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A key change at iCommons
If you're not part of the iCommons mailing list, take a look at the letter that Heather Ford, Executive Director of iCommons, sent to the list yesterday:
Dear friends,
At the 2 August iCommons Board Meeting, the board decided to make some difficult but necessary changes at iCommons. It has become clear over the past months that our vision for iCommons is different from the... more
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The seven habits of highly creative firms
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Jonathan Foster-Pedley, Director of the programmes Smart Strategy and Creategy at the UCT Graduate School of Business argues that innovation is now more than ever the key to business success and economic growth
Judging by the phenomenal global impact it has made, the Apple iPod is arguably the greatest innovation of the 21st century. It is no surprise, therefore, to see Apple at the top of all the key rankings for innovation. In 2006, the company topped Business Week’s rankings of the 25 most innovative companies and Fortune’s Best in Innovation category in its annual survey of the world’s most admired companies.
Business Week writers said that to launch the iPod, “Apple used no fewer than seven types of innovation. They included networking (a novel agreement among music companies to sell their songs online), business model (songs sold for a dollar each online), and branding (how cool are those white ear buds and wires?).”
And to lend support to the case that Apple is an eon ahead as an organisation getting the innovation mix right, its latest gadget, the iPhone, is already a global hit – and it has not even been released yet.
A Google search of iPhone brings up a staggering 50 000 000 hits – and just the official announcement of its launch this year saw Apple shares soar. The BBC ran the headline on 10 January 2007: “Apple shares up on iPhone launch”, and detailing an 8 pre cent rise in the share price and reporting further: “shares in makers of smart phones fell on the news, with Research in Motion - the company behind Blackberry devices - tumbling nearly 8% on the Nasdaq.”
Globally the understanding is dawning that innovation is now a key part of doing well in an increasingly challenging business environment.
IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano said to a group of 500 executives at a leadership forum held in Rome in 2006: “The way to thrive in this environment is by innovating – innovating in technologies, innovating in strategies, innovating in business models.”
Unlocking creativity is particularly pressing for South Africans as it is widely acknowledged that innovation is a key part of economic growth and job creation. So how can companies respond appropriately?
Before action can be taken, business leaders need to know how innovation is fostered.
Leaders need to recognise that innovation originates in the mindset of the people within the business. Innovation begins with creative ideas, and creativity begins with people.
For this chain reaction to occur, though, business people need to adopt and foster a culture of strategic thinking and action.
According to research by Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Classes, a tolerant environment that values innovation and diversity is one of three enablers of creativity, which in turn, he shows, is in turn a key driver of economic growth.
A “strategist” is often understood to be the most senior person in a business – the one making the “big decisions”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that people at all levels in organisations can function as strategists.
Facilitating the emergence of “ordinary” people as strategists has real benefits in a business environment – it enables people to see more viewpoints, alternatives, solutions, and opportunities for success, and therefore to make more informed decisions on the particular action that will create value for the organisation. It is through developing this mindset that creativity and innovation will be unleashed to the benefit of the business.
Research and experience from leading thinkers - such as complexity theorist Ralph Stacey - highlight seven key questions which leaders can address in order lay the foundation for an innovation process in their business:
1. Are blocks to innovation being removed and are boundaries being lifted, thereby allowing people to experiment?
2. But – apparently paradoxically - are boundaries and limits being created too? Creativity is based on discipline and is constrained by limits – ethics, values, time or money can all typically represent boundaries and limits. It’s essential to have these in place.
3. Is the possibility of connections between people being enhanced, thereby allowing or increasing conversation and information flow? Because the fuel of creativity is rich connections between people and ideas.
4. Is anxiety being created in people? Not too much or it will be counter productive. But too little tension is counter productive too. Some pressure, drive and urgency are important to keep people engaged and alert - enabling creativity is like keeping a rope tight rope in order to ensure its usefulness. In organisations this means one needs opposing forces of experimentation and control and stability that work in harmony.
5. Is there a willingness to let efficiency slip periodically to allow people to make mistakes that come to represent experience and therefore understanding? Creativity requires extra resources if it is to manifest as a great solution.
6. How is power being used? Creativity is a voluntary act – a leader can set the conditions for it to emerge but can’t dictate or order it to happen. Remember the sun and the wind who contested to get the coat off the back of the man walking up the road? The wind tried first and the harder it blew the tighter the man held on to his coat. The sun came out and shone warmly, and in no time the man took off the coat. Developing creative people is a bit like that – businesses have to create the right conditions for people’s creativity to emerge. Be too autocratic, criticise mistakes and try to be too directive and creativity will evaporate. Rather encourage, motivate and reward - and get out of the way. A leader may also need to bite hisor her tongue sometimes and to smile if creativity is to advance.
7. Are new trends being addressed? Encourage people to be alert and alive to new trends and ideas early – put out information about innovations, and get in guest speakers about the trends.
South Africa has a wonderful diversity and some volatility which both really help creativity. But currently businesses aren't harnessing the environmental assets properly - studies such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor conducted by the UCT Graduate School of Business demonstrate this. It is time to let go of the bureaucracy that cripples start-ups, and let go of some of the controls.
At the same time poor governance and corruption rip the heart out of innovation. South Africa needs strong ethics and governance to reward the real innovators and to ensure that funds and projects are not subverted by personal or political gain – at any part of the spectrum.
Florida in his book shows that it’s not the big infrastructure projects that create prosperity in a region. By contrast there is a direct link between the attractiveness of a region for creative people and economic growth. A rich cultural life, high degrees of tolerance for different life styles, interesting environments – these are important.
In South Africa, corporates and government - we need to loosen up a little as a nation and celebrate our creatives – it will pay off economically.
Email jon@fosterpedley.com or call +27 82 925 0991
tags: cape-town south africa business creativity strategy
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