Marketing

Abstract

When it comes to successful product and service innovation, the marketing team might have done a good job in developing a winning proposition, but unless they pay as much attention to organizational innovation to enable delivery, they may not get it off the ground. Organizations exhibit two distinct behavioral cycles. The first is “business as usual”—a continuous improvement cycle focused on today’s performance. The second is the innovation cycle—focused on externally scanning the horizon for future value opportunities. Organization leaders know they need to perform and innovate but tend to be preoccupied with the former. Power and resource gravitate toward the performance cycle, making innovation sometimes an optional extra. Given the obvious importance of both, how should leadership teams ensure both cycles run smoothly and integrate? Management thinkers talk of “performance engines” and “disruption engines,” requiring very different skills, governance, and resources. The inherent friction between the two “engines” stalls many innovations. Lubrication is clearly required. Yet, they are not engines at all; they are teams of people working together to do their best. For successful “innovation inside,” we believe leadership needs to adopt a more human-centric approach, actively managing the ‘evolution cycle’ between performance and innovation