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Operating versus
Innovating
|
|
Operating |
Innovating |
|
Creating today's
revenue |
Creating tomorrow's
revenue |
|
Steps are pre-defined |
Steps are undefined |
|
Steps are mostly linear |
Steps are mostly
non-linear |
|
Single route and result |
Multiple routes and
results |
|
Driven by functional
teams |
Driven by
cross-functional
teams |
|
Reworking is waste |
Reworking is part of
learning |
|
Clear, shared goals |
Unclear, often
conflicting goals |
|
Clear front end |
Fuzzy front end |
|
Easy to measure |
Tough to measure |
|
Rich historical data |
Poor historical data |
|
Forecasting possible |
Forecasting almost
impossible |
|
Short cycle time |
Long cycle time |
|
Many common causes |
Many special causes |
|
Traditional players &
roles |
New players & roles |
|
Doing things right |
Doing right things |
|
|
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Inspirational Business Plan:
Successful Innovation
Market Analysis:
"Managing and
innovation did not always fit
comfortably together. That's not surprising.
Managers are people who like order.
They like forecasts to come out as planned. In fact, managers are often judged
on how much order they produce. Innovation, on the other hand, is often
a
disorderly process. Many times, perhaps most times, innovation does not turn out
as planned. As a result, there is tension between
managers and
innovation."
–
Lewis Lehro..
Innovation Management Team:
"Mangers succeed by
following the rules.
Innovators succeed by
breaking the rules."...
More
Primary Difference between Innovation and
Operations
Innovation is a
learning process, the product of which is new applied knowledge. Operations
is an established process driven by existing knowledge. Operations generate
today's value, while innovation creates tomorrow's opportunities. The
primary difference between operations and innovation is uncertainty. It
eludes planning, prediction and containment.
"What makes innovation unique as a business
process is that
creativity and routine are intertwined throughout the
process". The routine tasks have little value by themselves however;
their purpose is to support the knowledge discovery process.
Operating is about discipline.
Innovation is about Love.
Yin-Yang of Value Innovation
Different Management Tools and Thinking
Managing innovation requires specific
approaches. "If you try to manage the uncertainty inherent in innovation
with tools and thinking designed for the relative certainty of operations,
you'll run into trouble... You'll be continuously surprised as your
assumptions prove false".
The most effective way to deal with uncertainty
inherent in innovation is to have a learning process that "systematically
confronts the unknown with new hypotheses, tests them, and eventually
creates a new knowledge".
When innovating, you cannot figure it all out and ahead of time and stick to one
plan; so, don't wait - just go for it, learn
and adjust as you go. That's why "successful innovators get used to moving
forward, backing up, going sidewise, chasing parallel paths for a while,
consolidating, and then going forward again".
Different Strategies and
Routes to Success
When managing daily operations, you know:
Kaizen
Mindset
Managing innovation is quite different from
managing operations as:
-
you always have less information available to
make choices than you'd like
-
innovation has not a single goal, but multiple
and unclear goals, and
-
each of these goals can be reached through
multiple routes.
3 Strategies of Market Leaders
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