In
the 1980s, the business press was filled with accounts of
managerial prowess of firms like Toyota, Apple and People
Express. Today, People Express has ceased to survive, Apple
is only a shadow of its former self and European automakers
like Mercedes are using Ford, not Toyota, as their benchmark.
In the 1980s, managers
raced to implement techniques like quality circles, just-in-time
inventory and lean manufacturing. Today, the business world
is well aware of the failure of total quality management
and the dangers of reengineered anorexic organizations.
Firms like ABB, GE and Microsoft are now celebrated in business
and academic journals. If history is any guide to reckon
with, a decade from now the media may well report on the
decline of many of these firms.(See box:The stagger of IBM)
|
The
stagger of IBM
|
| BM
emerged as the most admired corporation in the Fortune
survey even in 1982. But things changed very fast. In
the mid-1980s, IBM accounted for 40 % of sales and 70
% of profits in the computer industry. As a company,
it possessed immense technological, financial, marketing
and human resource skills that allowed it to dominate
the computer market. Yet between 1986 and the end of
1994, IBM was forced to lay off almost 200,000 employees.
A total of $14 billion in hardware profits had dissolved
in thin air and in 1993 alone it reported a loss of
$ 8.1 billion. |
Innovation
as a key to success
This pattern - success followed by failure; innovation followed
by inertia - is common across firms and industries over
time. It is a global illness and can strike managers at
all levels of organizations. Whether it is the demise of
US firms like Singer Sewing machines, International Harvester
or Western Union (at one time the most successful technology
company in the world), or the current struggles of companies
like Philips, Nissan or Fiat, the lesson is clear: success
- staying at the top - can be tenuous.Yet success need not
be paralyzing. The most successful firms are able to capture
the benefits of short-term advantage as they build organizational
capabilities for long-term strategic renewal.
|
Some
suggestions for managers
|
*Always
nurture insight.
*Have a maverick culture, not one that emphasizes strict
hierarchical authority but one that promotes innovation
and change.
*Create gaps between expectations and performance because
in absence of problems, organizations become proud and,
in turn, vulnerable.
*To champion innovation and change successfully, adopt
a way to diagnose dispassionately system-wide root causes
of resistance to innovation and change.
*It is needful for the managers to learn how to engage
in both evolutionary and revolutionary innovation and
organizational change.
*While managers must be wary of resistance to change,
they also must appreciate the substantial benefits that
accrue to a robust, stable, reliable organization.
*Dynamic conservatism is important. So too, is the trial-and-error
learning that seeds major innovation. |
They transform themselves through proactive innovative and
strategic change. Proactive firms are able to move from
today's strength by setting the pace of innovation in their
industries. And to win through innovation the lessons to
be kept in mind are as follows:
1. Vision, strategy and objectives are the bedrock for managing
innovation and change
2. Innovation is about execution, about getting it done
3. Without a performance gap, innovation is unlikely
4. Congruence is the key to diagnosis
5. Inertia kills. Managing culture is the most neglected
and highest leveraged tool for promoting innovation and
change.
6. Successful innovation requires skilled management of
oganizational politics.
7. Technology cycles drive innovation streams
8. Ambidextrous organizations help compete for today and
tomorrow
9. Managing innovation streams means managing discontinuous
change
10. Innovation is a team sport
1.
Vision, strategy and objectives are the bedrock for managing
innovation and change
Managers and their teams ought to be able to develop and
clearly articulate a competitve vision, strategy and objectives
for their business unit. Without a clear articulation of
these aspirations, ambiguity and uncertainty will plague
any effort at building ambidextrous organizations and nanaging
innovation and change. Aspirations linked to concrete business
unit strategies and objectives (e.g. profit, ROI, growth
rates, customer satisfaction) pave way to success. In Ciba
Vision, for instance, its clear vision coupled with stretch
objectives lead to its sustained success. (See box: Ciba
Vision)
2. Innovation is about execution about getting it done
Strategic clarity alone is not sufficient. Many competitors
have similar visions and strategies. Success comes not from
articulation of vision, strategies and objectives, but from
their execution. To succeed, managers need to build organizations
that are capable of accomplishing their strategic objectives
more rapidly than their competitors. This requires that
they build
|
Ciba
Vision: Escaping old ideas
|
| In
1981, Ciba Vision was the 27th entrant into the US contact
lens market. Through a strategy of acquisitions, geographical
expansion and innovation, Ciba Vision grew rapidly.
By 1995, it had become a 6,000-person organization,
jostling with Bausch and Lomb and Johnson & Johnson
for global leadership of the contact lens/lens care
market and with Alcon, Allergan and MSD for leadership
in the ophthalmic market.
Some
of the notable traits:
*Anchored by the vision of "We help people maintain
and improve their vision" along with aggressive
growth and target, the CEO, Glen Bradley knew that
current products would not be sufficient to fuel tomorrow's
growth. They realized that to build and sustain a
market leadership position, Ciba Vision needed to
pursue both incremental and radical innovation.
*For mature products like conventional soft lenses
and lens-care products, Ciba Vision invested in incremental
product and process improvement. These improvements
helped grow and defend the company's market share
as well as provide funding to research and develop
new contact lenses and ophthalmic pharmaceuticals.
The funds generated by the products of today financed
those of tomorrow.
*Each team of the organization was given stretch targets
and encouraged to explore several solutions to the
technical challenges it faced, thereby increasing
the chances of finding breakthrough solutions. The
discontinuous product and process innovations have
the potential to substitute for Ciba Vision's current
products and processes. Thus they found that the key
to innovation is not creating new ideas, but escaping
old ones.
*By building their ambidextrous organization, Bradley
and his team had the luxury of competing for today
even as they prepared to recreate the future through
breakthrough product and/or process innovation.
|
organizations to get today's work done more effectively
and to anticipate discontinuities. Innovation results from
creative ideas successfully implemented. Competitive advantage
is as much about execution as it is about strategy.
3.
Without a performance gap,innovation is unlikely
A crucial part of any manager's job is setting and clarifying
today's most important organizational problems. Managers
can define problems as real or potential gaps between strategic
requirements and actual organizations performance. While
it is easy to define problems when an organization is facing
a crisis, it is more difficult to proactively create crisis
while an organization is successful. To cite an example,
when IBM lost $17.8 billion and had to sack 150,000 people,
its CEO believed that an organization needed a crisis to
focus on the need for change. It is the capability to create
problems or opportunities while a firm is doing well that
allows the most successful managers to
capitalize on incremental and discontinuous innovation and
change.
|
Organizational
culture behind reliability of FedEx
|
What
is Federal Express's competitive advantage in the air
package industry? Not price. Rather, there is a widely
shared perception by its customers that it will, in
the words of an old advertisement, "absolutely,
positively get it there overnight". A belief in
this reliability is what differentiates FedEx from the
competition. One large firm has a corporate contract
with a competitor. But managers say that for really
critical deliveries, they rely on FedEx - even if they
had to pay for it themselves.
If reliability is a key to competitive advantage at
Fedex, one of the critical tasks that ensure it is the
need to invest in the latest technology, the importance
of precise scheduling, speed, and efficiency in sorting.
Employees believe in the absolute importance of customer
service and fulfill the task of "making the plane".
And to accomplish these critical tasks, the culture
needs norms and values like speed, a sense of urgency,
teamwork, doing whatever it takes to please the customer,
listening, initiative, flexibility and risk-taking attitude.
At FedEx, organizational culture is an integral part
of its competitive advantage. |
4.
Congruence is the key to diagnosis
At BOC Gases, (See box: BOC) GE, Grenzach and Operation
Centurion, problem definition led to a systematic diagnosis
of the performance gap's roots which was based on four fundamental
organizational building blocks that provide a straightforward
way to diagnose problems viz: a) tasks and work flows, b)
human resources, c) organizational structure and systems,
and d) organizational cultureThese basic componenets were
both hard (task and structure) and soft (individual and
culture) levers managers use to shape organizational capabilities
and change.
|
BOC:
induction of a culture that promotes collaboration
|
For more than a century, the industrial
gases Division of BOC, a large British conglomerate,
had joined the march of industrial progress serving
the British Empire. Its 35,000 people worked in 15 countries
to produce and deliver oxygen, nitrogen, helium and
other natural gases to a variety of users, ranging from
food to steel to semiconductors.
The organization agreed on the importance of global
customers and technology development while managerial
attention continued to focus on local issues. And what
emerged as a major inconsistency, is a key misfit between
their current geographic structure and the critical
task of global integration. While BOC's strategic goal
was to provide service to global customers, its structure
promoted fierce geographic loyalties and offered no
way to link these geographic units together. Even BOC's
financial reporting system was geographically based
and did not permit worldwide reporting by customer.
And the firm grossly lacked innovation and customer
responsiveness as the key performance gaps.
To cure this system-wide lack of congruence, a new global
matrix structure supported by a new measurement and
control system was implemented that changed the culture
to promote collaboration, cross-boundary communication,
and brought in new marketing skills. These system-wide
changes started bearing fruit. And by 1996, BOC Gases
was winning new gases supply contracts, leading innovation
and running more efficiently. The steps that yielded
results are:
*Identifying the performance gaps
*Determining the critical tasks needed to achieve strategic
objectives
*Assessing the congruence among tasks, people, the formal
organization and culture
*Taking action targeted to bring these inconsistencies
into alignment with the critical tasks depending on
the diagnosis |
5.
Inertia kills. Managing culture is the most neglected and
the highest leveraged tool for promoting innovation and
change
Of these four organizational building blocks, culture is
the most difficult to diagnose and to change. Social control
processes can help motivate organizational members and are
a powerful way to focus behaviours in complex and changing
settings. But organizational culture can also hold an organization
hostage to its past. The key seems to create a clear vision
with a limited set of core values as was practised at HP
and Ciba Vision. In contrast, at Oticon, managers did not
directly attend to the cultural diversity and, hence, paid
a severe price in the management of ionnovation and change.
6.
Successful innovation requires skilled management of oganizational
politics
Long-term innovation involves linking innovaton streams,
market requirements and organizational capabilities. This
requires building functional competencies such as technology,
marketing or distribution and linking them to develop prroducts
or services that meet customer requirement. Since managing
innovation involves linking diverse diverse competencies
across multiple bounadries, executive teams must manage
organizational processes down within their units, across
with their peers, up with more senior managers, and outside
the firm with important suppliers, vendors, alliance partners
and customers. These external linkages often require managers
to work without formal power or control as in the case of
Tilt in which managers across multiple boundaries required
managers to be politicians, negotiators and network builders.
7.
Technology cycles drive innovation streams
Technologies evolve through cycles: periods of variation,
selection of a dominant design, followed by periods of incremental
technological change punctuated by a subsequent technological
breakthrough. The most successful firms are able to influence
these technological changes punctuated by a subsequent technological
breakthrough. The most successful firms are able to influence
their technology cycles; they are able to shape dominant
designs, as Seiko did with the quartz movements (See box:
Seiko), and are able to trigger new technology cycles by
proactively initiating breakthrough products or process
innovations, like Ciba Vision's extended wear lens.Through
shaping technology cycles, managers can create streams of
innovation - incremental, architectural and discontinuous.
|
Seiko:
Successfully managing
innovation
|
Seiko,
in the watch industry, is another organization that
has been able to successfully manage innovation streams.
Not only has Seiko competed in mechanical watches, the
historically dominant techno-logy, but it was also willing
to experiment with the quartz and tuning fork movements.
In the late 1960s, depending on their experience from
this technological experimentation, Seiko managers made
the bold decision to substitute a quartz movement for
their existing mechanical movements. This switch led
to fundamentally different competitive rules in the
watch industry. The cost of buying a watch dropped dramatically
and the definition of a watch as a piece of fine jewelry
changed to one as a fashion item.
Seiko competed over time by actively shaping innovation
streams. These streams include incremental innovation
(e.g. thinner watches), and discontinuous innovation
(e.g. Seiko's quartz movement substituting for mechanical
movements). By actively managing streams of innovation
Seiko took advantage of fundamentally new markets for
existing technology and proactively introduced substitute
products, which, even as they cannibalize existing products,
create new markets and competitive rules. |
8.
Ambidextrous organizations help compete for today and tomorrow
Strategic innovation and the need to create incremental,
architectural and discontinuous innovation require managers
to balance contradictory pressures. This means building
the organizational competencies, as in the case of Ciba
vision, to simultaneously host the multiple strategies,
structures, processes and cultures needed to be successful
today and to create the conditons for discontinuous innovation
in the future. Clear simple visions are an important tool
to reconcile the contradictions built into ambidextrous
organizations. It is through such internal diversity and
experimentation that managers generate data from whch to
make strategic bets. Luck is, then, an important ingredient
in managing innovation over time. While managers cannot
guarantee it, they can create an organization that can be
systematically luckier than the competition.
The most
successful firms are able to
influence technological changes
punctuated by a subsequent technological breakthrough
9. Managing innovation streams means managing discontinuous
change
Innovation streams involve organizational change whereas
incremental innovation can be managed within the current
organizational configuration. Both architectural and discontinuous
innovations involve systemwide organizational change. These
innovation types are disruptive; they tear at the political,
structural and cultural fabric of an organization. In organizations
as varied as Xerox, Alcoa, SMH and Ciba Vision, managing
streams of innovation involved managing incremental as well
as revolutionary organizatinal change (See: Implementing
change at Sears). Having the right technology was not enough.
Innovation had to be implemented in the context of an often
indifferent, if not hostile, organization. Understanding
the fundamental dynamics of integreated change management
was a crucial determinant of successful innovation.
10.
Innovation as a team sport
Whether it is Ciba Crop Protection, Anaquest or BOC Gases,
the management teams was where winning through innovation
begins. If the organization is to be able to handle the
contradictory demands of incremantal, archtectural and discontinuous
innovation, the manager and his or her direct reports must
be able to embrace these tensions. The team must have the
competencies and processes to host internal diversity coupled
with a clear shared vision. This group, the entire senior
team, is a powerful signal generator that is closely observed
by the rest of the organization. If it preaches one message
and practices another, people quickly translate this contradiction
into confusion, incompetemce and dishonesty.
Executing
organizational change to implement innovation
There are three generic problems that all managers face
in managing a change that is needed for innovation:
1. Managing the political dynamics of change;
2. Managing individual resistance;
3. Managing control during the transition period.
When carefully managed, these three factors are powerful
levers for the successful implementation of change that
paves way to innovation. If ignored, they can easily undermine
even the most reasonable change effort.
1.
Managing the political dynamics of innovative change
It is almost important to introduce major changes that help
in innovation without stirring up the political pot so change
managers must anticipate these dynamics and be prepared
to manage them. They can directly (a) Shape coalitions -
mobilize the key players support; (b) Reinforce the message
with mundane behaviours; (c) Build in stability
|
Implementing
change at Sears
|
Until 1991, Sears was the largest
retailer in the United States with more than 5,00,000
employees. By the mid-1980s, its market share had fallen
15 % from its high in the 1970s, and the stock price
plummeted. Ed Brenman, the then CEO, tried to change
the company's strategy, largely without success. Service
was problematic and customers fled to competitors such
as Wal-Mart.
This was the challenge facing Arthur Martinez when he
joined Sears as head of retail operations in 1992. Since
then Sear's stock price has doubled, operating margins
are up more than 400%, administrative costs are down
substantially and operating profits are 1n 1994 were
$890 million compared to the $2.9 billion loss posted
in 1992. How has Martinez turned Sears around?
First, recognizing that the company's strategy and structure
were misaligned with the realities of retailing in the
1990s, he dramatically changed the strategy, structure
and culture of the old Sears. He focused the business,
selling off insurance and financial services, closing
the money-losing catalogue business, and even selling
the corporate headquarters building. He closed more
than 100 stores, laid off more than 50,000 people and
spent more than $ 4 billion to remodel stores.
And, realizing that strategy by itself is not enough
- it all depends on how well you execute it, Martinez
began simply and clearly communicating the aspirations
of the new Sears throughout the organization. One thing
in the new Sears that became very important to the employees
is that "Never disappoint a customer". It
was upto the associate to figure out how to do this.
The 29,000-page-long policies and procedures was replaced
with a single folder one-eighth inch thick entitled
"Rights and Obligations'. Its focus is on what
is referred to as three Cs: A compelling place to shop,
a compelling place to work, and a compelling place to
invest.
Martinez had also instituted a revolution in the organizational
alignment of Sears culture to accomplish his strategic
objectives. These efforts include establishing Sear's
"PSE Circus" (Pure Selling Environment) to
convey a sense of urgency and excitement as well as
discussion groups, task forces, extensive training sessions
run by Sears University, new job descriptions, new operating
procedures, 360-degree evaluations, and a new pay system
that ties half of the executive's pay to customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, employees are educated about Sear's financials
so that they can make economically informed decisions.
One observer characterized these initiatives as"
foaming a cultural revolution, a re-education effort
that would make Mao proud." The point of these
efforts is to help people understand exactly what attitudes
and behaviors characterize new culture, energize them
and help them feel good about future. |
A.
Shape coalitions - mobilize the key
players support
The key players in an effort to innovate are those politically
important individuals both outside and inside the organization
who will be affected by the innovation. A political analysis
must be done to determine who these key individuals are
and some measures can be adopted to influence them. Some
such measures are as follows:
a) Participation, Involvement, Cooptation
The most positive method of getting powerful individuals
on board is to solicit their involvement in planning and
directing the effort to innovate as was done at Xerox, Alcoa
and BOC.
b) Incentives
Rewards and punishments are another powerful way to shape
desired behaviour. At BOC, for instance, the behaviour required
for one Runnymede initiative was measured and evaluated;
collaboration, teamwork and rapid technology transfer were
measured formally through revised systems and, informally,
the leader and his team used to travel through out the organization.
c) Exchange
As political systems, organizations are filled with exchange
relationships: "I do you a favour and you do me one".
Indeed, reciprocity exists worldwide and tends to balance
out over time.
The key
players in an effort to innovate are those politically important
individuals both outside and inside the organization 
who will be affected by the innovation
d)
Isolation
To the extent that key individuals always continue to resist
a change, they must be either socially or physically isolated
as was done at Anaquest wherein the key players, who kept
on resisiting change obstinately inspite of all the efforts
of the management, were absolutely kept out of the information
loop so that they do not have the opportunity to counter
the innovation.
e) Removal or transfer
Key antagonists who cannot be converted to supporters may
have to be removed. To rescue Scott Paper, for example,
the new CEO removed nine of eleven senior officers; Pfeiffer
at Compaq encouraged six senior executives to leave; before
the turnaround at Philips was complete, virtually the entire
senior team had changed.
B.
Reinforce the message with mundane behaviours
The words and action of senior managers are critical in
creating political momentum and energy in support or opposition
to strategic innovation. While these are labelled as "mundane",
clear, unequivocal signals help reduce uncertainty and organizational
politics. Some of the mechanisms in use are as follows:
a) Ask questions
The questions that senior managers ask also clearly indicate
what is important and what is not. One reason that the strategic
changes necessary for innovation at Alcoa and Xerox were
executed so well is that wherever their CEOs went they constantly
asked questions about the progress of their efforts paving
way to innovation.
b) Follow-up
Just as questions from senior managers signal interest,
following-up conveys a seriousness of purpose. After Welch
used to meet maanagers at GE's Management Development Centre,
he used to ask for written feedback from them summarizing
what it was that they learned.
c) Take control of meeting agendas
Another indicator of what is important is what is on the
agenda at the meetings. To cite an example, employees at
firms like DuPont and Mariott understand the significance
of safety and customer service because they are always first
on the agenda.
d) Hold lunches, dinners and events
Advantage can be taken of special opportunities to substantively
and symbolically energize the effort in favour of innovation.
In line with this, at the Grenzach plant, the CEO used to
hold a series of lunches and dinners throughout the facility
to take questions and to demostrate his personal commitment
to the sweeping changes.
The
first and most important step in motivating
constructive behaviour is to is to ensure that
people understand emotionally, not just intellectually,
why they have to innovate
e)
Summarize and interpret
At the end of meetings, the senior person often reviews
the highlights of the session. This is an opportunity to
interpret and underscore the message, a chance for managers
to help their colleagues understand the effort for innovation
and gain clarity as to why the said effort is important.
f) Create heroes, stories and myths
All organizations have their heroes, stories and myths.
Angus McDonald at AT&T, Wilson at Xerox, Watson at IBM,
and Mary Kay Ash at Mary kay are exemplars. Stories about
larger than life figures are a quick vivid way of conveying
a sense of what is important and needful for innovation.
C. Build in stability
A final action for reducing political antagonism to innovative
change is in building stability even as the change leading
to innovation occurs.To cite an example, at Alcoa, even
in the context of whole sale change, the CEO and his team
were clear that the glorious Alcoa engineering heritage
and its commitment to high quality aluminium will never
change. As Kodak refocused, the management reemphasized
the firm's commitment to the photographic market and signaled
an end to diversification. Clarity about what will not change
helps moderate fears of the future.
2.
Managing individual resistance
The second predictable issue faced by all managers of large-scale
innovative change is the resistance associated with individual
anxiety. There are four steps all mangers can take to reduce
dysfunctional anxiety and motivate constructive behaviour:
A) Create dissatisfaction with the status quo; B) Build
in participation; C) Recognize and reward desired new behaviours;
D) Provide time and opportunity to disengage.
A)
Create dissatisfaction with the status quo
The first and most important step in motivating constructive
behaviour is to is to ensure that people understand emotionally,
not just intellectually, why they have to innovate. It is
suggested that they create a credible crisis to generate
the motional energy to change. (See box: Credible crisis
at Boeing)
|
Credible
crisis at Boeing
|
| Boeing
was dissatisfied with its ability to convince employees
about the need to change. To convince people emotionally,
a local Seattle TV news team was hired to produce a
"news story" the video of which included closed
Boeing facilities and the impact the lay-of would have
on the economy. The pictures were used as a part of
the training effort to depict the potential crisis. |
B)
Build in participation
If there is one clear result from the research on change
management, it is that employee participation increases
individual ownership and excitement and in turn, decreases
individual resistance to change leading to innovation. The
more people are involved, the more the change is their change
effort. (See box: Change participation at Xerox)
C)
Recognize and reward desired new behaviours
A third mechanism for motivating constructive behaviour
is the design and the reward systems, focusing especially
on those attitudes and behaviours needed during the transition.
And this yeilds good result. For instance, recognizing the
importance of symbolic rewards at Grenzach, personal recognition,
nomination for special awards and a series of lunches and
dinners were used to reward the employees in their efforts
for innovation.
|
Change
Participation at Xerox
|
| At
Xerox, the leadership through quality effort began at
the top and cascaded down the organization with enormous
employee involvement. Quality teams, task forces, benchmarking
teams and quality councils all generated energy and
enthusiasm for change. Nay sayers either became convinced
or left. |
D)
Provide time and opportunity to disengage
Managers can also help their colleagues disengage from the
current state. To the extent that people are publicly vested
in certain processes and outcomes, they may be psychologically
committed to the past actions. Hence, they should be allowed
to mourn the passsing of the old order before they become
heartily committed to the future state.
3.
Managing control during the transition period
Transition periods leading to innovations are always turbulent,
uncertain and chaotic only because the current state is
being taken apart before the full development of the future
state. The executive team responsible for managing innovation
need to actively manage the transition with same degree
of care and attention given to any other strategically important
project. The team must to do four things to maintain control
during the transition period: A) Communicate a clear image
of future state; B) Use multiple leers to promote change
C) Design transition management structures D) Set transition
milestones and measure progress
A)
Communicate a clear image of future state
It is important that the manager responsible for implementing
innovation and his team develop and relentlessly communicate
as detailed a picture of the future as possible - even though
the future state may still be a moving target. For instance,
Federal Express developed a television commercial demonstrating
specific types of customer service it was attempting to
provide. These vivid images gave Fedex employees and customers
vivid imges of the organization's desired future state.
(See box: Organizational culture behind reliability of FedEx)
B)
Use multiple levers to promote change
While incremental change usually entails the realignment
of one or two organizational components (e.g., a change
in the reward system), discontinuous change involves simultaneous
shifts in component - a realignment of tasks, people, culture
and the formal structure - the four levers referred to earlier.
(See Box: Operation Centurion) To increase the chances of
success in implementing innovation, an integrated set of
these levers, are required in which shifts in structure
fit with the new training efforts that again fit with the
new culture and the re-engineered work progress.
|
Operation
Centurion
|
Operation
centurion at Philips began with agreement among senior
managers about the magnitude of their problem and what
it would take to ensure Philip's survival.
The change effort then encompassed an array of initiatives
for revitalizing every component of the organization.
To gain the required competencies, significant retaining
was undertaken and new people were hired. Those who
did not buy the new vision or lacked the ability to
acquire new skills had to make a move. Concurrently,
new structures, operating processes and reward/promotion
systems were implemented. A quality effort as well as
major restructuring and reengineering was initiated.
At the same time, explicit efforts were made to identify
and reinforce the norms needed to succeed in the future
and to eliminate many of the norms that would hinder
progress. The success of this sweeping effort stemmed
from the use of multiple levers. |
C)
Design transition management structures
The management of a transition period should beThe management
of a transition period should be approached with the same
rigour as that of a new product launch. Since current roles,
structures and procedures may no longer be useful and those
designed for the future may not be fully in place, change
managers should explicitly consider what new roles, structures
and procedures are needed to manage the transition. An individual
is formally designated as the transition manager and he
is assigned to head a team that shares responsibility for
implementing the change. And the transition team neeeds
to develop a realistic, achievable transition plan, preferably
one that initially considers various scenarios.
D)
Set transition milestones and measure progress
A final lever for maintaining control is to be systematic
in measuring progress during the transition period. And
the transition team should be prepared to gather data and
monitor the effectiveness of the transition.
Surprisingly, corporate history has proved time and again
that it is difficult for successful organizations to reform
themselves. All over the world, such organizations have
been found to stumble solely because the managers have been
unable to lead innovation streams at one point of time or
another. While there are no universal recipes or cookbooks
for staying at the top by way of constant innovation, some
patterns may be identified for understanding the dynamics
of innovation and how to avoid the tyranny of success. While,
perhaps, it is true that there are no excellent organizations,
there are however excellent managers from whom the business
world has learned how organizations can go from today's
to tomorrow's strength and who have mastered the architectural
network and juggling skills necessary to win through innovation.
The above article has been condensed/extracted
from select chapters of Winning through innovation by Tushman,
Michael L. and O'Reilly III, Charles A., published by Harvard
Business School Press in 1997. All rights of the authors
and publisher are absolutely reserved.
Innovation as a key to enduring success
