Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Peter Drucker on Innovation Traps
I'm a big fan of Peter Drucker, whose ideas and insights are as timeless as they are valuable. Branding Strategy Insider posted some of his best work ever on the topic of innovation, focusing on some of the pitfalls that innovation projects face. Read the article here.Change leaders will be tempted by three innovation traps. They're so attractive that leaders can expect to fall into one of them--or into all three--again and again.1. When looking for ways to innovate, the first trap to avoid is an opportunity that is not in tune with the five strategic realities: the collapsing birthrate; shifts in how disposable income is spent; new definitions of performance; global competitiveness; and the growing incongruence between economic globalization and political splintering. (See "Strategy: The New Realities," below.) The misfit opportunity often looks very tempting--precisely because it looks truly innovative. But even if the innovation does not result in failure--as it usually does--it always requires extraordinarily wasteful amounts of effort, money, and time.
2. A second trap is confusing novelty with innovation. The test of an innovation is that it creates value. A novelty creates amusement only. Yet again and again, management decides to innovate for no other reason than that it is bored doing the same thing or making the same product day in and day out. The test of an innovation--as is also the test of quality--is not "Do we like it?" It is "Do customers want it and will they pay for it?"
3. The third trap is confusing motion with action. Typically, when a product, service, or process no longer produces results and should be abandoned or changed radically, management reorganizes. To be sure, reorganization is often needed. But it should come after the action--that is, after what must be abandoned has been faced up to. By itself reorganization is just motion and no substitute for action.
Labels: design management, innovation
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