Successful Innovation and CEO

The role of a CEO in a new startup is filled with challenges.  The new CEO must be willing to learn from his mistakes and from others.  Eric Ries writes, “startup success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time.  Startup success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.”[1]

The startup CEO must be a risk-taker as well.  The critical element of risk-taking process is exploration into the unknown.  According to Greg Gehrich, “a CEO who fosters a culture of risk and rewards will out-innovate the competition, and a CEO who supports agile product development methods for the entire business will grow a lean and innovative organization.”[2]  Successful CEOs are usually successful innovators.  According to Gehrich, best practices for successful innovation can be summed up in four points:[3]

1.     An innovation strategy counts

2.     Focusing on high-risk but higher-return innovations matters

3.     Innovation leadership is central to success

4.     The CEO must be the innovation leader

The CEO must encourage and empower an innovative culture across the company.  “Innovation, regardless of how small or seemingly insignificant, is already occurring in the organization,” writes Dr. Oster.  He adds, “The invisible innovators already have determined how to recast imposing corporate problems into small, tangible and quickly solvable opportunities.”[4]  Recognizing and rewarding invisible innovators could be a crucial undertaking in securing the success of a startup.

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[1] Eric Ries, The Lean Startup:  How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Random House Digital, Inc., 2011, 3.

[2] Greg Gehrich, Build It Like a Startup: Lean Product Innovation, California: Greg Gehrich, 2012, 91.

[3] Ibid, 91-92.

[4] Gary Oster, Emergent Innovation:  A New Strategic Paradigm, Journal of Strategic Leadership, Vol. 2, Iss. 1, 2009, pp.40-56

CEO Cartoon

The Role of CEO - A Brief Look

CEO is responsible for developing a long-term strategy for leading the company and creating shareholder value.   The CEO must have the management skill to hire, organize and staff the company.   Financial assessment in accordance to authorized annual budget of the company is a crucial aspect of CEO’s responsibility.  As such, internal and external risk assessment, implementation of internal controls, and adherence to the company’s standards and policies are parts of CEO’s activities.  According to Carver, “the job of the CEO is to work whatever magic it takes to ensure an acceptable amount, type, and targeting of benefits in prudent and ethical ways.”[1]

CEO is a liaison between management and the board, and is tasked with maintaining effective communication with shareholders, employees and the public.[2]  Therefore, the CEO will have to lead by example and encourage all employees to conduct themselves in accordance to the company’s standards and policies and also with all applicable laws. 

A CEO should be an innovation leader.  Dr. Oster writes, “The position of innovation leaders is complex, difficult, frustrating, politically dangerous, and often virtually thankless.”[3]  As such, a CEO must be courageous, creative and relentless. 

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[1] John Carver, Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, John Wiley  & Sons, 2011.

[2] Michael J. Worth, Nonprofit Management, California: SAGE, 2011, 87.

[3] Gary Oster, Leading Corporate Innovation, School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurships at Regent University, August 2007, 16.

Why Prototypes?

The transition from concept-to-product requires developing a prototype.  Why prototypes?  Michael Schrage, a widely recognized expert on relationship between technology and work says:  “prototypes engage the organization’s thinking in the explicit.  They externalize thought and spark conversation.  They’re bandwidth-boosters and context-creators for both information management and human interaction.”

For most companies, prototyping is an important part of institutional learning, where creativity, skills, inspiration and invention, transforms into something tangible and real.

• Prototyping fosters intimate user involvement and contributions.
• Prototyping creates room for early product testing and design.
• Prototyping forces the use of plain language.
• Rapid prototyping can demonstrate feasibility of an idea.
• Prototyping can be used to secure funding from venture capitalists.
• Prototyping helps focus on the variables.  Prototyping helps identify one’s resources and tools.
• Prototyping sparks creativity.
• Prototyping can help improve the design and functionality.
• Prototyping eases and improves assembly and development.

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Design Thinking

Innovation of individual entrepreneurs is one of the major contributors to technological development. Innovation tends to flourish when opportunities to create new science exist side-by-side with those able and willing to use the science and when organizations can couple science to technology and technologies to marketplace.[1]

 

In the illustration above I have used focused observation and design thinking as tools in developing technologies. Focused observation refers to empathic research. People are looking for experience, not product.[2] According to Tim Brown, “the steady increase in new forms of consumption based on a 'shared economy' might indicate that many people—especially younger people—are turning away from materialism”. [3] Therefore empathic research, which is qualitative in nature and based upon focused observation, can play an important role in satisfying customer preferences.[4]  Design thinking refers to creation of a perfect balance between desirability, economic viability and technical feasibility.[5] 

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[1] Technological Development ins Industry, Industrial Systems Research, Industrial Systems Research Publishing, 2003

[2] Period 2 Audio, Gary Oster, Technology and Commerce (BMBA 620), Regent University

[3] Bid Idea 2013 – Designing the Necessities of Life, Tim Brown, Design Thinking, December 11, 2012, Found online at http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=830

[4] Divining the Need, Compensatory Behavior of Customers, Gary W. Oster, Regent Global Business Review, August 2008

[5] A Call for Design Thinking, Tim Brown, TedGlobal, July 2009, found on http://blog.ted.com/2009/09/29/a_call_for_desi/

Cross-Field Integation & Technologial Adaptation

Cross-field integration is integration of emerging and existing technologies to create new products. One of the main advantages of cross-field integration as we see in Isaiah and Joel is resource conservation.[1] Due to limited resources and for the purposes of God and the community, the society had to embrace cross-integration and technological adaptation to survive or co-exist in harmony.  

From a socio-economic stand point, in both cases integration/adaptation allowed for:

1.   Minimum consumption of energy[2] - this allows the society to save its energy resources to be divided among other sectors or needs
2.  Cost-effectiveness[3] - in times of war or peace cost-saving will provide allocations for other strategies
3. Waste minimization[4] - an environmental-friendly approach makes the consumers/customers feel good about using the technology
4. Environmental sustainability[5] - maintaining a sensible approach to cultural needs and natural resources
5. Fulfilling social responsibility[6] - In the case of Isaiah and Joel, they sought alignment to divine social responsibility which was a religious duty. In the case of contemporary business, the focus is on being socially and culturally sensitive (responsible) to customers, employees as well as local and international communities.

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[1] Process Integration for Resource Conservation, Dominic C.Y. Foo, CRC Press, 2012

[2] Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies for Climate Change, Akimasa Sumi, Springer, 2010

[3] Methodological and Technological Issues in Technology Transfer, Bert Metz, Ogunlade R. Davidson, Cambridge University Press, 2000

[4] Environmental concerns and Strategies, A.K. Shivastava, APH Publishing, 2007

[5] Techniques and Technologies for Sustainability, Adrian Atkinson, Univerlagtuberlin, 2008

[6] Corporate Social Responsibility, David Crowther, Guler Aras, Bookboon, 2008

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