Getting your teamon the starting-blocks of

innovation

F. E. Pozzolini for Terres Neuves

MENU

Challenge & Mission

You must take charge of creating and putting together a

fast response, left & right, team of do-or-die players

that are capable at the same time of operating as well as anticipating the future

(the so-called ambidextrous characters)

TIMING OF ITINERARY

0900 – 0930

Who am I – The thinking behind this conference

0930 – 1015

Overall assessment - the photo of your company

Are you today open to Innovation ?

1015 – 1045

Food for your thoughts & open table

1045

Break of fresh air !!!!

1100 – 1230

The right people in charge

Tips for a team building

1400 – 1430

The right people in charge

Open table

1430 – 1500

Team building

Open table

1500

second Break of fresh air !!!!

1515 onwards

How to be immersed in INNOVATION by Management by walking around

Developing a culture that fosters creativity & innovation

Last hour until 1730

Lesson of the day

Quick look back

Repeat and Question session

Your assessment and evaluation of the Lesson of the day

ITINERARY

Who am I

The thinking behind this conference

1. Overall assessment - The photo of your company

2. Are you today open to Innovation ?

3. The right people in charge

4. Tips for a team building

5. How to be immersed in INNOVATION by Management by walking around

6. Developing a culture that fosters creativity & innovation

Italian by birth, Scottish mother, brought up in a multilingual and multicultural environment speaking French and thinking international.

15 years in the USA, 18 years in France, the rest somehow/where in Italy.

Second Fiddle and Co-Creator of businesses, innovative or in the spearhead of innovation from Food Business in the US to Career Counseling in Italy.

In his fifth life I decided to put my experience to work for international Business Schools via Advancia and Negocia where for the past three years I have lectured & taught, in English, Business Intelligence, the Pleasure of Negotiation and Personal Development to Bachelor Three and Master One and Two students

Further I accompany Chinese Students in the hunt for French internships and during their internship. As of November 2010 also Brazilians.

I am exploring areas and lectures in the field of Innovation, Building the future, Generation clashes, Generational anxiety.

I am going to lecture next year at the Central University of Economics of Beijing .

60 y.o., married, two kids and son.

"A laser, is a solution seeking a problem”

1964 quote from a NYTimes article on

Theodore H. Maiman the man who built the first operational laser

Overture

Allegro moderato

Mr. Rock & Roll – Amy MacDonaldfrom the album

This is life

How much does it cost?

Who benefits?

Who pays?

When can you deliver it?

What are we talking about?

Symphony of I-N-N-O-V-A-T-IO-N

First Movement

Andantino

Innovation never

disappearsbecausecuriosity neverdies

Culture & Education

Culture fosters curiosity

Education structures & channels

curiosity

When culture is latent and education is monopolized in its access and crystallized by a caste Nomenklaturacuriosity wanes away

The only innovation is marked by the cooptation of classes of Apparaticks

& their self-reproduction as part of the Nomenklatura

The only innovation

Latent culture +

Nomenklatura oriented education =

stifling curiosity =

Zero or little innovation

Intermezzo

Second Movement

Andante con brio

Absolute need for

Curiosity & Empirics

Absolute need, through empirics, of curiosity

surfaces

where there isa starving hunger

for ideas andeconomic improvement of self

where the undetected of today and the unexpected of tomorrow are motors of venture and adventure that will create wealth and in the process defy Nomenklatura and challenge the Apparatick

Key Words

curiosity

starving hunger for ideas and economic improvement of self

undetected of today

unexpected of tomorrow

Where the dream becomes reality is where there is a fertile environment

Intermezzo

Third Movement

Fuga

Venture Capital &

Management of Risk

human, environmental &

financial

the sense & appreciation of risk based on needs and desires

Human Capital

The “hungry” of the world that are structured in their claim of sharing the richness as spelled out by Adam Smith & Marx & Keynes, the prophets of HOPE

Environmental

Where Academia and Industry work hand-in-hand un-afraid of the vulgarity of the word profit and un-tamed in their desire and want to advance Science & Technology for the well being of themselves, their organizations,

their scholarly institutions

Financial

Where Capital flows

Where risk is assessed on the basis of three simple questions

How much will it cost?Who will benefit?

When can you deliver it?

Intermezzo

Fourth Movement

con Fuoco

Unlocking Innovation

UnabatedAmbitiousSolitary

Relentless

Pursuit of a

Dream coupled with

RemorslessRuthless

S-E-L-F-I-S-H-N-E-S-S

(as in sense of self )

&

L-U-C-K

(sense of self-predestination)

Keeping in mind that

those who

D-A-R-E

WIN

“Les grosses boîtes finissent par produire d’abord de la hiérarchie”

quote from the article

Bâtisseur de rêves – a portrait of Elon Musk

Le Monde , Mardi 30 Mars 2010

SELF-REPRODUCTION OF

NOMENKLATURA =

COOPTATION OF APPARATICK =

BLOOD RELATIONS=

MENTAL DEFICIT OF IMAGINATION=

END OF DREAM = NO INNOVATION

ASSESSMENT/THE CK LIST

The Photo of your company

Where is your company in terms of innovation trends ?

Are your company’s products/services/technologies on the upward slope or in the mature phase in the S – curve ?

Do new technologies threaten/undermine your business?

Are your company’s ops effective, fast and efficient ?

Are mayor cost improvements possible, including your costs ?

Step ONE

Are you today open to Innovation?

Think in terms of Pareto. Idea and project have a mix of risk and return dimensions.

Think 20/80.

Apply portfolio thinking

Build a two dimensional matrix of your project(s) portfolio

Tech

nic

al C

halle

ng

eU

ncerta

inty / O

pp

ortu

nity

Cash

Cow

Bread &

Butter

Daring Glarin

g2015

High

Low

Mature New Innovative

Diesel

Market Characteristics Technical Characteristics

Based on this assessment and mapping of your project portfolio

what does it tell you?

If most projects and resources are located in the lower left quadrant you are, at this stage, risk adverse and are doing little to address future opportunities, new technologies, new markets

If most projects and resources are located in the upper right quadrant you are very aggressive and open to Innovation/Creativity

QUESTIONS

How are you going to build a suitable reward/risk balance for your organization?

How can you articulate/map this balance?

 

Step TWO 

 

changeopportunities

sift, vet and choose projects look far

setbacks are bumps egotistical and hungry

presenting & selling their projectcan sell dreamsfire-up a team

organizational politics participative management

not yes mennot your friends

Enablers of the dream are those that can identify/spot/detect the creator of innovation

but who are not themselves strictu sensus innovators

Put the right people in chargeA mix of dreamers, doers, go-getters

QUESTION

Do you have any of these characters around you in your team / organization?

TIPS for a team buildingrecommendations & suggestions

ONEDo not share your thinking with friends

(they may pollute your

thinking)and

yes men

TWOFind

unvarnished advice as you

consider investing in

INNOVATION

THREE Surround yourself with people that have complementary skills and

different approaches to analysing issues and making

decisions

FOURListen to their suggestions, points of

view, arguments, even if you disagree.

Consider them as Sparring Partners.Let them hit you hard, challenge

you!

FIVE

Do not let your EGO get in the way!Know when to cut your losses!

Recognize when you are pouring resources down the drain

HAVE THE STRENGHT & CHARACTER TO BAIL OUT WHEN

YOU DO

LAST & NOT LEAST

Always double ck your assumptionsWhat looks certain is not

What looks promising may not beBeware of the yes men

They can be the Innovation KILLERS

Step THREE 

Management-by-walking-around of Innovation

Being immersed in innovation as an active participant in the process that runs from idea generation to market

(bottom-up / top-down / bottom-up process)

QUESTIONS

How much of your time will you spend on the innovation front? 

Will you leave early decision making to low level staff who may not understand/do not share the big picture of your business and your vision?

 Have you become insulated from the technological issues shaping your business?

 Is your involvement in the process so late in the process itself that your only interest is whether a project will clear financial hurdles?

 

Step FOUR

Develop a culture that fosters creativity &

innovation

Process and Development

QUESTIONS  

Is your current success making you a bit too self-satisfied and complacent?

 

Are you outwardly focused/oriented?

Does your organization stimulate risk-takers? 

Creative people and new ideas are welcome in your organization?

 

Are you and your organization excessively bureaucratized in how you handle new ideas?

 

How will you reward acts of creativity?

You, as a leader, are respected, credible,

effective and… changeable as the

point man and the fall guy

Staff is ready to challange the status

quo and feels personally motivated

to get involved in change

Your team is project

management oriented

& non hierarchical

Staff is accustomed to

collaborative work and

values it

YOU WILL HAVE CHANGE IN

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE !!!!

TIPS

for structuring & fostering Organizational Culture in your team

Step FIVE

Be open to new ideas maintaining an active

critical sense.

Play at all times Devil’s Advocate

TO DO LIST

Place on the shoulders of the idea generator the responsibility for reducing uncertainties

Demonstrate interest in new ideas

……even when they challenge the Company’s current products & way of operating

Maintain simultaneously a healthy, open minded, skepticism.

Suggest course of action but reserve judgment until uncertainties are reduced

Use a stage gate (ck-points and waypoints) system and approach, to test the validity of ideas and projects

Step SIX 

Discover the future within which innovation willtake place

Establish Strategic Direction Allocate Space

Allow & Allot TimeFoster the Idea

TWO QUESTIONS in ONE

Do creative people on your staff understand

where the company is headed and heading?

or need just to deliver the idea and notnecessarily understand where the

companyis headed?

ONE & ONLY ANSWER

WELCOME

COMMUNICATE PASSION with

DRIVE & FIRE IN YOUR EYES !

HIRE THE RIGHT DREAMERS

ALIGN RESOURCES WITH STRATEGY

WELCOME

Set the strategy-related boundaries within which new ideas for improving customer intelligence & knowledge (CKM), process, supply chain, etc…. are welcome!

By doing this your company’s creative energies will naturally focus themselves in areas with the greatest payoff potential (not ROI)!!!

COMMUNICATE PASSION with

DRIVE & FIRE IN YOUR EYES!

HIRE THE RIGHT DREAMERS

Use every hiring opportunity to populate the organization with people whose special training, culture (yes culture), experience, know how, knowledge are aligned with the strategic direction of the company and not only so…

ALIGN RESOURCES WITH STRATEGY (Least & Max – Low /Max cap)

People are opportunists. They follow the money.

If they see that certain ideas, may be not all, that fall within the set/stated boundaries are getting funded they will channel their creative energies in that direction.

You must insure resources. It’s all in one word.

RESOURCES, RESOURCES, RESOURCES

It takes Money to make Money

Step SEVEN 

Put a hard nose puncher in charge as you number TWO

 “The impossible we do today, the possible tomorrow”

Step EIGHT 

Nurture the dream and the dreamers

Thank you noteAn enormous thank you in recognition of the contribution that it brought to

thispresentation to

Managing Creativity and InnovationPractical Strategies to Encourage CreativityHarvard Business Essentials© Harvard Business School - 2003

without which I would never have been able to create and set up the lecture

Recommended reading also

Fabriquer le futur 1 and 2L’imaginaire au service de l’innovationMusso – Ponthou – Seulliet© Pearson Education France 2005 et2007