What is Strategy?
Strategy is about the future, and developing strategy is the process of thinking about the future, predicting it, making decisions about it, and taking action to create profitable future. Since innovations are critical to the future, it’s clear that the management of innovation is entirely strategic in nature.
The classical model of strategy development begins with an assessment of the future, a set of predictions about what’s going to happen, followed by the development of initiatives that align with that future to assure survival and growth of the organization. Future is entirely risky and it makes much more sense to prepare for a multitude of possible futures by developing a strategic portfolio of initiatives and innovations.
Innovation Strategy
The astute innovation strategy defines a range of initiatives that could become important under many different future states; in other words, a portfolio. The elements of such a portfolio - products, services, processes and organizational approaches, etc. - will be applicable in a variety of different
future conditions, and as events unfold some will prove to be invaluable while others will be irrelevant, remaining forever on the shelf. With many projects under way at the same time, the typical, large R&D group is naturally managing a portfolio, the strategic decision is about its composition. The idea that the portfolio must be closely linked to the organization’s strategy, however, is a surprisingly recent one, and has been labeled as the third generation practice in the long history of professional R&D.
The first generation, starting at the very beginnings of systematic R&D in the early decades of industrialism through the mid-1800s, was largely a randomized process of exploring basic science in the hunt for commercial opportunities. Thomas Edison had a more focused approach and it was the prototype for the highly systematized process that was then perfected during World Wars I and II, mission-driven R&D.
Third generation methodology focuses on R&D portfolio management as a key element of organizational strategy, and it is recognized as a standard practice in the world of R&D management. It’s described in the “Third Generation R&D,” published in 1991, and includes a number of very sophisticated portfolio analysis techniques.
A fourth generation practice of R&D management has also been defined, which expands the scope of the third generation approach with a much greater focus on specific processes for creating breakthrough innovations.
Stages of Innovation Methodology
Every idea is born in its own distinctive moment of inspiration. Many are immediately discarded, while some go through further development pathways.
Effective innovation methodology shapes the pathways by which individual ideas will be developed, and just as important, it’s a broader process which improves the odds that good and great ideas actually do arrive with regularity and that they are developed to their full potential.
Methodology must have means of systematically filtering multitudes of new ideas, applying processes for turning the best ones into candidates for innovations, and using tools to help bring them to market.
So innovation management has five stages at least in converting ideas into successful businesses.
1. Creating or finding great ideas;
2. Targeting, or choosing those worth developing further;
3. Innovation development, transforming great ideas into potential innovations;
4. Applying potential innovations to develop markets and create businesses.
5. Support business till it becomes a success. The innovation team has to debug issues that surface during the actual business transactions.
From Permanent Innovation - Langdon Morris
Permanent Innovation
The Definitive Guide to the Principles, Strategies, and Methods of Successful Innovators
Langdon Morris
Langdon Morris is a co-founder and principal of InnovationLabs LLC and Senior Practice Scholar at the Ackoff Center of the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Fellow of the Economic Opportunities Program of the Aspen Institute.
Related Articles on Innovation
Principles of Innovation
Idea Generation in Organizations
Agile Innovation: The Revolutionary Approach to Accelerate Success, Inspire Engagement, and Ignite Creativity
Langdon Morris, Moses Ma, Po Chi WuJohn Wiley & Sons, 22-Sep-2014 - Business & Economics - 400 pages
Agile Innovation is the authoritative guide to survival and success in today's "innovate-or-die" business world. This revolutionary approach combines the best of Agile with the world's leading methods of Innovation to present a crisp, articulate, and proven system for developing the breakthrough capabilities every organization must master to thrive today and tomorrow.
Agile Innovation addresses the three critical drivers of innovation success: accelerating the innovation process; reducing the risks inherent in innovation; and engaging your entire organization and your broader ecosystem in the innovation effort.
The key frameworks described here build on the proven success of Agile to provide a comprehensive and customizable Innovation Master Plan approach to sustained innovation improvement in the five critical performance areas: strategy, portfolio, process, culture and infrastructure.
Major topics include: the power of Agile in the innovation process, how to overcome innovation risk, the best tools to evoke engagement and collaboration, branding as an integral element of innovation, and the best leadership skills and practices that create the special environment that enables transformative growth. Readers will learn specifically how to create better ideas, develop them more efficiently, and work together more profitably and effectively to achieve breakthroughs.
The insights offered in this book are highlighted in 11 detailed case studies illustrating the world's best innovation practices at Wells Fargo, Nike, Volvo, Netflix, Southwest Airlines, NASA,The New York Times, and others, in dozens of specific business examples, in two dozen powerful and unique techniques and methods, and a full set of implementation guidelines to put these insights into practice.
Key Insights:
Understand how to implement the many ways that innovation efforts can be accelerated to achieve even greater competitive advantage
Learn to create a culture of innovation, greater engagement, and rich collaboration throughout your organization
Discover how to reduce risk and accelerate learning
Implement your own unique plan to enhance collaborative innovation, from leadership through operations
Integrate key agility principles into your strategic planning decisions for sustained improvement
Explore dramatic new approaches to open innovation that optimize large scale innovation
Apply the latest and best technology tools to enhance innovation, reduce risk, and promote broad participation.
This is a must read book, a practical guide for fostering a culture of innovation, nurturing creativity, and efficiently developing the ideas that drive strategic growth.
And since innovation is not imitation, you know that copying the ideas and strategies of other successful organizations will not produce the desired outcomes. Hence, all leaders must develop their own way of innovating and nurture the right style of collaborating for their own organization. This book will guide you to find your own unique pathways to success.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=qajCBwAAQBAJ
Third Generation R&D Management
Third Generation R&D: Managing the Link to Corporate Strategy
Philip A. Roussel, Kamal N. Saad, Tamara J. Erickson
Harvard Business Press, 1991 - 192 pages
Written by three senior consultants from Arthur D. Little, This book relates how R&D management has evolved from the naive "strategy of hope" approach of the 1950s and 1960s, when companies spent lavishly in the vague expectation that something good would result, to the more systematic approach of the past two decades. The third generation of R&D is a pragmatic method for linking R&D to long-term business planning. It shows managers how to: integrate technology and research capabilities with overall management and strategy; break down organizational barriers that isolate R&D from the rest of the company; foster a spirit of partnership and trust between R&D and other units; and create managed portfolios of R&D projects that match corporate goals.
https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Third_Generation_R_D.html?id=KjwAtPDluusC
A Summary from Arthur D Little
http://www.adlittle.com/downloads/tx_adlprism/1991_q2_01-06.pdf
MBA Core Management Knowledge - One Year Revision Schedule
Updated 25 May 2019, 26 May 2017, 27 November 2014
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