Category Archives: Leadership

Overcoming the Top 3 Barriers to Customer-Centricity

GUEST POST from Alain Thys

I just finished a presentation for the leadership team of a European travel company that wanted to better understand the barriers they would face on their journey to true customer-centricity. And what they could do about it.

It was a good excuse to give a 2022 update to some of my older thinking on the topic. And while I can’t really share the presentation, I’m including as summary of the Top 3 barriers below. In case you find them of interest.

BARRIER #1: Lack of Clarity

Everyone wants to be customer centric, but no one explains what that means in practice. Not just to agree on what a great customer experience looks like. But also to think through its implications for the business.

What changes does Aïsha need to plan in her logistics department? What return can shareholders expect for investing in ‘happy faces’? What new developments do distributors and ecosystem partners need to plan for? And are any of these implications realistic within available timelines and budgets?

Without this clarity, everyone will interpret ‘being customer-centric’ in its own way, so initiatives will go in a thousand directions. Or simply grind to a halt because of an operational or financial disconnect.

Either way, with the best of intentions, the only certainty is that customers will have a variable experience depending on the touchpoint, person or time of day.

Overcoming the Barrier: Clearly describe your customer experience. What are you promising? How will you make it happen? And what does it mean for each of your internal and external stakeholders? And before you hit the ‘start’ button, check whether all of your ideas are realistic.

BARRIER #2: Lack of Empathy

Whenever a leadership team embraces customer-centricity, the buzzwords and targets start flying around. Metrics like Net Promoter, customer ease or new kid on the block TLM appear in PowerPoint decks and we focus everything on driving the numbers.

But as management teams get excited, those around them care a lot less. Employees prefer meaningful work and decent salaries over KPIs. Shareholders may not see why they should sacrifice short-term profit for customer smiles. Distribution and ecosystem partners have got their hands full in running their own business.

The result is that strategies are implemented because you say so as a leader. This compliance often works in the short-term. But it disintegrates when processes, negotiations, and culture get in the way. Or when the next budget cut or senior executive comes around.

Overcoming the Barrier: Anchor your customer-centricity drive in the culture by reframing it into what matters to your different stakeholders. Connect the customer experience to the values and culture of those who work for you. Show your shareholders how smiles and money go hand in hand. Engage your ecosystem to create a common vision, instead of imposing yours. Make the strategy theirs, instead of yours.

BARRIER #3: Lack of Vision

Customer teams focus most, if not all, of their attention on improving the customer’s experience based on feedback and competitive benchmarks. Rightly so. Dropping the ball on a touchpoint or moment may cost dearly in both loyalty and revenue.

But too much focus on ‘continuous improvement’ can blind us to the experience that ‘should exist’ tomorrow. In today’s economy, the last best experience the customers had anywhere, become their expectation everywhere. It’s just that they can’t tell what it is before they’ve had it. At which point, we’re too late.

Unfair? Totally. But also reality.

Overcoming the Barrier: Keep improving today, but allocate at least 20% of your time to imagining the customer’s future that ‘should exist’. Look at life through the eyes of your customer and prototype experiences they cannot imagine today. Be the one who raises the expectation bar, so it forces others to follow.

I’m not saying these are the only barriers. But if you tackle them, you’ve probably avoided some of the biggest pitfalls to customer-centricity out there.

May the customer force be with you!

Image credit: Pixabay

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If You Can Be One Thing – Be Effective

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If You Can Be One Thing - Be Effective

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

If you’re asked to be faster, choose to be more effective. There’s nothing slower than being fast at something that doesn’t matter.

If you’re given a goal to be more productive, instead, improve effectiveness. There’s nothing less productive than making the wrong thing.

If you’re measured on efficiency, focus on effectiveness. Customers don’t care about your efficiency when you ship them the wrong product.

If you’re asked to improve quality, that’s good because quality is an important element of effectiveness.

If you’re asked to demonstrate more activity, focus on progress, which is activity done in an effective way.

If you’re asked to improve your team, ask them how they can be more effective and do that.

Regardless of the question, the answer is effectiveness.

Image credit: Unsplash

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Innovate for Good – Breaking Paradoxes

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GUEST POST from Teresa Spangler

At the time of my writing this, the world is in the midst of unprecedented triple crises. The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on healthcare and on the personal lives of people globally. The economic impacts of this pandemic are crippling nations, small towns, and people all over the world. And to top it off we are experiencing incredible social unrest – protests for Black Lives Matter are taking shape all around the world, with the goal of peaceful protests for change – but they’ve been hijacked by anarchists of varied profiles… individual crusaders, terrorists acting solo, antagonists of the left and the right wings… so many different factions creating chaos. All of this to say, change is happening at paces unimaginable, and ‘INNOVATION for Good’ – of all types, centered on human, economic, and environmental impacts – is a dire necessity.

The world faces many great challenges. For example, the World Economic Forum reports that “by 2050, global food systems will need to sustainably and nutritiously feed more than 9 billion people while providing economic opportunities in both rural and urban communities. Yet our food systems are falling far short of these goals. A systemic transformation is needed at an unprecedented speed and scale.”

Speed and scale, these days, are the operative words prioritized in innovation investments. When and how are the big questions that investors and stakeholders primarily ask? Of course, these are important questions. Breaking the cycle of ‘profit first’ is not an easy shift for capitalist societies. Social Entrepreneurism, Social Innovation Organizations, and Non-Governmental Organizations are charting courses toward innovating in new and socially impactful ways, but they need the support, collaborative partnership, and help from investors and from the public and private sectors. The world of business has been groomed for years to drive everything fast, faster, and fastest – fail-fast, rapid prototype, accelerated stage gates, hire-slow-fire-fast, rapid returns… and so on. Measured return on investments drives innovation decision-making from new cure-all drugs to the closet full of patents that sit in the coffers of giant industry leaders never making it out into the commercial world, even though these may be game-changing, lifesaving, humanity-improving innovations.

This chapter looks at examples of how to shift from ‘profit first’ to ‘ethics and innovation for good and safety first’. If you build it safely, ethically, and build it to serve humanity, improve the environment, and support socially good causes, the profits will come. But investors and stakeholders need to understand the WHYs – why safety, ethics, and serving are so important. How are we innovators sharing these three critical priorities in the stories we build to gain buy-in on new ideas? So often, safety and ethics are afterthoughts. Responsible Innovation: Ethics and Risks of New Technologies, Joost Groot Kormelink, TU Delft Open, 2019 note:

“If we do not critically and systematically assess our technologies in terms of the values they support and embody, people with perhaps less noble intentions may insert their views on sustainability, safety and security, health and well-being, privacy and accountability.”

Also in the textbook, Responsible Innovation: Ethics and Risks of New Technologies, it sites are case study examples of how conflicting values can open up new opportunities to innovate responsible. As a learning method, the case study opens up our minds to the point of view or moral foundations as an opportunity:“Moral dilemmas can help stimulate creativity and innovation, and innovative design may help us to overcome problems of moral overload.”

In the case study excerpt below: “Smart meters and conflicting values as an opportunity to innovate.” The case study points to an example of smart meter design.

The smart meter 3.0, which is what we are ideally looking for, is designed to accommodate both of the functional requirements in order to make energy use more efficient, while also protecting personal data. It gives us privacy and sustainability. In this respect, innovation in smart metering is exactly this: the reconciliation of a range of values, or moral requirements, in one smart design, some of which were actually in conflict before. Similarly, if we would like to benefit from RFID technology (enabling to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects) in retail, but fear situations in which we might be tracked throughout the shopping mall, it has been suggested we can have it both ways. A so-called ‘clipped chip’ in the form of a price tag with clear indentations would allow customers to tear off a piece of the label, thereby shortening the antenna in the label so as to limit the range in which the label can transmit data.

Clarity of Values-Based Purpose

In the case above, there is clear purpose-driven innovation. Study after study has shown clarity of purpose is key to engaging people in new ideas.

A Kin&Co survey conducted by Populus points out that “Not embedding purpose properly also alienates customers, because in this age of transparency employee problems leak out online, and into the press. Over a third of employees surveyed (34%) said they’d consider writing a negative review online.” One example cited is of “… the Etsy employee who started a petition against the company’s leaders for not living their purpose and values, which was signed by thousands of employees and then went viral.” From: Why purpose matters and four steps companies can take to get it right”, Rosie Warin, 14 February 2018, Ethical Corporation Magazine, Reuters Events – Sustainable Business, the conclusion was thus that …

Having a purpose and not living it will actually hurt your business more than not having one at all! Why Purpose Matters

There is a hunger for more transparency, having our work be meaningful, and knowledge that ethics and privacy are forethoughts, not afterthoughts. It’s good for business, and certainly will drive better profits in the long run.

Breaking the ‘Fast Profit’ Addiction and Adapting Innovation for Social Benefits – Seeking Purpose

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. Winston Churchill

What if we asked the BIG ‘What if?’ What if we were more focused on the benefits of our innovations to humans, the environment, and society – making these priorities over profits first? Can it be proven that if you build it, the profits will come?

The United Nations: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The chapter Foundations of Moral Innovation (Chapter 3 – page 57) mentioned the ‘triple bottom line’ that socially conscious companies focus on serving – People / Planet / Profit… the social, environmental, and financial aspects of an organization’s impact. In 2015 the United Nations cast a vision (and put actions to their words) to build a better world for all people by 2030. Engaging a world of collaborators is key to the success of these 17 Development Goals (noted below).

“The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are one of the world’s best plan to build a better world for people and our planet by 2030. Adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, the SDGs are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the environment. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, equality, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and working to preserve our ocean and forests. See Transforming A World: A 2030 Agenda.

The Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) within the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) provides substantive support and capacity-building for these SDGs and their related thematic issues.

To say the least, as we read these 17 audaciously massive and impactful goals, the goals feel incredibly lofty; the actions to innovate solutions for three of the goals, much less 17 of them, feels nearly unachievable (in our fast prototyping, rapid release, ROI-focused, capitalistic mind-sets) and CFOs around the world sense that acting on these in any way may weigh heavily on profits. Yet many companies are collaborating to drive solutions to these goals. The United Nations built a values-based and purpose-driven platform to participate in solving these world challenges. They provide guidelines, research, information on other collaborators, tools, data, and so much support to help those that choose to participate. And participating they are! Noted from a press release in July 2019: “28 companies with combined market cap of $1.3 trillion step up to new level of climate ambition. Ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit, companies commit to set 1.5°C climate targets aligned with a net-zero future, challenging Governments to match their ambition”.

Here are a few of the participating companies from this release: AstraZeneca, Banka BioLoo, BT, Dalmia Cement Ltd., Eco-Steel Africa Ltd., Enel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Iberdrola, KLP, Levi Strauss & Co., Royal DSM, SAP, Signify, Singtel, Telefonica, Telia, Unilever, Vodafone Group PLC, and Zurich Insurance, amongst others. The release goes on to note that this collectively represents over one million employees from 17 sectors and more than 16 countries.

It seems that the United Nations has created an intensely collaborative framework that offers a moral ground to innovate. It’s just one example, and as complex as these goals are, the framework is simple… build a mission-driven platform, engage thought-leaders around the world, set up metrics and measures for success, provide as much data as possible, offer support when and where needed, and provide as many tools as possible to encourage collaboration amongst them.

ESG – A Moral Compass

Social investors are a group growing in popularity and size. These investors focus their investments and their portfolios on corporations around the world with metric-driven processes to ensure they are building sustainable and responsible companies – a practice known as environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG.

An example of such an organization is Philips Corporation, which has made a commitment to ESG and thus to ethics over profits. In the article, “Good business: Why placing ethics over profits pays off”, they share “When companies work ethically, they will naturally outpace competition. Why? Simply because customers, as we’ve discovered, will see them as a trusted partner, not only for what they do, but how it is delivered. Commitment from management is a key factor to effectively deal with these situations.”

In Stanford Social Innovation Review, authors Chris Fabian and Robert Fabricant write, “An ethical framework – ‘a way of structuring your deliberation about ethical questions’ – can help to bridge disparate worlds and discourses and help them work well together.” Their article further notes that, “Ethical questions might include: ‘Is this platform / product actually providing a social good?’ or ‘Am I harming / including the user in the creation of this new solution?’ or even ‘Do I have a right to be taking claim of this space at all?’”11 Such a strong ethical framework can help innovators to plan for ‘value-based collaborations’. Establishing such a framework within your innovation practice also provides a process whereby collaborators can monitor the work, and consistently ensure that ethics are intact. Moreover, planning for positive outcomes and managing to an ethical framework gives customers, buyers, stakeholders, users, and investors some comfort that the ‘net new disruptive innovations’ will be safe for all, which will result in strong profits and longevity in due time.

Very importantly, this article also points out that while ethics may involve subjectivity, nevertheless “an ethical framework can bridge the worlds of startup technology companies and international development to strengthen cross-sector innovation in the social sector.”

Fabian and Fabricant outline a 4-model framework in this article:

Innovation is humanistic: solving big problems through human ingenuity, imagination, and entrepreneurialism that can come from anywhere.

Innovation is non-hierarchical: drawing ideas from many different sources and incubating small, agile teams to test and iterate on them with user feedback.

Innovation is participatory: designing with (not for) real people.

Innovation is sustainable: building skills even if most individual endeavors will ultimately fail in their societal goals.

“Critical to the world’s innovation effort is harvesting the Human Imagination!” Patrick Reasonover – writer and producer of They Say It Can’t Be Done

Incorporating any of the above four models provides the basis for forethought and planning. There may be additional considerations accompanying the above framework to drive even better outcomes yet – especially for those with big audacious visions of disruptive innovation. But often there are unexpected barriers. So how can one plan for the unexpected? There is a documentary film that explores some of these barriers, and four companies working to overcome them.

They Say It Can’t Be Done, written and produced by Patrick Reasonover, is an excellent documentary exploring how innovation can solve some of the world’s largest problems. The film tracks four companies on the cutting edge of technological solutions that could promote animal welfare, solve hunger, eliminate organ wait lists, and reduce atmospheric carbon. The film explores often unexpected challenges and barriers that are potentially keeping these companies from realizing success. They each share steps and strategies on how to break through the ‘concrete walls’.

The compelling theme from these companies is innovation for good – innovation with a moral foundation to improve humanity. One of the first questions typically asked by stakeholders is “When will these companies or their new innovations become profitable?” Here’s the BIG ‘What if’ question. What if we changed this question to, “What will it take to make this successful, and how can we help you get there faster?” These are fairly typical questions. But what about roadblocks potentially challenging even the most knowledgeable and experienced teams and proven technologies? I recently spoke with Patrick Reasonover about his mission and the documentary. Reasonover shares, “Faced with similar challenges to the companies in the documentary, I felt if more people understood barriers, the world would see more successful outcomes that could save people, improve human conditions, and the environment.” Reasonover went on to share four themes that would greatly help disruptors in their innovation practices. These four themes are summarized as follows:

One of the most important points he made in our discussion was to engage regulators and government agencies – collaborating with them very early on in the process and all along your path. Help them to understand; listen and take in their input.

Institute what Reasonover calls an ‘Ambassador of Imagination’. We need more imagination in the world and in our own world. It’s too easy to get boxed into an innovation framework and forget to take the blinders off in order to think and create big things!

Optimism is sorely needed in the world and especially for innovators. Getting new things out the door is daunting. Infuse your efforts with doses of optimism grounded in reality.

CELEBRATE… hitting milestones should be celebrated along the way. It’s a long road, and all too often we get push back from doubters, investors wanting faster outcomes, governing approval agencies, and so on. Celebrate and move forward!

These four practices create a culture that encourages and celebrates imagination, innovation, success, and all the collaborators helping you get there. And involving agencies early on in the process helps them to understand that you are taking safety and ethics seriously. Take for example 3D-printed organs for those needing transplants. There is so much at stake. Stepping through the approval process to prove it out on less risky organs – for example, 3D printed ears – helps to chart the course for other organs as the technologies and the discovery of new methods continues to develop.

The article “On The Road To 3-D Printed Organs” in TheScientist reports, “There are a number of companies who are attempting to do things like 3-D print ears, and researchers have already reported transplanting 3-D printed ears onto children who had birth defects that left their ears underdeveloped, notes Robby Bowles, a bioengineer at the University of Utah. The ear transplants are, he says, ‘kind of the first proof of concept of 3-D printing for medicine.”

Ethics First

All in all, there is much evidence pointing to success, longevity, scale, and profits when building a framework that places ethics, safety, values, and purpose as planned practices in any innovation effort.

These practices do not have to slow the process of innovation in the least. On the contrary… they will often speed up the effort, as in the example of engaging regulators as collaborators early on in your efforts. Engaging imagination and optimism are sorely needed, and keeps teams engaged and enthused. And.. leveraging one of Stanford’s four models could save a great deal of pain by monitoring outcomes all along your development stage gates. It all just makes good and safe business sense!

*Article is an excerpt contribution (chapter 6): The Other Side of Growth: Innovator’s Responsibilities in an Emerging World

Image credit: Pixabay

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Shark Tanks are the Pumpkin Spice of Innovation

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Shark Tanks are the Pumpkin Spice of Innovation

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

On August 27, Pumpkin Spice season began. It was the earliest ever launch of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte and it kicked off a season in which everything from Cheerios to protein powder to dog shampoo promises the nostalgia of Grandma’s pumpkin pie.

Since its introduction in 2003, the Pumpkin Spice Latte has attracted its share of lovers and haters but, because it’s a seasonal offering, the hype fades almost as soon as it appears.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for its counterpart in corporate innovation — The Shark Tank/Hackathon/Lab Week.

It may seem unfair to declare Shark Tanks the Pumpkin Spice of corporate innovation, but consider the following:

They are events. There’s nothing wrong with seasonal flavors and events. After all, they create a sense of scarcity that spurs people to action and drives companies’ revenues. However, there IS a great deal wrong with believing that innovation is an event. Real innovation is not an event. It is a way of thinking and problem-solving, a habit of asking questions and seeking to do things better, and of doing the hard and unglamorous work of creating, learning, iterating, and testing required to bring innovation — something different that creates value — to life.
They appeal to our sense of nostalgia and connection. The smell and taste of Pumpkin Spice bring us back to simpler times, holidays with family, pie fresh and hot from the oven. Shark Tanks do the same. They remind us of the days when we believed that we could change the world (or at least fix our employers) and when we collaborated instead of competed. We feel warm fuzzies as we consume (or participate in) them, but the feelings are fleeting, and we return quickly to the real world.
They pretend to be something they’re not. Starbucks’ original Pumpkin Spice Latte was flavored by cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. There was no pumpkin in the Pumpkin Spice. Similarly, Shark Tanks are innovation theater — events that give people an outlet for their ideas and an opportunity to feel innovation-y for a period of time before returning to their day-to-day work. The value that is created is a temporary blip, not lasting change that delivers real business value.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

If you’re serious about walking the innovation talk, Shark Tanks can be a great way to initiate and accelerate building a culture and practice of innovation. But they must be developed and deployed in a thoughtful way that is consistent with your organization’s strategy and priorities.

Make Shark Tanks the START of an innovation effort, not a standalone event. Clearly establish the problems or organizational priorities you want participants to solve and the on-going investment (including dedicated time) that the company will make in the winners. Allocate an Executive Sponsor who meets with the team monthly and distribute quarterly updates to the company to share winners’ progress and learnings
Act with courage and commitment. Go beyond the innovation warm fuzzies and encourage people to push the boundaries of “what we usually do.” Reward and highlight participants that make courageous (i.e. risky) recommendations. Pursue ideas that feel a little uncomfortable because the best way to do something new that creates value (i.e. innovate) is to actually DO something NEW.
Develop a portfolio of innovation structures: Just as most companies use a portfolio of tools to grow their core businesses, they need a portfolio of tools to create new businesses. Use Shark Tanks to the surface and develop core or adjacent innovation AND establish incubators and accelerators to create and test radical innovations and business models AND fund a corporate VC to scout for new technologies and start-ups that can provide instant access to new markets.

Conclusion

Whether you love or hate Pumpkin Spice Lattes you can’t deny their impact. They are, after all, Starbucks’ highest-selling seasonal offering. But it’s hard to deny that they are increasingly the subject of mocking memes and eye rolls, a sign that their days, and value, maybe limited.

(Most) innovation events, like Pumpkin Spice, have a temporary effect. But not on the bottom-line. During these events, morale, and team energy spike. But, as the excitement fades and people realize that nothing happened once the event was over, innovation becomes a meaningless buzzword, evoking eye rolls and Dilbert cartoons.

Avoid this fate by making Shark Tanks a lasting part of your innovation menu — a portfolio of tools and structures that build and sustain a culture and practice of innovation, one that creates real financial and organizational value.

Image credit: Unsplash

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Leading Your Way Through Crisis

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Leading Your Way Through Crisis

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

There’s a passage in Ernest Hemingway’s 1925 novel, The Sun Also Rises, in which a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he answers. “Gradually, then suddenly.” The quote has since become emblematic of how a crisis takes shape. First with small signs you hardly notice and then with shocking impact.

That’s certainly how it felt to me in November, 2008, when I was leading a media company in Kyiv. By that time, the financial crisis was going full throttle, although things had been relatively calm in our market. Ukraine had been growing briskly in recent years and, while we expected a slowdown, we didn’t expect a crash.

Those illusions were soon shattered. Ad sales in Ukraine would eventually fall by a catastrophic 85%, while overall GDP would be down 14%. It was, to say the least, the worst business crisis I had ever encountered. In many ways, our business never really recovered, but the lessons I learned while managing through it will last a lifetime.

Build Trust Through Candor and Transparency

Our October revenues had come through fairly strong, so we were reasonably confident in our ability to weather the crisis. That all changed in November though, when ad sales, our primary source of revenue, dropped precipitously. By mid-November it had become clear that we were going to have to take drastic measures.

One of the first things that happens in a crisis is that the rumor mill goes into high gear. As if the real news isn’t bad enough, unimaginably crazy stories start getting passed around. To make matters worse, the facts were moving so fast that I didn’t have a clear picture of what the reality actually was, so couldn’t offer much in the way of consolation.

Yet what I could do was offer clarity and transparency. I called my senior team into an emergency meeting and told them, “This is bad. Really bad. And to be honest I’m not sure where we stand right now. One thing that I can assure you all of though is this: Like everything else, eventually this crisis will end and, when it does, you are going to want to look back at how you acted and you are going to want to be proud.”

A good number of those in the room that day have since told me how much that meeting meant to them. I wasn’t able to offer much in substance, or even any condolence for that matter. What I was able to do was establish a standard of candor and transparency which made trust possible. That became an essential asset moving forward.

Create An Imperfect Plan

Creating an atmosphere of transparency and trust is essential, but you also have to move quickly to action. In our case, that meant restructuring the entire company over the next 36 hours in order to bring our costs somewhat back in line with revenues. We weren’t even close to having a plan for the long-term, this was about survival.

We still, however, wanted to limit the damage. Although we were eliminating some businesses entirely, we recognized that some of our best talent worked in those businesses. So to lay people off indiscriminately would be a mistake. We wanted to keep our top performers and place them where they could have the most impact.

Over the next day and a half, we had a seemingly never-ending and excruciating series of meetings in which we decided who would stay and who would go, where we could increase efficiency by combining functions and leveraging our scale. Our goal was to do more than just survive, but to position ourselves to be more competitive in the future.

The plan we created in that short period of time was by no means perfect. I had to make decisions based on poor information in a very compressed time frame. Certainly mistakes were made. But within 36 hours we had a plan to move forward and a committed team that, in many ways, welcomed the distraction of focusing on the task in front of them.

Look for Dead Sea Markets

In their 2005 book, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne popularized the notion of a Blue Ocean Strategy, which focuses on new markets, rather than fighting it out in a “red ocean” filled with rabid competition. As MIT Professor David Robertson has described, however, sometimes markets are neither a red or blue ocean, but more like a dead sea, which kills off existing life but provides a new ecosystem in which different organisms can thrive.

He gave the example of LEGO’s Discovery Centers, which has capitalized on the abrupt shift in the economics of mall space. A typical location is set up in an empty department store and features miniature versions of some of the same attractions that can be found at the Toy giant’s amusement parks. The strategy leverages the fact that many mall owners are in dire need to fill the space.

We found something similar during the Ukraine economic collapse of 2009. Because the country was a major outsourcing center for web developers, demand for those with technical talent actually increased. Many of our weaker competitors were unable to retain their staff, which gave us an opportunity to launch several niche digital brands even while we were cutting back in other parts of our business.

Every crisis changes economic relationships and throws pricing out of whack. In some cases that turns cheap commodities, such as Lysol and hand sanitizer amid a Coronavirus pandemic, into highly demanded products. In other cases, however, it makes both assets and market share surprisingly affordable. That can create great opportunities.

Prepare for the Next Crisis

By the fall of 2009, our company was financially stable and things were returning to some form of normalcy. We had a strong management team, a portfolio of leading products and our survival was no longer seriously in question. However, I was exhausted and decided to leave to pursue other opportunities.

The founder, who had started the company almost 15 years before, was as exhausted as me and was ready to sell the company. Given our highly political sensitive portfolio of news brands, I urged him to seek a deal with a multinational firm. However, for various reasons, he decided to go with a local group led by Petro Poroshenko and Boris Lozhkin.

In my book Cascades, I describe what happens next. Due to the hard-hitting coverage of our news journalists, the company came under pressure from the oppressive Yanukovych regime. In 2013, the new owners were forced to sell the company to an ally of the Ukrainian President. A few months later, the Euromaidan protests broke out and Yanukovych was unanimously impeached. Later, Poroshenko was elected President and named Lozhkin as his Chief of Staff.

I still keep in touch with a core group of my former colleagues. Many have started families or new businesses. Quite a few have moved to different countries. Yet we all share the bond of working through the crucible of crisis together, some pride in what we achieved and the satisfaction that, when it was called for, we gave it our honest best.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credit: Pixabay

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Things I Occasionally Forget

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Things I Occasionally Forget

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

Clean-sheet designs are fun, right up until they don’t launch.

When you feel the urge to do a clean-sheet design, go home early.

When you don’t know how to make it better, make it worse and do the opposite.

Without trying, there is no way to know if it will work.

Trying sometimes feels like dying.

But without trying, nothing changes.

Agreement is important, but only after the critical decision has been made.

When there’s 100% agreement, you waited too long to make the decision.

When it’s unclear who the customer is, ask “Whose problem will be solved?”

When the value proposition is unclear, ask ‘What problem will be solved?”

When your technology becomes mature, no one wants to believe it.

When everyone believes the technology is mature, you should have started working on the new technology four years ago.

If your projects are slow, blame your decision-making processes.

Two of the most important decisions: which projects to start and which to stop.

All the action happens at the interfaces, but that’s also where two spans of control come together and chafe.

If you want to understand your silos and why they don’t play nicely together, look at the organizational chart.

When a company starts up, the product sets the organizational structure.

Then, once a company is mature, the organizational structure constrains the product.

At the early stages of a project, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

And once the project is complete, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Connecting Individual Contribution to Organizational Impact

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Purpose-Driven Work

Connecting Individual Contribution to Organizational Impact

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In the modern economy, organizations are locked in a perpetual battle for talent, engagement, and sustainable growth. Yet, many leaders overlook the single most powerful, renewable resource at their disposal: the human desire for meaning. As a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I argue that the future of work is not defined by perks or paychecks alone, but by a deep, authentic connection between an individual’s daily tasks and the organization’s overarching impact. This is the essence of Purpose-Driven Work. When employees understand precisely how their efforts contribute to a mission bigger than the bottom line, their productivity transforms from mere labor into inspired contribution.

The challenge for innovation leaders is moving purpose from a glossy mission statement on the wall to a dynamic, daily operating principle on the shop floor. True purpose-driven work requires a transparent system that links a junior analyst’s spreadsheet update or a warehouse worker’s careful packing directly to the organization’s larger societal or customer value. When this connection is clear, the result is exponential: lower attrition, higher engagement, better customer service, and a powerful engine for organizational resilience and human-centered innovation.

The Three Levers of Purpose Alignment

To institutionalize purpose-driven work, organizations must strategically pull three key levers:

1. The “Why” Transparency: Every employee must not only know the company’s mission but also regularly see proof of that mission in action. This involves transparently sharing impact metrics, customer testimonials, and success stories that highlight the human outcome of the work.
2. Contribution Mapping: Leaders must create clear pathways—literally mapping the work—that show how each department, team, and individual role acts as a critical link in the chain of impact. This eliminates the feeling of being a “cog in the machine” and emphasizes individual ownership of the final result.
3. Amplifying Micro-Innovations: When purpose is clear, employees feel safe and motivated to innovate at the local level. Organizations must create structures to capture and celebrate these small, purpose-aligned improvements, reinforcing the idea that everyone is an innovation driver in the service of the mission.

“Purpose is not a destination; it’s the GPS for daily decision-making. If your people don’t know the destination, they can’t navigate the complex roads of innovation.” — Braden Kelley

Case Study 1: The Healthcare Tech Company – Connecting Code to Care

The Challenge:

A rapidly growing healthcare technology firm, specializing in electronic health records (EHR), found that its software developers were experiencing burnout and disconnection. They understood they built software, but the abstraction of code separated them from the mission of patient care. This led to quality dips and high turnover.

The Purpose-Driven Solution:

The company instituted a mandatory, recurring program called “Empathy Days.” Instead of simply reading bug reports, developers and testers were required to spend a dedicated day each quarter in a hospital or clinic setting, shadowing nurses and doctors who used their software. They witnessed firsthand how a one-second lag in loading patient data could impact a critical decision, or how a poorly designed interface created friction for an overwhelmed medical professional.

The Organizational Impact:

The impact was immediate and profound. The developers, now emotionally invested, returned to their desks with a renewed sense of urgency and accuracy. Bugs were fixed faster, and the quality of user-centered design skyrocketed because the team shifted its focus from meeting feature specifications to reducing friction for the user-in-crisis. Attrition among technical staff dropped by 15%, proving that connecting a technical task (coding) to a human outcome (saving time for a nurse) is a powerful driver of engagement and quality innovation.

Case Study 2: Global Retailer – The Sustainable Supply Chain Steward

The Challenge:

A global apparel retailer had a strong public commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing, but this purpose felt remote to the logistics and distribution center teams, whose performance was measured almost exclusively by speed and volume (Output Metrics).

The Purpose-Driven Solution:

The retailer fundamentally altered its performance management system to incorporate Purpose-Driven Metrics. They introduced the role of the “Sustainable Supply Chain Steward” at every distribution hub. Employees were trained on the specific environmental impact of packaging choices, waste management, and shipping routes. Their contribution mapping was changed to show: “Your choice of pallet wrap today saved X amount of plastic from landfill, directly supporting the company’s 2030 goal.”

The Organizational Impact:

By empowering front-line employees with purpose and impact data, the organization unlocked a wave of decentralized, cost-saving innovation. Logistics teams began identifying new recycling partnerships and optimizing packaging designs, not because they were told to, but because they were measured and recognized for their contribution to the sustainability mission. The retailer not only saw a measurable reduction in waste and shipping costs but also achieved higher scores in employee satisfaction related to the company’s ethical practices, demonstrating a clear link between local purpose alignment and global brand equity.

The Leadership Imperative: Curating Meaning at Scale

Purpose-driven work is not a motivational poster; it is a systemic leadership commitment. The ultimate responsibility of the innovation leader is to be the chief curator of meaning, ensuring that the work environment constantly reflects the value being created for humanity. This requires intentional transparency regarding impact, courageous willingness to expose employees to the human beneficiaries of their work, and a commitment to measuring Outcome over mere Output.

When you transform a job description from a list of duties to a statement of impact, you stop hiring for compliance and start attracting talent driven by conviction. That conviction — the authentic belief that “my work matters” — is the non-replicable, human-centered competitive advantage that will define the most resilient and innovative organizations of the next decade.

Extra Extra: Because innovation is all about change, Braden Kelley’s human-centered change methodology and tools are the best way to plan and execute the changes necessary to support your innovation and transformation efforts — all while literally getting everyone all on the same page for change. Find out more about the methodology and tools, including the book Charting Change by following the link. Be sure and download the TEN FREE TOOLS while you’re here.

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Open Source Innovation is Sharing for Greater Impact

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Open Source Innovation is Sharing for Greater Impact

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

For decades, the competitive landscape has been dominated by a zero-sum mentality: innovation was a tightly guarded secret, proprietary technology was the ultimate moat, and intellectual property was a weapon. But as a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I argue that this closed-loop model is becoming increasingly obsolete in a world defined by exponential complexity and interconnected challenges. The future belongs to a more expansive, collaborative paradigm: Open Source Innovation. This isn’t just a technical methodology for software development; it’s a profound strategic philosophy that leverages collective intelligence, accelerates problem-solving, and cultivates an ecosystem of shared value. It’s about moving from a mindset of hoarding knowledge to one of sharing for greater impact, proving that when you give away your best ideas, you often get something far more valuable in return.

The core principle of open source innovation is simple yet radical: by making certain intellectual assets (code, designs, data, research) freely available for others to use, modify, and distribute, you tap into a global network of talent and creativity that far surpasses the capacity of any single organization. This collaborative ecosystem drives faster iteration, more robust solutions, and greater societal benefit. The perceived “loss” of proprietary control is vastly outweighed by the gains in adoption, collective improvement, and the establishment of industry standards. It’s a human-centered approach to problem-solving, built on trust, transparency, and a shared belief that many minds are better than one, especially when tackling grand challenges.

The Strategic Imperatives of Open Source Innovation

Embracing open source innovation requires a significant shift in corporate culture and strategy. It’s about strategically deciding *what* to open and *how* to engage with the community:

1. De-Risking and Acceleration: By exposing nascent ideas or foundational technologies to a wider community, you gain diverse perspectives, catch bugs faster, and accelerate development cycles. The collective scrutiny and contribution dramatically de-risk the innovation process.
2. Building Ecosystems and Standards: Open sourcing foundational technologies can establish them as industry standards, creating network effects that benefit everyone, including the original contributor. It fosters a collaborative ecosystem that attracts talent and partners.
3. Enhancing Trust and Transparency: In an era of increasing skepticism, open source demonstrates a commitment to transparency and community. It builds trust by showing a willingness to share, inviting external review and collaboration.
4. Focusing on Higher-Value Activities: By open-sourcing non-differentiating “commodity” components, organizations can free up internal resources to focus on proprietary innovations that truly create unique value and competitive advantage.

“True innovation is not found in guarding secrets, but in inspiring shared discovery. Open source is the engine of collective genius.” — Braden Kelley

Case Study 1: Linux – The OS Built by the World

The Challenge:

In the early days of personal computing, operating systems were proprietary, expensive, and controlled by a few large corporations. This limited access, stunted innovation, and created vendor lock-in. The challenge was to create a robust, reliable, and accessible operating system that could compete with commercial giants without the resources of a corporate entity.

The Open Source Solution:

In 1991, Linus Torvalds released the initial version of the Linux kernel under an open-source license. This simple act invited developers worldwide to contribute, audit, and improve the code. What started as a personal project rapidly evolved into a global collaborative effort, harnessing the collective genius of thousands of programmers. The open development model allowed for:

Rapid Iteration: Bugs were found and fixed faster, and new features were integrated at an unprecedented pace.
Community Ownership: Developers felt a deep sense of ownership, driving unparalleled commitment and quality.
Unprecedented Customization: The open nature allowed Linux to be adapted for an incredible array of devices, from supercomputers to smartphones (Android is built on a Linux kernel).

The Human-Centered Result:

Linux fundamentally reshaped the technology landscape. It provided a powerful, free, and incredibly flexible operating system that became the backbone of the internet, enterprise servers, and mobile devices. It democratized access to powerful computing, fostering an explosion of innovation that would have been impossible under a proprietary model. Linux is the ultimate testament to the power of shared intellectual capital, proving that collective endeavor can create solutions far more robust and impactful than any single corporate entity.

Case Study 2: Arduino – Democratizing Hardware Innovation

The Challenge:

Microcontroller platforms, essential for building electronic prototypes and interactive objects, were traditionally complex, expensive, and geared towards professional engineers. This created a high barrier to entry for artists, designers, educators, and hobbyists who wanted to innovate with hardware.

The Open Source Solution:

In 2005, the Arduino project was launched, offering an open-source hardware and software platform. The physical circuit boards (hardware schematics) and the integrated development environment (software) were made freely available under open licenses. This meant anyone could build their own Arduino board, modify its software, or create extensions. This open approach led to:

Massive Accessibility: Lower cost and simpler programming made electronics accessible to a non-expert audience.
Explosive Innovation: A global community emerged, sharing thousands of projects, tutorials, and libraries, collectively innovating on the platform far beyond what a single company could achieve.
Educational Impact: Arduino became a staple in STEM education, teaching foundational principles of coding and electronics.

The Human-Centered Result:

Arduino revolutionized the maker movement and democratized access to hardware innovation. It empowered countless individuals to turn their ideas into tangible prototypes, leading to everything from home automation systems to interactive art installations and educational robots. By choosing an open-source model, Arduino didn’t just sell products; it built a vibrant ecosystem of creators and learners, proving that sharing foundational technology can unlock exponential human creativity and societal impact.

Conclusion: The Future is Collaborative, Not Proprietary

The lessons from open source are clear: in an increasingly complex world, no single organization holds a monopoly on good ideas or the talent to execute them. The greatest innovations often emerge from the intersections of diverse perspectives and collaborative efforts. Open source innovation is not about altruism alone; it is a powerful strategic choice that fosters speed, resilience, and an unprecedented capacity for solving shared challenges.

Leaders must actively explore how to strategically embrace open source principles—whether by contributing to existing projects, open-sourcing internal non-core technologies, or fostering a culture of internal transparency. By moving beyond a mindset of proprietary hoarding to one of strategic sharing, organizations can tap into the collective genius of the world, driving greater impact, building stronger ecosystems, and ultimately, ensuring a more innovative and collaborative future for all.

Extra Extra: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

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How Do You Measure Power?

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How Do You Measure Power?

GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore

In a recent blog, I argued that management needs to be accountable not only for delivering current performance but also for investing in power initiatives that will fuel future performance. Compensation systems that focus solely on the former too often result in a hollowing out of the enterprise, as we have seen with any number of iconic companies that have “performed” their way to the sidelines.

But this begs a key question—how do you measure power? Specifically, what kind of metrics could supply a stable foundation for management accountability and executive compensation?

In my book Escape Velocity, when discussing managing for shareholder value, we introduced a framework called the Hierarchy of Powers. The idea is that investors, who are buying a share of your enterprise’s future performance, value your company based on how much power they think it has relative to other investments they could be making. In this context, we claimed there were five classes of power that got evaluated in the following order of priority:

Category Power. Is your core business in a category that is growing, stable, or declining? This, we claimed, is the single biggest predictor of future performance.

Company Power. Within that category, where is your company in the pecking order of companies? If you are number one, that is a huge advantage. If you are number two, it also provides tailwinds. After that, there are no more tailwinds to be had.

Market Power. For companies that focus on one or more vertical markets, is your company the default choice for major prospects and customers in that segment? Wherever this is the case, it gives a material boost to your sales momentum and thus your company’s valuation.

Offer Power. Do you get preference and/or premium pricing due to the differentiation of your offer? Do you win the lion’s share of any competitive bake-offs?

Execution Power. Do you have a history of meeting or beating guidance on a consistent basis?

The model has stood up well over the years, but there is still the question of how to ensure accountability for investing in power when so much of our attention (and compensation) is focused on creating the next quarter’s performance. To that end, my colleague Philip Lay and I have been sorting through objective measures that signal material gains in power, ones that executive teams could readily track, and compensation programs could use to calibrate bonuses.

Here’s what we propose should be the top two metrics for each class of power:

Category Power. The focus here is on portfolio valuation—how many categories does the enterprise participate in, and how is each category faring. Meaningful changes in category power typically come through M&A, often supplementing organic innovation that is looking to scale quickly. Top two metrics for each category assessed:

Category Maturity Life Cycle status. The key stages are secular growth, cyclical growth, stagnant, and declining.
Technology Adoption Life Cycle status. This model focuses specifically on the period of secular growth, breaking it up into the following stages: Early Market, Chasm, Beachhead, Bowling Alley, Tornado, and Main Street. The two big valuation changers are winning a beachhead market segment in the Bowling Alley and participating with meaningful share in the Tornado.

Company Power. In high-growth categories, the focus is on bookings growth and competitive win rates. In mature categories, it is on the stability of the installed base as well as bargaining power both with suppliers and with customers. The top two metrics are:

Market share within each category. By far the most important metric, as market ecosystems organize around and give preference to the category leader.
Balanced mix of power and performance categories. For global enterprises, in particular, portfolio balance creates optionality to deal with both bull and bear markets.

Market Power. In emerging categories, dominating a target market segment, as opposed to merely participating in it, is critical to crossing the chasm and creating a sustainable franchise. In mature categories, target market segment focus is key to creating above-market growth. The top two metrics are:

Segment share. The most important metric because ecosystems that serve market segments organize around a segment leader only when it has dominant segment share.
Growth rates within target market segments. This is particularly important in any economic downturn that impacts different market segments to highly varying extents.

Offer Power. This metric and the next are closely aligned with delivering performance in the current fiscal year. That said, they still signal successful investments in power. The top two power metrics are:

Magic quadrant status. This is the most widely circulated third-party measure of offer power.
Win/loss record in head-to-head competitions. This is the most credible measure of offer power.

Execution Power. This really is the land of performance, but there is still power in reputation. Top two metrics are:

History of “meeting or beating” commits, be they forecast or, release dates. This is what gives confidence to customers and partners to give your team the nod.
Customer success metrics. These include Net Expansion Rate, Net Retention Rate, and Promoter Score, all of which validate that you are keeping your sales promises.

Guidelines for Using the Metrics

Metrics are a device to ensure visibility and accountability, and nowhere is this more important than when dealing with something as abstract as power. The key is to associate the right metrics with the right people, the ones who can have the most impact on the level of power in question. This works out as follows:

Top Executives: Category Power, Company Power. The two key levers here are using M&A to strategic advantage and using the annual budgeting process to allocate resources asymmetrically to achieve strategic objectives.

Middle Management: Market Power, Offer Power. The two key levers here are using market segmentation to strategic advantage and allocating the resources under your control asymmetrically to achieve dominant shares in target market segments.

Front Line: Execution Power. The key lever here is to align and focus the resources under your control or influence them in order to deliver the performance you have committed to.

For purposes of compensation, promotion, and overall alignment, these metrics align well with OKR objectives and can be used wherever OKRs are focused on increasing power. Again, the goal is not to replace performance metrics but rather to complement them.

That’s what Philip and I think. What do you think?

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Preparing Your Workforce for Collaborative Intelligence

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Upskilling for the AI Era

Preparing Your Workforce for Collaborative Intelligence

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

The rise of Artificial Intelligence is not a distant threat looming on the horizon; it is the fundamental reality of business today. Yet, the conversation is often dominated by fear—the fear of job replacement, of technical obsolescence, and of organizational disruption. As a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I argue that this narrative misses the most profound opportunity: the chance to redefine the very nature of human work. The true imperative for leaders is not to acquire AI tools, but to upskill their human workforce for a symbiotic partnership with those tools. We must shift our focus from automation to Collaborative Intelligence, where the strength of the machine (speed, data processing) complements the genius of the human (creativity, empathy, judgment).

The AI Era demands a strategic pivot in talent development. We need to move past reactive technical training and invest in the skills that are uniquely human, those that machines can augment but never truly replicate. The future of competitive advantage lies not in owning the best algorithms, but in cultivating the workforce most skilled at collaborating with algorithms. This requires a shift in mindset, skills, and organizational design, ensuring that every employee — from the frontline associate to the senior executive — understands their new role as an AI partner, strategist, and ethical steward.

The Three Pillars of Collaborative Intelligence

Preparing your workforce for the AI era means focusing on three critical, human-centric skill areas that machines will struggle to master:

1. Strategic Judgment and Empathy: AI excels at calculation, but it lacks contextual awareness, cultural nuance, and empathy. The human role shifts to interpreting the AI’s output, exercising ethical judgment, and translating data into emotionally resonant actions for customers and colleagues. This requires deep training in human-centered design principles and ethical decision-making.
2. Creative Problem-Solving and Experimentation: The most valuable new skill is not coding, but prompt engineering and defining the right questions. Humans must conceptualize new use cases, challenge the AI’s assumptions, and rapidly prototype new solutions. This demands a culture of psychological safety where continuous experimentation and failure are encouraged as essential steps toward innovation.
3. Data Literacy and AI Stewardship: Every employee must become literate in data and AI concepts. They don’t need to write code, but they must understand how the AI makes decisions, where its data comes from, and why a result might be biased or flawed. The human is the ethical backstop and the responsible steward of the algorithm’s power.

“The AI won’t take your job; a person skilled in AI will. The upskilling challenge is not about the technology; it’s about the partnership.” — Braden Kelley

Case Study 1: The Global Consulting Firm – From Analyst to Interpreter

The Challenge:

A major global consulting firm faced the threat of AI automation taking over their junior analysts’ core tasks: data aggregation, slide creation, and basic research. They realized that their competitive edge was not in performing these routine tasks, but in their consultants’ ability to synthesize, communicate, and build client trust—all uniquely human skills.

The Collaborative Intelligence Solution:

The firm launched a massive internal upskilling initiative focused on transforming the junior analyst role from “data processor” to “AI interpreter and client strategist.” The training focused heavily on non-technical skills: narrative storytelling (using AI-generated data to craft compelling client stories), ethical deliberation (identifying bias in AI-generated recommendations), and active listening (improving client empathy). AI was positioned not as a replacement, but as an instant, tireless research assistant that handled 80% of the routine work.

The Human-Centered Result:

By investing in human judgment and communication, the firm increased the value of its junior workforce. Consultants spent less time creating slides and more time on high-impact client interactions, leading to stronger relationships and more innovative solutions. This shift proved that the ultimate value-add in a service industry is the human capacity for strategic synthesis and trustworthy communication — skills that thrive when augmented by AI.

Case Study 2: Leading Retail Bank – Embedding AI into Customer Service

The Challenge:

A large retail bank implemented AI chatbots and automated routing systems to handle routine customer inquiries, intending to reduce call center costs. However, customer satisfaction plummeted because complex or emotionally charged issues were being mishandled by the automation. The human agents felt demoralized, fearing redundancy.

The Collaborative Intelligence Solution:

The bank pivoted its strategy, creating a new role: the Augmented Human Agent. The human agents were upskilled in two key areas. First, they received intensive training in emotional regulation and conflict resolution to handle the high-stress, complex calls that the AI flagged and escalated. Second, they were trained in “AI tuning” — learning to review the chatbot’s transcripts, identify common failure points, and provide direct feedback to the AI development team. This turned the agents from passive recipients of technology into active partners in its improvement.

The Human-Centered Result:

This approach restored customer trust. Customers felt valued because their most difficult problems were routed quickly to a highly skilled, emotionally intelligent human. Employee engagement improved because agents felt empowered and recognized as essential collaborators in the bank’s digital transformation. The result was a successful blend: AI handled the volume and efficiency, while highly skilled humans handled the emotion and complexity, achieving both cost savings and higher customer satisfaction.

Conclusion: The Future of Work is Partnership

The AI Era is not about a technological race; it is about a human race to redefine skills, value, and purpose. The most forward-thinking leaders will treat AI deployment as a catalyst for human capital development. This means shifting budget from outdated legacy training programs to investments in judgment, ethics, creativity, and empathy. The future of work is not about the “Man vs. Machine” conflict, but the Man with Machine partnership.

Your competitive advantage tomorrow will be determined by how effectively your people can collaborate with the intelligent systems at their disposal. By focusing your upskilling efforts on the three pillars of Collaborative Intelligence, you ensure that your workforce is not just surviving the AI revolution, but actively leading it—creating a future that is not just efficient, but fundamentally human-centered and more innovative.

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