Tom Peters gave a speech in Brazil on Innovation. He was his usual super-smart, hyperventilating guy, who still produces some of the most outstanding work but the crappiest of slides. I will try to add my commentary to some of his points he raised during his talk.
XFX/Cross-functional excellence
physical, lunch,
project structure, transparency, “emergent
leadership,” “facebook,” etc
Prototype mania
“action bias,” “serious play,” “most
tries wins,” “execution is strategy”
Portfolio management
Score every project
Celebrate failures
“most mistakes wins,”
“Fail. Forward. Fast.”, mining pissed off customers
Decentralization
“attitude,” budgetary control/30%
to 80%, accountability, “spontaneous discovery
process”
Centralization
once in a blue moon—“culture
change”/HP-Fiorina; “Centers of Excellence”-GSK
Targeted-small acquisitions
need a strong retention
process
Alternate structures
“Skunkworks,” 1% “play
money,” “parallel universe,” internal “venture funds,”
partnership with lead vendors-customers,
“adhocracy” in general
Weed the portfolio
Wave “bye-bye” to old friends,
mastering “organizational forgetting”
Acknowledge-revel in the mess
logic behind “try it”
culture, champion inefficiency
Fight for simplicity, war on complexity
Drucker: “90%
of what we call ‘management, consists …”
“We are what we eat”/ “hang out factor”
lead
customers, vendors, board, consultants, diversity
per se, mentor “freaks,” “crowdsourcing”—carefully
managed!
R&D equal all functions
e.g. systems innovation = new
product innovation
100% innovators
“What do you think?”, “culture” of
respect, HR’s lead role
Practice “nudgery”
bigger cart, +50% purchases
“Gandhi’s rule”
“You must be the change you wish to
see in the world,” “timid begets timid”
Diverse “team at the top”!
“Enthusiasm ‘machine’”
“I am a dispenser of
enthusiasm,” extreme language-“insanely great”
Passion for “cool”
“design mindfulness”
MBWA
Managing By Wandering Around—in touch with
the “coal face”
Women
“the market,” not a “market segment;”
micro-lending/Yunus-Cemex
“Boring” as well as/more than “sexy”
Jim’s Group,
Basement Systems Inc
Big stinks/SMEs rule
Mittelstand, Foster’s stats: 0 for 1,000
Infrastructure
eg, research universities, venture
capital, national initiatives such as Korea and design,
primary education
November 1st, 2009 in
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innovation |
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When it comes to innovation, Harrah’s Entertainment doesn’t play games. The operator of a global chain of 50 casinos is pursuing a theme-focused innovation strategy similar to technology giant Hewlett-Packard and venture capital firm The Foundry Group. The company identified six areas of interest (akin to HP’s 8 themes and Foundry’s 5 themes – see Innovation Investment Strategy). Harrah’s target areas are: enabling technologies (such as wireless and radio frequency identification); enabling platforms (cloud computing, service-oriented architecture, anything-as-a-service); “smart” service (self-service kiosks); interactive CRM; next-generation gaming; and expanded channels to reach customers.
An innovation team of about 10 people from IT, marketing, customer service and gaming evaluate idea submissions from employees. Harrah’s also taps the innovations of vendors and is considering enlisting the public in seeking new innovations in gaming and entertainment. To gather even more feedback, Harrah’s created an “Innovation Portal” where employees can vote for their favorite innovation. Top management (CEO Gary Loveman and VP of Innovation Chris Chang) then decides which ideas ultimately get funded.
Identify the areas of top priority to your firm, to help steer energy & momentum in the areas that will provide most value to your firm.
Use themes to look for the deeper, long-term enablers and platforms rather than shallow short-term gadgets and projects.
Ask employees for suggestions, feedback or votes on ideas within these areas
Consider involving vendors, customers and the public as well, to expand the pool of ideas. (This strategy will require thinking through the IP issues.)
For more information on Harrah’s: Network Computing article
October 14th, 2009 in
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April 12th, 2009 in
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test |
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