Gagging on Chaos!
by Dr. Chris Bart, Ph.D, C.A.(adapted from an article which first appeared in Business Horizons)
Dr. Christopher K. Bart is a Professor of Business Policy and Director of the MINT (Management of Innovation and New Technology) Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Bart is a leading expert on developing mission and vision statements. Through various studies, he has successfully established a tangible link between mission statements and organizational performance. As a result of his research, Dr. Bart has developed the largest mission and vision database in the world, and has become the single most published author on the topic.
In his best-seller, Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters decries the lack of product innovation in the typical North American corporation. There is good reason for Peters and the rest of us to be concerned, if not alarmed. Innovation is critical to the growth and long-term profitability of most firms. It is one of the central themes for our society and for technological management during the next few decades.
Unfortunately, innovation remains one of the most poorly undertaken functions within the modern North American organization. Moreover, doubts continue to flourish about the innovative capacities of most firms.
Blame it on bureaucracy. The difficulty firms have in generating and sustaining innovation has long been recognized. Excessive hierarchies, lengthy decision making, and oppressive procedure manuals and controls are just some of the all-too-common features typically and frequently cited as being found in these organizations. As a remedy, the conventional wisdom of recent times has been captured in the three Ds: de-bureaucratize, de-layer, and decentralize.
Another Answer. My experience, however, leads me to conclude that there are ways other than through the complete destruction of the organization's existing formal arrangements and controls for achieving the innovation results desired. I have seen astonishing innovation accomplished with lots of formal rules, policies, procedures, and discipline in short, with some good, old-fashioned "bureaucracy." The result is a surprisingly tough, disciplined, almost martial arts approach to innovation with instructive lessons for would be inventors everywhere.
How "Formal Structured Processes" Aid Innovation
Although most companies and inventors have no difficulty in generating new ideas, there is often no guarantee that in the case of new products the results will be successful. After all, about 40 percent of all new products launched into the market place are eventually judged to be losers! Now, you may say "that's not bad". And it wouldn't be except that companies tend to spend a disproportionate amount of their resources on the losers. So the challenge for a firm-or individual inventor-interested in launching new products (and services) involves simultaneously ensuring that the new products selected to work on will be "winners" in the marketplace; eliminating any "losers" that later emerge from the "project list" before considerable time, effort, attention, and money is spent on them; and cycling new products through in record time.
It appears that much of the blame for the failure to produce sufficient new product winners can be traced to the quality with which firms-and inventors-select and orchestrate their new product initiatives. Recent research has noted how inventors invite failure on their new product projects largely because of the carelessness and lack of rigor with which they execute such fundamental new product activities as identifying their "mission and vision" for the product, assessing consumer wants and needs, conducting adequate market research, preparing a business-competitive analysis, and assessment of synergies. Faced with this hard evidence, one wonders where all the analysis/paralysis (which many claim is threatening the innovativeness of North American organizations) is occurring. The evidence seems to suggest that perhaps not enough analysis is being done.
Once again, however it appears that smart companies and inventors are turning to formally structured procedures, processes, and systems. Take the case of Exxon Chemical. Several years ago, the company established the objective of translating more quickly their new product ideas into commercial successes. Given limited resources, and its own disappointing track record, the company developed, a formal and structured process called "stage-gate" to improve the success rate of its polymers new products. Simply put, stage-gate is a blueprint, a set of formally prescribed steps and activities for moving Exxon Chemical's new product projects from idea to launch in a systematic and rigorous fashion. Critical to the process is a set of go/kill decision points (called "gates") through which new product projects must "pass" to proceed to the next "stage". Each pass represents an increase in the firm's level of formal commitment and willingness to invest in the product.
Exxon Chemical, however, is not alone in developing a formal new product process. Similar formal screening models have been developed at Northern Telecom ("Gating System"), 3M ("New Product Launch Model"), and Polaroid ("Product Delivery Process") with remarkable results. Other companies report that with their own "stage-gate system," they enjoy more new products than before the process was introduced. And so, it was a formal process part of the organization's bureaucracy that made innovation happen and produced the desired results.
Organized to win. Companies and inventors that win the innovation war, treat their commitment to innovation as inviolate. They organize and structure themselves to treat innovation as a core strategy and value rather than merely a tactic.
While there is an implicit assumption that profits, cash flow, and market share will take care of themselves if a firm is sufficiently creative and inventive, the growing evidence in support of the need to develop an organization that supports successful innovation is becoming impressive. The message is clear: if you want successful innovations, you need to organize to achieve them.
Dr. Chris Bart, C.A. is a world authority on the role of mission and vision in achieving organizational greatness and marketplace leadership through innovation. He is known internationally as "Mr. Mission" and can be reached at 905-308-8455 or via email at chrisbart@corporatemissionsinc.com.
Dr. Christopher Bart is an independent consultant. Dr. Bart is contributing to INVENTORS COMMUNITY as an industry expert, but is not employed by or otherwise compensated by INPEX, InventHelp or its affiliates. His contribution to INPEX does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of InventHelp or its affiliate companies. However, we believe the formal process that Dr. Bart speaks of should include industry attendance at our invention show.
