Adam Burns
Adam Burns:
Welcome toMeetTheBoss TV. I’m Adam Burns and this week some lessons from the cat herdersand the deadline setters: as we look at how some of the world’s most successfulbusinesses manage their creative sparks.
Roland Heiler:
One of the elementsyou need to install is a flat hierarchy.
You need to make surethat you don't set your targets in the company in a way where departmentthinking is actually benefitted.
Jose Suris:
If you try to reachsome kind of intermediate, then nothing happens in big organization. Everything gets diluted and it's absolutelynothing...
Mark Ollila:
And what is actuallyinnovation? Is it something which is a€10 investment or is it something that is actually a €15 million investment.
Adam Burns:
To quote Edward deBono, the physician, author, inventor and consultant: “There is no doubt thatcreativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity,there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the samepatterns.” Of course business knows this – although many staff will disagree –the belief that companies would be better ‘if they did it my way’ will be withus forever. But managing creativity, directing innovation, is a world away fromrecognising its importance. According to John W. Gardner: “When Alexander theGreat visited Diogenes (die-oj-uh-knees) and asked whether he could do anythingfor the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: “Only stand out of my light.” Is thatstill all that creative men and women require? This week’s panel areresponsible for translating innovation to the bottom line for some world-renowncompanies. So what is their best practice?
Mark Ollila:
One of the key thingsthat you always need to have is the ability actually build up relationships,eliminate silos very much, because what you need is to actually tap intopeople's knowledge, their passion, their ability and actually bring that intothe products that we actually create.
And so relationshipsis actually a very key component not only inside the company, but also outsidethe company because innovation not only happens internally, it happensexternally.
Adam Burns:
Mark Ollila summingup something we heard from a lot of today’s contributors: lose the siloes.Clear the space. Get out of the light. And another common suggestion follows onfrom this – innovation means everybody talking.
Jim Heilig:
One of the key thingsthere is that it's going to be cross functional, right? That's one of the things, we see it as arequirement to some of the great successes inside our clients is that it's notjust done inside, you know, one product line or inside IT or R&D. So the challenge there is to be able to getbuy off from the executives to bring people from different workgroups into theproject.
Jose Suris:
We don't need very,very clever guys that come up with new ideas, what we need is to be able tolisten to those thousands of guys that have been running every single operationfor a lot of time and they've got most of the answers and they've got all ofthe new ideas that can come up in the next 50 years.
Jim Heilig:
Everyone sees anidea; everyone sees a challenge with a different kind of lens. And so being able to bring people in fromdifferent areas allows you to kind of leverage those different viewpoints andmake the product even better.
Adam Burns:
Maybe the time ofthose who believe things would be better ‘if the company did it my way’ is uponus. Now, more tips: how do you create collaboration amongst your newlyde-siloed staff?
Roland Heiler:
I think one of theelements you need to install is a flat hierarchy. If we look at the companies that aresuccessful in creating innovative products – modern companies like Google,Apple – you always find that they have no obstacles, no hurdles, no barriersfor people to talk to each other. Socommunication within the company is a very important element in order to fuelinnovation processes.
Jim Heilig:
There are some keytents we've learned. We have this greatlibrary of best practices. The executivesponsorship? Can't say it enough, that'svery important and along with that comes clear communication. So you need to communicate to your communityand this can be employees, this can be customers, partners, all the above –that you have a very well-defined process. And then stick to that process.
Kevin McCarthy:
We use, you know,organizational system maps where it shows, you know, not just an org chart, butwhat each organization is – getting its inputs, what value they're adding andproviding as outputs to the next group. We provide process flowcharts, swim lane charts, which helps every groupunderstand what their role is and the value chain. And when you communicate that and have themall understand that, you get much better results end-to-end.
Jim Heilig:
Incentives andrewards are also key, right? Soincentives and rewards are huge. Youwant to be able to incent throughout the collaborative process.
A lot of these kindof engagements in these communities end up rewarding the person with the bigidea. So that's great, you know, theperson with that billion dollar business idea, we want that and we want toreward that person. But there's gonna bepeople involved it he discussion that have, you know, one specific piece ofinformation or a specific expertise that adds value to a number of ideas, butmaybe never had their own individual idea.
Adam Burns:
A flatterorganisation, senior management buy-in, clear organizational charts andincentives that correctly reward the entirety of the innovation process. Theseare some of the best things your company can do for its staff if you want tobuild the ultimate environment for innovation. But what demands should you makeof your staff? What attitude do they need?
Mark Ollila:
I think that's a veryinteresting point, because one of the things that I drive is behavior. It's necessarily the fact that the behaviorsthat you look in people, like, are you looking for people to be veryprocess-oriented, do you want them to be creative thinkers? In the end, it's like this behavior, which islinked to our values of like, for instance, the passion for innovation. And then the question comes in, like whatdoes it meant to be innovative?
And what is actuallyinnovation? Is it something which is a€10 investment or is it something that is actually a €15 million investment andso forth? And with that comes risk andso I think that the behaviors we particularly want is our people have a passionfor what they're doing and actually look to take the risk as well.
Adam Burns:
The truth is that alot of us want to bring innovation into our companies. It is a tremendous wayto make a name for yourself, it improves the culture, builds retention rates.It can be a deep and hugely profitable transformation. But we meet withresistance, perceived or real. I asked our panel how they would beat thisparticular challenge. You work within a rigid organisation and you know changeis needed. How do you force the right outcome?
Jose Suris:
Innovation, it's – tome, it's not about being very smart, it's about number one, understanding verywell your business. Number two,challenging what is being done and how it's being done.
And then after thosetwo you can really see and propose what you think could be an innovation, areal change, something which will change the wording or the way of doing, anddo it in a – in a better way. With thosetwo – the knowledge and they analysis – and then the decision, you've got to bestrict to yourself and be hard on your point and press the point and go forwardand try to do it.
Because if you try toreach some kind of intermediate, then nothing happens in big organization. Everything gets diluted and it's absolutelynothing...
Kevin McCarthy:
The advice I wouldgive to folks in this situation is to look for the critical business issuesthat are, you know, that they're facing and put together a proposal for theirleadership...
Look at it from, youknow, from my perspective, there's three levels of performance, and the way toimprove it, you've gotta look at it from the overall organizational level, theprocess level and then the individual job performance. And the strategy between those three levelsof performance really have to be linked.
Organization strategyshould be linked to your process strategy and goals and it should be linked toyour individual job performance strategy and goals. And so if you provide that sort of framework,I think it's easier for folks who, you know, who are facing critical businessissues to understand what – how it's affecting their organization to build acase around thinking about at the organizational, process and job performerlevel. What's the issues? How can we fix it? And present that to leadership.
Mark Ollila:
I think one of themost interesting things to do is actually help insure that the teams themselvesare cross functional in nature as well so that you have a project and it's across functional team, be it marketing, biz dev and production together andthey're interacting to only internally but also with maybe external vendors atthe same time to actually bring a product to market.
Now that tensionbetween those natural actual functions is like a very, I think a veryfascinating example of how you can actually bring innovation out. But at the same time another tip that Iparticularly have is like, try to avoid having geographical silos as well. Like there's tension through the nature ofthe work you do already, but by actually having these silos where the functionsand the locations are also different, then it becomes something which is verydifficult to sort of maintain and actually work with.
Roland Heiler:
You need to be verycareful in who you hire. You need tohire people that enjoy working like this. You need to make sure that you don't set your targets in the company ina way where department thinking is actually benefitted.
People need to comeout of their departments; they need to look at the whole and not just atindividual units of the company because if everybody works for himself, thegood things don't happen.
Adam Burns:
It’s good to see thatthings have changed since the times of Alexander the Great. If you want to getthe best out of an innovator, the fundamental truth is still get out of thelight. But business today has a greater understanding of both how to let morelight in, and how to build, operate and manage creative teams in alldisciplines. Time for our panellists’ final thoughts: what single learning hasilluminated their own search for innovation?
Jim Heilig:
Always try to hirepeople that are smarter than you, right? So that way you can learn and really challenge yourself.
Kevin McCarthy:
You've got to have anunderstanding or how a business works, from end-to-end. If you get that perspective, it'll bring youa long way in your career. Youunderstand how things are resourced, or designed, developed, resourced, made,marketed and sold.
If you get thatunderstanding and have a completely customer focused attitude and build thatinto your strategies, you'll always be successful...
Mark Ollila:
To continually thinkwhat innovation actually means. Like isit just about creating something new? Okay, is that just an invention? Or is actually thinking about something new which actually has abusiness potential? I like to oftenthink and say this to everyone, like research or innovation is to see whateveryone else is seeing, but to think what no one else has thought.
And with thatthought, actually capitalize on it monetarily.