What is the point of innovation and why do we as product managers spend so much time focusing on it? In this week’s Sunday Rewind, we look back to when Investor, Speaker, and expert in management practices, Janice Fraser, took the main stage at #mtpcon San Fransisco 2017 to discuss how to tackle change in large organisations, and why it’s so important.
The problem
Janice explains how the world around us is changing at an incredible pace. Companies and established brands that we thought were going to be around forever are churning out of the S&P 500 every day and being replaced by new hypergrowth companies.
This is why every enterprise organisation is trying to innovate through innovation labs, accelerators, incubators, digital transformation programs, 20% time, and more. These programs are great for changing attitudes but they have all failed to deliver the hypergrowth products that their parent companies crave.
Discover more insights in our Sunday Rewind series.
The solution
The solution to large organisations failing is to start something small that has potential, Janice explains. Organisations focus too much on ROI and they can’t see the value of a potential idea.
This is why to succeed we need a different organisational structure. The core business relies on Operators who can optimise their business area and grow something big to something slightly bigger. But on the other end, going from small to big requires a different mentality. These Entrepreneurial Leaders need new skills and a different mindset, because ideas like Good and Progress look very different in a startup than they do in the core business.
Things you can do now
- Go zombie hunting. As a leader it’s crucial you find these and eliminate them – and repurpose their resources and budgets to new ideas.
- End your addiction to being right. Practise question-based leadership – you are inevitably going to be wrong so focus on asking the right questions.
- Play moneyball. Data is the only path to commercial truth, and even a team of average performers can deliver excellent outcomes if they execute reliably.
Watch this talk in full to learn from Janice’s experience. Think about how you can change your organisation – or share how you’re already doing it. Because this is the future of work and value creation in business.
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