But as we've always insisted, all product innovations become obsolete. How then will you compete? Build a clock, and don't be a genius. Build an organization that can exist beyond you, independent of you, that will produce a constant stream of innovations. Focus on your operations. How is your organization adapted to produce a constant stream of innovations? How simple is it to go from step A to step Z in your company's innovation cycle? How are you monitoring competitors and non-competitors, and adapting your innovations to it? Once you get in the mindset of building an innovation factory and not an innovation product, you'll be that much closer to building the next multi-Zillion dollar innovation. Word.

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Posted on April 28

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