What We Did: We
often wonder: how do big companies build the code for innovation? It seems like
a difficult task when there are so many people at one company. Sometimes just
the process of experimenting is most important. Companies like Amazon support
constant experimentation and beg to ask the question, “why not?” For example,
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos employs a “two pizza team” rule, meaning each design team
should be small enough to be adequately fed by 2 pizzas. This allows each
employee to feel empowered and responsible for innovating. Not everybody can be
good at both discovery AND delivery, which is why innovation occurs best in a
team.
Dr. Wellman emphasized the importance of design teams in the
workplace. People don’t feel personally responsible for innovations; they only
feel responsible for “facilitating the process.” Companies need to generate
ideas as well as execute them, and not everyone can be able to do both. Hence
why innovation is best in a team.
The “innovation framework” is the 3P framework, which stands
for people, processes, and philosophies. Every factor relies on each other. Innovation
directly depends on the people who work at a company. If top executives want
innovation they need to first look at themselves. They need to improve
discovery skills, understand how innovation works, and sharpen their ability to
foster others’ imagination. High discovery-quotient people should be in every
stage of the innovation process. According to the 3P framework, processes
explicitly encourage employees to associate, question, observe, network and
experiment. They are also designed to hire, train, reward, and promote discover
driven people. There are four philosophies of innovation; innovation is
everyone’s job, not just R&D; disruption is part of our innovation
portfolio; deploy small, properly organized innovation project teams; take
smart risks in pursuit of innovation.
A
major successful business is Virgin Group, founded by Richard Branson, who is a
very unique and influential leader. The company focuses on transportation,
aviation, telecommunications, financial services, leisure and hospitality, and
music to name just a few. The purpose of Virgin is to question “business as
usual.” Branson’s philosophy is to have Virgin be an irresistible brand that
shakes things up and delivers service and experience that redefines the market.
Branson gives helpful insights about creating a brand and the process of his
innovation.
- Pick on a big guy
- Be a nonconformist
- Negotiate everything
- Have fun
- Baby your brand
- There's no such thing as bad publicity
- Small companies create big success
· Another example we looked at in class was IDEO. Their
philosophy is seeing failure as impossible to avoid and a natural part of the
innovation process. They focus on creating products that reach the “sweet spot”
in between desirability, viability, and feasibility. They feel that the best
ideas come from fun places. Another philosophy is not having an executive
pyramid. When there’s a scary boss in charge, employees won’t get half as much
done. The boss won’t always have the best ideas, which is why a flat team of
equal individuals gives IDEO the most success. They believe innovation teams
should have complimentary discovery and delivery skills. The teams should be
multidisciplinary, meaning comprised of individuals with deep expertise in
different disciplines. This allows teams to get a better look at a problem from
different angles. IDEO believes in creating diverse teams of people who are
“T-shaped,” or deep in one area of expertise with shallow expertise in multiple
other areas of knowledge.
Key Takeaways and
Future Applications: I think that learning the 3P innovation model is
extremely important for my future because it helps me understand that it’s okay
if I am weak in a certain area of knowledge. Nobody is expected to know
everything about everything and it’s refreshing to hear that knowledge is best
when shared. I definitely agree that it’s best to know a lot about a little
rather than a little about a lot. Apple also shares these views. I applied the
3P framework to Apple and gained a lot of insight for my own personal benefit
that I could relate to. The lecture today put into perspective how important a
company’s people, processes and philosophies are to their innovation.
People: The first
person that comes to mind when one thinks of Apple is, obviously, Steve Jobs. As
a perfectionist, Jobs had a very high standard of excellence that others have
difficulty imitating. This is the reason why Apple products have transformed
the user experience tenfold. Jobs used design to create products that “surprise
and delight” users. His vision was joining performance, function, and beauty
through design. The Apple period without Jobs (1985-1998) saw innovation
premium drop to -30% because the company was lacking Jobs’ discovery-driven
capacity. Thus, Apple stopped innovating and investors lost confidence in its
ability to grow. From the unique people at Apple, Steve Jobs in particular, the
main thing I took away was that it is adamant to have passion for your company.
When new management took over Apple, the company failed because it didn’t have
the same emotion behind it. It’s clear to me that a company’s success shouldn’t
have to rely on R&D. It’s not about the money, it’s about the people you
have and how you’re led.
Processes: Apple is successful because
they mix technology and liberal arts. Employees are from all different walks of
life with complimentary discovery and delivery skills, but also different
expertise and diversity. For example, the Macintosh was so successful because
the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, historians, etc.
Another process that Apple is known for is the element of secrecy. When other
companies strive for transparency, Apple tries to keep everything under wraps.
Employees are not encouraged to broaden their scope. Instead, they’re assigned
to narrow bands of responsibility where they follow orders and nothing more.
All new employees go to a training session where their jobs are threatened should
they disclose any secret information. I now see the importance of a company’s
processes in order to have success. It is essential to do things differently
from others so that you stand out from the rest.
Philosophy: The
central philosophy of Apple is “think different.” Instead of buying competing
companies and expanding its product line, Apple focuses on doing only a few
things extraordinarily well. When Jobs became CEO again in 1999, he reduced the
number of products to only a few. This way, those few that remained would be
the absolute best. Apple had a major focus on simplicity: making life easier by
taking away what we don’t need. This is a valuable lesson that I can apply to
my future endeavors. I shouldn’t spread myself too thin by trying to get involved
in everything. There are so many opportunities and clubs in college that it can
become overwhelming. The Apple philosophy teaches me that if I don’t need to be
amazing at everything. If I focus on a few things to really excel at, I can
fill the remaining gaps by networking and associating with other people.
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