Thursday, August 22, 2013

tweets - disruptive sustainability

Ron Garan (@Astro_Ron)
8/21/13 6:44 AM
Great video! Sign me up! How can we help? @internet_org Every one of us. #ConnectTheWorldyoutube.com/watch?v=NdWaZk… …

Deb Mills-Scofield (@dscofield)
8/21/13 6:45 AM
New by @fredwilson Some Lessons From Vine - USV is an investor in Twitter so I've been watching the Vine story clo... ow.ly/2zgCTA

Deb Mills-Scofield (@dscofield)
8/21/13 6:45 AM
By @Digitaltonto 4 Popular Misconceptions About Microsoft - While Redmond surely has its problems, those who write... ow.ly/2zgCTz

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Deb Mills-Scofield (@dscofield)
8/21/13 6:45 AM
Irving's Wisdom: Embracing Disruptive Innovations: Organizational Challengesow.ly/2zgCTy

pretty much whole post:

id3 founded by MIT Media Lab Professor Sandy Pentland and by Media Lab Research Scientist John Clippinger.  They both participated in the planning meeting, along with senior executives from one of ID3’s industrial partners.  The objective of the meeting was to explore potential collaborations between the industrial partner and ID3

While we all talk about how exciting it is to embrace disruptive innovations, we often forget that disruptive innovations are indeed disruptive, not only in the marketplace, but also for individuals and groups in your own organization.  Much as we often talk about embracing change as a positive experience, change is in fact very difficult, even painful for many people.  You are asking them to move into unknown, perhaps even unchartered territory.  What will be the impact on their jobs and their families?  Do they have the required skills for whatever is ahead?  How well will they personally fare in the new environment?   The culture of the institution may not be able to stretch enough to implement the needed changes, even when the very survival of the organization is at stake.

We were no longer focused on turning ourselves around.  We were focused on setting the industry agenda again.”

It might be possible to transform a large complex organization through a series of more operational objectives, - e.g., growing revenue and profit, cutting expenses, improving quality, developing new products and services.  But, these feel more like business-as-usual.  They are key to any successful company, but they cannot generate the passion of a moon-shot, that is, of a clear, compelling vision that captures everyone’s imagination.

Operational excellence requires detailed analysis of technologies, quality, processes, competitors, customer satisfaction and the like.  It is well suited to a hierarchic, disciplined style of management.  But managing a more strategic initiative, especially one based on a disruptive innovation, requires a very different approach.  It cannot be based on rigorous information analysis because, in its early stages, there is little data to analyze.  There are lots of unknowns because, early on, it’s not clear how the market for a new product or service will develop.  Disruptive innovation initiatives requires a more enterpreneurial management style based on establishing an early market presence; close collaborations with research communities, business partners and early adopters; and learning in the marketplace through continuous experimentation and refinement until it becomes clear what the company’s strategy should be.
A lot of companies and executives have trouble navigating the delicate balance between operations and strategy, that is, between managing for near term results versus managing for continued relevance in the future.  The operational demands are so intense, especially in our fast-moving, highly competitive and demanding times, that just about all the efforts and funds of the company are spent managing their core business, and the individuals who are good at it are the ones most appreciated and promoted.  Often, the management team does not assign a senior enough executive with the proper skills to nurture an emergent business opportunity with small near-term revenues and a promising but unpredictable future.  By the time they notice that some new ideas are catching the attention of their customers, who are being courted by companies no one ever heard of, it’s often too late to catch up.

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ReachScale (@ReachScale)
8/22/13 7:25 AM
Every search begins w/ beginner's luck. & every search ends w/ victor severely tested. v@faisal_hoque @JenniferSertl fastcompany.com/3015925/leader…