Innovation from Within

Introduction

Today, in this world of profound changes and rapid unexpected events, the paradigm of innovation is of paramount importance in the life of industrial companies and organizations because their capacity for adaptation and transformation depends on it with the support of digital technologies, always seeking competitiveness, profitability, and business sustainability (Amendola, 2020). Successful innovation experiences have become evident in organizations committed to agility, mobility, and engagement with their human talent, observing that they focus on future opportunities and demands.

Figure 1. Innovation ecosystem stakeholder model, Amendola.L, PMM Ciex Innovation Group, 2017

The question arises: What are those characteristics that distinguish successful innovation organizations from the rest? Is it possible to somehow “clone” those success experiences and repeat them? The experience of PMM CIEx Innovation University www.pmmciex.com accompanying organizations from various industrial sectors is reflected in our innovation ecosystem model as a means to drive from within the company those integrating characteristics of innovative DNA. It is necessary that everyone in the organization has the ability to answer questions such as: Are innovation processes encouraged in our organization? How do we energize and complement the roles of “idea thinker” and “idea maker” in human talent?

INNOVATION AS A SYSTEMIC PROCESS

Let’s begin with an assertion: innovating represents change with a sense of value and utility. Therefore, the ability to innovate consists of converting opportunities into new ideas and putting them into practice. However, to develop such capability, it is necessary for organizations to configure a series of factors that foster learning and results aligned with business objectives.

According to Senge (1990), in learning organizations “people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.” And Senge frames this creative and free attitude as a model to be developed through five disciplines, which are:

– personal mastery

– mental models

– shared vision

– team learning

– systems thinking, which as the fifth discipline integrates all the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice.

This is why the capacity for innovation in organizations must be considered as a systemic process, so that it can be developed through a field of learning, training, and insights for the development of a learning organization. There are three characteristic capabilities that must be present in learning organizations: the ability to see larger systems; collaborate across system boundaries; and envision emerging futures.

Intrapreneurship is part of this systemic culture for learning and promoting innovation in organizations. For example, in a study of consulting firms, more than 80% indicated that the ability to innovate is a crucial factor for sustained business growth. However, nearly half acknowledged that fostering the ability to innovate is a difficult task as organizations grow in size and complexity. Ultimately, this is a compelling reason why corporations encourage intrapreneurship; since experience develops sufficient flexibility and agility to incentivize creativity and reward innovation.

Internal innovations mark the traits of an agile culture that takes root as the challenge of transforming people is embraced.

Attracting, developing, and retaining digital talent who are not only loyal to personal values, but also to organizational ones. With a common purpose and providing the opportunity to develop everyone in the company. Furthermore, systemically developing an agile culture within the organization is fundamental to better approaching and adapting to constant market changes.

It is also important to note that the systemic management of intrapreneurship with innovative leadership and a culture for innovation is essential. It is about growing the skills of your own collaborators using intelligence and information capabilities through a path with Design Thinking and Digital Transformation. Furthermore, a program to successfully implement innovative intrapreneurship in the company must be offered as a solution and as part of a strategic purpose. We will mention three key elements for making such a proposal:

• • Identify a value gap that represents a solution opportunity.

• • Associate the proposal with a specific objective/need of the business core.

• • Start with limited, low-risk projects.

The above marks a safe learning path for the organization, achievable with small short-term goals. It is the implementation of an innovation ecosystem, where a set of different interrelated elements converge, seeking to generate and/or expand business profitability and sustainability.

INNOVATION AS A CULTURAL PARADIGM THAT BEGINS WITH THE INDIVIDUAL

To give us an idea of the importance of the individual as a cultural paradigm in companies, in some successful organizations like Google, they not only provide comfortable physical spaces and idea-generating opportunities, but also foster creative freedom and innovation in their human talent, as each of them invests up to a quarter of their time generating new ideas.

It is important to promote a culture of innovation in companies, as talent will feel the passion to do things better and will understand that internal changes depend on them to some extent, which will translate into interest in innovating and creating new projects and products.

It is evidence of that innovative DNA required in this era, giving way to agility, exponentiality, and duality, generating rapid, effective, and efficient responses.

Researcher-consultants such as Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen assert in their most recent research that there exists a series of characteristics and behaviors that, combined, produce an innovative result over time, and this is what they have called the innovator’s DNA or DNA of innovation (Dyer et al., 2018). Specifically, they refer to five key skills, discovery skills, that characterize innovative leaders, which had been identified and synthesized after conducting research with more than 5,000 people recognized (to a greater or lesser extent) as innovative and with the ability to think differently. These discovery skills are:

• • Observation capacity. Actively observing (monitoring) the surrounding reality, because it is in that reality where patterns, trends, and opportunities will be identified, which will be the first step of the innovation process.

• • Inquiry capacity. Asking why and what for about what is seen, to delve deeper and learn.

• • Capacity to associate concepts. In Steve Jobs’ words: “connecting the dots.” Associative thinking involves connecting the answers to those previous questions and learning from solutions to similar problems.

• • Capacity to experiment. This essentially involves generating data and information through prototypes and tests, learning from failure and error.

• • Capacity to network and work collaboratively. This allows identifying new trends and opportunities and developing more novel ideas. Relationships with peers, or diverse groups of people with different backgrounds and experiences, open the door to exponentially increase the probability of obtaining useful information and connecting more dots.

Dyer and his collaborators assert that:

These skills of the innovator’s DNA can be learned and mastered with discipline.

Therefore, it is possible to learn to think and act differently, thereby considerably increasing our capacity to innovate and the prospects of adapting our products, services, and processes to any unforeseen situation.

This metaphor associated with biological DNA, which is unique in each person, indicates that each of us has different capabilities, all equally useful and valuable when it comes to successfully adapting to a changing environment. We only need to try to recognize those in which we are not as strong, in order to develop them, and generate alliances with those who possess to a greater extent the capabilities we lack, to add them to ours and thus complete our resources for innovation.

DRIVING INNOVATION FROM WITHIN

Steve Jobs showed us that innovation is not a matter of quantities of material resources, but of how the company’s talent is guided and how much is obtained from it. That is, innovation is directly proportional to the freedom and support given to talent to create new ideas. And in that same vein, Peter Drucker spoke of “functional inspiration,” referring to people’s attitude toward innovation, which collectively leads to continuous improvement, empowering the organization to anticipate changes and face scenarios of uncertainty. Therefore, within the business strategy, it is necessary to foster a cultural change toward innovation to achieve its drive from within the organization, thus aligning human aspects such as communication and teamwork with the so-called business model monitoring and hyper-accelerated innovation processes.

Amendola (2019) states that innovation consists of combining internal resources with external resources to drive the culture of innovation and operational excellence in the company to solve the great challenges of industry, economy, and society. Therefore, it is important to transform organizational systems and cultures.

Driving innovation from within must be the challenge for organizations to face the changes and uncertainty of these times, and thus ensure business profitability and sustainability. We offer to accompany you in this drive toward innovation. Now is the time.