The last chapter of new content was how to cultivate an innovative culture though philosophies. The key concept here was ensuing it was ingrained into the fabric of the organization - and to do so one must start at the top. By having a CEO who is very innovative, they will surround them selves with like minded people and this trend will hopefully play out to all levels of the organization. To ensure this happens there were some best practices.
The first was underscoring that Innovation doesn't stop at R&D, that all areas of an organization must innovate. That R&D can often have narrow focus, and that perspective from a diverse set of people from the entire company can provide much more insight into problems which can and should be solved. However getting people to recommend innovative ideas can be very difficult, so to ensure this philosophy is followed, safe environment and time must be allocated where ideas can be shared and built upon.
The second is that disruptive innovation must be considered. This may involve entering different market spaced then the organization typically plays in, a la Apple with the iPod/iPhone etc. In most companies the majority of time is actually spend on derivative improvements on existing products, and although important, this will not lead to sustained competitive advantage like disruptive innovation can.
Thirdly, innovation needs to be organized, and it should be organized in small complementary teams. The consensus is that large teams prompt delivery skills, not discovery skills. Amazon suggests that all teams must be fed dinner with two large pizzas. Along with the organization, teams must be giving the autonomy to explore and experiment with ideas to understand what works, and what doesn't. The faster a team can determine if something doesn't work, the faster they can move on to find something that does.
Lastly "smart" risk taking should be encouraged. Failure must not be feared, it should be embraced. By learning how to quickly use discovery skills to find and qualify ideas, a team can learn to better judge risks upfront and thus take smarter more calculated risks to offset the less risky derivative work which makes up the majority of the time and effort in an organization.
There have been a lot of takeaways in this book. I think I've learned that I probably do not want to start my own business, at least not at the moment. I do think I'd be good at helping an existing organization innovate, and perhaps help develop new disruptive ideas at some point in the future. In the mean time there are actions I should do to help develop my discovery skills. I should really start my own book of ideas to take quick notes and sketches down of my ideas. I think I need to continue to read and research about broad areas of science and technology to develop a good "T" shape in my knowledge expertise. I should really improve my networking skills and start attending more innovative type meetings and conferences.
Applying this to our project is difficult, as we would not actually be creating an organization as part of the project. But as with any start-up if we were to create this business of custom 3d printed toys, we would need a very small, dedicated team with specific skills and broad knowledge to come together and converge their expertise into a very new, potentially disruptive technology and market.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog over the past few weeks. The Innovator's DNA has been a very good read, and I'd recommend it to anybody who is curious about the innovation concept and curious how they would fit into it.
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