Operationalizing Innovation

© Right Brain Systems

Srini Koushik President and CEO Right Brain Systems LLC. Twitter Handle - @skoushik

innovation – agility - execution

Right Brain Systems LLC.


For time and the world do not stand still.

Change is the law of life. And those who

look only to the past or the present are

certain to miss the future.

John F. Kennedy


1.Level 5 Leadership

2.Right people on right seats on the bus

3.Confront the Brutal Facts

4.Hedgehog Concept

5.A Culture of Discipline

6.Use technology to accelerate growth

7.The Flywheel Effect

• Circuit City Stores

• Fannie Mae

• Wells Fargo

• Phillip Morris

• Pitney Bowes

• Walgreens

• Gillette Company

• Kroger

• Nucor

• Kimberly Clark

• Abbott Laboratories

The past is not a good predictor of success in the future

Where are they today?

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1. Rare but high impact events occur

2. It is impossible to compute the probability

of these consequential rare events

3. Psychological biases that make people

ignorant and indifferent to the impact of

these rare events

So how do we

handle these Black

Swan events?

We don’t plan for them, we make ourselves resilient to them

The Black Swan Events

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Consumerization Universal Access Pervasive Computing

Cloud Computing Social Business Big Data

The pace of change is accelerating and converging

Business @ The speed of Thought

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Innovation helps companies take advantage of change

Innovation – Key to success

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It’s not the strongest of the species that

survive, nor the most intelligent, but the

ones that are the most responsive to

change

Charles Darwin


Deconstructing Innovation

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Learning and innovation go hand in

hand. The arrogance of success is to

think that what you did yesterday will

be sufficient for tomorrow

William Pollard


Innovation is the set of capabilities that allows the continuous realization of a

desired future by transforming what is possible into what is valuable for many

What is Innovation?

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Innovation: Experience and Value

Experience and Value

Functionality Reliability Convenience Price

Continuous Innovation • Improves one or more of these factors

• Driven by mainstream customer needs

• Has limits

• Practiced by market leaders

Disruptive Innovation • Changes the value proposition

• Creates new markets

• Starts in the lower end of the price spectrum

• Not viable and in many cases deliberately

ignored by market leaders

The discipline of market leaders frequently gets in the way 2/5/2013 11


Innovation: In different industries

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Public Sector Consumer &

Retail

Manufacturing Travel &

Transportation

Financial Services

Communications & Media • Is innovation limited to certain

industries?

• Are certain industries immune to

pressures of innovation?

Health & Life Sciences

Property & Casualty Insurance

Regulated industries are ripe for Disruptive Innovation

• Do industry regulations impede

innovation?


The most difficult innovations to copy are those that combine

many things in a unique way

Business Model

Process Value

Is Innovation all about products?

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Product Market Service


Innovation is a skill that can be learned and perfected

with practice

Innovators: Born or Made?

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Innovation is 1% Inspiration and 99% perspiration!!!

Innovation: Stroke of Inspiration?

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Believing in the impossible starts with

believing that the impossible is possible

Srini


A different way of Thinking

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The world as we have created it is a

process of our thinking. It cannot be

changed without changing our thinking

Albert Einstein


LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

uses logic detail oriented

facts rule words and language

present and past math and science can comprehend

knowing acknowledges

order/pattern perception knows object name

reality based forms strategies

practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling "big picture" oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can "get it" (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking

How the Human Brain Works?

YELLOW BLUE ORANGE

BLACK RED GREEN

PURPLE YELLOW RED

ORANGE GREEN BLACK

BLUE RED PURPLE

GREEN BLUE ORANGE

Your left brain

insists on reading

the word.

Your right brain

tries to say the color

Left – Right Conflict Look at the chart and say the Color not the word

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An idea is a network of neurons making new connections


Creative Thinking

Critical Thinking

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Evaluation

Assessment

Reasoning through Logic

Convergent Thinking

Analysis

Description

Interpretation

Curiosity

Imagination

Playfulness

Reasoning through

metaphors and analogy

Divergent Thinking

Lateral Thinking

Synthesis

Abstraction

Elaboration

Parallel Thinking

Design Thinking

Think Left and Think Right

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking.

It cannot be changed without changing our thinking - Einstein

© Right Brain Systems 2/5/2013 21

Can anyone be creative?

Creativity makes a leap and then looks to see where it is –

Mason Cooley


Building to think

People and culture centric

Rapid prototyping

Meaningful experiences

Participatory not just consumption

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Design Thinking

You see things; and ask “Why?”; But I dream things that

never were; and I say, “Why Not?” – G.B. Shaw


A non-zero sum (win-win) principle based management system focused on creating value for our end customers and

eliminating waste, unevenness and unreasonableness Respect for People Continuous Improvement

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Lean Thinking

If you see a snake, don’t appoint a committee on

snakes – just kill it – Ross Perot

Create Value for Customers Drive continuous Innovation

Create bandwidth Improve adaptability to change


Knowledge Brokering

Capture Ideas

Keep them alive

Find new uses

Prototype

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Knowledge Brokering

The only source of knowledge is experience – Albert Einstein


Everyone has the right to doubt everything as often as he

pleases and the duty to do it at least once. No way of looking at

things is too sacred to be reconsidered. No way of doing things

is beyond improvement.” – Edward De Bono

Lateral Thinking

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MindMap Six Thinking Hats Brain Storming and

Brain Writing


Improve Sustain

Outsource Exploit

High

Low

High Low

Imp

ort

an

ce

to

org

an

iza

tio

n

Organizational

Capability

Research & Learn

Imagine & Explore

Execute & Improve

Collect & Collaborate

What we

don’t know

We Know

What we

Know

We don’t

know

Picking your targets

Innovation is saying “No” to a 1000 things – Steve Jobs


Think left and think right and think low

and think high. Oh, the thinks you can

think up if only you try

Dr. Seuss


The RBS Innovation System

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sys·tem/ˈsistəm/ Noun

1.A set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular.

2.A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.

What is a system?

• A system has structure, it contains parts (or components) that are directly or indirectly related to each other;

• A system has behavior, it contains processes that transform inputs into outputs (material, energy or data);

• A system has interconnectivity: the parts and processes are connected by structural and/or behavioral relationships.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interconnectivity


1. Creativity and Playfulness

2. Open and Collaborative Culture

3. Diversity of Thought and Experience

4. Connecting ideas across domains

5. Experimenting and prototyping mindset

6. Adaptability to change

7. Risk Tolerance and Acceptance of Failure

These are key to build a sustainable culture of innovation

Seven building blocks for Innovation

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• Fear of the Unknown

• Fear of being judged

• Fear of the first step

• Fear of letting go

I learned that courage is not the absence of fear; but

the triumph over it – Nelson Mandela

What gets in the way

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• Passionate Involvement

• Playful

• Creative Thinking

• Optimistic

• Persistent

• Associating

• Observing

• Questioning

• Experimenting

• Networking

Attitude – The Ability to Learn

Aptitude – Desire to perform

Unlocking Creativity in Individuals

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They don’t play it safe, they do something that scares them at the edge of their capabilities where they may fail – Brad Bird

• Embraces Change

• Enjoys Challenges

• Seeks Solutions

• Suspends Judgment


Organization

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Social

Structural

Operational

• Informal

•Playful

•Flexible

•Celebrating Learning

•Small teams

•Context driven teams

•Outcome based hiring

• Incentives and Rewards

• Innovative Workspaces

•Time to Think

•Active Learning

•Collaborative operations


Innovative Workspaces

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The next generation of leaders

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Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a

person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a

personality beyond its normal limitations. —Peter Drucker

Depth of Expertise

Celebrate Success

Amity & Conformance

What they

Value?

What drives

them?

How they manage?

What they have?

Looking good

Stability and Certainty

What they can do?

Being good

Change and Ambiguity

Reinforce hierarchy

Command and control

Operational

Reinforce informal networks

Enable and Contribute

Experimentation

Breadth of Experience

Celebrate Learning

Viewpoints & Creative Tension

CURRENT GENERATION NEXT GENERATION


Individual Organization Leadership

Creativity and Playfulness Creative Thinking Informal Structure Accessible Leaders

Open and Collaborative Suspends judgment Innovative Workspace

Contribute and Enable

Diversity of Thought Questioning Collaborative Operations

Viewpoints and Creative Tension

Connecting ideas across domains Networking Active Learning Informal Network

Experimenting and Prototyping Persistent Small Teams Persistent

Adaptability to Change Embraces Change Context Sensitive teams

Embraces Change

Risk Taking Optimistic Incentives and Rewards

Celebrate Learning

Operationalizing Innovation

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Do or Do Not; There is no try - Yoda


He who innovates will have for his

enemies those who are well under the

existing order and only lukewarm support

from those who might be better off under

the new

Machiavelli


Common Patterns of Innovation


Conclusion

• Innovation is key to the long-term growth and success of any organization

• All individuals and organizations can learn how to Innovate

• Innovation requires an unflinching commitment from leaders

• Technology and IT can play a critical role in Innovation

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Health & Medicine

Operationalizing Innovation