Key challenges to keep INNOVATIVE CULTURE alive

There are many factors that differentiate one company from the other but "Culture" is an integral part of the comparison. e.g. Google which is famous for it's culture where they allow employees to work on their own idea for an entire day in a week.3M, the company most famous for it's Post-It's again falls in the list of innovative companies.

As stated in Business Week

3M (MMM ) has long awarded "Genesis Grants" to scientists who want to work on outside projects. Each year more than 60 researchers submit formal applications to a panel of 20 senior scientists who review the requests, just as a foundation would review academics' proposals. Twelve to 20 grants, ranging from $50,000 and $100,000 apiece, are awarded each year. The researchers can use the money to hire supplemental staff or acquire necessary equipment.

Take the case of ThoughtWorks , which has a good policy to retain people - Allow people to work on their venture as long as our business / deliverables is not affected.A good way to keep the best brains intact in the company

When we think of a startup, the first thing that comes to our mind is Innovation [except in few cases like social networking websites].But as the staff strength/business increases, many times we see the innovative culture dying down and hence, every company is not considered innovative, though it might be profitable !!!

I was recommended a book Entrepreneur's Toolkit by a friend of mine who is in a startup .The book has a chapter that outlined the "Three key challenges to keep the innovative culture alive", which are mentioned below:

1. SIZE problem :
Size requires specialization of functions, creates communication & coordination problems between functions, and requires review boards & approval requirements; which may frustrate creative people and dampen their creativity.Small problems take more time to get solved due to lengthy discussions.The more people who are involved, the longer it takes to reach agreement on simplest things.And agreements are more likely to be compromises than optimal solutions.

2. EXISTING CUSTOMERS problem :
Customer is God for any business but diligent serving of existing customers has two innovation-impeding consequences :

a. Existing customers often discourage innovation by their vendors.For example: A major technical advance in computing can jeopardize the investments customers have made in existing software, hardware and training.Hence, these customers urge vendors to continue supplying them with parts and upgrades in order to stay in their old business.Eventually, the invention of the breakthrough products is left to the rivals Many times, these customers will abandon their vendors and switch their business to the innovative rivals.

b. Management shifts it's focus to operations.The job of serving customers profitably requires operational excellence.As the business grows, the management's attention is absorbed by people issues, marketing, finance etc. Hence, Innovation may be last thing in their minds.

3. COMPLACENCY :
Success that propels growth creates an impulse of complacency and self-satisfaction.It may trick people to believe that if they simply continue doing what they are doing, all will be fine.When faced with a new competing technology,for example, the impulse of many successful companies is to invest still further in the technology that made them successful.Consequently, these companies marginally improve their existing technologies as new ones were becoming much better and cheaper day after day !!!

Though startups don't face these problems, a bigger problem is to keep the ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT alive.As we know, not every member of a startup is an Entrepreneur and there are various driving factors to keep the spirit alive.We would discuss them in the next article.

Let's recruit , the INNOVATIVE way ...

How many times do you come across an advertisement "Wanted Software Engineers Experience: 2+ Skills : C, C++, RTOS etc etc." Opportunities always look good and we jump to say "Yeah this is the company and suddenly out of nowhere , that company becomes your DREAM company".

But times are slowly changing and the way in which companies place Job Advertisements is also changing[though slowly and steadily]. Currently, there are many options for a suitable candidate to change a job and companies need an "ADDITIONAL TOUCH" in their Advertisements to lure the right person to join the organization

Try a Google search on Why should I work in a startup , after browsing through a couple of the crawled websites, I came across an interesting presentation titled : Why should you quit your job for a startup.The contents of the presentation touched upon all the aspects of a startup : Funding, Team Work, Learning , Salary[in a Venture backed startup] etc etc. but the end[Slides#7 and 8] was quite dramatic, "The presentation was an advertisement for a startup Cobaan and the benefits of working in Cobaan"

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Now let us move from India to the west, where you find the ultimate source of innovative job advertisement.Netflix , the online DVD Rental company in the US[and one of Guy Kawasaki's hot favourite] has an interesting list of benefits(if you work in Netflix). The advertisement is not like a recruitment page but it is written in such a way that makes the reader to JOIN Netflix that very moment The advertisement also touches on the dominance of Netflix in the online DVD rental business!!! Below are the top 8 reasons[listed on the site] to work in Netflix.

After reading them, you would feel that Netflix is the ONLY company you could ever work for !!!

1. Netflix delights people
2. We're democratizing movie distribution
3. Values Matter
4. Rules annoy us
5. We pay well
6. Consistently outstanding people
7. We love movies
8. We're creating an amazing future

Click on the image below to read the complete description:

Hey wait, but I could not see what are the Technical requirements for Netflix These are small examples of how companies have started to realize that sometimes you need more than a normal advertisement to lure the job seeker.

Times are sure changing and companies need to be innovative in every angle to send a message to the job-seeker - IF YOU ARE NOT WORKING HERE, YOU ARE TRULY MISSING SOMETHING !!!

Netflix inputs : BusinessWeek

Innovation : Myths and Facts

How many times in a day , do you listen to the words "No,it won't or No,you cannot" Yes , be it anywhere but this is one of the most simplest things to tell anyone and the most surprising part is that "Most of them who say a No, themselves don't know why they are saying a NO"

For instance,when I shared my blog with a couple of known people, I was given a comment "Your blog is very much like an ....... blog" and this could/can be true since, there being around 70 million blogs all over, there is a high level of possibility that Blog 'A' could be somewhat similar to Blog 'B' (in terms of style , not content).This brings some level of dejection but is also a learning for all the guys who want to go an extra mile Similar is the case when you have an idea and try to seek the first level of feedback, there could be mostly one of the reactions, listed below(from the book 'Myths of Innovation') :

• This well never work.
• No one will want this.
• It can't work in practice.
• People won't understand it.
• This isn't a problem.
• This is a problem, but no one cares.
• This is a problem and people care, but it's already solved.
• This is a problem, and people care, but it will never make money.
• This is a solution in search of a problem.
• Get out of my office/cave now.

As stated in "The Myths of Innovation" , it is not only ordinary people who give vague comments ; Sometimes very smart people say these things. Ken Olsen, founder of the Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." The leading art critics in France, in response to the opening of the Eiffel Tower, made comments like, "That tragic lamppost springing up from its bowels…is like a beacon of disaster and despair."

Innovator and Spectator Gap:
The gap—the difference between how an innovator sees his work from how it's seen by others—is the most frustrating challenge innovators face. Creators expect to be well received. They look at accepted innovations and the heroes who delivered them and assume their new innovations will be treated the same way.

Notice, there is a 180% difference of view between the innovator(ideator) and the viewer(listener of the idea).

Bottom Line:
Sometimes from the negative feedback, you may germinate another idea !!! but no matter how brilliant an idea is, the gap exists. Until the innovation is accepted, it will be questioned relentlessly

Un-Managing Innovation !!!

Many times when we think/speak about Innovation, we only think of a great idea(which would be the solution to an existing problem) and the thought process that goes behind in implementing the innovation.

But you can be innovative or think innovatively, only when the atmosphere is innovative or people promote innovation.The other factors that could foster innovation are : Good team work, management that itself thinks laterally and innovatively, office that in itself is innovative......

This reminds me of the Thoughtworks office in Bangalore which was the venue for the BarCamp Bangalore 2.0 and the open office environment(ie no cubicles) itself suggested "Innovation"

In fact while googling for the same,I came across an excellent presentation which touches each and every corner of Innovation !!!

My personal favourites from the presentation are :

1. Myths of innovation : Slides 13-19
2. Composition of an innovative team : Creator , Catalyst and Champion (Slide 25)
3. Killers of Innovation : Slide 28 (Best and highly realistic)
4. Creative work environments : We need more of these!!! (Slides 43 - 48)
5. Myths of motivation : Slides 54 - 56
6. Promoting Instrinsic motivation : Refer the following and Slide 60
   

iGate : An Interesting (and Innovative) story

In India; TCS,Wipro,Infosys and other IT services companies have become household names.IT services companies have a simple rule of thumb:"They charge their clients based on Hourly basis of the employees that are in a team.This also includes the team members who are on bench ie they are a part of the project but unfortunately they are left with no work So with this saturated model being followed by all the IT services companies in India,time had come for some innovative model ie question the existing model and innovate to define a new one.This innovation came from IGate CEO Phaneesh Murthy......Keep on reading rest of the story(Note:Inputs taken from "How Innovators Connect" by Rohit Agarwal)

Phaneesh Murthy left Infosys in 2002 to start Quintant(which was later acquired by IGate).Murthy always knew in order to succeed,he should differentiate his company from the other players in the services industry.During his stint at Infosys,he had noticed the following problems in the business:

1. Service providers get paid regardless of whether they succeeded with a project
2. Service provider employees are usually very young and hence customers have to pay for their training
3. Service providers had no stake in a project's completion and hence,they benefited even if the project deadline has missed
4. Service providers talked about YOY increase in cost and salaries,while customers talked about YOY reductions of cost.

Now with so many weaknesses in the existing model of IT services industry,Murthy decided to be different from the crowd by implementing the following strategy.

Rather than asking his international clientele to pay for effort or input,customers would pay for value or output.

But when you try something innovative,initial hiccups are bound to happen,same was the case with Murthy as well.Below is a short glimpse of how Murthy convinced his initial clients to prove his point:

It is not wise to compare in Dollars per hour.But when the output is compared,definitely IGate is more competitive due to its strength of experienced employees.His point was that many IT services companies hire young employees so companies can mark up their hourly rates to make profit,on the other hand,IGate hired employees with more experience,who are more productive.

There were six companies who were competing for the bid but in the end,IGate won the bid and the reason was quite evident-"None of the companies who were competing for the bid were able to quote on price per transaction"

This was just a small example of Innovation born out of existing problems.There might be many such examples of innovation born when long standing flaws have been tolerated but only few like Phaneesh Murthy try to question them and than correct them(to get an upper hand over the competitors)

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