Es la Cultura la que conduce la Innovación, no las Ideas!

Es la Cultura la que conduce la Innovación, no las Ideas!

By Jay Rao

En abril de 2009, Business Week y BCG publicaron la lista anual de las 50 Compañías más Innovadoras del Mundo; una lista que se inició en 2006. La última contenía algunas compañías emergentes y en crecimiento como Infosys, Facebook y Lenovo. Pero cada año, hay algunas pocas firmas que ya son regulares–Apple, Google, Toyota, Microsoft, IDEO, IBM, GE, P&G, Wal-Mart, 3M, Southwest, J&J y Disney. Lo que es más sorprendente es que en 2006 sólo siete firmas de las 50 principales eran centenarias (100 años o más). En 2007 y 2008 el número era de 12 y 13 respectivamente. Mientras el clima de los negocios empezaba a irse “más hacia el sur”, el número de firmas con más de 100 años en esta lista ahora va en 15. Se incluyen firmas como Nintendo, Tata, Nestle, Fiat, Shell y AT&T. ¡Las viejas compañías son sexys otra vez!

La edad promedio de una compañía en la lista Fortune 500 es de 45 años. Desde que la lista Fortune 500 fue creada hace más de 50 años, casi 1900 firmas han figurado en la lista al menos una vez. Sin embargo, cerca de 70 firmas han aparecido en la lista cada año durante los últimos 50. La edad promedio de estas firmas es de 115 años. Éstas son compañías que han sido construidas para hacer la transición exitosamente de una generación a otra, independientemente de las tecnologías, los mercados, los productos, los procesos y los líderes. Más todavía, estas firmas han perdurado a través de varios reveses en el negocio. ¿Cómo se las han arreglado no sólo para sobrevivir sino para prevalecer? Respuesta: La Cultura de la Innovación.

De manera sorprendente, la Cultura de la Innovación en las empresas no ha cambiado mucho en los últimos 100 años. Si comparamos la práctica de la innovación en una compañía de la nueva era como Google, o Amazon, o IDEO, con lo que una compañía de 170 años de antigüedad como P&G está haciendo hoy, y lo comparamos a la vez con lo que una compañía de 120 años estaba haciendo hace un siglo, vemos que hay poca diferencia. Si miramos cómo son gerenciadas esas empresas–nuevas y viejas-entenderemos los seis bloques de construcción fundamentales que forman el ADN de una compañía innovadora.

Seis bloques de construcción para la Innovación Continua

Bloque 1. El Clima. ¿Cómo se siente trabajar en esta firma? ¿Es el clima de la compañía favorable a la innovación? Éste es vibrante, cultiva la pasión, estimula y desafía a la gente a tomar oportunidades, fomenta el aprendizaje y la reflexión y no aplasta el pensamiento independiente. Eejemplos: Google, 3M, Southwest, J&J.

Bloque 2. Valores. ¿Qué es lo que sostenemos en términos de innovación? Aquí no estamos hablando de los Grandes Jefes; ellos vienen y se van. ¿Por qué lucharíamos? ¿Qué es lo que cree la compañía que es la Verdad, fundamentalmente? ¿Cuáles son nuestras adicciones? Estas podrían cubrir desde ser abiertos, compartir, trabajar en equipo, asumir riesgos, adorar la disidencia, y recompensar el fracaso. Los valores son también la brújula moral de la compañía. Podemos ver ejemplos de esto en compañías como J&J, Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, IDEO.

Bloque 3. Recursos. ¿Cómo apoyamos nuestros esfuerzos innovadores? Hay seis recursos: 1. Creadores, inventores, científicos, pensadores, gente con ideas. 2. Transformadores, aquellos que convierten los pensamientos en cosas; y las llevan al mercado. 3. Financistas. Siempre importantes para alimentar la innovación. 4. “Brokers” o intermediarios: los que reúnen a los creadores, transformadores y financistas; hacen conexiones y presentaciones cuando las tres partes no se conocen entre sí. 5. El Tiempo –para aprender, experimentar y perseguir cosas “extrañas”, y 6) Espacio – un lugar para trabajar y jugar con las ideas y las oportunidades. Ejemplos: GE, IBM, P&G, 3M.

Bloque 4. Procesos. ¿Cómo logramos la innovación? Creando un embudo para capturar ideas; rutinariamente, entresacar las ideas de las oportunidades; y separar de manera rutinaria las oportunidades fuertes de las débiles. Cuando encuentre las oportunidades, empiece pequeños experimentos, haga rápidos prototipos, vea las fallas rápidamente y, al final, muévase a una escala más alta y velozmente cuando encuentre una joya dorada. Ejemplos: P&G. IBM. Toyota, IDEO.

Seis bloques de construcción para la Innovación Continua

Bloque 5. Comportamientos. -¿Cómo pensamos, nos aproximamos y actuamos con el fin de impulsar la innovación? Todos: ejecutivos y empleados. Los Comportamientos de Innovación incluyen ser oportunos, flexibles, adaptables, colaboradores, elásticos, tomar decisiones valerosas en medio de la incertidumbre y arreglárselas con la ambigüedad. Uno puede aprender, practicar y entrenar estos comportamientos y, lo mejor de todo, no se necesita presupuesto ni permiso. Ejemplos: IDEO, Google, 3M, Wal-Mart.

Bloque 6. El Éxito. ¿Cómo medimos nuestra capacidad de innovación? ¿Qué significa el éxito dentro de nuestra compañía? ¿Cómo es el éxito un proceso y un resultado que se puede medir? ¿Somos tolerantes a los errores? ¿Hay recompensa para el aprendizaje, la experimentación, el fracaso y la retro-alimentación? La medición de los éxitos determina nuestros comportamientos y procesos. Cuando nos sentimos exitosos, nuestro ambiente, valores, procesos y comportamientos ganan en fuerza. Los éxitos repetidos conducen hacia refuerzos posteriores de estos principios y a lo largo del tiempo todos estos elementos se endurecen como el hueso. Y eso es lo que es CULTURA! Ejemplos: Southwest Airlines, P&G, Google, GE.

Evidencias desde todo el mundo

En un reciente estudio de 759 compañías en 17 economías principales, “la Cultura de Corporación” fue el primer conductor de la innovación. Otros factores mencionados a veces en estudios y en libros sobre el tema, tales como: el acceso a un trabajo calificado, la disponibilidad de capital, las regulaciones del gobierno y la cultura nacional- no fueron juzgados como factores importantes.

Entre los ingredientes que se encontraron como contribuyentes a la cultura de innovación corporativa, había tres actitudes y tres prácticas. Mirando más cercanamente se encontró que las actitudes claves de la organización eran: 1) la disposición para utilizar los activos hasta el tope, en una especie de auto-canibalismo, 2) tener una orientación futura en términos de las tecnologías y el conocimiento de las limitaciones de sus productos actuales y 3) una tolerancia al riesgo.

Las tres prácticas corporativas incluían: 1) la apropiación de productos campeones que son recursos dados para explorar, investigar y construir prometedoras (pero inciertas) y futuras tecnologías; 2) establecer incentivos para aquellos que se aventuren a explorar y construir nuevos “emprendimientos” para la firma y 3) crear y gerenciar mercados internos. Los mercados internos tienen dos elementos –autonomía y competición. La autonomía tiene que ver con la habilidad del grupo para emplear autoridad en la toma de decisiones relativas a las funciones de la corporación, y la competición requiere que los grupos de empleados de la compañía rivalicen entre sí de una manera saludable para identificar tecnologías prometedoras y construir innovaciones a su alrededor.

¿Cómo fue que usted empezó?

A diferencia de la química o de la contaduría, la innovación es una disciplina y los “bloques de construcción” pueden aprenderse, construirse, practicarse y manejarlos. Por medio de la práctica repetida la disciplina se construye y eventualmente el ADN cultural de la organización se pone en línea con la innovación exitosa. Pero, hacia el final, no todas las firmas van a tener los 6 principios en su lugar. Podemos, sin embargo, identificar las grietas y llenarlas sin tener que re-inventar la rueda.

El camino para construir las fundaciones o bases de la innovación es antiguo y probado por el tiempo. Y, mientras existen muchos puntos de inicio, una compañía puede empezar el viaje reuniendo a un grupo de gentes cuyo papel será el de servir como “campeones de la innovación”. Ellos ayudarán a la firma a modelar sus valores y a crear el clima. . Mientras el proceso continúa y madura, este grupo crecerá como una comunidad de campeones, guías y entrenadores. A lo largo del camino debemos darle a esta comunidad una visión común y un lenguaje común de innovación; proveerlos de conceptos y herramientas para construir los procesos; entrenar sus comportamientos innovadores; y ayudarles a practicar una experimentación continua. Aunque este viaje puede tomar varios años, la inversión puede rendir beneficios antes de que todas las disciplinas estén plenamente desarrolladas, ya que la comunidad puede de hecho “atrapar unos cuantos peces” mientras apenas está aprendiendo a pescar.

Los principios y conceptos involucrados en la innovación exitosa se pueden implementar en muchos niveles, desde amplios esfuerzos empresariales, bajando hacia las divisiones, los departamentos individuales, o inclusive al nivel de un producto en particular.

El Dr. Jay Rao es profesor de Tecnología, Operaciones y Gerencia de Información en el Babson College. Su investigación y consulta se enfocan en las áreas de innovación, implementación de programas de innovación dentro de las compañías, y experiencias de innovación con la clientela. Ha sido consultor para Benchmark Assisted Living, EMDSerono, FitLinxx, Novartis, Lojack, Fidelity Investments, y Boston Scientific Corporation. Ha dirigido los Programas Babson de Educación Ejecutiva para la Armada de los EE.UU, SABIC, Masco Corp., Fresinius Medical Care, Scottish Enterprise, North Atlantic Capital, Boathouse Advertising, y otras empresas.

Website: http://faculty.babson.edu/jayrao/ ; Blog: http://innovationatwork.wordpress.com/

What is Innovation? Part 3: An Internet look at Innovation at Intel

by Jay Rao and Jim Watkinson

Introduction

In this, our last in the series of three looks at what the internet can tell us about how some well-known companies define and pursue innovation, we’ll take a close look at Intel and the internet-based material and support they provide to foster the development of enhanced solutions for the digital world.

It is rightly said that at the core of innovation is willingness to change and the story of Intel itself would make a good case study, not just in product innovation, but also in continuous organizational change. Starting out as a memory chip maker, the Company later moved on to microprocessors and a regular stream of related product improvements, while also developing the Universal Serial Bus, the Bluetooth wireless application and architecture for multiprocessor servers.

What’s next for Intel? What is its innovation culture like? How will it pursue future innovations? Let’s see what the company has to say.

Intel

In a world built on silicon over the last 30+ years, silicon based chips that is, Intel has grown its business by finding new ways to pack more power with greater efficiency into the tiny digital devices that make many things work today (we began our exploration of Intel at http://www.intel.com/technology/index.htm). It’s no surprise to learn that Intel’s innovation efforts are completely focused on maintaining the constant momentum of Moore’s law (founder Roger Moore’s belief that the number of transistors on a chip would continue doubling every two years) and applying the resulting computing power to more mobile and wider applications. Yet despite all the success derived from silicon, the material has its limits, and in order to maintain its goal of constant momentum, the company made the hard decision to leave its core knowledge in silicon behind and move on to build its next chips, the Penryn, using an oxide based on hafnium. Innovation of course often means turning away from our very successful past and even the change begun with Penryn is now being replaced by other improvements.

Among the companies we looked at, Intel’s approach to innovation certainly had the most solitary focus, exclusively pursuing enhanced computing power to benefit the many uses and processes in which it is employed. But what processes do they use to foster these innovations? Here, Intel seems very much like the other large companies in our sample, with a great deal of energy being applied to generate communication and collaboration across their business ecosystem. We can see a glimpse of this approach through the on-line support they provide to their internal communities, an example of this can be seen at: http://communities.intel.com/index.jspa?iid=subhdr+communities . At this digital community you’ll find an amazing array of support features dedicated to specific regions of the world and different applications, such as mobility, graphics and open sources, as well as wikis for user knowledge sharing, video briefings and many blog communities, including one dedicated to stories from people inside Intel

Here are just a few links to start you off on your Intel innovation discovery process:

Blog on Technology (for the nuts and bolts types out there): http://blogs.intel.com/technology/

Blog on R&D driven innovation: http://blogs.intel.com/research/

Scoops – stories from inside Intel: http://scoop.intel.com/innovation/

For a wide ranging look at the future of processor and digital innovation try: http://www.facebook.com/IntelLabs

Try ChannelIntel for a long list of company prepared videos on the future of digital technology and Intel’s role:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG6DiBzSgKM&feature=channel

Our hats are off to Intel after reviewing the effort and investment they make in on-line support to energize idea creation, discovery and knowledge sharing. Over the last ten weeks we have read through dozens of company’s digital innovation support programs and none comes close to the depth, community involvement, knowledge sharing and company support as that found with Intel.

Underlying all this effort is a culture driven by a very distinct motive and mantra. Although many companies feel the pressure to continuously innovate, none has a timing imperative like Intel. All of their innovation efforts are tied to the concept that their technology must advance on a reliable clock-like and predictable timetable (of course, to meet Moore’s law, right) and all things are measured against this benchmark. None of the other companies in our sample had a specific imperative like this, but Intel goes so far as to describe its innovation method as a process called tick-tock. With tick-tock, the Company runs dual efforts to deliver significantly improved performance in both its process and micro-architecture in alternating years. We can see how this works at:
http://www.intel.com/technology/tick-tock/index.htm?iid=tech_as+rhc_ticktock

Observations on Innovation at Intel

With each of the companies we looked at, and there were many more than just the three noted in our articles, we saw some things we had expected, but also learned some things unexpected. At Intel, while their program to pursue innovation in many ways resembled those of other companies, their values, focus and pace seem quite different. Regardless of where we looked, all of the Company’s materials showed they are driven most strongly by an underlying principle (again, Moore’s law) that approaches spiritual belief at the Company. This belief in a 2 year cycle created an overriding requirement for constant pace in their product innovation work. And although many other companies push to maximize speed in their innovations, none measures itself in a way aimed at staying true to an external principle.

The companies noted in this 3-part series were just a small sample of those we reviewed and readers interested in learning more about the way some innovative companies find ideas and turn them into new solutions can continue the journey we started here by looking more closely at the companies and links below.

Nokia
This company is constantly reaching out to its stakeholders to generate new ideas for innovations and toward that end it has many sites to serve that community. Start your journey among these links:
http://www.nokia.com/technology/upcoming-innovations .
http://research.nokia.com/innovationcenter/index.html
http://conversations.nokia.com/tag/innovation/
http://ideasproject.com/index.webui .

Qualcomm
For a technology company, you’ll find a good deal of information about what it sees for the future and how it pursues innovation. Start your discoveries about this company here:
http://www.qualcomm.com/innovation/stories/
http://www.qualcomm.com/innovation/stories/corporate_culture.html

Siemens
Many non-US technology companies tend to avoid talking about themselves, but you may be surprised by the amount of information that Siemens provides. Start exploring innovation at Siemens by looking at:
http://w1.siemens.com/innovation/en/publications/index.htm

A book on innovators at Siemens: http://w1.siemens.com/innovation/en/publications/booktip.htm

HP
HP did not give us any real information that would indicate its innovation views and internal culture. But for a view of the innovations they have in their pipeline go to: http://www.hp.com/idealab/us/en/index.html

GE
Here is a giant in the world of innovation going back about 100 years. Because of its size there is no real way to learn or discuss innovation at GE in any single article, book or set of conversations. But it is a very innovative company and some of the things they are working on now will surely change the world around us. For a summary look at the many areas they are working in go to: http://www.ge.com/innovation/index.html .
To reach more deeply into the thinking and internal discussions around their innovation topics, go to the GE research blog at: http://www.grcblog.com/

WL Gore
This Company offers one of our favorite approaches to innovation, having taken a simple, but effective fabric knowledge (think Gore-tex) and turned it into many effective applications across a wide range of uses and industries. They don’t provide much information about their innovation process (more on this later), but their many applications are nonetheless a fascinating example of innovating beyond one original core idea. Have a look at http://www.gore.com/en_xx/

Bose
Similar to WL Gore, Bose has taken a core knowledge in the field of sound and extended it to new applications and on to new product ideas. They also provide only a small look at their views and approach to innovation, but the ideas are tantalizing to innovation addicts like us. Have a look at http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/learning/index.jsp

Concluding Thoughts

Following the steps of most good innovators, we looked back at our work here to see what we’ve learned and if you’ve ever worked in a large organization, you won’t be surprised to hear that we all agreed it is very hard to understand innovation in a large, diverse company. Even where the overall goals and methods are the same, the focus, approach and outcomes can be very different across individual business units.

It’s also always interesting to discuss not just what we saw, but also the possible meaning of things we didn’t see. Toward that end, we have observed that many of the most innovative companies don’t really approach innovation as a distinct function at all. The whole idea of turning ideas into new solutions and experiences for others is so much a part of their natural values that they don’t see it as a discrete process. For that reason they often don’t have formal roles and procedures for innovation.

You know these companies as soon as you walk in; their people are constantly talking about ideas with excitement in their tone, they hurry after each other in the corridor, they skip the fancy lunches so they can use their latest idea to help someone other than themselves succeed. It’s the idea and the good it can do that is the driver, not the money, nor one’s title. Who are these companies? Some of the names you may know: Pixar, Amazon, and WL Gore to mention a few, but there are many more and we’ll talk more about these in the future. For these people and their companies innovation is not a crafted process, it was part of who they were at the beginning and is who they are as individuals.

All this begs the question: if these companies started out innovative and now have it deeply embedded, how can I begin to move my company to become organically innovative? The answer is all in your organizational culture and we’ll be exploring this idea in depth in an upcoming book and over the coming year.

Coming up for fall 2009 at Innovation at Work

What is blogging if you’re not talking about what’s on your mind?

There are many things we are working on and a great deal we’re planning to talk about over the coming months. Here’s a brief look at what we have coming up.

Upcoming Interviews

As part of our ongoing work to bring the real process of successful innovation to life for our readers we are working to develop a regular series of interviews with innovation leaders from many types of organizations. Instead of the often seen CEO style interview, where questions and answers focus on very general issues, we try to speak with people that have had hands-on experience with the real problems faced in creating innovative products and services, making discoveries, and building environments where innovation can flourish.

For the fall season we’re working to develop potential interviews with leaders at Intuit, Pixar and IBM, as well as innovative non-business organizations. It’s always hard to predict if and when an interview will be agreed to, so we can’t be sure when we may have an article available. But as things develop, we’ll send a news release to all our RSS subscribers letting you know who we’ll be interviewing and when we expect to release the resulting article.

Exploring the Keys to Innovation

From our many years of studying, working with and speaking to great innovators, we have drawn a number of conclusions about the practices and environments that contribute to successful innovation. We’ve been working to distill these principles into a number of core concepts that we’ll be writing about throughout the coming year. Some of the concepts we’ll be touching upon include:

a. Understanding how innovation happens

b. Learning how innovation fits into a life cycle with each stage fostering different types of innovation

c. Reviewing the practice and principles of innovation

i. Innovation is a discipline, not an art and not a science

ii. Like the practice of Management and Quality, it comes about because of practice and practice leads to discipline

iii. All disciplines have principles (in science you have rules and laws)

d. The six Principles of Innovation that lead to the Culture of Innovation are: Environment, Values, Resources, Processes, Behaviors and Success

There are new innovations in the world every hour of every day and we’re also always on the lookout for organizations that have recently been successful with new ideas, discoveries, products, services or processes. Examining these success stories allows us to understand innovation in the context of today’s economy and business conditions. We have several organizations we’re looking at and plan to have several new articles and cases for you this fall, including one we’re working on now that examines the innovation success at WL Gore.

Lastly, if it’s true that you are what you read, then it might be interesting to occasionally share a list of the books we’ve recently enjoyed and found valuable.