Innovating in a large organization is a topic that hits home (literal) for me. As a Business Development Manager I spend much of day trying to innovate our sales process by identifying new markets to attack with technological advancement. I also chose Vijay Govindarajan for my 10-10 innovator presentation. VG is a Professor of International Business at the Tuck School at Dartmouth. VG is an expert on strategy and innovation. He shares the opinion of Mr. Wessel that large organization have large hurdles to overcome in order to innovate at all. However, it is neither my professional experience nor my current studies in ETR500 that made this topic hit home.
I rushed home on Friday night to have dinner with my family after a long drive back from a conference in NYC. My one year daughter is screeching with happiness as she throws her dinner on the floor for the dogs to feast on. My seven year old son is loudly insisting on playing with his friends all weekend. I quick peak at the family calendar uncovers a busy weekend; pumpkin carving with my sister, dinner with friends, CCD for my son, church for the family, hours of yard work, and dinner with the in-laws was the weekend agenda. Of course I must find some time to fit in school work as well. I quickly realize what Wessel and Govindaraja are referring to when they say big companies cannot innovate.
As a graduate student in the school of business at WPI I am trying to innovate myself. As CEO of my family I can relate to the difficulties of innovation of big companies. There is no doubt that the advice of Wessel and Govindaraja would help me to better innovate. I need to somehow create an autonomous version of myself in order to properly innovate. Unfortunately, I have tried this method and I find that my wife does not accept such a solution. My presence is too valuable at home to focus solely on innovation. Unfortunately I find that such autonomy is the only solution to properly innovate and earn my MBA. The rules of everyday life do not properly enable me to innovate myself via the MBA.
However, much like a good corporation, some hard work and creative norm breaking will have to get me through the process.
Mike, I like the comparison you make of running your life as if it were a business- both in terms of time and money, individuals have a finite quantity of resources which they must allocate to meet all sorts of obligations; firms both big and small have the same problem. As you pointed out, the problems large firms face is the number of 'obligations' which require expenditure of resources is much greater than it is in smaller firms.
ReplyDeleteI am in many ways the opposite of you; I am 26, I have no children and no partner, a 15 minute commute and no real financial commitments outside of making rent. Therefore, I am much better able to expend my resources on things which can be considered 'innovative,' such as school, reading, and the like.
Mike, your life/family analogy highlights the need for resources to innovate. In order to execute all of the things on your weekend calendar you need to be highly efficient, with little room or time to try new things, experiment with the way you do your yard work, etc. This need to have established procedures, level or approvals (Wife) and numerous activities to complete leaves time to innovate. Stephan on the other hand, most likely has time to try new ways of getting his chores done, experiment with his schedule, etc. The two situations may have the same intention in mind, but only the one with the ability to truly experiment will be able to innovate.
ReplyDeleteAs an individual, who can only focus on one thing at a time (multitasking is a fallacy), unlike an organization that is made up of many individuals who can be divided/segmented and directed to focus on many different challenges simultaneously, you must break up available time into workable components. What do you have flexibility with? What must be done on the weekend? What can be done during the week or delayed? These are limitations that can be overcome. As a family man, I also must fit my school obligations into both my work and family schedule. I must set the boundaries for when I will focus on school work and for me that time must be uninterrupted. I must plan ahead and work with my wife to set a workable schedule that must be respected. I must also factor in the possibility that things will occur to blow my schedule out of the water and have a backup plan to get the "must do"s accomplished by the professor's deadlines. What are you willing to give up that is important to you in order to innovate? ie. The Sunday football game?
ReplyDelete