Manage Innovation From Your Value Fulcrum

A recent article appearing in Accenture’s “Outlook” series (Outlook How to Capture the Essence of Innovation:) suggests Innovation Management should be directed by the organization responsible for the learning and knowledge management function through an “innovation network”. This network is meant to connect the nodes of knowledge in the organization leading to collaborative insight and ideation.

At Launch, we are strong believers in collaborative innovation structures and the use of core institutional knowledge as a basis for development of insights and ideas, but we feel it is critical that ownership of the Innovation Process and organization be at the fulcrum of value creation in the company, the company’s chosen “Value Discipline”.

We use the model created a decade ago by Michael eacand Fred Wiersema in their book The Discipline of Market Leaders. In this work a model identifying three potential Value Disciplines (Operational Excellence, Product Leadership and Customer Intimacy) are described. eac and Wiersema’s key message is that a company chooses one “Value Discipline” as its key focus for differentiation while maintaining market competitiveness in the other two.

In our work we identify the chosen differentiating Value Discipline of our clients and then determine the optimum means of managing innovation including where in the organization accountability of innovation should reside; in an Operational Excellence company it should be managed in the area most responsible for efficient operations (manufacturing center, distribution center, etc.) and headed by the Chief Operating Officer, in a Product Leadership company it should be managed at the point of New Product/Service Development and should be lead by potentially the Chief Technology Officer or her equivalent, and in a Customer Intimate organization innovation management should reside where the focus is on the customer experience and their needs and should be lead by the Chief Marketing Officer or similar role.

It is critical that innovation be managed from the right place in the organization to ensure this work has credibility, timeliness and the proper knowledge and resources applied. If it not managed from the right place, political tug-of-wars occur, resources are ill-spent and differentiating ideas make it to the market too late if at all.