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Shelter Chieza Change Management
I have watched a beverage manufacturer improve its products over a period of time. I have also personally been at the hands and mercy of great product innovators.

Its so irresistible to the point of being unable to overcome the temptation of trying a great new product. If you are in the business that constantly needs to upgrade technological, you will testify that the capabilities to develop new ideas and new dynamic functions can no longer be ignored. We are in an era where intense competition and technological advancement has seen innovation becoming increasingly central to competitiveness.

I would simply refer to innovation as a stage at which an organisation attempts to produce new products, upgrade processes and systems that are being required for adapting to a change of markets, technologies and competition.

What normally happens is that the moment you introduce a new product into the market, you may instantly be faced with escalating levels of commitment for your innovation to stay in the same position.

You can’t sit back and relax and assume that it’s done because the challenge of performance hurdles will come to taunt you.

Innovation is far from being about new products, you have to be able to change attitude and behaviours. As companies increasingly focus on innovation, the performance hurdles towards the road to success will increase considerably

Innovation in most cases is industry specific and successful innovation requires core elements and processes regardless of the industry or firm. It’s impossible to talk of innovation in a culture that is bureaucratic and stagnant and is unaccommodating to the concepts of risk, failure, exploration and discovery.

Most of the examples of great innovation of today are centred on the basic needs of emerging markets.

Innovation is not technological breakthrough but is about knowledge breakthrough in terms of understanding what is needed for the market.

Innovation can and should naturally be part of any company though by the very nature of being bureaucratic and deeply rooted in company culture this often does not happen.

The more open-minded culture can leverage toward innovation. So ultimately big companies have the potential of being innovative. The drive towards innovation must be encouraged, pushed and supported from a management level

During this period, I have learnt that “you need to fail”. The good and innovative ideas come through a process of trial and error and the errors should be encouraged in order to get the end-game of true innovation.

There is a cost associated with this, but this is the inherent investment. The challenge is that most companies are largely composed of management that is risk averse, having reached their positions largely by “not making mistakes”. This involves, by definition, making mistakes, quickly re-adjusting and moving forward in a new direction.

I have also learn that think big and act small. Small groups of the company or individuals must be given the freedom to place themselves outside the corporate context both organisationally and possibly even physically outside the organisation to create the start-up atmosphere. In this kind of situation, any idea must be evaluated and not measured to the strict corporate goals.

So then, where do breakthrough ideas come from? Big ideas that result in innovative products or services spring from individuals, they are then incubated and developed with a very small group of like-minded innovators.

We need to rid of minds that takes new ideas and throw them into “pits” with the misguided notion that many minds are better than just a few. I call this the “many mind method” and it results in compromise in order to please the majority.

Compromise leads to mediocrity and eventually the big idea dies down. If your company is going to successfully innovate, you need to hire and empower those individuals with big ideas.

These must be given resources they need to develop those ideas, but most importantly, give them the freedom and authority to see their idea through to completion without the bureaucracy.

Many companies I know have the tools they need to innovate but simply does not exploit them.

Many brilliant individuals leave their companies to start their own businesses because many organisations do not allow them to have the time or means to innovate.

Innovation should be a part of everyday corporate culture and it should be allowed on all levels, not just at management level. In fact, companies should allow moments throughout each week that are solely dedicated to in- novation.

Sit back and imagine all of the inventions that could be in our society if the entrepreneurs and innovators had the support they needed for their idea at the beginning of its conception versus years later.

Quote of the Week

Remember that learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. – William Pollard.

Till next week, may God richly bless you!!

• Shelter Chieza can be contacted at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>