The Innovator's Path E-Book

Madge M. Meyer

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 368

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

A guide to creating and sustaining a culture of innovation focused on business value

The Innovator’s Path introduces business readers to thought leader Madge M. Meyer’s unique, cross-cultural perspective on corporate innovation. The book presents eight essential disciplines (Listen, Lead, Position, Promote, Connect, Commit, Execute, and Evolve) that pave the way for individuals, teams, and organizations to continually innovate in ways that create new business value. The author overturns existing assumptions about inspiring and managing innovation, while offering new insights and practical advice for aspiring innovators and corporate leaders. Meyer demonstrates her points by telling the stories behind many of her award-winning results and adds engaging personal anecdotes to illustrate many of her points. The book also contains contributions from an extraordinary and diverse set of industry innovators.

Offers new ways for cultivating a mindset and culture of results-focused innovation and business value creation

• Equips CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CMOs, COOs, CTOs and aspiring innovators with proven principles and practices for leading innovation
• Focuses her readers' attention on the eight essential disciplines that help individuals, teams, and organizations innovate more successfully

Whether your focus is on your career, your team's success, or your organization's future, The Innovator’s Path provides you with the insights, strategies, techniques, and inspiration you need to accelerate your innovation progress.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Author's Note

超越創新 Introduction: Innovation and the Eight Disciplines

Defining Innovation

Making Innovation Business-as-Usual

Different Contexts

The Eight Disciplines

聽 Chapter 1: Listen

Patience, Humility, Respect

Listen: Levels of Effectiveness

Preparing Ourselves to Listen

How I Go about Listening

“Listening” to the Facts

Listening to What Is Not Being Said

Listen—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

領 Chapter 2: Lead

Leadership Essentials

Leading with Passion

Leading with Vision

Respect, Trust, and Integrity

The Soft Skills of Leadership

Sound Judgment

Creating a Culture of Innovation

Lead: Levels of Effectiveness

Lead—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

計 Chapter 3: Position

A Roadmap for Change

Positioning Our Sights

Developing Our Roadmap

Positioning for Change

Position: Levels of Effectiveness

Personal Positioning

Position—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

提 Chapter 4: Promote

Branding

The Importance of Establishing a Baseline for Innovation

Promoting Our Innovation Ideas

Opportunities to Promote

Promote: Levels of Effectiveness

Promoting State Street's Environmental Sustainability and Green Programs

Promote—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

連 Chapter 5: Connect

Connect: Levels of Effectiveness

The Connect Culture

Connect and Cooperate

Connecting Strategy, Processes, and Systems

Ways to Connect

Connecting with My Team

MIT Collaborative Initiatives and the Albright Challenge

Connect—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

承 Chapter 6: Commit

Culture and Commitment

Innovation Management in the Safety Zone

The IBM Way

Funding as Commitment

Personal and Team Commitment

Timing and Commitment

Commit: Levels of Effectiveness

Commit—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

行 Chapter 7: Execute

Meeting the Highest Standard for Our Astronauts

Flawless Execution

Rapid Value Delivery

Putting the Pieces Together

Execute: Levels of Effectiveness

Server Certification Process

Execute—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

變 Chapter 8: Evolve

Overcoming Success

Going Further Beyond

Continual Innovation, Not Constant Change

Clearing the Path

Adversity and Change

Evolve: Levels of Effectiveness

Evolving from Certification to Cloud

Evolve—Concrete Steps for Putting This Discipline into Action

Afterword

Appendix I: The Eight Disciplines—Summaries and Action Plans

聽 Listen

領 Lead

計 Position

提 Promote

連 Connect

承 Commit

行 Execute

變 Evolve

Appendix II: Biographies of Individuals Interviewed for This Book

Tenley E. Albright, MD

Deborah Ancona

Eugene Y. Chan, MD

Gerald Chertavian

Dean Kamen

Tarkan Maner

Tom Mendoza

Admiral Michael Mullen

Nathan Myhrvold

Samuel J. Palmisano

James S. Phalen

Linda S. Sanford

John Swainson

John Thompson

Ming Tsai

About the Author

Index

Cover image: Wiley

Cover design: © iStockphoto.com/FotoMak

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Meyer, Madge M.,

The innovator’s path : how individuals, teams, and organizations can make innovation business-as-usual / Madge M. Meyer.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-53732-9 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-56989-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-56985-6 (ebk) 1. Leadership. 2. Listening. 3. Strategic planning. 4. Industrial management–Technological innovations. I. Title.

HD57.7.M4896 2013

658.4'063–dc23

2013013980

This book is dedicated to my parents,

Nai Ying Chang Mao and Pei Ching Mao;

My husband, Werner, and our dearest daughter, Michele;

My brother, Michael, and sisters, Margo, Marjorie, and Marsha.

Foreword

As I read Madge Meyer's book The Innovator's Path, I could not help but think about my first week at my new job at State Street Bank. I had been working for a competitor for twenty years where I watched as State Street built an unassailable franchise serving the mutual fund industry. Luckily, after twenty years of competing against State Street, I had an opportunity to join the company and manage its largest business, the mutual funds servicing business. That first week told me why they had been consistently successful all those years, and why I had such difficulty competing against them.

Very early during that first week I had many conversations with the senior officials of the company. One of them took me aside and said, “You need to know one thing, you are not working for a bank, you are working for an IT company disguised as a bank.” It became very clear to me why I had such difficulty competing against State Street. I had been working for a bank that thought of itself as a bank and used IT as a “necessary evil.”

State Street very early on figured out what Madge writes about in her book—making innovation business-as-usual. In today's fast-paced, high-tech world, this approach is more important than ever. Any industry using technology, and I would suggest that almost all do, may want to think of itself as an IT company disguised as whatever it is they do—at least when it comes to innovation.

Later during that first week, a young, aggressive salesperson bounded into my office saying he needed my support for a new product, that in his words, “would revolutionize the mutual funds world, and we had to be the first to do this and seize first mover advantage.” He was working with our asset management group, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), and the American Stock Exchange to develop a mutual fund that could be traded on a stock exchange. The cost advantage would be significant, and therefore, the advisory fee charged would be far less than traditional mutual funds, among the many advantages of such a product. These products were to be known as exchange-traded funds or ETFs. This was 1991, and as the world now knows, State Street offered the first ETF in early 1993, called the Standard and Poor's Depository Receipt, or SPDR, which is today still the largest ETF in the world, within an investment category that has, in fact, revolutionized the mutual funds industry.

So what type of environment exists within a firm that allows an idea like the ETF to be created? That gives an individual the freedom to marshal resources to address a current customer's idea? That would normally consider the idea a threat to the largest and most profitable business of the company, the mutual fund servicing business? How does that idea not get killed somewhere in the normal corporate process of annual budgets, expense cutbacks, organizational jealousies, and the like? The answers, I believe, can be found in Madge's book. Yes, it is about making innovation business-as-usual. But how does that happen? There has to be a discipline and a simple-to-understand methodology if it is to be inculcated within a large organization and adopted as a way of life for so many. It obviously starts with what the organization thinks it is. The innovation doesn't always have to come from IT. It just happens that IT creates a great deal of innovation. Process change, regulatory change, environment, geography, customer needs, and many other things can facilitate innovation.

What Madge Meyer has done in her book is use a simple, common-sense approach to following through with the good idea that all too often dies a premature death. Focusing on the eight disciplines, she carefully describes a set of critical skills for turning a good idea into reality and, many times, into competitive advantage. If you apply them to my ETF example, you will see how practical the discipline is, and how effective it can be.

My aggressive salesperson, long before bringing this idea back to management, spent significant time LISTENING to the customer, the American Stock Exchange, and SSgA, making sure in his mind that it was viable and worth fighting for. He demonstrated his LEADERSHIP by aligning the key stakeholders, including me, to support this vision, which he saw was POSITIONED to succeed. This salesperson needed others to make the product a reality, so he CONNECTED with IT, mutual funds operations, legal, and so on—as Madge says, no one innovates alone. This salesperson was COMMITED to this idea. Courage is needed to put one's career on the line for a new idea. An innovative organization must allow failures to occur, or else others will not try. This salesperson, being a salesperson, PROMOTED the idea throughout the organization, selling it internally just as he would sell a service to a customer. This salesperson demonstrated perseverance and EXECUTED over a sustained period of time. And we didn't stop there. We continue even today to EVOLVE this game-changing innovation.

The best way I can explain it is, without these disciplines, it does not happen. This is why Madge Meyer's book needs to be read, not just by CEOs and other senior managers, but by all those numerous facilitators within the corporate hierarchy who have the power to kill or proceed with an idea. It is only when more people within an organization are employing these disciplines, than are not, that an organization will become truly innovative.

Ron Logue

Chairman and CEO (retired)

State Street Corporation

Preface

I speak to audiences all over the world about a subject I am most passionate about: innovation. Sometimes I look out at auditoriums full of senior executives, and other times I find myself speaking to young professionals or students. But no matter who is in the audience, I am always happy to see that my message has been accepted when I see a line of people forming at the front of the room to speak with me. Some of these people just want to shake my hand and tell me that they've enjoyed my talk. Others have questions or comments, and given the number of speeches I make, it is not unusual for some to tell me this is not the first time they've heard me. Those who have heard me speak before often want to tell me how they've put my recommendations to use, and they are eager to share their stories. Oftentimes at least one person in line tells me: “You should write a book, Madge. There are so many people and companies out there who could use your advice.”

Well, I finally took that advice, and this book is the result. I call it The Innovator's Path—not because I believe we must all follow the exact same route to innovation; we don't. Quite the contrary: Each of us must create our own way forward. Yet it is also true that, no matter what path we take, most of us will encounter similar challenges as we try to innovate, including the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of our colleagues and our managers.

I am happy to say that over the years I have found certain fundamental ways of making innovation happen—disciplines, I call them—that can be used to make our path more smooth and effective. Those disciplines, and the techniques that derive from them, can be used by individuals, teams, and even entire organizations. Together they form the heart of my book.

My disciplines are tried and true, fashioned and fine-tuned during my decades-long career in executive leadership positions at IBM, Merrill Lynch, and lastly at State Street, where I served as executive vice president, chief innovation officer & technology fellow. At each of these great companies, I took on roles of increasing responsibility in global technology and innovation, and my teams achieved a distinguished record of accomplishment, winning 32 industry awards over the last decade. Now I would like to share my many years of diverse experiences and lessons learned in the chapters of this book.

超越創新

There is no single Chinese character for the word “innovation.” Instead, I have used the characters on the first page of this book—pronounced Chāoyuè Chuangxin—to convey the essence of The Innovator's Path, and to represent my approach to innovation.

Both of the first two characters are built around the same radical (or root), 走zou, dipping tone, which depending on its context can mean, among many other things, to go, to leave, or to go along.

The first, 超chāo, level tone, represents a human being going forward—or better still, going beyond his or her present position.

The second character, 越, yuè, falling tone, signifies the continual act of excelling or overtaking—that is, a process in constant motion. Together, 超 and 越 reinforce one another, creating the simultaneous sense of ongoing and going beyond.

The third character, 創, chuàng, means “to carve out.” The right side of the character is the “particle,” or root form of the word “knife.” Thousands of years ago characters were carved on oracle bones with a knife or sharp implement, and thus “knife” carries with it the sense of “to originate, to make real, to cause to exist.” The left side of the character consists of 倉, cang, first tone, meaning “warehouse,” derived from the term for “food,” 食si, first tone.

The fourth character, 新xin, is an ancient character and means “new” in the sense of “that which has not yet emerged.” On the right side is the pictograph for axe, 斤jin, supplying a pronunciation guide. On the left is the term for hardship, 辛xin. For that reason, I prefer to use the compound word Chuangxin because of its positive, forward-looking meaning.

Throughout my life, and over the course of my corporate career, I have found that those individuals capable of blazing a trail to innovation share several basic character traits. They are usually very determined and very willing to work exceptionally hard to achieve the goals they believe in. They are also surprisingly open to alternatives and exhibit the willingness to try a variety of ways to reach their goals as new information and new ideas come to light. Indeed, most innovators share yet another character trait: They are also willing to shed old assumptions and adopt new and even unusual approaches if they believe it will speed their progress.

On the other hand, I've watched people go to extraordinary lengths to hold on to the things they are used to and that they value, resisting change even when change has become the only way to survive in a constantly mutating world. Resistance to change is certainly not hard to understand. Many of us prefer the familiarity and security of our well-understood, proven ways. We may avoid what is untested or unproven, perhaps because we believe that it will be too difficult for us or that we won't be good at it.

Rapid change, though, has become the new normal in life and in work. There is simply no way to avoid it. In fact, why would we want to avoid it? Change can be exciting and life-changing in a positive sense! That's really the reason I decided to write this book. The business world has become a world of creating, innovating, and forging ahead. If we don't do this, our competitors surely will. I am determined to teach as many people as I can how to incorporate this new reality into their day-to-day practices. I hope my book will inspire readers to make innovation part of their new business-as-usual. We simply cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We need to be creative and innovative and push the boundaries of whatever business or industry we serve. But most of us don't walk around thinking we are the most brilliant, innovative people around. How are we and our organizations supposed to thrive in this new world if we are merely smart people who are good at our jobs? Nathan Myhrvold, the celebrated inventor and entrepreneur who was formerly chief technology officer at Microsoft, has offered some interesting insights into the nature of the innovative organization and some hope for those of us who may not consider “creativity” one of our top traits:

Being creative is some weird mixture of things that you learn and things that are innate in you. It's hard for a company to be creative, and it's hard for many individuals to be creative, but you can have an innovative company even if not everybody in the company is creative. The trick is that you really have to set out to be innovative. A lot of companies just wait around for innovation to happen to them. But I think, as in most things in life, including innovation, if you want it to occur, you should actively seek it. Eureka moments occur, but they occur more often to people who are trying to solve a problem, not to people who are not.

* * *

I was born in Shanghai, China, and then moved to Hong Kong as a teenager. My upbringing, my family life, my exposure to the culture of my native country has influenced me in many profound ways, of course. But interestingly, it has also taught me many lessons that I have applied to my career. I thought my readers would be interested in this cross-cultural phenomenon, so I have included some anecdotes from my personal life that have direct relevance or direct application to the subject of innovation. In addition, I have reproduced traditional Chinese ideograms in each chapter that represent and help describe and explain the terminology I have chosen for each of the eight disciplines of innovation.

When I began planning this book, I reached out to many leaders in industry, government, education, and the military who have world-class reputations as innovators. I sought their personal views on a variety of subjects involving their experiences as innovators and leaders. I am pleased and deeply honored by the thoughtful responses they have provided to me. Throughout these pages, readers will find observations and advice from these leaders, inventors and innovators, in their own words, adding a depth and richness to the book that I could have never achieved on my own.

In my Introduction, I define what I mean by the word innovation and introduce in depth the eight disciplines I've used to advance innovation over the course of my career and at the companies I've worked. My greatest pleasure has always come from helping colleagues and employees chart their own paths to innovation—and I have to admit, not letting them rest on their laurels but leading them to the next innovation path. Nothing excites me more. It is my hope that the book will show my readers how they can walk (or run!) along their own paths to innovation and change.

So let's get started!

Acknowledgments

The first person I want to thank is my extremely dedicated and talented chief-of-staff for the past decade at State Street, Marcy Wintrub. Marcy is a passionate leader of organizational change. She quickly saw the value of the disciplines I practice and has always encouraged me to share them with others. She is a gifted communicator and writer who helped immeasurably and generously to shape and deliver my message. Without Marcy, this would not be the same book.

I am indebted to my brother, Michael Mao, for the illuminating Chinese references. Michael has a B.A. from Princeton University in Oriental Studies and an M.A. from Harvard University in East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

I thank my sisters, Margo and Marjorie, for their autobiographical contributions and ongoing support as well.

I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the great leaders and innovators who graciously and generously provided words of wisdom to share with my readers. They are in alphabetical order: Dr. Tenley Albright, Deborah Ancona, Marc Andreessen, Dr. Eugene Chan, Gerald Chertavian, Dean Kamen, Tarkan Maner, Tom Mendoza, Admiral Michael Mullen, Nathan Myhrvold, Sam Palmisano, Jim Phalen, Linda Sanford, John Swainson, John Thompson, and Ming Tsai. I have learned so much from them and continue to benefit from their mentoring, friendship, and partnership. Their accomplishments are evidence of their principles at work. I thank each of them for their tremendous support, generosity, mentoring, and contributions to this book. It is my great good fortune to have enjoyed such incredible support and friendship!

I would like to highlight my special gratitude to Jim Phalen for his continual encouragement and enduring support during this journey.

I extend my deep gratitude to Ron Logue for contributing his Foreword to my book and for his visionary leadership during our time together at State Street. Ron inspired innovation by painting a clear picture of the future, upholding high standards of achievement, and personally recognizing those who attained them.

I would like to thank Duane Barton, Ellie Carlough, Elaine Doherty, Gregory Golden, David Knies, Anna Manville, Cathy Minehan, Dr. Randy O'Rear, Lorna Rankin, Howard Rubin, Lenny Teng, and Andrew Xue for their invaluable support.

I would like to thank Dave Conti for his talented and skillful editing and writing, done in a short timeframe, and thereby helping to accurately articulate my voice and message.

I would like to thank my agent, Joelle Delbourgo, for her assistance all along this writing journey.

I would like to thank State Street's executive leadership team for their personal encouragement and commitment to making innovation business-as-usual.

I would like to thank State Street's Global Infrastructure Services and Innovation Office—the senior managers who worked for me directly, my entire management team, and every staff member—for their many achievements, only some of which I have been able to include here. I would also like to thank the many partners who contributed so greatly to our success.

I would like to say thank you to all those who provided their support and encouragement throughout this process.

Last, but not least, are all the leaders I have worked for over the years. I thank all of you for your teaching, coaching, and support.

Author's Note

Regarding the Chinese Ideograms That Appear in This Book

The ideograms for the eight disciplines in this book would make sense to all those who have learned Chinese characters in the traditional way. Simplified Chinese characters no longer contain some of these thousand-year-old concepts which have been embedded or have grown out of the Chinese language.

Chinese Title超越創新Chāoyuè Chuangxin (Beyond Innovation)Innovation創新軟力Chuangxin RuanliDiscipline技巧Jì QioListen聽TingLead領LingPosition計Jì Promote提TiConnect連LianCommit承ChengExecute行XingEvolve變Bian

Whenever a Chinese character appears, it is followed by a Romanization according to the pinyin system, now officially used worldwide. It is not a phonetic system, nor a strict Romanization system. It uses the Roman alphabet to stand for sounds or groups of sounds that exist in China but perhaps not elsewhere. Certain letters deemed “underused” were assigned to stand for a group of sounds. For example, the underused letter “x” was drafted to stand for “hs,” while underused “q” takes on the burden to stand for “ch.” Economy is a virtue. When language is involved, clarity is perhaps more important than economy. Throughout the work, traditional Chinese characters are used. Traditional Chinese characters evolved over thousands of years from inscriptions with sharp implements onto oracle bones. These evolved into slightly more abstract or angular forms, but remain closer to the original pictures. In time, ideas were represented by ideographs. Pictographs and ideographs combined to form actions or objects which cannot be drawn. For readers who wish to see what the simplified characters may be, please use Google, which tends to include more modern renditions of meaning as well.

Most of the characters used are contained within Zhongwen.com, Guoyuromaji jiten, and Matthews Dictionary.

Some of the basic items are simple pictographs or slightly more sophisticated ideographs. These begin to combine to form more sophisticated ideas; by the time of Confucius (551–479 BCE), a gentleman's canon of books to study already consisted of five classics and the four books. These continued to be the curriculum for scholars throughout Imperial China for two thousand years.

超越創新

Introduction

Innovation and the Eight Disciplines

I often get a quizzical look when I ask, “Are you an innovator?”

Some people answer right away, but most have to think about it. There are several reasons why it can be a difficult question to answer. First of all, innovators are generally recognized after the fact, not while they are innovating. For example, in 2007, Sal Khan was a hedge fund manager creating YouTube videos for his cousin in his spare time. Five years later, after founding Khan Academy, his free online school where lessons are taught via video lectures, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Sal Khan's achievement is a perfect example of what Marc Andreessen, the Internet visionary and co-founder and partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, says in describing how innovation happens: “Companies innovate by fostering a culture that strives to identify, embrace, and reward change. The idea that seems trivial today could be game changing tomorrow.”

Like Sal, most innovators are people who put their energy, intellect, and passion into achieving particular goals or solving specific problems. Like Sal, a few come up with the right solution in the right place at the right time, striking such a chord that they end up impacting an entire industry or culture or world. Unlike Sal, however, most innovators don't quite change the world, yet their solutions can still create significant value, at a smaller scale.

There's a second reason why my question is difficult for many people to answer. And that's because there's no universally accepted definition for innovator, or for what an innovation is.

Defining Innovation

For the purposes of this book, I suggest we think of innovation, specifically business innovation, very broadly. I like to define it as any new idea or solution that creates business value and increases competitive advantage. It can be a new or different process, product, service, strategy … anything, as long as it creates value and increases competitive advantage. I also suggest we think of a business innovator as anyone who is developing or adopting a new idea or solution in order to accomplish these ends.

I know there are people who will see this definition as too broad, too all-encompassing. And I understand why. Casting such a wide net somewhat diminishes the exceptional achievements of those who have brought about truly revolutionary change. However, that is a very exclusive club, and their achievements are captured elsewhere. I'm writing this book for a different purpose: My focus is not on the nature of radical, game-changing ideas and solutions, but rather on creating business value and increasing competitive advantage by doing things differently and better. Sometimes that means radical game-changing ideas, sometimes it means simple yet meaningful change, and generally it falls somewhere in between.

Let me give you an example from my own experience.

Making Innovation Business-as-Usual

When I was hired by State Street Corporation, one of the world's leading investment service firms, the company was already in the midst of unprecedented global expansion and preparing for even more. In Europe and Asia-Pacific, State Street was growing faster than the market itself. The company was also transforming its operating model and centralizing certain business processes in multiple global locations. As the head of State Street's global infrastructure services group, one of my first major initiatives was to overhaul the company's entire network to provide the foundation for a series of innovative solutions. Here, though, I want to focus in on a specific innovation that we developed to solve a particularly vexing problem.

Due to the nature of State Street's business, we cannot tolerate time delays as our data travels from one point to another, so we historically built local data centers in buildings located near our users. As a result, State Street had a very large number of these data centers and communications rooms, in various sizes, scattered around the world. You can imagine how expensive it was to build, equip, manage, and maintain these data centers. When State Street began to rapidly expand globally, we experienced increasing challenges trying to secure suitable locations, preparing buildings, installing our equipment, and getting everything online in time for use.

A large part of State Street's growth strategy was the acquisition of other companies in Europe and Asia. Acquisitions have very tight, nonnegotiable timeframes for change of control. They are also predicated on specific cost-saving models. I knew we needed an alternative solution if we were going to continue meeting business requirements involving deadlines and cost savings.

I challenged my team, telling them that we were no longer going to replicate individual data centers. At first, some members of the team were concerned that a new approach might itself jeopardize our ability to meet business expectations and timetables. However, a heart-to-heart discussion along with a close look at the facts made the case that the old ways would not work for much longer. Our changing and growing company needed a new kind of support from us, and needed it quickly. My team took on the challenge, and we all got busy looking for a solution.

At that time, a new technology called a network acceleration device was just being developed. We recognized that if it worked well, it could reduce network delays enough to allow employees in these new offices to access their data remotely from regional and enterprise data centers, rather than local ones. It would have to work so well that these employees would not even notice the difference.

Network accelerator technology was so new at that time that our network team had just started testing it and thought it would take another six months before we could implement it. That was not good enough. Our New Business Integration (NBI) team had a tight deadline to meet for a critical business initiative, and I didn't want another local data center. So, I told the NBI team that we had to take on some risk: We would go ahead and install the network accelerators—which were not quite proven—at the site. If it worked, the problem was solved. If it didn't … well, we would have to build a new data center at the site as quickly as we could.

Once the plan was set, we met with the firm that was developing the accelerator technology and asked them to provide their best support. They sent their top engineer to our remote location, and he worked side-by-side with our own team. Remarkably, they got the network accelerators installed and working beautifully. Response times were the same as for data centers situated locally. The team then focused on integrating this new technology with other advanced network, server, and desktop virtualization technologies to develop an end-to-end solution. Within weeks we had an entirely new way to support real-time global business processing without requiring IT infrastructure (including servers, storage, e-mail, and backup) at local offices. The solution was so ground-breaking that we even acquired a registered trademark—“Zero Footprint, Maximum Impact”™—and won several industry awards for our innovative solution.

But the most important part of the story is not what we did or how we did it or even how innovative it was. It's the impact that our solution had. To the end-users, of course, the impact was invisible. In fact, that was our goal! In the infrastructure domain, we inherently understand that the less they notice us, the better. To the business, however, the impact was substantial and strategic.

As one might expect, the most visible impact was a dramatic reduction in technology expenses associated with business growth. Rather than having to provision every small office with a specially outfitted room filled with servers and storage, we could leverage existing data centers and equipment. In addition to avoiding costs, this allowed us to greatly reduce the lead-time and staff-effort normally required to prepare new offices or integrate acquired ones. By reducing costs and lead-time, we also reduced project risk for the business, especially for deadline-driven acquisitions.

The benefits went even beyond individual projects. The centralization of infrastructure and application data within regional data centers brought about greater control and resiliency. It eliminated downtime for maintenance and ushered in immediate recovery for local offices, significantly improving business continuity, an increasingly important requirement for operating in a global economy. And it ensured that effective management, security, retention, and other key business controls would be in place, addressing the customary challenges brought on by significant growth.

Soon afterward, this strategic solution became State Street's standard operating model, and the company has continued to reap the strategic benefits for many years. Our work created a brand new and valuable competitive advantage for the company and made a major contribution to rapid business growth and enduring global success.

We had taken a calculated risk—integrating new and unproven technology into a larger business solution. And it paid off. Our team was positively thrilled with our collaborative triumph, and the industry recognition we received became a major milestone in everyone's personal careers. My favorite part of the story, though, is the motto the team repeated every time we were congratulated for our efforts: “It's just another day!”

That's what this book is about: making innovation business-as-usual.

Different Contexts

Since my background and experience has been with large corporations, most of the material you will find in this book has also been written in that context. However, in developing the book, I was very fortunate to have received input from many renowned innovators and prominent executives with an extraordinary range of experiences. If I wasn't convinced before, I certainly am now: There are many more similarities than differences when it comes to introducing something new, regardless of the context in which we are operating.

My background has also included technology and management. I began my career as an IBM scientific programmer assigned to NASA, programming the onboard computer for the last three Gemini space flights. Over the years, I moved into IT (information technology) infrastructure, which soon became my specialty. As I mentioned, the best infrastructure is the least noticed infrastructure. Often, the role of infrastructure becomes most visible when it's not working. For example, prior to Superbowl XLVII, how many football fans ever gave a moment's thought to stadium lighting?

I bring up my background in IT infrastructure because it has lessons to offer aspiring innovators in many different fields. Innovation is challenging in IT infrastructure for several reasons. First, except to a small segment of the population, there's nothing “cool” about infrastructure. In most corporations, there's not much interest, funding, or support for good infrastructure ideas when everything is running smoothly. Generally, the much “cooler” revenue-generating ideas get the most attention. And by the time things conveniently ignored in the existing underlying infrastructure are not running smoothly, well, it's too late. We're suddenly getting the wrong kind of attention! To make matters even more challenging, infrastructure demand grows and changes with unparalleled speed and frequency. We all recognize the impact that trends like mobile computing, web conferencing, and social media have had on our own usage patterns, so it's not difficult to imagine the extent of infrastructure growth and the amount of changes required to support these. Moreover, rapidly evolving business trends such as globalization, regulation, and outsourcing have a similarly significant impact on infrastructure demand, although few business decision maker have reason to recognize that in advance. It is up to infrastructure leaders to anticipate and plan for business and technology trends, so that by the time something is needed, it's always ready.

So confronting such challenges through the years, I devised strategies and techniques for innovating without the advantages of an R&D budget, customer demand, or obvious competitive necessity. These strategies and techniques, or disciplines as I call them, can be successfully applied in any environment, whether currently “cool” or not.

There's a second reason why I think IT infrastructure is a good model for other business areas and disciplines, and that's due to the impact that recent advances, such as the cloud, social media, big data, and analytics will have on business innovation going forward.

Technology is integral to every business and industry now, and will play an increasingly critical and strategic role in the future. Because of big data and analytics, the information available to companies will be far more sophisticated and powerful, allowing analyses, predictions, and insights that were never before possible. When combined with the new capabilities offered by mobile, cloud, social media, and other still-emerging trends, innovation possibilities are magnified immeasurably. They are also democratized. A wider than ever group of employees will have increasing opportunities to innovate strategically, creating business value and increasing competitive advantage in ways that they never could before.

I asked John Swainson, president of Dell Software and former CEO of CA Technologies, if he could discuss the nature of technological innovation as it has come to be practiced today. His response aligns completely with the point of view readers will find in the chapters that follow:

A lot of innovation happens because of the ability to connect different technologies together and the new capabilities that they enable. It wasn't one thing that made the iPod; it was a series of advances by many people in microelectronics, micro hard drive technologies, communications technology, software, and media technology. Apple's great insight was integrating and then creating an ecosystem around all of those things. Nothing in the iPod was new. It was certainly refined—and delivered to the marketplace by Apple—in a way that was uniquely better than its predecessors. But what was really innovative was the way the system worked. And I think many of the things we call innovations in the future are going to be innovations because of the way people put different components together.

The Eight Disciplines

Then where do we go from here? How do we begin the journey to understanding and making innovation a way of life for ourselves and our organizations? This is where the eight disciplines come in. Readers may be wondering: “… is she really saying there are only eight things people need to know in order to be successful innovators?” No, unfortunately not. It's just that these eight disciplines are the ones that I've seen even the most competent, skilled, and hardworking people struggle with. These aren't the only difficulties, of course, but they're the major ones. Once we understand and put the disciplines to use, we can achieve better focus with our energy, intellect, and passion. We can better create business value and increase competitive advantage by pursuing the ideas and opportunities that propel them forward.

Also, as any Chinese person will tell you, if you must choose a number, choose eight—it's the most auspicious number we have! And it also happens to be just about the upper limit of what people can typically remember, not that there's a need to memorize these disciplines. If they apply to us, we'll know right away. However, for those of us who do have a reason to memorize them, I have leveraged a simple naming convention to make it easier. I've chosen just one word to represent each discipline, and then doubled up on the first letter so there are two Ls, two Ps, two Cs, and two Es: Listen, Lead, Position, Promote, Connect, Commit, Execute, and Evolve.

In naming and organizing these eight disciplines, of course, I needed to choose an order. It would probably be confusing, I thought, to put Listen after Commit, for example. However, these disciplines are not intended to be seen as individual elements of a linear process. Not at all. Instead, we should regard them as competencies that successful people carry with them everywhere they go. Much like the five senses, they may not all apply at any given moment in time, but each of the eight should always be on the ready every waking moment.

Here, I'll mention them each briefly. Each one is the subject of its own chapter in the pages that follow.

LISTEN. What could be easier or more routine? Well, I'm sorry to say that neither is true! Listening is difficult and surprisingly rare, but the riches we can uncover—and the difficulties we can avoid—when we learn to really listen are incalculable.

LEAD. Innovators are always leaders, by definition. However, the full set of leadership skills comes more naturally to some than to others. And there is no single skill more essential to an innovator than knowing how to lead.

POSITION. This is the how we move from where we are to where we want to be, defining an agile and competitive business model and a strategic roadmap for achieving our future vision and goals.

PROMOTE. One of the most overlooked and under-practiced disciplines that innovators must master is knowing how to create awareness, understanding, and appreciation for the value of their innovations and their brand.

CONNECT. No one innovates alone. No innovation exists in isolation. Innovators reach out across and beyond traditional boundaries to bring together the ideas, expertise, and experiences of diverse people, disciplines, solutions, and industries.

COMMIT. Successful innovators take a personal “no turning back” approach that inspires others to join in, yet also accommodates learning and change without losing sight of the common goal.

EXECUTE. Innovators know how to deliver value in the present while paving a path to the future. They find their way through experimentation and learning, and execute flawlessly. Innovators make progress and fuel progress at the same time.

EVOLVE. When innovation is business-as-usual, the search for improvement never ends. Innovators don't rest on their laurels; they barely even glance at them. Change is hard, but constant change is harder. Innovators know the drill.

Many people believe that the most common challenge facing corporate innovators is other people's “natural” resistance to change. I don't believe that at all. Sure, we will always encounter people who are stuck in the mud and unwilling to consider new and better ways of doing things. However, I think that most of the people we encounter on a daily basis just want to feel that they are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And they will usually feel—and become—one or the other based on our expectations of them. That's why our goal, as innovation leaders, is not to convince people to support our creative, new ideas. Rather, our goal is to inspire and support people in seeing, seizing, and achieving new and better ways of creating business value. And our mission is to create an environment where the word natural describes our approach to innovation. Each of the eight disciplines in this book provides principles and techniques to help innovators to achieve that mission, clearing the path for themselves, their teams, and their organizations.