"Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration." Thomas Edison
All companies, no matter the size, need to continually innovate in order to remain competitive. Innovation is a two-part challenge. The first part is coming up with the big idea. The second part is executing it. To thrive, you need to succeed at both.
While many companies recognize the need to innovate, they typically devote the vast majority of their time and energy to the initial 1%--the exciting hunt for the next groundbreaking idea, but this often comes at the expense of the most crucial part, implementation.
Vijay Covindarafan and Chris Trimble argue in their book, "Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization," the real innovation challenge lies not in the idea but rather in the long, hard journey from imagination to impact.
Organizations are not Structured to Execute Innovation
So why is innovation execution so hard? Simply put, organizations are not built for it. Quite the contrary, they are built for ongoing operations. They are built to be performance engines.
A well-run performance engine is the master of many challenges. It excels at serving today's customers and fighting today's rivals. It is terrific at driving for efficiency by holding employees accountable. It is on time, on budget, and on spec--every day, every week and every month. It delivers bottom-line results each and every quarter.
Innovation requires experimentation: the performance engine demands efficiency. Innovation sometimes fails; the performance engine struggles to forgive.
These contrasts illustrate the first law of the other side of innovation: Innovation and ongoing operations are always and inevitably in conflict.
Repeatability and predictability may be foundational for the performance engine, but they are also the antithesis of innovation. Far from being repeatable, innovation initiatives are intentional departures from the past. Far from being predictable, innovation initiatives proceed into territory in which there is no precedent upon which to base any forecast.
There may be deep incompatibilities, but that does not make the performance engine the enemy. In fact, without profits from the performance engine, there is no funding for innovation. Furthermore, the aspiration of every innovation initiative is to someday be just like the performance engine--successful, stable and profitable.
The challenge is not just to make innovation happen, but to do so while simultaneously excelling at ongoing operations.
Source: Vijay Govindarajan: Beyond the Idea: How to Execute Innovation in Any Organization