Innovative leadership in the digital age: black box or the surprised manager

The pressure to innovate is enormous. Without the ability to react more agile and engage in experimentation, each would Companys eventually suffer the fate described in the book The Innovator's dilemma is as follows: Earning higher profits and margins year after year until the bubble bursts. But what to do about it?

How is the company set up?

At the heart of many departmental feuds is often a rational one Anxiety – for example your own Status, your own sinecure or Competenciesthat need to be protected. A company I advised focused on two customer segments: one Business-to- business and an end customer area.

In the B2B segment, it employed a field sales force that sold the product to a large number of corporate customers, while the end customer sector received its growth impetus mainly through one-time purchases by individual private customers.

Do what all do?

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The lion's share of current sales has come from B2B sales, but that growth in this segment was declining. Everyone agreed that there was enormous potential for growth in the end customer segment, but it had hardly been tapped so far.

This growth deficit was due not least to the current pricing structure. Like many companies that operate in the B2B sector, this one also had high list prices and then granted its “preferred” large customers substantial discounts.

Experiments - or rather not?

Of course, every sales representative was required to use his customers to give the feeling of belonging to the chosen ones. Unfortunately, the list prices were unaffordable for the end customer segment.

The Team, which was responsible for the growth of the retail segment, was to conduct experiments with a lower price structure. The team that was responsible for the B2B segment feared that this could destroy or impair their existing customer relationships.

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Unthinkable when their bulk buyers discovered that the end customers were paying less than they were! Anyone who works in a company with multiple customer segments will immediately recognize that for this Problem various Solutions gives:

For example, product features could be staggered to give customers the opportunity to buy products at different “levels” (such as airline seats) or to buy different products under a different brand name.

Fears of jeopardizing the business

But the company found it difficult to implement such suggestions. Why? For fear of running Shop any proposed experiment was deferred, sabotaged and outmaneuvered by cover-up tactics.

I would like to emphasize at this point that the fear was well founded. A Projects sabotaging is a head-driven response by managers who see their territory under threat.

If it goes wrong, roll heads!

They weren't in any small Startups active, nothing to verlieren but in an established company, and the stakes were high for them. When core business revenues fall, heads roll. This should not be taken lightly.

How defenses prevent innovations

We would like to frame our internal innovation challenges with the question: How do we protect an internal startup before the parent organization? I would like to change the framework and reverse the question: How do we protect the parent organization before the startup?

Based on my experience People automatically adopts a defensive stance when threatened feel, and a Innovation cannot thrive if these defense mechanisms are allowed to run wild.

Innovation in the secret black box?

Therefore the widespread productto hide the activities of an innovation team, the wrong way. There are examples of one-off successes based on “skunkworks” (the work of autonomous groups, freed from bureaucratic constraints, engaged in secret seminal projects).

Or by outsourced innovation teams (as in the construction of the original personal computer in Boca Raton, Florida, completely separated from IBM's core activities).

Surprised managers become paranoid

But these examples should actually serve as a warning because they rarely led to viable innovations.

Put yourself in the position of the manager, who is completely taken over by the innovation. He probably feels trapped and reacts more or less paranoid.

Fear of unpleasant surprises

If a project of this magnitude can be kept secret, what other unpleasant surprises are lurking in the shadows? Over time, this attitude leads to tactics as managers seek such threats to their power, influence, and Career to recognize in time.

That turns out to be an innovation Success turns out, is no justification for this dishonorable Behavior. From the point of view of experienced managers, the message clear: If you do not belong to the circle of the initiated, such mysteries hit you like a bolt from the blue.

Guilt is borne by the management

It would be unfair to denounce this reaction; the Criticism should apply to management who failed to provide a supportive System set up where innovation can take place.

This is probably the reason why companies such as IBM have lost their leading position in the new emerging markets, such as the PC sector. They were incapable of developing and maintaining an innovation culture that allows innovation at all.

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